Well, Hello Dolly. The welcome mat is not out, but Tropical Storm Dolly, spawned in the Western Caribbean and as of Monday morning was making its way north into the Gulf of Mexico. On that day Dolly was located 65 miles northeast of Progreso, Mexico and tracking to the northeast at 16 mph with winds of 50 mph. Tropical Storm warnings were up from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Belize to Campeche, Mexico. What a difference a day makes, actually its been two days, and during that brief 48 hour period Dolly had grown up to become a real pest. I expect the folks in South Texas could think of a more colorful word. Dolly's winds and high waves cause the evacuation from the oilrigs in the Gulf of Mexico and next come the residents and vacationers of South Padre Island. At 12:00 noon CDT Hurricane Dolly was centered 35 miles northeast of Brownsville Texas. Maximum sustained winds are holding at 100 mph and the storm is moving to the north-northeast between 3 and 7 mph. The central pressure is 28.56 inched of mercury. Storm warnings are still in effect for northeast Mexico, Brownsville, Texas and the Corpus Christi area.

Many Texans moved out ahead of the storm, but those that didn't better prepare to hunker down and as Betty Davis once said, "It's going to be a bumpy ride."

Now here's the way it was for the same general time frame back in 1945.

Excerpt from The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

I had just gotten to the barracks when someone poked his head inside the door and yelled, "Ok. Anybody in here on the regular rotation duty roster hit the deck and make your way to the plane. We've got a rumble out in the Western Caribbean."

Bill Hurley grabbed his gear and as he headed to the door called to me and said, "See you in about a dozen hours, Thomas." "Have a good trip," I said as he gave a high sign and strode out the door. The rumble Bill and his crew flew out to observe was the second event of the season, and so dubbed Tropical Storm II, which never attained winds of much more than 50 mph. It developed from a depression in the Western Gulf of Mexico near the Yucatan Peninsula. The storm proceeded at a slow pace toward the northwest and made landfall in South Texas in an area between Brownsville and South Padre Island late on July 21st where it was immediately downgraded to a tropical depression. It continued to soak the area with rains overnight before petering out the following morning.

Tropical Storm II of the 1945 hurricane season's life span was from July 19 to July 22 with top wins recorded at 52 mph.

Writers Corner: For something a little different take a look at a couple of contributions to the Corner.

The first is from "Gail" and the second from Lenora Smalley.

"What you concoct today to market tomorrow has already been developing." & "We do not procrastinate---it is a process of incubating..." - Gail -

I keep a card file of slogans and this is the first time I've found a good reason to use this particular quote. We'll bounce off Gail's developing and incubating lines to one of the best and least understood truths I've ever run across.

"Luck is the residue of design." - Branch Rickey

If you're not familiar with that name type it into google search or go straight to "The Baseball Hall of Fame" and read more about Branch Rickey.

The second bit comes from Lenora Smalley: In the August 2008 issue of Writer magazine in a section called Market Focus written by Ruth MacHaney Danner, she quotes Jerry Portwood, editor of New York Press: "The most common reason editors reject a story is because it's not stimulating, it doesn't surprise, it repeats common knowledge or something that can easily be found in some other format."

There is some truth in Portwood's words, but if you are fortunate enough to have a good collection of rejection letters -- go back and take a look, they are filled with that kind of stuff. But as 'luck' would have it you, the writer, are persistent and doggedly send off more Q letters. Eventually you are rewarded with a request to submit the manuscript. You can write your own ending, but to end this piece I'm going back to my card file for another quote.

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time." Thomas Edison

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter. Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
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