Curmudgeon – – A bad-tempered person, especially an old one.
I’m in a curmudgeon mood this morning.
Searching for “not so nasty news'” this week has been frustrating. I haven’t had much time — I’m sure there is good news to be found. A few things I found were duds. For example, a headline was of a “hungry bear cub roaming a mall” someplace in Canada. That could be good, I thought – ‘cub bear chows down on Tim Horton’s doughnuts’. It turned out to be a 13 second cell phone video of a small bear (actually a black smudge) about a block away on the street, and the first 6 seconds were of the side of a building, the sidewalk and concrete at the person’s feet. The person was trying to get the camera on his/her phone aimed toward the bear, and nearly failed. Watching a red Maple leaf blow across the street would have been more entertaining.
Florence the Hurricane was much in the news. It was good that the winds weakened before coming to land. People still died. But see below.
A funny story was of the weather reporter being shown trying to stand – with great difficulty – in the wind gusts. Meanwhile, two folks casually stroll across behind the reporter. This episode has been everywhere in the news, so is it really news 3 days later?
Okay, so a week ago – I, President Trump and thousands of others, suggested folks along the Atlantic coast get out of the low areas. Flooding was going to be a sure thing. Go. Go now. Vamoose. Get out. And so on.
My own comment was: “By Wednesday night be as far west as Knoxville, and by Thursday night be in Nashville. Enjoy music and related events for a couple of days until the coast is safe.”
Today we get stories from New Bern, NC, such as these two:
Tom Ballance, New Bern resident and business owner, told the Weather Channel that he watched water rise around him while sitting in his home, according to the Charlotte Observer.
“Nobody expected this,” Ballance said. “We were fools.”
And:
Sadie Marie Holt, 67, was among those rescued. She tried to row out of her neighborhood Thursday night with a boat that was in her yard after her home began to flood, but had to retreat because of the poor conditions. Holt, who has diabetes and clogged arteries, said she stayed for doctor’s appointments that were canceled at the last minute.
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The community of New Bern is sited at the junction of the Trent and Neuse rivers, two tidal waterways.
Note the term tidal.
Here’s a photo of houses on a cul-de-sac {that’s French for ‘bottom of a bag’} {Americans might say – a dead end street}.
Near the center of the dead-end pavement the height above sea level is 3 feet. The houses are a foot higher.
In the same general neighborhood, here is a photo from street level [3 feet]..
The curmudgeon part of me notes these two phrases from the reports:
#1: “Nobody expected this,”
#2: “canceled at the last minute”
The first of these is simply not true. The second is an indication the doctor’s were more interested in the cash flow, than the water flow.
Also, of interest was 67 year old Sadie with a row boat in her yard. Where did that come from? Is she a world class rower? No, she is an ill woman that should have been in Nashville.
Uff da! Yes – they were fools.
Out of curmudgeon mood.
I’ve mentioned before that doing trail work frequently starts on trails noted for the beautiful lakes and mountain scenery a few miles up hill. We do sometimes get about two miles in on a trail. I’ve worked 6 or 8 days on the Talapus Lake Trail. Never reached the lake, until yesterday. Our work was just 300 yards short of the lake and it was only a bit “up” – so we went there for lunch. I took a photo.
I clipped off the bottom part because it is fill with strangers in colorful hiking clothes.
Below has more of the lake and 6 of our crew of 18. 
And that, for this week, is the not so nasty news.
John
Nancy and friends are playing music someplace today. I guess she will get the blog ready later. When?