I’m developing a reputation as a weather jinx. Everywhere I travel the weather seems to take a rapid and severe turn for the worse. Evidence:

• Every trip I’ve taken to Kentucky this year the temperatures have zoomed to new all-time highs and then immediately dropped back to normal when I leave.
• Our trip to Malta and Sicily led to our suffering higher than normal temperatures there for a couple of weeks. Was beautiful after we left.
• I dropped into New Orleans for this weekend and a weird tropical storm blew through, doing more damage than the last hurricane. Closed the airport and cancelled our annual golf tournament.
• I’m soon on my way to Guadalupe Valle in Mexico, and they’re in the midst of wildfires throughout the area.

Perhaps this is my hidden superpower. Along with making wine disappear.

The trip to NOLA was weird but fun. Heavy rain, power outages, a golf bag lost by the airlines and a golf tourney at an old school country club, Tchefuncta. My great friend Jon is a member there and this was our second time competing. This might have been our year – we won our first match (of four) and were way up in our second match before the storm stopped the action. So it wasn’t to be. But we had great fun and we can brag about the victory that almost was for the next year.

We had some really great food. Perfect fresh fried seafood at Rip’s on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. Some of the best sushi rolls I’ve ever had at Aki in Covington. And a perfect sausage Po’Boy at Bear’s. The Cajuns know how to eat well. I’m happy to learn from masters.

With the tournament cancelled we had options of drinking at the club with a hundred other frustrated golfers or going home for something more quiet. We chose the latter and watched most of the first season of The Expanse. I like that series a lot.

The final weirdness of the trip was that NOLA area experienced big power outages as a result of tropical storm Olga. The airport was shut down for about five hours, so by the time I wandered in it looked like a Christmas Eve crowd – huge, desperate, cranky and occasionally rude. My favorite traveling partners. But I leveraged my A-list and TSA-Pre  status and got through without too much trouble.

Update from Mexico – my weather jinx hasn’t followed me here. Weather is good, but the damage from the wildfires of a few days ago is widespread. We and quite a few others on the trip brought donations of clothes and goods for the now-homeless people of La Mision which was hit hard by the fires. Hoping for a speedy recovery for all of them.