Tuesday, August 25, 2009

v29.7: After The Storm

Good morning folks,

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As I expected, Hurricane Bill came and went and if you didn't know it was coming, you would have missed it.  The storm flew into town generating as much wind as a single butterfly.  Of course, if you believe in the "Chaos Theory" you wouldn't take the wind of a butterfly for granted.

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I won't say it wasn't windy or rainy, but I will say it wasn't worth getting all bent out of shape over.  I took a drive in the middle of the storm and I didn't really see what all the fuss was about.  I even took a dip in the pool until I noticed the power lines swinging over the deck and thought it may not be the safest time to swim right now.

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All in all, we had a very calm storm which lasted less time than it took to prepare for it.  I found it quite funny to watch all the different networks coving the progress of Hurricane Bill.  In fact, I found myself watching the U.S. weather more than the Canadian because the Canadian forecast had Bill hitting us really hard and calling it another Juan.  Apparently, back in 2004 Hurricane Juan hit the province quite hard and people brushed off the warnings like I did with Hurricane Bill.  This was a mistake that is still fresh in a lot of people's minds and when Hurricane Bill was forecast to be "Like Juan", people flocked to the supermarkets and department/hardware stores and bought all the water, food, batteries and everything else you could think of.  If I didn't know better, I would almost think the stores were behind the mass hype on the media about this storm because I bet they sold more in the last week than they did in all summer.

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I always found it amusing at how the media can twist and shape their stories around to speak to a certain audience.  Take for example a story of a man who kills a dog in his neighborhood.  The media will cover the dog's death and throw words like "brutal" or "horrific" at you.  This is to create a mood and get people talking and expressing themselves.  Unfortunately the public has only heard half the story as this man has been attacked by this dog on a number of different occasions.  The police or the city has done nothing to resolve the matter and this man feels threatened to be outside because this dog is allowed to run loose around the neighborhood and bites.  Of course there are children involved and in a fit of rage mixed with confusion over the lack of action, the man lashes out against the dog and kills it.

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This story is only fictional, of course, but you get my point.  There are always two sides to every story and just because you sympathize with the side being told, doesn't mean there wasn't a problem on the other end.  A lot of divorces are like this and unfortunately can get quite messy because of it.

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Anyway folks, just a quick musing today.  I had to work from home yesterday and need to work from home again tomorrow.  A lot of things going on.  Remember to keep your dog from attacking other people.  While my story above is only fictional, I'm sure it has happened before.

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Cheers,

Al

2 comments:

  1. That is why I don't watch the news. FYI hurricane Juan happened in 2003. Just a little tidbit. Hope your week is going good.

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  2. You have it so right, Al! Although the precautions for the storm were necessary because of past experiences in being not careful enough.. it's always better to be more careful than not to prepare at all.. I don't watch the news or listen to the radio and only found out about the hurricane b/c of people at work talking about it. I looked on the National hurricane website b/c it was the most accurate reports of what was happening with the hurricane.. and I found out before it came close to here that it was going to by pass us and not hit us dead on like people were saying it would. I was a little nervous because you can't predict mother nature and who knows if the wind would push it in a direction not predicted by the weatherman.
    Like I always say, the weatherman is the only person on earth who can be wrong about 95% of the time and still keep their job.

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