Stirring up a storm of controversy...

I just heard something really weird.
The Weather Channel is going to start showing movies.

The. Weather. Channel.

Yep, you heard correctly.

Apparently this is going to be their new big thing for Friday nights at 8pm.

I read the lineup of some of the upcoming flicks: March of the Penguins. (Huh?) Deep Blue Sea. (Really?) Misery.

Yes, I said Misery. The Stephen King - Kathy Bates - James Caan fright fest. Hmm. I guess there is a snowstorm in the beginning. But wow, hope the kids aren't tuning in to check the weather for trick-or-treating when Annie Wilkes is slamming Paul's foot with a sledgehammer.

And what will happen to "Weather on the Eights"? Will this be their idea of commercials?

I did hear of one rather appropriate movie - The Perfect Storm. Okay, I get that one.

But Deep Blue Sea? That is essentially a horror movie. Sam Jackson gets eaten by a shark in the first hour, folks. But hey, there is an ocean in it. And frozen ice for March of the Penguins.

May I suggest more appropriate weather material?

How about Twister for God's sake? (Then we could all wonder if it was live or Memorex!)

Dante's Peak? The Day After Tommorrow? Hard Rain? Volcano? Firestorm? Wind Chill? Earthquake!

And if we're stretching? The Fog. The Mist. The Storm of the Century. Groundhog day? The Weather Man? Alive? (The dudes in the plane crash who had to resort to cannibalism...yeah, it would have helped tenfold if they hadn't have been stuck in the freakin' snow-covered Andes!)

How about Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. Naaah, too new.

Or try these other ones for the kids: Eight Below. Cool Runnings. Snow Day. Alaska. Arctic Tale....
Hey! The Wizard of Oz had a great tornado.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - a superior maelstrom if I've ever seen one.

You like romance? Hell, Nights in Rodanthe had a hurricane. Lots of rain during the best part of The Notebook, girls. A couple got struck by lightning in Sweet Home Alabama for God's sake. Now that's something you don't see every day, am I right? And I think it snowed somewhere during the course of When Harry Met Sally.

Some of the aforementioned movies above are horror. In addition to those, it rained throughout a greater portion of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, didn't it? Bad weather impairs ALOT of people in horror. It was raining to beat the band when most of the counselors in Friday the 13th got killed. Ditto that for the end of Poltergeist. All those dead bodies in the mud.
Lotta rain in Psycho, too. Poor Marion never would have went off the road to the Bates Motel if it hadn't have been raining cats and dogs.

That family in The Hills Have Eyes would have faired so much better if they hadn't have been stuck in the desert heat. Oooo, and I almost forgot the mega snowstorm in The Shining. And The Thing. And 30 Days of Night. And The Last Winter. Do we include Jaws and Open Water because of the ocean? The sci-fi flick Sunshine? I mean hey, the earth was going to crash into the sun, people. Big news.

On that note, I used to know what the weather channel did last summer.

They told you the everlovin' forecast, that's what they did.

And if these movies aren't going to star Jim Cantore and Mike Bettes - I simply don't want to see them.

A random footnote: Sadly, I think I own quite a few of those movies listed above.

I'm so pathetic.

Will we get it??

We're in the 6-12" area.... I say, bring it on!
The first real snow of the season.

Nothing like a good weekend snowstorm to hole up on the couch with a blankie, a good book and some soup on the stove while watching the snow fall...

So far, though - nothing. It's nearly midnight and it hasn't started....
Let's get a move on!

Saving the Animals of Ike

I just read a good story on MSNBC that I thought would be of interest to any animal lovers out there like myself.

It's about the animal rescue efforts down in Texas after Hurricane IKE's devastation.

photo: TX Parks & Wildlife Dept.

People can be truly caring and sensitive. I wasn't always sure, but now I know.

IKE displaced thousands of animals and volunteers have pulled together to save and rehabilitate these lost souls.

photo: Houston SPCA

That is a baby squirrel, people!
The article says 550 baby squirrels were brought to the SPCA!!
That's alot of squirrels!

Read the heartwarming article here.

Donate:

Habitat for Horses

Houston SPCA

Ike

What can I really say that hasn't already been said regarding the devastation and destruction that was Hurricane Ike?

Just a few photos I found online pretty much say it all.

This is a scene from Galveston, before.

Awesome, eh?

Looks like it could be Hawaii.

Looks really gorgeous.

Typical beachfront barrier island from the sky..

Then... the warnings came.

Ike was coming.

Getting out. Everyone seems to be going one way....

The sign says "Hurricane Forming In Gulf"...

no shit.

Satellite photo of Ike approaching...

Ike from space..

Galveston Island, after Ike.

Photo: USCG

Galveston

Galveston

near the sea wall in Galveston

nearby coastal town of Gilchrist,TX

Hollywood Community Cemetery in Orange, TX
AP photo/Tony Gutierrez
(how disturbing is that?...)

Animals were not amused by the storm, either.

not-so-happy alligator on sabine pass, TX
(NOT its regular habitat)

small pic, but brutal.

How do you even begin to clean this up?

Bolivar Peninsula (TX)

Houston did not escape Ike's wrath either.

JP Morgan building
Downtown Houston

And of course other states had flooding as well.

an example: Hackberry, LA

Here in western PA, Ike coming through provided a major windstorm sunday night, knocking out power and bringing down tree limbs all around the area, including my own backyard. We more than likely had gusts of up to 40 miles per hour. The wind was just howling! It was a surreal scene, though, as we stood out on our deck to experience it, the moon (nearly full) shone down from a near-clear sky. It was weird.

Now, triple that wind speed, add storm surge and flooding, and you can only imagine what these folks down south went through as Ike tore a path through.

Nasty.

And I thought they'd retire Gustav's name.
I'm thinkin' no more Ike.

Eye to the Sky

An ominous evening...

Downtown New Orleans late sunday evening.
Photo by Jim Seida / MSNBC.com

Here's hoping Hurricane Gustav (as of now a Cat. 3) is not a repeat of almost exactly three years ago when Katrina hit New Orleans. Right now it's not looking the best, that's for sure.
I'm back to watching The Weather Channel again.

They have evacuated an unheard-of 2 million people from the city of New Orleans and they have pretty much battened down the hatches at this point. All they can do now is pray.

So we will join them in that effort and hope this is not a disaster of epic proportions, again.

Apparently Gustav hit Cuba as a category 5 storm (!) but as of yet there have been no deaths reported. Though it hit in an area rich in tobacco crops - there goes all those Cuban cigars, people.

You'd think New Orleans would get a free pass on this one and the weather gods would spare them... but sometimes that just isn't how it works. I hate to think this could be called "The Big Labor Day Storm" (replacing the previously identically-named 1935 hurricane in the Florida Keys)- but maybe the fact that it is on a holiday will be better, perhaps some people have been away anyway. That storm in 1935 hit the Keys as a Category 5 though, and I don't think we are going to see anything quite that furious.

I have read on various websites that nearly 90% of the city has evacuated. I cannot fathom that task, and commend law enforcement and the National Guard for getting that job done. Now we can only hope they are able to keep the looters away and the post-storm crime to a minimum.

In any event, I have a feeling that the name Gustav may be retired from the hurricane name list this year - and that is never a good thing.

NOAA satellite image of Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico.