“Is there a hurricane named Deanne?”
Interestingly enough, there isn’t… at least not technically. I was inspired to do some research on how a hurricane (the storm, not the drink) gets its names. Sadly, I am sure this, along with many other important life facts, was something I learned in school but have now forgotten. First off… names are given to tropical storms, and when a storm is designated a hurricane by the speed of the wind it, retains the tropical storm name. Over the years there have been many different naming strategies. For example, in the Caribbean hurricanes were named after the patron saint of the day. When U.S. meteorology began they named hurricanes by latitude and longitude (imagine the fun those weatherman had giving the news.) Military meteorologists during WW II started naming hurricanes after women (probably in revenge for the song, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of my Hair from the musical South Pacific set during the same time period). Anyway… this stuck until 1978 when the National Weather Service decided- huh, this sort of sends the wrong signal- and began using both men and women’s names for hurricanes on a 6 year rotational schedule. So… every six years the same hurricane names are re-used, unless one becomes devastating (such as Katrina) in which case it is taken off the list and replaced. Want to find out if there is a hurricane named after you? Look on the National Hurricane Center. So far, Deanne hasn’t made it on the list.
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“If the parmesan cheese suffered in the earthquake it must have also effected the Parma ham.”
Oh no! I hadn’t even considered that. It was enough when I heard up to 10% of the cheese had been harmed. Now I had to worry also that there would be a less ham. And in fact, according to an article in the UK newspapaer, The Gaurdian, one farmer lost 100 pigs when a building housing them collapsed. (Read more here.) Italy has had its share of troubles this year to be sure. Between the floods on the Cinque Terre coast, the monetary/budgeting issues and now the earthquake I am sure the people there feel like they can’t catch a break… or perhaps are being picked on. On Saturday I received an email from a friend I met there last summer. She told me that she and her family live in that area and have been dealing with all of the debris and ongoing aftershocks. I know how scary this can be. In 1989 I was living in the bay area during the Loma Prieta earthquake. In fact, I was actually at the World Series game when it struck. That was scary enough… but it was the ongoing fear of aftershocks which put the biggest strain on my emotions. We convince ourselves that we are in control of our lives…but natural disasters like these fly in the face of that assumption. They show us that things can change in an instant. Fortunately, my friend and her family are fine…. shaken (metaphorically and literally) but fine. Life will go one, as it did after the floods…. As it did after the earthquake I lived through. Even the parmesan production will continue and will eventually resume normal levels. The question is what we do with the emotions which arise from challenges like these. When I have stood at the precipice of this truth, where I am reminded that very little of my life is actually under my control, I have had to decide if I would live in fear, building walls and protection around myself or live each moment as fully as possible. Ironically, in my third novel, Molto Mayhem, it is only when my main character, Lucia, arrives in Italy and is thrown out of the protective cocoon that she has built for herself that she begins to find the peace that comes from letting go and experiencing each minute of her life. And to me, this makes perfect sense…. Because there is no place like Italy to experience the true pleasures of life; the beautiful sound of language, the attentiveness of a good friend and the true wonder of a hunk of 24 month old aged Parmesan cheese. |
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June 2020
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