As I write the shrubs by the windows in the front room knock on the panes and rain fitfully patters the glass on the windows in this room. For us it will be just lots and lots of rain – so perhaps we don’t have room to complain considering what our metroblogging friends in Orlando just went through.

……FLOOD WATCH NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PEACHTREE CITY GA 1000 PM EDT MON SEP 6 2004

… FLOOD WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT THROUGH WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON ACROSS NORTH AND CENTRAL GEORGIA…

HEAVY RAIN BANDS FROM FRANCES WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD INTO PORTIONS OF CENTRAL GEORGIA OVERNIGHT… AND ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE SPREADING INTO PORTIONS OF NORTH GEORGIA THROUGH TUESDAY. BASED ON THE CURRENT FORECAST TRACK AND SPEED… RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE EXPECTED MAINLY ALONG AND EAST OF A LINE FROM NEAR COLUMBUS TO ATLANTA TO BLUE RIDGE WITH 2 TO 4 INCHES EXPECTED ACROSS FAR NORTHWEST GEORGIA. LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS MAY OCCUR… ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTHEAST GEORGIA MOUNTAINS TUESDAY INTO EARLY WEDNESDAY….

The above was found on www.weather.com. I guess National Weather Service forecasters don’t care if it looks like they’re screaming when the forecast is put up on the internet. Anyway, looks like things will be interesting enough when you take Atlanta driving into account.

On another subject entirely… I just watched the very creepy The Riverman on A&E, about an investigator who interviewed Ted Bundy while searching for the Green River Killer in Seattle, and the Frances-borne winds causing the bushes to thump the windows are a little extra nerve-wracking tonight.

It did put me in mind of other famous serial murder cases, like the Atlanta Child Murders. Wayne Williams was not a likely suspect to many at the time, and it’s worth noting that had a clever bunch of people not figured out that Williams could be goaded into showing his true personality on the stand – i.e. they made him lose it and act like the psycho he was – he might be free today. With his unassuming everyday demeanor Williams was well-camouflaged. I thought of this tonight and said it in my own blog, but it bears repeating – when Walt Whitman spoke in Leaves of Grass about containing multitudes, he did not specify what it was that teemed inside. You never know what secrets sit inside the skull of the guy or girl next to you.

As a related public service announcement I remind you that at least one serial rapist is known to be working in Atlanta right now

…(A)ll three girls were alone and walking along a sidewalk when the reported attacks occurred.

Police say all three cases are linked and happened, specifically, in the area of Newtown Circle along McDonough Boulevard. They say the suspect apparently watches his victims very closely before attacking them…

It is imperative you catch a serial once they are known, as they usually tend to progress in the severity of crime committed. It goes without saying that if you have any information related to the above at all you don’t need to be reading a damned blog right now, you need to be calling the police.

Y’all sleep tight now, y’hear?