call me ishmael

You know, I have been vaguely considering changing my online pseudonym… And, amazingly enough for me, there might actually be a reason.
Years ago, my family and I happened to live in a little town called La Plata, MD. Wee town. About as middle-of-nowhere as you can get in Maryland. Had schools with “no smoking” signs surrounded by tobacco fields. We moved out shortly after I started college, and shortly after that, the town got pounded by an F5 tornado, to the point where most of the downtown section was destroyed – like I said small town. The miracle of the event was that no one was killed, for which everyone was thankful.
Next town I lived in, nothing happened.
Following that, I happened to move to a little place called Pascagoula, MS. Even smaller town. With a Wal-Mart that had a gun-supply section that would rival most dedicated gun shops. And more rednecks than you could shake an alligator at. Oh, yeah, and I moved there in early 2005. A few months before Hurricane Katrina rolled through. The area I lived in suffered a 15-foot storm-surge, but my saving grace was that my apartment was on the third story of the complex – everything underneath that, however, was a loss. Going back after the storm, I have never before seen destruction of that magnitude before or since. And, to this day, you have no idea how frustrated and annoyed I am at almost all of the focus and attention after the storm being directed at New Orleans – in reality, while that particular town was significantly damaged due to its levees failing, the brunt of the actual hurricane damage was inflicted on the Mississippi Gulf coast. They may have been rednecks, but they lost everything, and NOLA only got most of the attention because of idiotic politics. But, moving on…
Next town I lived in, nothing happened.
Afterwards, we moved to San Diego, CA. Hot (but dry), obnoxious people, really fraking stupid laws, traffic, high cost of living… the list goes on. Oh, yeah, and they have lots and lots and of dry, highly combustible plant material out in the scrub. Lots of it. And it burns. Quite well. Well enough to threaten San Diego sufficiently to convince millions of people (Better Half and I included) to find somewhere else to be. Oh, yeah, and they just had a 5.8 earthquake right up the road, and thankfully after I already bugged out.
Now we are in the next city, and I am really hoping the current trend continues and nothing happens. I just cannot move… ever again.
Either way, I am thinking “Stormbringer” sounds kinda cool… Not very original, I know, but still… (And, yes, I am joking about the name change, but that is one hell of a coincidence chain there…)