Getting a mite damp...

Hurricane Sandy is currently overhead (or, at least, the outriders of the storm are overhead), and have been dumping rain on us for most of the day.  It hasn't seemed that bad, although one tree of our neighbors has been knocked over, and a high school a couple of miles away supposedly saw winds of just over a hundred mph earlier today.

We've been pretty lucky, no doubt; our power has only gone out briefly so far; let's hope that doesn't change.

Basically, though, the entire region seems to be shut down, and that seems a bit much.  I guess we'll see, when we know a bit more about the overall effects.  I wonder if I'm making light of it too much; certainly my wife is a lot more concerned than I am.

One thing is for sure, my wife has turned on the all-news station here a bit, and they seem dedicated to scaring the bejeezus out of everyone around (not helped by commercials seeming to be about an even split between election propaganda and lawyers looking for clients to sue drug companies).  I guess they're just happy to have something pulling in a lot more viewers.  Sometimes I hate our so-called civilization.

Global Warming Slap

[note: I wrote this a couple of days ago, but am just getting to posting it.]
Yesterday, NPR reported that Tropical Storm Isaac was bearing down on Cuba, Hispaniola, and nearby islands and, by extension, Florida. It then mentioned it being twenty years (to the day, I believe) since Hurricane Andrew hit Florida.

I found that a little shocking (call it global warming throwing water in my face), insofar as that, twenty years ago at this time, we were tracking the first storm of the year, whereas today we're tracking the ninth. That's certainly progress, and certainly not in a good way.