Worried About Martha in Texas

I have already printed my best e-mail message today and am enlarging it and putting up to make me feel good today. 

It is from my five-year-old friend – coming up to six, mind you – William. 

Few of us can say we have such a beautiful friend as his Grandma! But today, let me focus on William, sometimes called “Wil”. He lives just east of Toronto, off the 401 Highway where I lived before moving to East Texas. 

Wil wants to be a meteorologist when he grows up. When Grandma picks him up in the morning to shuttle him to school, he gives her the daily forecast. He is already interested and learning about cloud formation. 

I taped our local weatherman two weeks ago (Hurricane Gustav) so Wil could see just how excited and precise these people get when we are on alert for a Hurricane. Now, I haven’t sent that tape, because I can add to it for him tonight (Hurricane Ike). 

We have made friends with one of our meteorologists. This is a “small market” in East Texas and he started here right out of college. The weather here is fairly extreme, making it a good training ground. He is in a major market now and we do hear from him sometimes. He has been promoted to the morning slot now. This fellow has always seen the glass half-full and feels reaching the station at 3:00 a.m. is a small price to pay for the most-viewed slot. And of course, he gets weekends off! 

Back to our youngest meteorologist, William! Presumably because of his family using the term, “Martha in Texas”, he got to calling me that. Even on the telephone, he will say, 

“Hello, Martha in Texas!” 

Well Wil’s family wanted us to know that he is worrying about us. He and his family are all praying for us and our friends here, especially that the storm will not be as strong as predicted. 

Now, Wil has the link to the website to watch our local weatherman on his computer, and I think that may be more exciting than a two-week-old tape! 

I hope you have friends like William and his Grandmother because that is just about all you need to keep you going!