So... there I was... watching Top Gear on youtube when I heard the distant rumbles of a thunderstorm.
I decided to take my excellent atmospheric-scientist-in-training with me, Mijo the Dog, to "observe" this incoming thunderstorm. He's a grad student so mostly I make him carry the gear and take notes.
He is half dachshund, half chiwawa, and half wolf. Look at the steely blue eyes!
Anyways...
As we are walking out to the beach to look at the incoming thunderstorm, some old lady yells down to me from her condo balcony.
"Hey... do you know how TVs work?" while I think I can answer a solid yes to the question she asked, I was a little worried that she actually meant, "can you make my TV work?" Which is a solid "probably not."
I can make TVs that I set up work, but the madness that some other clown cobbled together out of DVD players, VCR's, cable, and maybe even antennae... probably not.
Needless to say, my assistant and I were invited into the old people's condo to unfuck their TV. Granted, I really know jack shit about making TV's work but I think it might be bad luck to not help old people. Sort of like telling off a nun... it just isn't done! The knight in me wanted to be chivalrous and help the old people with their TV... the Viking in me hoped they would have a hot daughter. (that was impressed with me making a TV work and walking my girlfriend's dog...)
So there I am in the living room of this condo on the beach when I can hear the mating calls of the thunderstorm that I actually want to be hanging out with rumbling in the background. I eventually figured out which of the ten remotes in the place made the TV turn on... and called it a success. I explained how the guide button worked and how to scroll up and down. DONE! I am out! As thanks they gave me a pocket full of dog treats and a coors light. Also, they had no daughter.
Finally SCIENCE!
We get to the beach and look out to the gulf. There is literally a wall of rain on the horizon from as far as I can see to the south to as far as I can see to the north. All about 5 miles to the east. AND THE LIGHTENING IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!!! There are old men leaning on railings talking about how this one is going to be a real "humm dingger" and thirty year old women still wearing their sorority letters commenting how if it wasn't Florida they wouldn't feel safe with their kids so close to a natural disaster... all watching this storm move across the horizon.
God damn I love thunderstorms...
I spot what looks like a wall cloud! but I think to myself, "that is on the wrong side of the storm..."
(There are three things that pilots must always keep on the tip of their awareness. First of all, the wind direction. Second... the fuel in the tanks as measured in Time x Speed = Distance. And by far the most important, the nearest bar that it wouldn't embarrass your mother if you died in it.)
Being a pilot and all, I realize that the wind direction tonight is backward from normal, and in fact nature got this one right again. She put the wall cloud on the correct side of the super cell thunderstorm. I think I was probably the only one surprised by the wind direction tonight but, you know, that is how I feel alive and stuff.
Anyways... disappointingly there was no Tornado.
Luckily it is still hurricane season!
Goodnight.
