After The Storm

First let me say how thankful I am hurricane Gustav turned out to be a non-event. The picture you see is one I took of a friend's house in south Mississippi after Katrina. There were no reporters running around showing people in this area prior to or after Katrina. All the coverage was in New Orleans. Mississippi was an afterthought even though it was the primary recipient of Katrina's fury. I was once again sickened by the weather hype from the media. Any number of unshaven and rain coated talking heads stationed themselves in small towns around New Orleans and made conditions sound as dire as anyone could ever imagine. Their verbiage was betrayed by the weakening storm's lack of performance and they were left to make up whatever stories they could dredge up. Once again Mississippi was covered as, "and by the way the Mississippi Gulf Coast is also in the way of this storm." Great personalities from New Orleans like the Chocolate Mayor, Ray Nagin were once again featured. Fortunately, Louisiana has a competent new governor who made sure some of the idiot mayors elected by the inner city dregs didn't screw up this time.

I detest our fawning national media. We should immediately boycott the major new sources and national networks supporting them and try and get our news from independents.

Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness? - Artemus Ward

Leanin' into the wind

The hot air from all the news and weather sources has caused former Tropical Storm Dolly to stall near the coast and intensify to a Class 2 hurricane. We are awaiting the big blast any time now. I pumped my pool down a little over a foot while we had power and I decided to post one more time. I did get the sign up in front of my house, and if you are a looter who also blogs, you had better pay close attention. I will keep you posted as I get real information and not the overblown redundant banter of the talking heads. I cooked a great breakfast before the first power surge and I have a fresh pot of coffee in my thermal carafe. As Buffalo says, "Life is sweet as long as the water stays in the street." Have a great day. Pappy

It's a Comin' Up of a Blowout!

"Batten down the hatches. Reef the sails. Turn her into the wind. It's a comin' up of a blowout."

"Aye, aye Captain."

We are watching the reports here to see what tropical storm, "Dolly" is going to do today. It looks like it might make land fall near us at about noon tomorrow.

Storms are very much a part of life. Most of the areas where I've lived during my lifetime, were at times, prone to feel the effects of severe weather. No one likes to go through the preparations ahead of, or the clean-up afterwards, but this too is a necessary function. I remember as a small child visiting my great grandmother, Loutisha, in her big white wood framed house with the dog run down the middle. She spent many hours on her front porch in a rocking chair looking at the happenings of life around her. Her house was adorned with spiked metal rods running through glass balls. These attached at the ridgeline of her roof and had a twisted metal cable running off one side to the ground. She obviously witnessed the effects of lightning strikes through the years and wanted to insure her house was safe. As dark thunder clouds would approach she would squint and look through her wire framed glasses and usually say, "We'd better move inside. It's a comin' up of a blowout." I went to the grocery yesterday on my regular run and found that it was bursting at the seams with folks getting ready for the approaching storm. Many people were loading their buggies with bottled water. My neighbor was loading his buggy with wine. I may be forced to go to his house if I run out of water. Skies are blue this morning and the wind is calm. This afternoon, I'll move the items outside that could become missles if the wind is strong enough. I normally don't watch the news or weather, but I probably will today and tomorrow. I love to see those weather people standing outside in the storm dodging newspaper racks and other missles. Newsies, you've got to love them. They'll do anything to get a little air time. It's usually the cub reporters who are asked to do what no other sane human being would do in order to get the ratings up. Hope you have a wonderful week. I'll be here as long as we can maintain a connection. Pappy

I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it. - Mary Chase