I should just stop reading the news. I have stopped reading the newspaper (thank you, Internet), but still check in on the CNN and local news Web sites to see what’s happening in the world.
I’m never pleased with what I see. Today is no different.
First, there’s the Michele Bachmann corn dog controversy. Come on, people. The photo has gone viral as folks criticize Michele for eating a corn dog.
One of the gals in the video you’ll see if you follow my link said something like “where I’m from in the South, ladies don’t eat corn dogs like that. They break off a small piece with their fingers, dip it in mustard, and then nibble.” Is that so? Where I come from, ladies don’t look at pictures of a person innocently enjoying a beloved American treat at the Iowa State Fair and think the sort of thoughts many folks are thinking.
What’s worse? Michele Bachmann eating a corn dog like most other human beings? Or people the world over looking at the image of her eating said corn dog and saying it looks like she is “eating” something else?
As for other “news”…
Headlines like this one irritate me.
Those of you not from Maryland may not know that:
BGE = Baltimore Gas & Electric
Rawlings-Blake = Mayor of Baltimore
O’Malley = Maryland’s governor
First, it’s been just over 48 hours since Hurricane Irene ripped through. There are trees and power lines down all over the place. Maryland is just one small piece of a much broader area impacted by the storm. There are only so many people capable of doing the type of work needed to restore power. Many of them are working around the clock. Yes, it’s a nuisance to be without power. But give the power companies a break.
Public criticism from people like Rawlings-Blake does nothing to help the situation. Of course, the headline is from the Baltimore Sun. Maybe it’s just another lame attempt at making O’Malley appear reasonable.
Marylanders should be thankful. We could have fared a lot worse. Which brings me to another point…
Officials did not overreact. It was not unreasonable to order people to evacuate. It was not madness to predict the worst. People should be prepared.
What I think is crazier than all the pre-storm media hype is post-storm coverage from areas that were LUCKY not to get hit worse than what they did inferring that everyone overreacted. Saying officials were wrong to order evacuations. It’s much better to prepare for the worst than not be prepared when you need to be.
Just ask the people of Vermont. Although, even if they did get warnings, I don’t know how one can prepare for the devastation people in that state and surrounding areas are still experiencing.
That’s the other bit of news I can’t help but read. There’s been so much destruction. Yes, many people are still without power, but at least their homes are standing. Yep, lots of basements flooded. But I’ll take a flooded basement as opposed to having my entire town literally washed away.
It’s all very tragic and very sad.
Would I feel differently if I had lost power during the storm? If I were STILL without power? If my basement were flooded? Nope.
Yes, being powerless sucks. But being alive and healthy is awesome.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go buy me some corn dogs.
We managed to weather the hurricane, so far, unscathed.
We’re actually at the WV place. We had to go to the Lowe’s in LaVale to pick up a washer/dryer that we ordered. Timing was pretty good on that one, eh? We got to sit out the hurricane with very little impact.
We even got to go for a motorcycle ride yesterday.
Of course, the last 20 minutes of that ride were through an absolute deluge. And we were not wearing rain gear.Honestly, I thought we were going to miss the rain. Once it started, though, it poured. And there was no safe place to stop (we were on US 50 at the time). By the time we could stop, we were already soaked, so we just motored through.
Since the last two miles of the journey, from the main road to our house, are on dirt/gravel roads, our bikes now look like this…
Darn Dirty Bikes
The last time we rode, over a month ago, I washed both motorcycles. They looked all nice and shiny then.
Nice Clean Bike
Of course, things could be worse. We could have a very large tree laying on our brand new car. 🙁
Amy's New Car is Under There Somewhere
Poor Amy can’t catch a break here lately. At least her house appears to be okay. We haven’t heard any differently so far anyway.
The MD house is fine. I called our wonderful neighbor, Pete, and asked him to go have a look for me. If he hadn’t, I would’ve worried all day. Now maybe I can go take a nap or something.
No word yet if my brother’s house escaped Irene’s wrath. He and his family left their Chesapeake, VA home in their RV and went to a campground in Louisa, Virginia. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s pretty much where the epicenter of last week’s earthquakes happened.
Shannon may not agree. She said she searched my Flickr site recently using the “family” tag, and the only family images that appeared were pictures of dogs!
That’s what happens when your kids grow up and leave the nest. They are replaced by dogs…
K
First is this shot of K with a sort of goofy look on her face.
Meg
And then there’s Meg. She’s the old gal.
Belle (standing) and K Hunting Mice
I don’t have any recent shots of Belle by herself.
K
Here’s another shot of K.
Mousers
I’ll close with this shot of K and Belle, still hunting.
I know these are not the best doggie pics. I’ll to do better next time.
There are a few reasons for me to be excited tonight.
One of Our New Neighbors
One, our house is officially sold. It belongs to someone else. A new and exciting chapter in our lives is about to begin. I’ve scoured the Web for decent Warrenton pictures to post, but haven’t had much luck. So I posted one of my own.
That brings me to the second reason for excitement. My blog is working again. And working well.
Over the past few months, you may have noticed it getting slower and slower to load. For the last month or so, I have been unable to upload images. The only way I could post images was by uploading them elsewhere and then linking to them. Yes, I could have managed. But I shouldn’t have to “manage.” I should be able to use my blog the way it was intended. So I switched hosts (the place where my blog files are stored).
The switch was a bit bumpy. I couldn’t figure out how to move my stuff correctly. I won’t bore you with the technical details. It was all quite frustrating. That’s when I discovered Hostgator, my new host. Not only are they recommended WordPress hosts (WordPress is the blog software), they moved my WordPress files for me. Know how much it cost? Nothing. They did it for free.
You have no idea how many hours I spent dicking around with file transfers over the past week.
Finding a new host that moved my files for free is yet another thing to be excited about.
But wait, there’s more.
I actually got to ride my motorcycle today. Chances are very good I’ll be riding tomorrow, too. But only in the morning. There is a hurricane headed our way, you know.
Maybe I’ll even get some nice, new pictures to share.
Another New Neighbor
These “new neighbor” pics are actually from last weekend. This new town of ours is really VERY cute. I can’t wait to move in and take more shots to share.
Tomorrow, we sign our Maryland house over to its new owners. It still doesn’t feel real. I mean, I know it’s sold. I know we’re moving. But I don’t think it will really feel real until the movers cart all our stuff away and we shut the door on this place for the last time.
That is when I think it will hit.
Right now, I’m just sort of numb. It’s been a busy couple of months.
But we’re moving someplace that’s is REALLY cool. A cute little historic town in Northern Virginia (NoVA).
Not the crazy-busy-bustling-DC-suburb part of NoVA. The part of NoVA that’s known both as the Piedmont and Virginia Hunt Country.
This picture, which belongs to someone else because I am STILL working out these blog bugs, shows the front of the courthouse in our new hometown.
I’m never pleased with what I see. Today is no different.
We’re actually at the WV place. We had to go to the Lowe’s in LaVale to pick up a washer/dryer that we ordered. Timing was pretty good on that one, eh? We got to sit out the hurricane with very little impact.
