Wow. What a weekend.
First and foremost, I am happy to say that Claire, Amanda, and I made it through "Super Storm Sandy" just fine and dandy as we sat warm and comfy in Walt & Juli's living room in their Salem home which was built in 1795 and has survived more than its fair share of storms over the years. As the wind whipped around outside and whistled down the chimney, we were dry and warm, well-fed and quite happy to be sitting where we were.
Watching the news this morning and seeing the devastation along the New Jersey shore, the Connecticut coastline, and the streets of New York City, I am thankful that everyone I know is safe and sound and suffered no catastrophic losses but I know that there are a lot of folks out there whose lives will probably never be the same as they assess the damage that this super storm wreaked.
Personally I feel somewhat like we've all dodged yet another bullet and I am very grateful for that as the news reports certainly made it feel like the end of the world was coming and even though I was hoping that once again the news media would be wrong and just whipping everyone up into needless fear and frenzy, there was always the underlying fear that maybe this time they were going to be right and the sky really would be falling.
Even though forewarned is certainly forearmed, all of this "Boy Who Cried Wolf" weather-forecasting is a bit much. Yes - we all need to be prepared; no - we all don't need to be in sheer, bloody panic. And honestly, I don't need to see some news person and camera crew standing on the coast where the waves are furiously breaking over a seawall to grasp the fact that yes, we are having a storm and yes, the tide is higher than usual and things are getting dangerous.
Watching the news yesterday until I decided I'd quite had enough, I kept wondering whatever happened to responsible journalism and why we all have to see to believe rather than be able to use common sense to understand that it's not fit outside for either man nor beast. How do we get regular folks to stay home and away from dangerous areas when news stations are telling viewers to "send us your photos of the storm" and they're seeing news reporters standing out in the weather so why can't they?
I don't know.
Nor do I know where I'm going with this particular post as it was certainly never my intention to go from saying, "Hey, we're all fine here and heading home to Connecticut shortly" to grumbling about the media's coverage of Sandy but obviously I did! I guess I'll chalk it up to the surrealistic feelings of the last few days and the slight twinge of guilt that I feel at not having been at work to help out there though I have no doubt that my co-workers did a marvelous job in keeping the City of Norwich and surrounding areas safe.
For now I'm going to pack up the car and we're going to head home - thankful that we have an intact home to head back to, thankful that we had wonderful friends who shared their home with us during the storm, and more grateful than grumbeful no matter which direction this post took!
First and foremost, I am happy to say that Claire, Amanda, and I made it through "Super Storm Sandy" just fine and dandy as we sat warm and comfy in Walt & Juli's living room in their Salem home which was built in 1795 and has survived more than its fair share of storms over the years. As the wind whipped around outside and whistled down the chimney, we were dry and warm, well-fed and quite happy to be sitting where we were.
Watching the news this morning and seeing the devastation along the New Jersey shore, the Connecticut coastline, and the streets of New York City, I am thankful that everyone I know is safe and sound and suffered no catastrophic losses but I know that there are a lot of folks out there whose lives will probably never be the same as they assess the damage that this super storm wreaked.
Personally I feel somewhat like we've all dodged yet another bullet and I am very grateful for that as the news reports certainly made it feel like the end of the world was coming and even though I was hoping that once again the news media would be wrong and just whipping everyone up into needless fear and frenzy, there was always the underlying fear that maybe this time they were going to be right and the sky really would be falling.
Even though forewarned is certainly forearmed, all of this "Boy Who Cried Wolf" weather-forecasting is a bit much. Yes - we all need to be prepared; no - we all don't need to be in sheer, bloody panic. And honestly, I don't need to see some news person and camera crew standing on the coast where the waves are furiously breaking over a seawall to grasp the fact that yes, we are having a storm and yes, the tide is higher than usual and things are getting dangerous.
Watching the news yesterday until I decided I'd quite had enough, I kept wondering whatever happened to responsible journalism and why we all have to see to believe rather than be able to use common sense to understand that it's not fit outside for either man nor beast. How do we get regular folks to stay home and away from dangerous areas when news stations are telling viewers to "send us your photos of the storm" and they're seeing news reporters standing out in the weather so why can't they?
I don't know.
Nor do I know where I'm going with this particular post as it was certainly never my intention to go from saying, "Hey, we're all fine here and heading home to Connecticut shortly" to grumbling about the media's coverage of Sandy but obviously I did! I guess I'll chalk it up to the surrealistic feelings of the last few days and the slight twinge of guilt that I feel at not having been at work to help out there though I have no doubt that my co-workers did a marvelous job in keeping the City of Norwich and surrounding areas safe.
For now I'm going to pack up the car and we're going to head home - thankful that we have an intact home to head back to, thankful that we had wonderful friends who shared their home with us during the storm, and more grateful than grumbeful no matter which direction this post took!