If you are in the area and can see this thread, can you let us know you are safe, when it is feasible for you?

I'm praying that we will emerge from this with minimal damage. I just returned from a four hour organ practice session at St Basil's, UST. All is quiet - and very wet what with intermittent rain in varying degrees of ferocity.

All weekend masses at UST have be cancelled.

I went to the grocer's this afternoon. It was a mad house. Many shelves were bare. One would have thought one was in a department store on Christmas eve!

I'm home now, in my nice apartment. As long as there is no disaster I will enjoy the storm. I have always enjoyed stormy weather, preferably snowy. In Houston one enjoys it anytime Mother Nature does something, anything, besides sit there in a shamelessly breezeless, dead, and humid 100 degree sulk.

Do pray for us, though, as I myself will be doing. I know that further south (around Corpus Christi) where the storm is due to make its full impact there will be precious little 'enjoyment'. My heart goes out to those who will inevitably suffer great loss and damage.

All masses at Walsingham will proceed as usual. I'm supposed to read the lesson at high mass this Sunday.

(Now I'm going to listen-watch Barenboim, Perlman, and Ma do Beethoven's triple concerto on youtube - followed by Barenboim doing the choral fantasie in Berlin.)

It is eerily quiet here in Houston. The only sounds are the constant drizzle and patter of rain, and the intermittent growling of thunder. The streets are near deserted and all the stores are closed, with only a grocer's here and there remaining open. Constant rain in gusty drizzlements and occasional torrents. Lots of thunder - all bark and no bite. Not nearly the storm that was predicted. But, I was told that it will get much worse tonight (it's now 8.30pm) so I'm waiting. I elected not to practice this evening lest I get stranded for hours in torrential rain and wind (it's a real nuisance getting to my car and in and out of it with an umbrella, plus clutching an arm full of music while battling heavy rain and wind!). As Charles said, our greatest fear is flooding, which is Houston's chronic concern (it never takes much!). Please pray strongly for those of us who live in fear of flooding. Keep praying, too, for those down south in the brunt of the storm!

I played for the vigil mass at Walsingham this afternoon and will read the lesson at high mass in the morning.

This will be a long night marked by the reading of my two new books - D. Ponsford's magisterial treatment of French organ music in the reign of Louis XIVth, and Elizabeth Leach's biography of Guillaume Machaut. This will be a memorable night! Perhaps a rare glass or two of Benedictine are in order.

All quiet in a big place like Houston. Maybe there's some peace to be found in the silence? Copland thought so...

https://youtu.be/s_MxTZlYL14

FidemInFidebus,

Thanks for the lovely Copland. Listening now.

One certainly doesn't expect to find silence in the big city. Cardinal Sarah retreats to the desert as he said in this interview about his book, The Power of Silence:

On a more personal basis, since I wanted to write a book about silence, I deemed it useful to go to the most silent place in the Catholic Church. La Grande Chartreuse is an absolute desert of silence. All the surroundings of deep solitude, the beauty of the mountains, the mysterious austerity — in a word, the entire environment seems to be God’s dwelling.

One could say: “Truly, the Lord is in this place! How awesome is this shrine! This is none other than the abode of God, the gateway to heaven” (Genesis 28:16-17).

Watch out for gators, MJO! Prayers for you all that power doesn't go out and that there is no flooding. Our Lady took such good care of us during the Sandy storm which is providential since we're not too handy with generators and my elderly mother-in-law was on oxygen. Our block was the only one for miles around not to lose electricity. God is good.

If any of you have been watching TV news today, it is evidently getting worse, especially in Houston.

We'll keep praying for them - and I'm still making a novena to St. Swithin for you, Chickson! Forum (and life in general) would be much too normal without you.

For what it's worth, your situation (an Anglo-Catholic stuck in tempestuous weather) brings to mind an old weather forecast . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z2jwDcb9wI

Sorry, how do you spell kerb?

Ah! If only Kathy were right! We should wish to be so delightfully clever.

Well, Viola, I'm telling you with hung head, downcast eyes, and lowered voice that over here it's spelled c-u-r-b. Downright weird, n'est ce pas?
Out of curiosity, is 'kerb', like 'curb', also a verb, meaning to put a stop to, as in 'he kerbed their impudence', or 'Fr Goodman wished to kerb the use of guitars at mass'?

Curious.
The etymologies of 'kerb' and 'curb' must be different.
The 'kerb' as 'a raised stone edge' can conceivably mean a thing which 'curbs' something or other. Thus, we don't have, over here, the 'raised stone edge' word - only its effect on something or other, namely, preventing the intrusion or encroachment of something or other. So over here a 'curb' is a 'kerb' which 'curbs' something or someone from trespass of a given space.

Hmmm: this will be useful in Scrabble.

Now that's what I call 'kerbing'!

From the Oxford English dictionary,

CURB

NOUN
1. Check or restraint on something.
2. Type of bit with a strap or chain attached which passes under a horse's lower jaw, used as a check.
3. North American variant spelling of kerb
4. Swelling on the back of a horse's hock, caused by spraining a ligament.

VERB
1. Restrain or keep in check.
1.1. Restrain (a horse) by means of a curb.
2. US Lead (a dog being walked) near the curb to urinate or defecate, in order to avoid soiling buildings, pavements, etc.

Origin
Late 15th century (denoting a strap fastened to the bit): from Old French courber ‘bend, bow’, from Latin curvare (see curve).

KERB

NOUN
A stone edging to a pavement or raised path.

Origin
Mid 17th century (denoting a raised border or frame): variant of curb.

Jackson, I am glad to know those moldy and dog-eared Bach scores weathered the catastrophe. Glad you are well, too. I did wonder if any churches or instruments might have been damaged, but I suppose it is too early to tell.

Many thanks for your kind wishes, Charles. I have much, very much, for which to be thankful. My apartment did not get flooded and I am safe and well. I did, though, have quite an adventure Sunday morning.

After going to Walsingham Sunday morning (I was scheduled to read the lesson and had been told all masses would take place as scheduled) I found a deserted church with not a soul in sight. Returning home, my car stalled in some over-the-kerb water (higher than I had judged it to be). Some kind person on a bicycle came along and pushed it out of the water. Fortunately (a literal God-send!), a lady of Viet-Namese heritage who was sweeping her driveway said that I could stay with her. We called numerous towing services, all of whom wanted six to nine hundred dollars (it's criminal how they were fleecing people). I ended up staying the night with the lady and we got a tow truck for a 'mere' $250 (which I could ill afford!) on Monday morning. I am back home, safe and dry, since yesterday morning and am deeply grateful to be home, and for the goodness that I've been shown. My only worry now is how I'm going to get my car repaired and running.

Others were not so fortunate. Thousands lost their homes and were rescued by boat and helicopter from the roofs of their destroyed homes. St Thomas' Episcopal Church and School, where I have piano students, was flooded with two feet of water, destroying all the children's books and such. There is water in the church and possible damage to the organ. Someone told me that the authorities have said this storm's flooding was an eight-hundred-year high, that there is nothing else like it on record. We had a hurricane here about four or five years ago, and now this - many people have had their homes flooded both times. Why buildings and houses are not built on piers in Houston is beyond me.

Please help me offer thanks for my good fortune, and join me in prayer for those much less fortunate. The constant drizzle, drizzle, drizzle continues yet, with an occasional grumble from Thor thrown in for good measure.

This afternoon I will 'hike' the eight or ten blocks to the local Whole Foods, work on some extensive notes for my next recital, practice on my piano, read, and worry about how I'm going to have my car repaired.

Simile! Orationes!! SE Wisconsin Red Cross has 43 volunteers and several trucks on the way today.

Requiem!

St Theresa's in Sugarland is offering shelter and other help https://m.facebook.com/sttheresasugarland/photos/a.946796865413982.1073741832.110220349071642/1477285135698483/?type=3&source=48

Thinking of you, MJO. Prayers that your car is up and running again with minimal or no expense. It's great that your Whole Foods is relatively close. I like going to the one near us to see all the new food choices and innovative local products. it's great to see small-scale farmers and other artisans making a go of it.

One of many ways to help https://www.gofundme.com/regina-caeli-academy-hou-recovery

Harvey.., a prophetic sign as there is now a Harvey in the church.

there is now a Harvey in the church.

A Pookah?

Even better? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG6v44btJ8U

At the end: Who is Harvey? (Harvey is Frank)

But isn't Frank a diminutive for Francis?

There is nothing prophetic about the hurricane in Texas, despite some looking under every rock for signs and wonders. If you live in a flood plain and it rains, you get wet. Still bad for the people who live there. Prayers for them as they rebuild, as I know they will. Those Texans are pretty tough people.

"Texans are tough" is an understatement. There's a video circulating of two Texas monster trucks rescuing a submerged National Guard truck. Amazing.

https://streamable.com/b3e8s

I have posted this elsewhere, but worth repeating.

If you are at a church or have a friend at a church, be aware that you need to make it clear to everyone in power at the parish that if someone approaches them about "rescuing and putting the organ (piano, harpsichord) into storage for the parish" that the only people to be involved in the rescuing of the instruments, if needed, are the people who already maintain them.

Understood?

My local Northeastern liberal leaning Episcopalians are on board, so apparently the blackout isn't total! (Well, they would have been praying anyway.) Also, I read about it on what would be considered a left-leaning news site—that would be the NY Times. (Actual news.) So I don't think it's a question of a blackout. I think it's possibly because a large part of the country has just tuned out of Trump's daily utterances. But yes,
let's all join tomorrow in prayer!