Leslie and I are still fighting to get back to the kids after being stranded in New Orleans after all flights were cancelled. We are safe but had a wild night trying to find a way home.
Despite the fact that the weather was mild on Sunday and Monday morning in Washington, US Airways cancelled our flights. It was very frustrating to speak to friends in Washington and hear how the weather was fine. The cancellations appeared to be decisions based on the location of equipment, but thousands of passengers could have made it home. The main problem however at US Airways was the virtual collapse of any customer assistance that continued to Monday. We had to wait literally hours on the telephone to get through and then had to wait over an hour on hold to reach anyone. US Airways then told us that we would have to buy a separate ticket to go to closer airports like Charlotte (it didn’t matter since those were cancelled as well.) I remain furious with US Airways which (despite plenty of forewarning) did not appear to set up sufficient personnel or resources to assist passengers. We literally spent 24 hours from Sunday to Monday trying to reach someone at the airline, which has a message that repeatedly cut off calls and told them to call back.
With four kids with our sitter in Virginia, we could not wait any longer so I rented a four-wheel drive jeep and set out Sunday morning from New Orleans. We made it 700 miles when we were hit last night with a blinding blizzard storm in the mountains of Virginia. Visibility dropped quickly to virtually zero and we barely got off the highway. We found a motel in a tiny town called Marion, Virginia and bunkered down.
We are going to set out again shortly to try to get to the kids. A lot of roads are cut off with debris and winds remain high in McLean at 37 miles per hour. However, there are signs of it winding down. The kids are fine and still remarkably have electricity. We are prepared however. In Alabama, we bought boxes of water and Moon Pies (which we can’t get around us in McLean). If anything goes wrong, we can survive on Moon Pies for days in the mountains!
I hope all of our regulars on the East Coast are safe and sound today.
Off Topic:
Mike Huckabee Warns Christians: Obama Vote Will Crumple In Hell’s Fire (VIDEO)
The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski Posted: 10/31/2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/mike-huckabee-christians-vote-obama-fires-of-hell_n_2048884.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Excerpt:
Mike Huckabee has a dire warning for Christians: When you vote on Nov. 6, hell’s fire awaits, and a vote for President Barack Obama will not stand up to the flames.
In a new ad, the former Arkansas governor and ordained Southern Baptist minister warns Christians that their votes “will affect the future and be recorded in eternity” and they must cast a ballot that will “stand the test of fire.” The video, entitled “Test of Fire,” features symbolic fiery imagery and is narrated by Huckabee:
Christians across the nation will have an opportunity to shape the future for our generation and generations to come. Many issues are at stake, but some issues are not negotiable: The right to life from conception to natural death. Marriage should be reinforced, not redefined. It is an egregious violation of our cherished principle of religious liberty for the government to force the church to buy the kind of insurance that leads to the taking of innocent human life.
Your vote will affect the future and be recorded in eternity. Will you vote the values that will stand the test of fire? This is Mike Huckabee asking you to join me November the 6th and vote based on values that will stand the test of fire.
Houston Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson catches the mood and spirit of the day perfectly. I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.
http://blog.chron.com/nickanderson/2012/10/storm-rescue/
Once again, you succeed in completely missing the point, nick. I wasn’t comparing you to anyone. Did I say you were Hitler? No. I was pointing to his loving his dog as an example of a relationship. I was making a statement about one liking something good and the relationship it has to one being a good person or not – namely that it has none. Hate has nothing to do with it either. You again value yourself too highly if you think I’d go to the effort to hate you. Hate is work. Hate is for mortal enemies. You? You’re a very minor annoyance at best so do try to keep things in proper perspective. I know, I know, proper perspective is not your strong suit either, but do muddle along.
If you’re embarrassed though? That would be your problem and an actually appropriate reaction for your earlier statements about those concerned with the storm. Personally, I’m not embarrassed nor is anyone of any consequence to me so unless you were talking about your reaction, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Then again, neither do you quite often so I don’t feel bad about that either.
And thanks for the compliment. Wolves rock.
Also, don’t be a dufus. Halloween is for candy and costumes just like Christmas is for giving gifts, Thanksgiving is for organized gluttony and sleeping in front of the TV and NYE and St. Patrick’s Day are for binge drinking. The rest of the year is for teaching the value of logic.
P.S. Good luck on telling me what to do. I’m notoriously resistant to that kind of thing.
P.P.S. I don’t like Ketel One nor do I drink while handing out candy. I prefer potato vodkas like Chopin and Monopolova.
P.P.P.S. Carry on.
Gene, I would say you were raised by wolves in Johnson County but there are no reports of wolves there for over a century. Plus, wolves have a social structure and skills. Are you giving out candy today, or just lecturing kids on the need to revere logic? Stop digging your own hole. I was talking to SWM about my deceased sister and food. Why did you feel compelled to inject your hate? It wasn’t logical for someone w/ a soul.
It’s cocktail hour on the west coast so I predict this will get even nastier. Why don’t you say your last hateful words. Why not compare me to Pol Pot and Stalin while you drink your Ketel One? And then move on. You’re an embarassment.
Hitler did love his dog, nick. That’s a historical fact. The point, which obviously went over your head, is that liking something good does not make you a good person. It simply means you like something good. You liking something good that I happen to like does not give us anything but the most superficial of common ground and does not mitigate you previously putting your foot in your mouth in any form. It is still more deflection on your part. Innocence by association works no better than guilt by association if you don’t know how to use the rhetorical tools properly. However, if you want to talk about class, how about starting the discussion with how uncouth one must be to minimize those rightly concerned with a life threatening storm. That’s a far more robust way to address the subject. It shows a remarkable insensitivity for not only their situation but their rightful assessments of concern in the face of danger because they don’t meet up to some ridiculous macho preening posturing ideal. Doesn’t it, buttercup? But who knows if it is classy or not? No one. Classy is not an objective standard, but a subjective one. No one said what you said was classy or not. The criticism was directly to the callous nature of your comments. Personally, I think people who say things about how classy something is or isn’t are usually devoid of any substantive praise or criticism other than a weak appeal to their own preferences. Classiness and dictating what is and isn’t is not only a weak subjective concept, it is inherently elitist in begging the question that you the speaker are the arbiter of class. Weak ego-centrist opinion wrapped in condescension. Your opinion of classiness has no more value than any other opinion unsubstantiated by an objective standard of some sort like logic or evidence. And like any unsubstantiated opinion, it is as ephemeral as smoke.
For example, contrast your pronouncement of classiness with my reasoned critique of the idea of classiness. Mine was reason based in quantitative terms and logic dissecting the uselessness of such pronouncements by showing them in the conceptual context of what they are. Yours was simply expressing your opinion over a point you completely missed in the first place. The later has instructive and analytical value, the former not so much.
I know subtly isn’t your strong suit, but do try to keep up.
Carry on.
SWM, The flick that’s coming out looks horrible! Remember, there are different degrees of libertarians just like every philosophy.
I don’t think “Atlas Shrugged” is selling well on the east coast now.
nick, I couldn’t be a libertarian. I think FEMA is necessary. Don’t see any states stepping up.
ID, Hunter Thompson was @ his very best when he covered the Nixon campaign.
SWM, I don’t know. I voted for and gave Obama money in 2008, the first time I ever gave money to a pol. I don’t sense so much Romney momentum but Obama drift. And, in this duopoly, that means more votes for Romney. I’ll probably vote for Johnson. I’ve never voted for a Republican prez, it doesn’t seem right that it would be for Romney. Ironically, it’s looking like my state of Wisconsin is right behind Ohio in being critical. We’re swamped w/ ads. I mute ALL ads, but I’m tired of seeing distorted pictures of both candidates. Virtually all the ads are negative, which can be detected w/o sound..just a lot of black/white photos and video. Quite depressing.
I envy you folks in your food adventures. Gonna stop now and go read some Hunter S Thompson. Got two of his going right now. Seems we are related (a very little) in writing style. He once wrote over 100 pages straight starting with a peanut. He loved tangens, as I do too.
Anyway here is a little food/wine story. When I drove up highway one past Big Sur and stopped in Monterey, lacking a better idea I went to the pier and went in to a fish (what else?) place.
Full, most taking the usual tourist choice, assorted stuff, I won’t list it.
Close by me sat two chinese ladies, each eating a nice BIG fish. And if anyone had asked them about American food habits, they would have wondered why we think we are so big in the world? We eat the worst when the best is at hand. A chinese eats poorly only when no better is to be had.
So remember, eat as high on the hog as you can afford.
Particularly if Romney wins.
nick, Do you still think the momentum is with Romney?
ID, Thanks for your kind words.
AY, I was listening to POTUS radio on XM last weekend. They had political reporters talking about caampaigns. They said that Hillary was a bull. She could go on 4 hours sleep and would order pizza for everyone. The reporter[Glenn Thrush] talked about you could tell her mood by how many personal pizzas she would eat. On real bad days she would eat 4. They said Obama is someone who needs his sleep and just can’t function w/o it. Maybe that’s what happened the first debate.
Gene, How classy!
Jo,
Glad to meet you. I was gonna suggest a stop on the way to Topsail or whatever beach my niece drives too, but I see that they have opened a big McCall’s in Clayton where she lives. Is Wilbur’ worth a stop? The food pictures taken by customers looked kinda “plain”. But it is the taste that counts.
Yeah, I am a gutter rat from Raleigh. Left it to see the world and found a good place to roost here in Sweden. Did two years active Army duty, but lacked roots and wanted to see the world.
Tell me more of your self if you will.
PS Storm damage. The Outer Banks gets the worse with miles of houses destroyed by direct hits. Seen 3 hour videos done by the state government to let folks know how bad their houses were hit. But the damage doesn’t stop there. Guess you know that from Goldsboro.
It’s OK folks. It is just natural. We have all gone through a big chock. So it is natural to talk to each other about pleasant things, feel the togetherness after the loneliness sitting out the storm, you know, connecting again. It is called being human. Some don’t get it, but don’t let that disturb you.
Sweet lips number 2 has entered the forum. Cover his back!
This is the best barbeque blog I have ever been on! Whatever happened to that res ipsa something or other blog? You know- that one about find the kitteh and civil liberties?
ID the town I was talking about was Goldsboro, NC. It is near where my house is. I am living in Arkansas right now but will be moving back home ina year or two. I grew up on Topsail Island which has had its share of hurricanes. As you are from NC, I think you have said, From the Raleigh area? I’m sure you know how the inland areas often get a great deal of hurricane damage but rarely do they get the publicity of the areas where the hurricane hits the beaches. The areas that are the initial point touched by a hurricane are terribly damaged and do need the publicity but the areas inland are severly damaged as well. This storm was massive in size and great swaths of the northeast were hit and damaged badly tho they will hardly be reported, Just think of the trouble Mr and Mrs Turley had reaching their home. I hope that more interest will be paid to those areas that weren’t in the eye of the storm but were hit so terribly hard as well. but I never think well of the media and its so much easier to send a camera crew to Atlantic Beach than Small town New York .