Weekend Update

It was one of those wild and busy weekends.  Thursday into Friday, Mother Nature decided to mess with everyone by dumping a random amount of snow across the state of Connecticut.  What really made this storm so much fun is that while various parts of the state got upwards to about 20 inches of snow, Bradley Airport received something like four and a half inches.  What that means that even though the state got socked, the official snow total, which is measured at Bradley International Airport, is only four and a half inches.

It’s something I had to keep in mind as I tried to drive to work and got stuck just out of my driveway.

This snow made everyone where I work a little concerned.  We were scheduled to broadcast the Hartford and New Haven St. Patrick’s Day Parades.  Now, with much of the state digging out, we wondered if there would be any delays or cancellations of these parades.  To their credit, the city of Hartford really stepped up, clearing not only the roads, but the areas that were along the parade route.  Of course, it did not help that temperatures climbed into the high forties and low fifties for Saturday’s parade.

This would be the first year since we broadcast the parades that I did not work the Hartford parade.  As that was getting ready for air, I was on my way to New Haven to set up for the New Haven Parade Sunday.  Much like Hartford, New Haven decided to move ahead with the parade, with much of the work going into making sure the snow was cleared from the roads and from along the parade route.

Set up for these events is usually the same, at least for me.  Since I usually work on the graphic side of things, I usually come in, make sure the Chyron is running, then start building the elements I need for the parade.  Then I wait.  And occasionally help out with building cameras.  But mostly wait.  In this instance, waiting entailed staring at Shake Shack across the way.  It certainly did not help that a number of my coworkers kept talking about Shake Shack like it was Oz, Nirvana and the Pearly Gates all rolled into one.

Needless to say, with that type of build up, you really want to try Shake Shack.  Which we did.  I have to say, while the burgers were good, they did not live up to the hype that I had heard.  I had a strawberry shake, which was also good, but I’m not sure if they lived up to the hype there, too.

That did not stop me from having three shakes from there by the end of the weekend (two strawberry and one black and white).

I love working on these productions, though there is one aspect that I usually don’t like.  As a night person, I often run into issues getting to sleep on these days, made doubly worse by the fact that I have to get up early for these events.

Still, the weather cooperated nicely for us, with the temperatures climbing into the high forties once again.  It drew out the crowds very well, not that the New Haven parade really needs help with that.  The parade is one of the largest in the country, and the largest event in Connecticut.  Even at ten am, people start showing up.  I have to say that if I did not have to work the parade, I would probably want to attend the parade as a spectator.

Granted, working the parade on the broadcast side, I did not really get a chance to watch the parade, but I thought everything went well.  After the broadcast, the only thing left for us was to break down the gear and pack it away.  Once that was completed, all that was left was to head back home… stopping at Jake’s Wayback Burgers along the way for an Orange Cream milkshake.

So, if you are keeping track, that was four milkshakes in two days.  I really should join a gym after this weekend.

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Hurricane Irene and the Aftermath

Hurricane Irene has now come and gone, or was it a tropical storm when it hit our state.  I don’t really remember.  All I know is that our state got hit.  Connecticut is still dealing with the aftermath of Irene.  The storm dumped a huge amount of rain on us, enough to bring a number of rivers well above flood state.  I even remember hearing on the radio that one river is at its fifth highest level in recorded history, and it was still climbing.  Along with the rain came the winds, which knocked down trees limbs and whole trees.  A lot of this resulted in loss of power.  In spite of the fact that Irene was less powerful than Hurricane Gloria, which hit the state in 1985, our state experienced more power outages than it did back then.  Roughly 52 percent of the state was without power.  There are still some towns in Connecticut that have 90 percent or more customers without power.

We got off a bit lucky.  We lost our power at about 8:30 am Sunday after two momentary outages, and did not have power back until about 1:30 Monday.  There were a few tree limbs down in our yard, but nothing really major.  I guess you could really say we got off very lucky considering the damage the coast felt from Irene.

We managed the storm and dealt with not having power, having assumed that we were not going to get power back any time soon.  We had stocked up on food and batteries, and had enough flashlights to allow us to see where we were going in the night.  We had battery operated radios, which we had tuned to one of the local radio stations, WTIC 1080.  They had extended storm coverage throughout Sunday and Monday, so we were able to keep up with what was going on.  We spent the day listening to the radio and reading (I finished two books over the course of the hurricane weekend).  When storm cleared out enough, I took the dog out, then went for a walk on my own.  The only downside to not having power was that I did need to charge my cell phone again and had to use my car to do it.  That and I drained the battery on my iPod playing solitaire and Bejeweled 2.

Probably the best thing about the whole weekend was going outside at about 12:30 or 1 am and looking up at the night sky.  The clouds had moved away, so all there was to see was the stars.  No street lights from out road to drown out the night sky.  No lights from the streets near us.  I don’t even think there were any lights from the main street or the highway, only a couple of miles from our house.  Just the pure beautiful night sky without the visual noise of artificial light.  It was probably the most stars I had seen without going all the way out to the middle of nowhere with no lights around.

Bracing For Hurricane Irene

Normally, I would be posting a Friday Finds.  But, the reality of the matter is that the east coast is bracing itself for the coming of Hurricane Irene, my state included.  At the moment, it looks like Connecticut is going to get a direct hit from the storm.  The only positive side of it is that Irene could possibly weaken to a tropical storm by the time it reaches our state.  We won’t really have a good idea about that for a while.  There are just too many variables at this point to be sure what will happen.

One thing is for sure, Connecticut does not know how to deal with the weather.  I don’t mean on an official level.  The state is taking every precaution with this storm that can be made.  I mean on a personal level.  The people of this state just can’t deal with severe weather.  Panic has already set in for a lot of people as they ravage the stores looking for batteries, flashlights, bread, non-perishable foods, and bottled water.  That one really surprises me, since it seems that no one has ever thought about filling pitchers and bottles from the tap.

You could argue that it is because the state is facing a hurricane, something that it does not often see.  And this is true.  In my lifetime, I only remember one hurricane actually hitting the state.  I know others have hit Connecticut (the Hurricane of 1938 was particularly devastating).  But none of that really seems to apply because barring the hurricane, this state just does not know what to do when faced with weather.  It seems that the state begins to freak out at any sort of sign of bad weather.  This even includes snow.  Granted, this past winter was particularly nasty, but I remember times when the state went into full panic mode for a half an inch of snow.  A HALF AN INCH OF SNOW!  There is no need for the state to devolve into something that looks like the director’s cut of The Road Warrior because of a half an inch of snow.  The real trick to dealing with snow is to not speed like a maniac just in case that it is slippery.  And stocking up for inclement weather should not be two shoppers enter, one shopper leaves.

The best thing I believe to do is to remain calm.  You should prepare for the worst, but there is no need to act the worst in the process.  Stocking up should not be an us vs. them battle royale with the winner getting that one last loaf of bread.  Acting like a lunatic will only make the situation that much worse.

Anyhow, for anyone who’s in the crosshairs of this hurricane, please stay safe, heed any warnings and evacuation notices that may come down, and remember that we are all in this together.