Good morning. ⏰🫘🍵

2 September 2025

Tropical Storm Edouard came ashore near Houston yesterday, well south and west of here. We’re getting the rain from it, even though the center of the storm is a couple hundred miles away. Because it’s moving north to our west, we’re sitting under that long, stretched‑out arm of the storm — the part that drags rain and wind far from the core. It’s funny to think that if Edouard were the same distance away to our east, we probably wouldn’t even see a cloud. Today, though, Edouard isn’t a tropical storm anymore; it’s weakened into a tropical depression, just wringing out whatever rain it has left. Enough about the weather.

Last night I finished reading Lucky You by Carl Hiaasen. Like most of Hiaasen’s books, it’s a comical adventure full of clever, happy‑go‑lucky heroes and wonderfully bungling villains. The heroes here are JoLayne Lucks, a licensed nurse who’d rather be working as a veterinarian’s assistant, and Tom Krome, an investigative journalist who’s been trying — without success — to divorce his actress wife, who travels the country specifically to avoid being served.

JoLayne wins half of a $28 million lottery. Unfortunately, someone else has the same winning numbers, and the villains — Bode Gazzer and his sidekick Chub — hatch a plan to steal the other ticket and claim the whole jackpot.

Tom is sent to Grange, Florida — a town famous for its weeping fiberglass Madonna, a road stain supposedly shaped like Jesus, and a man claiming stigmata. His assignment is to get the story of a lottery winner, but when Bode and Chub steal JoLayne’s ticket, Tom becomes determined to help her get it back from the thieves.

“Every storm runs out of rain eventually.” — Maya Angelou (paraphrased)

“When life gives you lemons, squirt someone in the eye.” — Unknown

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