Siren Song

August thunderstorms in Houston can get pretty intense, as I experienced last Friday at 3am. I'm not sure which woke me first: the lightning flash, the loud clap of thunder, or all the car alarms in my neighborhood going off at once. Regardless, they continued this apocalyptic trio for the next half hour or so, while I cowered under the blanket, too afraid to leave my bed.

The next morning, I share my fear that maybe Al Gore is onto something, maybe global warming is coming and it is taking no prisoners. There have always been storms, but these feel closer, less stable, louder.

So here's a tip for bad weather driving in your environmentally-conscious Prius, or whatever: when driving in hazardous conditions, when the rain is sheeting down and you can no longer see the car in front of you, put on your hazard lights. Soooo obvious, right? I would never have thought of this until it happened to me, and suddenly the car in front of me started flashing like a beacon. I did the same, and the car behind me, and suddenly we are a team, helping each other through the storm.

You and me and all those people we sort of wish would get off the road? We can be each other's beacons. Something tells me we're going to need it.