Baby’s first hurricane watch
The local news anchors and weather people have a slight spring in their steps and twinkles in their eyes. Ah, it’s showtime – there’s a hurricane on the way.
Time to showcase that snazzy new Hurricane Fay graphics and music package. Time to show beleaguered, weary-eyed anchors with two days of stubble and shirts untucked reporting live from the War Room. Time to send reporters to the beach to shout into their microphones over the howling wind and relentless rain (always humorous). Yes, hurricanes are HUGE media events.
I always suspected that TV news people LOVE hurricanes. Today that suspicion was confirmed when a weather man showed amazing candor in his response to an anchor’s statement that the tropical storm might go out to sea, strengthen, and loop back and hit the state as a devastating Category 1 hurricane. The weather man actually said, “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Ah, those zany weather guys! It’s their time to shine, and they never fail to disappoint.
Here’s some breaking news for the TV news folks: Most of us actually see hurricanes as BAD things. I know, it’s hard to believe, but most of us don’t look forward to boarding our windows, filling sandbags and standing in long lines at the stores and gas stations. Then, of course, there are the power outages.
And in all likelihood, our power will go out. It goes out during mild summer showers, so what hope do we have keeping our power during a Category 1 hurricane? In 2004, a hurricane knocked our power out for nearly two weeks. That was before we had a baby. I can’t imagine how we will keep our son comfortable and entertained during a power outage in the boiling heat of summer.
Luckily, we are partially prepared. And by prepared, I mean we have lots of junk food on hand. Hurricanes are the perfect excuse to eat like crap for a few days. Of course, about three days into eating junk, all you want is a nice hot meal.
shopping list:
- 12 gallons of water
- 12 jars of baby food
- 2 bags of chips and a jar of dip (which we already started in on before the storm)
- 4 12 pks of diet soda
- 2 bags of cookies (which we also started in on)
- flash light
- 18 AA batteries
- battery operated fan with mist sprayer to keep baby cool if the power goes out
So, even though I just started this blog, I could get knocked off the internet if there is a prolonged power outage. Don’t go thinking I’m just another guy who started a blog and quit it in less than a week. And please remember to bookmark or subscribe to the RSS feed so you’ll know when I’m back.
I hope the power outage doesn’t last too long. Anything more than a few hours, and I’ll be clamoring for A/C and TV. Hell, I’ll even be longing to watch the TV news coverage of the hurricane.
thanks for reading.
