The Terrible, Awful, Dreadful Thing...

When I was growing up, I loved Beverly Cleary's Ramona book series. Ramona was my favorite child heroine, and I would read those books over and over until I had sections committed to memory. In fact, I still do. I can remember one particular book titled "Ramona Quimby, Age 8" in which Ramona suffers the humiliation of throwing up in school. If I recall correctly, it went like this: "The terrible, awful, dreadful thing happened. Ramona threw up. She threw up right there in front of everyone." I could totally relate to this being the end-all-be-all of horrible situations. I was always terrified of throwing up (still am, actually). When I found out I was pregnant, I dreaded the morning sickness (which never turned out to be anything more than nausea, thank goodness!) When it came time for labor, the pain didn't scare me nearly as much as knowing that many women puke during the transition phase (it ended up I did!) My sister has a 13 year no-puking streak going, if that gives any indication of my family's relationship to stomach purging.

I must admit, for the past year and a half I've worried about the first time Anthony gets sick. When he had the flu earlier this year, I was eternally grateful it never involved puking. I always figured we'd know when it was coming based on his behavior and eating patterns. Though he's been eating like a little chickadee the past 3 days, he chowed down at dinner last night and was his usual bouncy, happy self when he went to bed.

Imagine my surprise at 3:30am this morning when Adam got up to check on him after we heard cries over the monitor and delivered this news: the terrible, awful, dreadful thing had happened. Anthony threw up.

I think Adam and I both handled it quite well, and Anthony seemed pretty unbothered by it actually. We stripped the bed, changed his clothes, and after a few minutes put him back to bed. An hour later, we heard him gagging again, but that time very little seemed to be expelled, and he went back to sleep for a couple of hours. He got up at his usual 7:00am and downed a cup of milk, 2 cups of pedalyte, and a bowl of oatmeal with no adverse affects. He's taking a nap now, being obviously exhausted from being up in the middle of the night, but I haven't heard any unpleasant sounds rising from the monitor, so I'll assume he's ok and the dreadful, horrible, terrible thing won't happen again...!

In other news, a truly terrible, awful, dreadful thing that's not just my melodramatics... Hurricane Ike is plowing through the lower Caribbean with hints that it might come to visit us later in the week! I'm not too worried because Tampa does seem to have an uncanny ability to repel these storms... but we'll stay tuned.

Grand Opening Monday!! 25 people RSVPed! Excited and anxious and hoping no sickness or storms affect this event that I've worked all summer to make fabulous!!

Special Prayer- Hurricane Gustav

As Hurricane Gustav heads towards the Louisiana coast line, I feel a sense of dread in the pit of my stomach. My heart goes out to the people in the storm's path, and it seems so completely unfair and unjustified that New Orleans should bear the brunt of another huge storm, especially so soon after Hurricane Katrina. It's only been 3 years ago. New Orleans tried to hard to rebuild, to bring tourists back, to bring their city back to the former glory it once was. It seemed they were making progress. It seemed that life, though different, was returning to normal. For the rest of us, it's a sobering reminder of the scope of our own silly problems, and a call to a realization to be grateful for what we have.

And now, another monster storm heads that way. For people in the hurricane belt, we can't help but feel grateful that it's someone else's problem, but I think it affects us more knowing that same fate could be ours someday. It infuriates me to see reporters and ambulance chasers running into the storm while the real people, the ones whose lives are directly impacted, run the other way. All those "cool" video feeds and photographs and reporters blowing sideways in the wind have no respect for the people who don't get to turn the channel when it's all said and done. When it's old news and everyone's salivating over the Presidential election again, they're the ones who'll be picking up the pieces of the battered homes you see on t.v.

On that note, yesterday I emailed Mark Sudduth, founder of hurricanetrack.com. I was very upset by his blog and the fact he made no mention of how dangerous it is to go plowing into an oncoming storm. He was very responsive and professional in his return email, which gave me hope for the integrity of people. I get very upset when I see sensationalism and disrespect for these storms, and I'm glad at least one hurricane tracker seems to understand that.

Here's what I wrote to him:

I'm a regular reader of hurricanetrack.com and have even ordered several posters from you in the past. I enjoy your blog-- especially the emphasis you always place on hurricane awareness and how crucial it is that people in the danger areas pay attention to the forecasts and evacuate when they're told. That being said, I have to ask since your latest blog does not clarify-- are you going to New Orleans to set up your instruments and leave before Gustav arrives, or are you planning to stay for the duration of the storm? I realize you have a responsibility to your readers, especially now that you are offering these premium services and have corporate sponsorship, but with that I hope you realize how much of an influence you have on other people and their actions. How can you lecture people over and over again about the importance of heeding the evacuation order when every time a new storm threatens the United States, you go plowing towards it? I respect what you've built and accomplished as a fellow amateur storm tracker, but frankly, in particular with very dangerous Hurricane Gustav, it's irresponsible. Not because I don't think you know what you're doing, but because you're encouraging others to do the same thing even though that's not your intention. I'm sure you'll continue doing what you're doing, and will do it well, but I hope you will take the time to acknowledge in your blog for the thousands of people that listen to you and respect you that going towards a storm when emergency management is telling people to get out is not the best thing to do. Personally, I get pissed off anytime I see some reporter being blown sideways in the middle of hurricane force winds, but they do it for sensationalism and there's no way to get the point across to them. For you though, I hope you will remember why you started doing this in the first place, and that putting yourself or other people in danger isn't worth the photos and video clips that will come out of it. Respect these storms with your actions, not what your write in your blog, and remember this is real life to these poor people that are going to be affected by this storm, not just some really cool video feed.

And his response:

Your email makes very good sense. Believe me, the equipment we have developed with allow us to not be in harm's way during the worst part of the hurricane. Perhaps I should mention this more in my write ups, that we have an un-manned system of gathering data and video. I should also mention how we use the video to match up with the wind data recorded. Getting in to more technical details about our work is a good idea and should help to convey a message that it is dangerous, we do take it seriously but that our mission is to gather info, data and video of the event in a manner that is safe.

Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns- we appreciate that. We really appreciate the time folks like you take to help steer us in the right direction. I made a good statement on the update just put on about people that are refusing to leave. Some are quite stubborn- we won't be, as soon as we set up our gear, we will retreat to a hotel inland and remain much safer.