Rain, Rain, Rain!!

It started as a potential tropical system in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, it turned into a spinning moisture flinging machine that turned the entire Atlantic coast into a soggy mess. The sun, after being blocked by clouds for days, makes a reappearance today and quickly the thermometer jumps into the 80's with high humidities - suddenly summer. This much moisture and sunshine set the stage for afternoon T'storms this afternoon and for the next several days. Forecasts predict high pressure and a break in the storm cycle late in the week, just in time for a retirement celebration after 25 years of teaching. Woooooo!!!
Elsewhere on the planet, on an island in the middle of the Pacific, the world's most active hot spot continues to "surprise"locals with more eruptions, new fissures spewing more basaltic lava and even the central lava lake blasting ash clouds thousands of feet into the atmosphere. I heard one "surprised resident say, "I didn't think this could happen in a million years". What!!! You bought land on the flanks of the world's most active volcano, part of an island chain with a record of at least 80 million years of eruptions and you didn't think this could happen in a million years. In a million years there will be a new island (or two) where you are now and your island home will indeed be in a position without fear of eruptions. The current eruption has been going on for 35 years!!! Did you not notice that when you bought your land, built your house? Another example of humans unwillingness to recognize that the planet is still in charge and while we can and do change things on earth (right now for the worse - for us), on the planetary time scale the Earth doesn't care. Will humans be here in a million years? The Earth will, with or without us and there will be plenty of life. Let's hope we can work together to do what we can to make the planet a lovely, livable place for all life forms, not just a overcooked, overcrowded, flooded world, another major extinction event in the grand scheme of Earth history.
Enough gloom and doom, it's time for me to take a large brown dog on a stroll in the lush, damp, rain forest. The birds are chowing at the feeders and with the feeders down at night, the bear has not made an appearance (that I know of) for a few nights. Always an adventure, today on Earth.