We Interrupt this Program to Bring You Breaking News or a Weather Report!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

 

Yesterday, we had an Earthquake. I was not watching TV prior to feeling the quake.  If I had been and someone could have predicted the quake ahead of time and interrupted what I was watching to tell me, I doubt that I would have heard what they said. I have become immune to these Breaking News or Weather Reports and almost immediately change the channel.

Don’t get me wrong. I am interested if it is truly a major event and certainly understand cutting into any show, but in the old days, they ran a ticker tape along the bottom of your TV screen for the not so critical stuff and you could stay tuned to the news if you were interested. Today, with the media trying to one up each other, it is no big deal to the powers to be to stop a season finale in mid-show to tell you that there was an accident on Highway 95, but they have no details to report, or there is a storm brewing in the Northeast and watch a Weather man standing by a salt truck, primed and ready to go, next to a highway showing nothing but cement.  Truthfully, watching a turtle cross the road might be more exciting. My all time favorite is when they interrupt a show to tell you the President will be speaking in thirty minutes. Ok, catch me in thirty minutes. Personally, I do not find this riveting and feel eventually we are going to get to the point that one station is interrupting another station’s interruption and I am never going to get to see how The Mentalist ended.

 

 

It has gotten so bad here on our news that in the winter, I am starting to think ABC, CBS, and NBC have gotten together to create one never-ending show called “Doppler Radar!”  Talk about beating a dead horse to death and they keep up the frenzied weather reports until every sane person is off to Wal-Mart to hoard bread, toilet paper, and milk.  God knows if you can’t get out for two days, you need 14 gallons of milk sitting around and three cases of toilet paper, just in case.  Maybe these people need to really be thinking about cutting back on the fiber, if they are estimating using that much toilet paper in a few days.

I love, also, when it is pouring outside, or snowing outside, and they interrupt what you are watching to tell you that we might get rain or snow. I’m not a Rocket Scientist, but I figured that out by looking out the window and if they would go back to tracking the storm and leaving me alone, I could still hear Carrie Underwood sing on American Idol.  My mom is ready to start a march in Washington, DC, if they break in to one more of her Price is Right shows.

 

When Hurricane Isabel hit a few years back when we lived in Bel Air, MD, my youngest daughter tracked that storm like she was a Meteorologist. All she cared about was whether or not she needed to finish her homework or if she had a few more days to put it off until it became a crisis situation. We laughed and kept telling her that hurricane was not going to affect us at all and to ignore the weather reports.  Well, maybe this is one time I should have kept our TV on the weather channel and listened instead of yelling at the screen, “Hey idiot, I am sick of hearing about the stupid weather!” because, sure enough, when the hurricane hit we were totally unprepared and of course, our power went out immediately.

Up until this point, our emergency kit included a few Yankee candles, matches, and some M&M’s.  After we surveyed our kit, and determined those M&M’s were not going to last three people more than one day, off to Wal-Mart we went in the horrible weather. As we were driving away, we could see our youngest daughter illuminated in the window by several of the Yankee Candles, mouthing, “I told you, I would be out of school.”

 

Luckily, we found two stores open and all the employees thanked us for coming in.  I think the greeter said something like, “Welcome to Wal-Mart, unprepared bozos like you help keep our store open on a night like this.”  When we got back home, we gained some respect for the power of Mother Nature, because trees that had been standing when we left were now blown over.  Our neighbor told us that one of the trees crashed to the ground moments after we had walked by it. I said to my husband that we were really lucky that the tree didn’t hit us and hurt us and I suspect because he was not relishing being in the house without power and a woman who is nuts when the power is out, he said, “I guess.”  

 

We spent a harrowing night sleeping in the living room listening to tree after tree crashing to the ground.  Our power was out for four days and in the scheme of things seems minor, but we sure missed our electricity, and my husband ended up waiting in line for five hours for a generator.  Our daughter, who never gives up on those Hallmark moments, kept having us play games by candlelight. After several rousing games of Lucyopoly, Monopoly, and Christmasopoly, I might have, in fact, grabbed the Gingerbread Scissors and yelled, “Don’t come any closer! “ when I saw her flying up the stairs with Dogopoly in hand. Shortly after that incident, my husband unplugged the refrigerator from the generator and plugged the TV in instead so she could watch a movie.

 

Yesterday, we had an Earthquake. The magnitude of the quake is not something we East Coasters are used to and it caught many of us by surprise. Once again, Mother Nature proved that she can be one powerful woman and should be respected.  Today, I turned on the news and heard reports of a powerful Hurricane headed up the East Coast.  We should all have an Emergency kit and plan in place, in case we have to live through the unexpected, and our emergency kits should contain all the necessary items we might need for both humans and our animals. Maybe that Earthquake was a reminder that we shouldn’t let ourselves get too complacent and think “Nothing like that will ever happen here!”  I just wish that some of these TV stations would only interrupt when it really is important and not for every little thing, in a game to beat another channel out of delivering something first. It is starting to be like The Boy who Cried Wolf, and I hope we don’t ignore the warnings, when it turns out to be something important.  Meanwhile, everyone stay safe and I am off to the store to replenish our M&M's supply, after listening to the morning Hurricane weather reports. You can never be too prepared!

[Donna K & Quincy]

We do become immune to all the hype when they are incessantly, endlessly and mind numbingly bombarded with warnings every two minutes, however, last year I learned my lesson. We do not get hurricanes we get downgraded hurricanes called tropical storms, which I find kind of amusing since that is the only thing tropical we get in our neck of the woods. Last September, for days we were being inundated with warnings that Hurricane Igor was headed our way, it hit us pretty hard and we were totally unprepared not even an M&M. Where was I when the hurricane hit, out shopping completely oblivious to the impending storm. I was leisurely browsing through Walmart when the most god awful noises started coming from the ceiling and at the same time my cell phone rang, it was DH telling me to get the h*** home while I still could. I drove home with powerlines and trees coming down and debris flying everywhere, Igor had arrived. We immediately lost our power but did have a very small generator that DH has to keep his salt water fish tank from dying but it was enough for lights and a small tv. We were lucky and only lost a couple of trees and part of our fence, others were not so lucky. There were millions of dollars in damage, people lost their homes and roads and bridges were washed away leaving some towns isolated for more than a week. The major part of the damaged was caused by the amount of rain that came and our systems were not equipped to handle it. Now they say Irene is headed our way and I think this time I may take it a little more seriously. Think I'll go get some tiolet tissue. Stay safe!

[Angie, Hudson and Lily]

I agree! Around here it seems like the brewing weather (especially the winter storms) dominate most of the news cast. It is worse on some days than others- they probably have no other big news to talk about on those days."The Boy Who Cried Wolf" analogy is a good one, becuase here it seems like when they predict some really big storm, and like in your area, show salt trucks ready to go on completely dry pavement, the storm just misses us or we get an inch or so. Other times, they say only a couple of inches of snow, and we get 8. So much for their doppler radar.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Bonnie, I agree with you and I think the term "alarmist society" is a perfect description.

Camilla, You are young...LOL...and don't remember the good old days. M&M's are in the cupboard :)

F, I am with you....stay home and risk the wrath of your friends! Maybe it will not be as bad as it is sounding.

Leslie, I am sure Home Depot could help you with that bathroom redo :)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Amen sister! LOL

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

Can I get an Amen sister...

Living in Florida they are always breaking in for a Weather alert...and now one of the stations has a new radar system...They call it the "Two Minute Advantage"...And boy are they wearing it out already...not to mention the dreaded "cone of concern"...LOL

 

Even though we live in NE FL, we still have to be prepared but really...do we have to wear everything into the ground...Just saying LOL!!!

 

Stay safe eastcoasters...please be careful....and listen to the warnings even though they do drive us crazy!!!

[Bonnie and Kona]

I heartily agree. The Boy Who Cried Wolf syndrome on the news media goes far beyond weather reports. I feel like we are living in an alarmist society. The newscasters speak with such tones of doom and hysteria it gets the whole nation in a tizzy over things that never come to be.

 

[Camilla and Darwin]

Better safe than sorry I say! M and M's... yummy.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Uh Oh, I have no M and M's. They used to be a staple for all events when my kids were small. I do have about 60 pounds of dog food, plenty of TP and a backup generator, though. Just in case life wasn't exciting enough I am supposed to go to a major event on Long Island that starts 8:30 PM Saturday on Long Island. It has to start after sundown you see. I think sundown will be at about noon on Saturday does that count? I will not risk life and limb so if it's bad I'll be home. The folks throwing the shindig may never talk to me again. Oh well.

[Leslie and Halas]

A few years ago, they changed our tornado warning system. It used to be that the sirens only went off if a tornado had been sighted, but now they go off practically every time it gets really cloudy. It was supposed to give us a more advanced warning, but it really only makes most of us ignore the sirens, since we hear them so often. It's not a great idea to ignore them, since we've had some pretty nasty tornadoes, but that's just how it goes.

 

If I could have a bathroom like that, I would hardly ever have to change a roll of toilet paper.