Pupapalooza

Sarah and Brett left for Columbus this morning. Their flight was supposed to leave at six and I've not heard from them, so I assume everything has gone to plan. Since they've left, I've just been hanging out with the sleeping dogs and cats (when the dogs are outside or they get brave while the dogs are asleep.)

Hurricane Irene seems to not have been as severe as forecast, but it's impact is still great. It looking like river flooding is going to the main threat. River flooding is actually a pretty big gap in my knowledge of weather phenomenon. I just know that it can last for quite awhile as the massive amounts of water slowly move downstream, so this event may last long after Irene has dissipated.

I hope those of you who were affected by the storm are safe and will get electricity back soon. In the fall of 2008, Central Ohio was hit by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. It was pretty insane to see the winds sustained at that high of velocity, but by that point there was no rain associated with it any longer. Mostly everyone lost their power, because trees this far north can't bend in high sustained winds and our power grid is designed to deal with sustained high winds. Most of the areas north of the Carolinas have that same dilemma with this storm. I can't imagine what it would be like with something that's still at Hurricane strength with rain.

I did a post at my often negelected sports-specific blog today about why I don't like the MLS playoffs. Here it is: http://pastasaladtacklefootball.blogspot.com/2011/08/mls-playoffs.html

Thanks for reading

-Michael