What's with the Weather Channel?

A couple of weeks ago, we were headed for New Orleans. So was Hurricane Issac. While we were in Huntsville, AL, Issac was a long way away and nobody knew where it was going. I tuned to the weather channel hoping for some information. What I got was some story about lifeguards in San Diego. A reality show. Now all that is fine, but what the hell has that got to do with weather? Not a damned thing!

I realize that when nothing is imminent, things can get boring, but people who are planning their activities still would like to know. Oh well, thank goodness for my internet weather.

Cantore

As Issac drew closer, the Weather Channel coverage became more consistent and I knew things were getting serious when they dispatched talking heads with raincoats to various locations in the path of the storm. They thought Tampa was going to be ground zero and lo and behold they sent Jim Cantore, the Geraldo Rivera of weather, there for his excellent synopsis of gusting wind and sideways rain. You know, I really don't like Jim Cantore very much. He looks like a reject from a steroid factory and really he just seems way to happy to report that a monster storm is on the way. It's kinda like, "I'm going to have my disaster and nobody is going to deprive me of it!"

I'm sure that many were hoping that a major hurricane would strike Tampa during the Republican convention. Oh, PLEASE! PLEASE! strike those evil Republicans. Instead of heading for Tampa, Issac turned out into the gulf. Jim Cantore was rushed at a high rate of speed to New Orleans. I guess the weather folks already in New Orleans were just not up to snuff. As tropical storm Issac meandered closer to the mouth of the Mississippi, one of the weather babes, Stephanie Abrams, referred to the storm as a hurricane. She would have been crushed, I guess, if Issac had remained a tropical storm. What a disappointment. She later apologized on camera for her error. Bless her heart.

Anyway, we left New Orleans 2 days before the arrival of Issac. Sitting in the dry in Tennessee I turned on the Weather Channel only to see a couple of dudes barely standing up in sideways rain on Canal Street. One of them was Jim Cantore. I'm not sure who the other one was. I turned it off.

I heard the other day that the Weather Channel would be introducing a new series called "Iron Men". This is a show about men building skyscrapers in New York. Yeah, that really has a lot to do with weather.