Joy

Being the amateur meteorologist that I like to pretend I am. I have not slept well tonight. It is 2:15am and storms have been raining since about 9pm. I should say raging. They have been brought up from the Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Hermine has drawn them as it makes its inland journey. There has been unbelievably hard rain. Most of downtown Austin has had 12inches of rain and slowing spots of 15inches or more are appearing. NOAA's radar gauge does not have a color for over 15inches of rain. Here at my house we've had at least 10inches of rain since yesterday and now my rain gauge is full. The first 5 inches were from Tropical Storm Hermine as it almost passed directly over Kyle, the last 5+ inches have just been from storms drawn up from the Gulf.

For reasons that are quite clear to me, I can't sleep during severe weather. I lived in the Texas Panhandle for 13 years as a kid. Amarillo is part of what is known as Tornado Alley. I remember fondly the terrifying rides my dad used to take us on while we "hunted" tornadoes. I remember the fire drills and tornado drills from elementary school. I remember and actually kind of miss the last Friday of every month test of the Tornado sirens in Amarillo at 9am. Here in Central Texas that tornado threat isn't as real as flash flooding.

Anyway, I got wrapped up in talking about the weather but really my post is about Joy. I enjoy making people smile. One of the reasons I married my wife is because she had a great smile. I love making our baby smile. She has a smile that can stop me and draw me into whatever she is doing. I love when they make me smile. The baby has made me smile several times this weekend. She has two little books that have babies doing various things. On one of the pages there is a baby sleeping. She will put her finger to her mouth and say, "shhh." It is so cute to me and I smile. I love watching her perform tasks and explore the world. When I see her with my wife, I can't imagine anything better in life than those two girls.