A Great Fence Guy/Ike Report/Meteorologist Who's Who

HURRICANES AND WEATHER



The Houston National Weather Service has posted an extensive report on Hurricane Ike. Here is the link:



http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/projects/ike08/wind_analysis.htm



To the right, I am putting up one of their graphics. But, it is so tiny, you can't read the fine detail. The blue circular areas in the middle are the center of the storm. Looking at the wind statistics, Hobby Airport had sustained hurricane force winds with a gust up to 92 mph. The west side of the storm did not experience hurricane force winds--at least not according to estimates. Actual instrumentation (as often is the case) failed before the peak was reached.



One thing you can take away from all of this -- you don't have to have hurricane force winds to get a lot of damage.



I recently read in the Chronicle that 400 people are missing from Galveston Island. Does anyone else think this is strange that we are not hearing about more deaths? Or are these people okay and we just don't know. This is a startlingly high number not to be hearing more about it in the media. What is going on?



Speaking of the tropics, area of disturbed weather is over the Yucatan. It is sliding west but will probably drift very close to the southern Gulf and into Mexico.



Big changes on the way for our weather. We shut off our sprinklers this week because of the fence work. Now our grass is looking rather crispy. Well, a cold front will bring some showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday. It will be very muggy early in the week. Then, it will be pleasant mid-week with humidity returning end of the week and some rain possible Saturday/Sunday as the next front arrives.



SPANISH WORD OF THE DAY

First--a correction! My good friend and mentor Raul Feliciano Sanchez gently corrected me about yesterday's word of the day frustration and as I put it frustrado. Frustrado would be correct were I of the male gender. But since this was an adjective and I was talking about myself, I should have said frustrada. Well, Gordy, my husband was very frustrated too--so in this household we had both frustrado and frustrada -- a dangerous combination to be sure. Thanks Raul!!! You're the best.



Well, today we are tranquil...having had time to calm ourselves. We are tranquilo and tranquila (Gordy and I respectively). These are pronounced trahn-cu-ee-low and trahn-cu-ee-lah. Thank goodness I can now say that. Ha! Ha!



Research indicates that bilingualism increases cognitive development and abilities.

[The hypothesis was] ...that mutual interference between a bilingual child's 2 languages forces the child to develop particular coping strategies which in some ways accelerate cognitive development. The sample consisted of 96 5-8 year olds...bilinguals showed more advanced processing of verbal material, more discriminating perceptual distinctions, more propenstiy to search for structure in perceptual situations, and more capacity to reorganize their perceptions in response to feedback.



This is from: Ben-Zeev, S., (1977). The influence of bilingualism on cognitive strategy and cognitive development. Child Development, 48(3), 1009-1018. from PsycINFO database.



So what are you waiting for?! You can help all the young ones you know by purchasing our DVD, Let's Learn Spanish with Frank & Paco, Volume 1, a Dr. Toy as a Top 10 Educational Product of 2008. Order through http://www.frankandpaco.com/, Ventura's Educational Supply, Dolo Publications, Carlex Inc., The Curious Mind Store, amazon.com, bestbuy.com, and barnesandnoble.com.



AND MORE

Do you need a new fence? I can not recommend highly enough, Alfredo Gomez, 823-423-0166. First of all, the work he did was excellent--even my husband says so and that means a lot, believe me!!! But he had a very good price and was infinitely patient about coordinating between the demands of many neighbors. Call him and get on his work list. He brings in the materials and cleans everything away. He also fixed 2 of our broken sprinkler system parts.



Did you know that there is only one charitable organization which gives away baby formula?! It is NOT The Houston Food Bank (which by the way does a wonderful job and I can't speak highly enough about them). But this group needs to be publicized too, because not too many people, who need their help, know about them. It is Life/Houston. Their number is 713-528-6044 foodforbabies@lifehouston.org. Please pass this information on to your friends and family and churches. My friend Gloria Cotton will be the new board chairman this year and I know she is going to do a great job!!!



Gordy and I enjoyed an evening of celebrating Doris Rotzoll Hood's 50th birthday at her and her husband Roy's home in the Seabrook area. There were many of my favorite folks there including Gene Hafele, the newly appointed Meteorologist in Charge of our local National Weather Service, Wayne Baggett, formerly of the Space Flight Meteorology Group (SMG) at NASA, Frank Brody also of SMG and member of the National Weather Association Strategic Planning Committee (along with me), Bryan Batson of SMG (also a former Aggie classmate of mine), and rocking and rolling Dayna Steele. And no, Dayna is not a closet meteorologist. But she is Doris and Roy's neighbor. She is still a riot! She said their neighborhood had a block party every night of the 10 days the power was out. The neighborhood sewage equipment was out of commission and they had a port-a-potty decorating contest. Dayna decorated her's in an Oprah Winfrey theme. Hmmmm! What's that all about Dayna? Dayna also gave me a copy of her book Rock To The Top which is available through Amazon.com. I can't wait to read it!!!



What a resilient bunch of people!!!



Have a great week everyone!

Be safe!

Cecilia Sinclair

Wonder Weather Woman