Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sports Notes
The national media folk following football have what, for them, is an irresistible urge to hero worship. Sometimes it is downright nauseating. My case in point is the Steeler's oft-injured QB Ben Roethlisberger. I have no difficulty conceding that Roethlisberger is a fine QB. The results speak for themselves. But he is not a great person. Those results are also speak for themselves. Does that mean he cannot redeem himself? No. He can and presumably has at least started down that path. My complaint is that the sportswriters and broadcasters have this urge to make him some sort of god. After Sunday night's game in Pittsburgh, some reporter actually asked the Steeler's coach, Mike Tomlin, if having Roethlisberger cheering on the sideline was special for the team. Tomlin suffers fools poorly. It's why many people like and respect him. He could barely contain himself on this question and answered something to the effect of "are you for real?"
It was said of Johnny Unitas that he displayed his real raw ability and toughness during those years in the 1960's when the talent around him wasn't what it was when the Colts won back-to-back NFL titles in 1959 and 1960. When the talent wasn't there, Johnny Unitas was. When the offensive line gave way, he was tougher than ever and still performed at peak efficiency. Roethlisberger is pretty tough too, but his performance these last two years isn't what it was when the Steelers were loaded with talent. Quick hits: Leading the charge for the suddenly rejuvenated Raven defense Sunday night was the enigmatic Paul Kruger, who is tall and quick and increasingly strong and is finally taking to his role on the Ravens. After the Ravens drafted him out of Utah, he spent two years on the bench and on special teams. Only last season did he land a regular role, joining those defenders who came on the field on passing downs. His job was to rush the QB and he got pretty good at it. Turns out he is quicker than most offensive linemen and with his size (6', 4") and long arms, he was a mobile lineman and a fast lineman and increasingly, as the season wore on, he was a force on the Ravens already solid defense. Then, in the offseason, the Ravens lost outside linebacker Jarret Johnson to free agency. Then they lost the defensive player of the year, Terrell Suggs, to a torn achilles. Courtney Upshaw, a high draft choice out of Alabama, was the Ravens pick to fill in for Suggs, and Kruger was their choice to take over for Johnson. It wasn't a smooth transition. Upshaw was hurt in the preseason and his recovery has been slow. But he, too, is showing signs of what the Ravens thought he would be when they drafted him out of Alabama. Kruger had hardly played in cover position during the first three years and it was not easy to learn on the fly. Things have improved quickly, however, partly because Kruger has learned and partly because the Raven's defensive coordinator, Dean Pees, has developed a rotation that calls for a lot more rushing the QB duties for Kruger.
So the Ravens are now 8-2 and two games ahead of the Steelers with a rematch planned in Baltimore in two weeks. In between Baltimore must travel of San Diego while the Steelers will take a trip to Cleveland. In this season, neither game will be easy. Even though the Chargers are struggling, they will be a severe threat to the Ravens because of the effects of a long flight and because Phillip Rivers is Phillip Rivers. The last two times the two teams played in California the Ravens won one and the Chargers won one. The Ravens managed a narrow victory because Ray Lewis somehow charged right through the offensive line of the Chargers on a fourth and short play in the final minute deep in Ravens territory and tackled the halfback as he was taking the handoff. Rivers had marched the Chargers relentlessly, but needed a TD because his team was down four. In the other game, last season, the Chargers crushed the Ravens.
Without Roethlisberger the Steelers won't be a decided favorite to beat anybody. The Browns are improving - they outplayed the Cowboys Sunday, leading for most of the game, only to lose when the Cowboys rallied late to force overtime, and then won in overtime - but the question will be whether they can score on the Steelers still-proud defense. Charlie Batch, the third-stringer, will start at QB for Pittsburgh, and the Steelers have signed another QB, Brian Hoyer, because QB No. 2, Byron Leftwich, was injured in the Ravens game and has been scratched from the Browns game. A field goal either way will decide this game.
The other team from this division to make the playoffs last season was the Bengals. But they stumbled badly out of the box, getting crushed in Baltimore on opening weekend and going downhill from there. They appear, however, to have righted the ship and after ten games are at .500. They probably can't catch the Ravens but they can catch the Steelers. Even now, the 5-5 Bengals are only one game behind Pittsburgh. If the Steelers stumble in Cleveland and then lose again to the Ravens, it will be the Bengals who have a chance to walk through the open door and into the wild card hunt. Over the next two weeks the Bengals are home against the Raiders and at San Diego. The second one will be a tougher game, obviously, but they will be getting the Chargers one week after the Ravens beat up on them. Things could be worse.
An Iowa lad playing at tiny Grinnel College in Iowa threw up over 100 shots Tuesday night against equally small Faith Bible College. A whole lot of those shots went in the bucket. His team, however, surrendered over 100 points and one player on Faith Bible, David Larson, poured in a mind-numbing 70 points on 34-44 shooting. The sad part of this story for Faith Bible is that Larson's incredible performance barely got a mention on ESPN. The reason: despite scoring 104 points and despite Larson's performance, the team lost to the Grinnel Pioneers by 75 points! Huh?
You score 70 points, your team scores 104 points and you lose by 75 points? Grinnel and their amazing scorer, Jack Taylor, scored early and often in a 179-104 rout of Faith Bible. Jack Taylor has 138 of those points to break an all-time NCAA record. And Taylor didn't just break the record, he crushed it. The previous record was 113, set in 1953 by Bevo Francis of Rio Grande in a game against Hillsdale College. Francis actually had a better game, scoring 116 in a game the following season, but it came against a junior college and didn't count against the record. The only other triple figure game in college came in 1954 when Frank Selvy of Furman scored exactly 100 against Newberry. In the NBA everyone, almost, knows that legendary center Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 in a game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a venue Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76'ers played in from time-to-time. Kobe Bryant had 81 points in one game.
The Division I NCAA soccer tournament moves now to the round of 16. The University of Maryland hosts under-the-radar power Coastal Carolina Sunday at 5 pm. (Wouldn't you know it, the game is at the same time the Ravens play in San Diego.) The Terps advanced with a thrilling win over Brown, a team that was bigger and just as fast and quick as Maryland and led the game for much of the first half. Patrick Mullins, the Terps leading scorer, sent a 100-foot rocket-of-a-shot past the Bruins' superb keeper, Same Kernan-Schloss, with just three minutes left before the half to tie the game, 1-1. The second half was 45 minutes of superb soccer, played on a cold and windy night in Maryland. Despite excellent opportunities, neither team could score until the final minute. Then, Junior Helge Leikvang's scintillating free kick from some 100 feet away found the foot of a streaking Dan Metzger just in front of the Brown goal, and Metzger one-touched into the net. Leikvang, who came on to the pitch early in the first half and never came out, added needed stability to the Terp midfield. His kick started from well right of the Bruin goal and seemed destined to sail wide left, but curled beautifully to the turf at point blank range, where Metzger met up with it.
Coastal Carolina edged Wake Forest, 2-1 in overtime in the second round after beating Elon in the first round. They were not seeded in the 48 team field even though they were ranked most of the season in the coach's poll.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Making sense of purely depressing news; resolving to push ahead
Of all the news from the election, the morsel that is the hardest to stomach is that Gov. Romney drew over three million fewer votes than did Sen. McCain four years ago. On the other side of the ledger, obama attracted over ten million fewer votes than he did four years ago. But that makes sense. He had four terrible, destructive, depressing years. His foreign policy was vapid and amateurish. His monetary policy, to the degree it made any sense at all, was marxist in nature. If you read a high school primer on radical far left policy, you would have a very good insider's look into obama and his administration. Most people, having attained obama's age, have begun to weed out the pure nonsense, but obama and his functionaries aren't there yet.
But Romeny getting three million fewer votes than McCain?
I strongly suspect that quite a few of those voters lived in blue states that had no chance of turning red, and just didn't care enough to make it to the polls just to be window dressing. The electoral college, for all of its positives, has this effect on people. If your man just cannot win, there is lesser incentive to vote. Ohio voters probably felt more important than the typical voter. In fact, they were. But how about folk who might've voted for the Governor if he had a chance, but since they were in Maryland or California or New York or Connecticut, they just stayed home.
If that possibility suggests where three million voters were on election day - and we won't know for sure until we can check turnouts on a state by state basis - what explains a majority of American voters choosing a man who was an utter failute in every conceivable respect, and might actually have wanted to be such a failure because he wanted to enfeeble his country as payback for what he perceived as past "crimes?"
One popular suggestion on the day after the vote was that obama had succeeded in galvanizing those voters who are on the take from their country. The idea is that there are millions upon millions of Americans who are receiving government checks or other lucrative benefits on a regular basis - that is, they are living off the country's payouts - and they are merely voting for the party who is promising to continue such payments. As really awful as it sounds, there is no question that the Dems are intent upon building a solid voting block of citizens who are on the proverbial dole.
It is such a depressing thought. Are there really a majority of Americans who are so, well, what word will offend the fewest number of people, maybe, "misdirected" that the only thing guiding their vote is who will pay them the most to do nothing? Sadly, the answer is apparently. They are not alone. Many European nations are on the same downbound train. A whole generation of people are being paid money by the state for doing nothing. The same government scheme also provides each citizen with an extensive vacation; not the two weeks Americans typically take, but four and five week 'sabaticals.' Really, it's no wonder that factories in China and Indonesia are thriving while industry and economies in the west founder. The far left is doing its level best to create that life here. With obama's re-election, they probably have succeeded. Americans in droves are signing up for food stamps and welfare since obama scrubbed away those pesky work requirements. The aim is to create a majority of voters who receive benefits from the government. Once that majority is in place - and if they can be convinced to vote as a block - they can keep a leftist regime in place and keep themselves on the dole. The minority that will be left perpetually frustrated at the voting booth will be the producers, the workers, the risk takers. They will be asked to pay ever higher amounts of tax by those receiving the benefits.
Swish that one around for a bit. Which one of those two groups will be the one getting bigger and which one will get smaller? Would you rather work 40-plus hours while getting less and less in your pay, or will you choose to receive the higher and higher amounts of public assistance that the leftist governments will have to pull together to maintain such an obscene system? And, of course, there is this vexatious question: how long can such a system last? If you are among the workers being asked to pay higher taxes and fees to keep your neighbor and his family housed and fed, will you be happy? Or might you be thinking of how you can slip into the receiving group? How long will it be before the workers get a bit surly? How long will it be before the happy receivers start demonstrating for higher benefits? How long will it be before the government finds it must somehow limit admission into the receiving group? Do you think such a move will be accepted by those still in the working group? What will happen when the working group wants to cut taxes and keep more of their money? In the Dems working model, that will not be possible because the producers will have become the voting minority. Everybody nods when obama and others on the far far left (uberleft) say they want to raise taxes on everyone making $250,000 or more. But then that cut off figure will drop to $200,000. Soon, it will be $100,000, and then $50,000. Soon, everybody working will be paying 50% of their income to the government to keep the 50% that aren't working in their above-average lifestyle? How long will all of this take? What happens when one of the groups starts up in the streets like, say, in Greece? Hasn't the "occupy" crowd already started down that road?
I am not a right-winger. I believe that the government has an absolute duty to care for the sick and provide for the impoverished. But it takes a disciplined government and a responsible electorate to avoid what is going on now. Access to government benefits must be limited to the really sick and the actually impoverished.
It doesn't take a genius to come up with new ways to take people's money. But it takes a special kind of leader to look the average citizen straight in the eye and say enough is enough. If we are going to survive as a nation that is the envy of all mankind, we are going to have to learn to do the right thing as a matter of course. There isn't enough real money anywhere in the world to provide middle class lives for people who are not producing. This is especially true when the non-producers are out-numbering the producers. Then, the non-producers might have a majority, but what good will it do them?
More importantly right now is how close is America to the situation described in the last sentence, the situation when the non-producers outnumber the producers? Is there any effort by anyone near the power structure to avoid such a scenario?
{One of my pet peeves with the uberleft is their absolute determination to avoid revelations of their actual intent. During the fall campaign, did obama tell you what he had in mind for the second term? Of course not, because if he did he would have lost. Do you think he would have beat Hilary four years ago if he told the country about obamamess? How about running up the national debt to such astronomical proportions? Do you think for a minute that obama would be president at all if he let on that mindset that allowed Bengazzi to take place? I mean, what bald face lying and subterfuge and for what? To keep America from finding out that Al Qaada didn't disappear when obama did in osama? Did anybody but obama actually think that had happened? How screwed up is obama's thought pattern if he thought that killing osama had eliminated Al Qaada? If the voting public knew any of this before the vote in 2008 would obama have spent his time helping hilary get reelected?}
Where, exactly, is out country at this moment in history? A regime has just been reelected that hates capitalism, feels warm and cuddly about marxism and socialism, and is intent on continuing its planned wealth redistribution even though the country's economy is so bad that many observers feel that an total economic collapse could occur at anytime and certainly within the next eighteen months. To put it another way, the country just put an administration back in power for another four years even though it was a 100% total failure in every possible category of governing. It was an administration with a record of total incompetence in economic policy and management, foreign policy, diplomacy, anti-terrorist policy and planning, and every other category. But the country voted them back in anyway. In doing so, for the second consecutive national election, they have refused to empower a candidate from the other national party who was clearly and inarguably better qualified, better prepared, better able to govern and better able to follow recognized national priorities. Both gentlemen nominated by the GOP - McCain and Romney - were also better able to keep the country safe. They were also more moralistic, and more American in their values and ethics. They were also better people. But they lost.
But Romeny getting three million fewer votes than McCain?
I strongly suspect that quite a few of those voters lived in blue states that had no chance of turning red, and just didn't care enough to make it to the polls just to be window dressing. The electoral college, for all of its positives, has this effect on people. If your man just cannot win, there is lesser incentive to vote. Ohio voters probably felt more important than the typical voter. In fact, they were. But how about folk who might've voted for the Governor if he had a chance, but since they were in Maryland or California or New York or Connecticut, they just stayed home.
If that possibility suggests where three million voters were on election day - and we won't know for sure until we can check turnouts on a state by state basis - what explains a majority of American voters choosing a man who was an utter failute in every conceivable respect, and might actually have wanted to be such a failure because he wanted to enfeeble his country as payback for what he perceived as past "crimes?"
One popular suggestion on the day after the vote was that obama had succeeded in galvanizing those voters who are on the take from their country. The idea is that there are millions upon millions of Americans who are receiving government checks or other lucrative benefits on a regular basis - that is, they are living off the country's payouts - and they are merely voting for the party who is promising to continue such payments. As really awful as it sounds, there is no question that the Dems are intent upon building a solid voting block of citizens who are on the proverbial dole.
It is such a depressing thought. Are there really a majority of Americans who are so, well, what word will offend the fewest number of people, maybe, "misdirected" that the only thing guiding their vote is who will pay them the most to do nothing? Sadly, the answer is apparently. They are not alone. Many European nations are on the same downbound train. A whole generation of people are being paid money by the state for doing nothing. The same government scheme also provides each citizen with an extensive vacation; not the two weeks Americans typically take, but four and five week 'sabaticals.' Really, it's no wonder that factories in China and Indonesia are thriving while industry and economies in the west founder. The far left is doing its level best to create that life here. With obama's re-election, they probably have succeeded. Americans in droves are signing up for food stamps and welfare since obama scrubbed away those pesky work requirements. The aim is to create a majority of voters who receive benefits from the government. Once that majority is in place - and if they can be convinced to vote as a block - they can keep a leftist regime in place and keep themselves on the dole. The minority that will be left perpetually frustrated at the voting booth will be the producers, the workers, the risk takers. They will be asked to pay ever higher amounts of tax by those receiving the benefits.
Swish that one around for a bit. Which one of those two groups will be the one getting bigger and which one will get smaller? Would you rather work 40-plus hours while getting less and less in your pay, or will you choose to receive the higher and higher amounts of public assistance that the leftist governments will have to pull together to maintain such an obscene system? And, of course, there is this vexatious question: how long can such a system last? If you are among the workers being asked to pay higher taxes and fees to keep your neighbor and his family housed and fed, will you be happy? Or might you be thinking of how you can slip into the receiving group? How long will it be before the workers get a bit surly? How long will it be before the happy receivers start demonstrating for higher benefits? How long will it be before the government finds it must somehow limit admission into the receiving group? Do you think such a move will be accepted by those still in the working group? What will happen when the working group wants to cut taxes and keep more of their money? In the Dems working model, that will not be possible because the producers will have become the voting minority. Everybody nods when obama and others on the far far left (uberleft) say they want to raise taxes on everyone making $250,000 or more. But then that cut off figure will drop to $200,000. Soon, it will be $100,000, and then $50,000. Soon, everybody working will be paying 50% of their income to the government to keep the 50% that aren't working in their above-average lifestyle? How long will all of this take? What happens when one of the groups starts up in the streets like, say, in Greece? Hasn't the "occupy" crowd already started down that road?
I am not a right-winger. I believe that the government has an absolute duty to care for the sick and provide for the impoverished. But it takes a disciplined government and a responsible electorate to avoid what is going on now. Access to government benefits must be limited to the really sick and the actually impoverished.
It doesn't take a genius to come up with new ways to take people's money. But it takes a special kind of leader to look the average citizen straight in the eye and say enough is enough. If we are going to survive as a nation that is the envy of all mankind, we are going to have to learn to do the right thing as a matter of course. There isn't enough real money anywhere in the world to provide middle class lives for people who are not producing. This is especially true when the non-producers are out-numbering the producers. Then, the non-producers might have a majority, but what good will it do them?
More importantly right now is how close is America to the situation described in the last sentence, the situation when the non-producers outnumber the producers? Is there any effort by anyone near the power structure to avoid such a scenario?
{One of my pet peeves with the uberleft is their absolute determination to avoid revelations of their actual intent. During the fall campaign, did obama tell you what he had in mind for the second term? Of course not, because if he did he would have lost. Do you think he would have beat Hilary four years ago if he told the country about obamamess? How about running up the national debt to such astronomical proportions? Do you think for a minute that obama would be president at all if he let on that mindset that allowed Bengazzi to take place? I mean, what bald face lying and subterfuge and for what? To keep America from finding out that Al Qaada didn't disappear when obama did in osama? Did anybody but obama actually think that had happened? How screwed up is obama's thought pattern if he thought that killing osama had eliminated Al Qaada? If the voting public knew any of this before the vote in 2008 would obama have spent his time helping hilary get reelected?}
Where, exactly, is out country at this moment in history? A regime has just been reelected that hates capitalism, feels warm and cuddly about marxism and socialism, and is intent on continuing its planned wealth redistribution even though the country's economy is so bad that many observers feel that an total economic collapse could occur at anytime and certainly within the next eighteen months. To put it another way, the country just put an administration back in power for another four years even though it was a 100% total failure in every possible category of governing. It was an administration with a record of total incompetence in economic policy and management, foreign policy, diplomacy, anti-terrorist policy and planning, and every other category. But the country voted them back in anyway. In doing so, for the second consecutive national election, they have refused to empower a candidate from the other national party who was clearly and inarguably better qualified, better prepared, better able to govern and better able to follow recognized national priorities. Both gentlemen nominated by the GOP - McCain and Romney - were also better able to keep the country safe. They were also more moralistic, and more American in their values and ethics. They were also better people. But they lost.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
No Straws to Grasp At
None of the interesting numbers held. By 12:30 am the carried away prognosticators were vindicated by the actual results.
Grasping at Straws #2
It is now 12:07 am Eastern Time. As stated in recent post, all major networks, including Fox, have "called" election for obama. This is based on his win in Ohio, which they have also called. But on a night when Romney leads the popular vote, he has grabbed a 20,000 vote lead in Ohio with 78% of all precincts reporting. Since I'm following numbers on Fox website, I'm not watching to see if others who jumped the gun have pulled back. Fox hasn't yet.
Grasping at Straws
Here on the Atlantic Coast, in Maryland, it is about midnight and the election has been "called" for obama. The call was made because the networks called Ohio for obama. But now, Romney leads in Ohio. He isn't close to leading. He is leading. If that holds - and it is a huge if - obama won't have enough electoral college votes yet. For this to mean anything, Romney will have to win Florida and Virginia. After leading all night in Virginia, he has slipped behind obama, and this in a state that has elected a democratic governor tonight. Stay tuned...
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Hoping (against hope) for humility
It would be nice to think that today or even tomorrow obama would be man enough to stand before the nation and say something to the effect that he has been extremely honored, and humbled, to have served this great nation as President for the past four years. It would be also be heartening if he would add that while he has tried mightily during his term to live up to the expectations he created, he realizes that he has failed.
He would also add, in a decent world, that the criticism that he has rained down on his predecessor, President Bush, has been unwarranted. He knows now that President Bush had a monumental task thrown on his table almost immediately after he took office, when the Twin Towers toppled and the Pentagon burned, and his performance under the microscope of world opinion was nothing short of heroic. He didn't always agree with President Bush - indeed, there were times when he made his job all the harder (especially when he joined with all the other left-wing idiots in Congress in screaming "Bush Lied, People Died.") - but in retrospect, it is clear that he was, in even his worst hour - trying to protect the nation from a blood-crazed and vicious enemy.
In closing, he would say that while he hoped and prayed that he would be granted another term, he was prepared to accept the decision of the electorate, the same electorate that placed him in office four years ago. If he wins, he promises to move forward recognizing that some of his ideas are not practical in the real world, and assuring the nation that the next four will encompass ideas that empower all Americans. He won't attack the things that make America great, including its economic system, its military and its private sector. Instead, he will work within the confines of that system - if, in fact, they are confines at all - to do everything in his power to assist and enable the poverty-stricken, the immigrant and the disabled, to realize all that America offers.
He would also add, in a decent world, that the criticism that he has rained down on his predecessor, President Bush, has been unwarranted. He knows now that President Bush had a monumental task thrown on his table almost immediately after he took office, when the Twin Towers toppled and the Pentagon burned, and his performance under the microscope of world opinion was nothing short of heroic. He didn't always agree with President Bush - indeed, there were times when he made his job all the harder (especially when he joined with all the other left-wing idiots in Congress in screaming "Bush Lied, People Died.") - but in retrospect, it is clear that he was, in even his worst hour - trying to protect the nation from a blood-crazed and vicious enemy.
In closing, he would say that while he hoped and prayed that he would be granted another term, he was prepared to accept the decision of the electorate, the same electorate that placed him in office four years ago. If he wins, he promises to move forward recognizing that some of his ideas are not practical in the real world, and assuring the nation that the next four will encompass ideas that empower all Americans. He won't attack the things that make America great, including its economic system, its military and its private sector. Instead, he will work within the confines of that system - if, in fact, they are confines at all - to do everything in his power to assist and enable the poverty-stricken, the immigrant and the disabled, to realize all that America offers.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Storm
BALTIMORE - A monster storm creeping up the Atlantic Seaboard seemed so out of place in late October. It is, by far, the most beautiful time of the year here. The days are warm but not hot. The evenings are cool but only right at dawn are they cold. The leaves are breathtaking and they linger on the trees for weeks. A row of 50-foot trees by the south entrance to the Maryland School for the Blind turn brilliant orange by the second week in October, and stay that way until well into November. A line of red-orange trees in the median of Roland Avenue turns that beautiful road picturesque in early October, and it grabs and holds your attention every time by. Fall mums, treated often to soft autumn rains, hold their blooms for weeks. It's hard to imagine the following season when this season is so beautiful.
While a frost usually hits by mid-month, it is often not the hard frost that kills the flowers and other summer plants. it's really hard to get your arms around the idea of a hurricane coming when the conditions outside are dominated by the cool crisp airs of fall. Were it merely a gale endangering ships at sea, it would be autumn on the coastal plain. But this was no gale. It was a hurricane that morphed into a "northeaster" and it combined the staggering power of both.
Rain finally started around the Chesapeake toward sundown Sunday. Driving to a concert Sunday night one was struck by the abandoned feel of the streets. People living around here give up their vehicles with great and obvious reluctance. For them to be hunkering down this far in advance is a testament to how well the forecasters have driven their message home. By Monday morning the rain is steady and the wind sharp. It isn't hard enough to scare you, yet, but it is odd enough in its persistence to serve as a warning of things to come. Our babysitter Governor is on the TV and on the radio and anywhere else he can get some facetime. He warns that "people are going to die today." He really did say that. I know I felt better.
Now there was talk that the hurricane was a far different sort than usually skirts by these parts in late summer. Those storms are openly and obviously tropical in there formation, and they quickly blanket the coast in warm, close, cloying air, air so full of moisture that you feel you need a shower to get rid of it. This storm lost its race with a mid-fall cold front, so by the time it arrived the temperature had left the station in a down-bound train. By Monday morning it was cold and raw; by Tuesday it was cold, just cold. The government types told everybody to stay off the roads, and Baltimore's Mayor made her request mandatory Monday night, warning everyone off the street until noon Tuesday. Outside the City limits, though, Monday afternoon found the roads crowded and the stores all open. A Starbucks in Perry Hall posted signs saying they were gone by 2 pm. The Giant, however, showed no signs of closing and they had their shelves packed with all of the things people tend to hoard in storms like this. The only thing that everybody sold out of quickly was flashlights. You had to be a detective to find one of these.
By sunset Monday the TV folk said the storm had made land somewhere in New Jersey. The wind was howling but not so much so that it sent chills down your spine. in fact, my house, so susceptible to power outages in even the most tame of weather episodes, never saw the lights go out. One time they flickered, but that was it. Last summer, when that freak line of thunderstorms roared all the way across the country one Friday night in the middle of an early July heatwave, we lost power for the better part of a week. Thoughts of that very long week were in a front row seat. I hoped not to view that show again. My parents, who live about six miles west of here in the county seat at Towson, lost their power at the same time last summer, and they had the bad luck again. Just before 11 pm Monday their lights went out and they stayed out until 10 am on Thursday. My dad is 85, but he is ready to bury his electric lines himself. Two of those lines spent several days laying in his back garden anyway.
I read where obama was acting presidential during a trip to New Jersey to view ground zero in the Sandy Epic. That was nice, seeing the president acting like a president for a few hours. Sadly, his term was four years. Two good hours won't due it. His spokespeople in the media felt all warm and cudly after the visit. The coverage made it seem like all now was well and good. Then they hopped a plane and left the devastation behind. But all was not well and good. Within 24 hours a nervous and worried Mayor of Hoboken made a desperate plea for fuel oil and other necessities. It will take a long long time to put this terrible mess behind. One wondered whether some will ever rebuild, what, with new environmental regulations and tougher building codes.
It was a beautiful autumn. The Maple Tree in my front yard did not keel over. Many others did.
While a frost usually hits by mid-month, it is often not the hard frost that kills the flowers and other summer plants. it's really hard to get your arms around the idea of a hurricane coming when the conditions outside are dominated by the cool crisp airs of fall. Were it merely a gale endangering ships at sea, it would be autumn on the coastal plain. But this was no gale. It was a hurricane that morphed into a "northeaster" and it combined the staggering power of both.
Rain finally started around the Chesapeake toward sundown Sunday. Driving to a concert Sunday night one was struck by the abandoned feel of the streets. People living around here give up their vehicles with great and obvious reluctance. For them to be hunkering down this far in advance is a testament to how well the forecasters have driven their message home. By Monday morning the rain is steady and the wind sharp. It isn't hard enough to scare you, yet, but it is odd enough in its persistence to serve as a warning of things to come. Our babysitter Governor is on the TV and on the radio and anywhere else he can get some facetime. He warns that "people are going to die today." He really did say that. I know I felt better.
Now there was talk that the hurricane was a far different sort than usually skirts by these parts in late summer. Those storms are openly and obviously tropical in there formation, and they quickly blanket the coast in warm, close, cloying air, air so full of moisture that you feel you need a shower to get rid of it. This storm lost its race with a mid-fall cold front, so by the time it arrived the temperature had left the station in a down-bound train. By Monday morning it was cold and raw; by Tuesday it was cold, just cold. The government types told everybody to stay off the roads, and Baltimore's Mayor made her request mandatory Monday night, warning everyone off the street until noon Tuesday. Outside the City limits, though, Monday afternoon found the roads crowded and the stores all open. A Starbucks in Perry Hall posted signs saying they were gone by 2 pm. The Giant, however, showed no signs of closing and they had their shelves packed with all of the things people tend to hoard in storms like this. The only thing that everybody sold out of quickly was flashlights. You had to be a detective to find one of these.
By sunset Monday the TV folk said the storm had made land somewhere in New Jersey. The wind was howling but not so much so that it sent chills down your spine. in fact, my house, so susceptible to power outages in even the most tame of weather episodes, never saw the lights go out. One time they flickered, but that was it. Last summer, when that freak line of thunderstorms roared all the way across the country one Friday night in the middle of an early July heatwave, we lost power for the better part of a week. Thoughts of that very long week were in a front row seat. I hoped not to view that show again. My parents, who live about six miles west of here in the county seat at Towson, lost their power at the same time last summer, and they had the bad luck again. Just before 11 pm Monday their lights went out and they stayed out until 10 am on Thursday. My dad is 85, but he is ready to bury his electric lines himself. Two of those lines spent several days laying in his back garden anyway.
I read where obama was acting presidential during a trip to New Jersey to view ground zero in the Sandy Epic. That was nice, seeing the president acting like a president for a few hours. Sadly, his term was four years. Two good hours won't due it. His spokespeople in the media felt all warm and cudly after the visit. The coverage made it seem like all now was well and good. Then they hopped a plane and left the devastation behind. But all was not well and good. Within 24 hours a nervous and worried Mayor of Hoboken made a desperate plea for fuel oil and other necessities. It will take a long long time to put this terrible mess behind. One wondered whether some will ever rebuild, what, with new environmental regulations and tougher building codes.
It was a beautiful autumn. The Maple Tree in my front yard did not keel over. Many others did.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)