oh my god - conan blew away!

A very rare and dangerous thing happened in my hometown late last night. We were actually under a tornado threat. A few miles south of us, houses were being sheered apart by the apparent twisters. I received a warning through my Weather Channel Sidebar Gadget. I grabbed a flashlight, battery-powered radio, and headed upstairs to stay close to the kids. The rain was torrential, but the wind was oddly still. We watched out the windows intently for any changes in look, sound or sense of the storm. We would, if needed, scoop the children up & whisk them to the basement.

The local all-news radio station did a great job of keeping the information constant & current. Our satellite TV signal was knocked offline earlier, so the radio was my source of information. While still under the official tornado alert, I switched on our bedroom TV to see if the signal had resumed. It had, and I was anxious to see a Doppler radar image of the storm mass. It would visually show if the storm had passed our home, and if there were more cells heading in our direction.

To my total horror, NBC, CBS & FOX were airing normal late-night programming… without a storm warning, scroller or information overlay of any sort. Only ABC, who was airing ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live‘ added up-to-date storm information overlayed around the comedy show. Conan was smiling and laughing it up, and the local NBC station didn’t inform the local audience that they were possibly in grave danger. I switched from channel to channel for about 20 minutes - Only ABC acknowledged that there was a dangerous weather system approaching the viewing area. Eventually, as the National Weather Service was downgrading the storm warning, the other channels had sporadic coverage, but the local stations, representing the major networks let me & the viewing public down, and in a potentially dangerous way.

Thank you WJLA TV 7 in Washington, DC. You served your viewing audience appropriately & responsibly last night. I will not watch the other channels for weather or news again. I will register my official complaints as well.

emma’s emeralds / pierced ears

As an early birthday present to Emma, we took her to Claire’s at the mall to have her ears pierced. She has been asking about the possibility of having it done for months now, and we decided that it would make a good birthday present from Mom & Dad. With her birthday falling so close to Memorial Day (the traditional opening of ‘Pool Season’), we decided that we would have the piercing done early so that her ears will have weeks of healing & ’setting’ before she jumps into a public swimming pool.

Emma’s birth stone is the emerald, so her ears are now sporting a teeny “crystal emerald” - your guess is as good as mine!

Another milestone & rite of passage for Emma Mankin.

elmo, pooky, and the next generation

When I was growing up in Lakewood, New Jersey, my best friend was Tom Moore. Tom lived a few blocks away, was a year younger, and was generally made of ‘completely different stuff’ than I. Therefore, we got along famously. His home was my second home, his brother was my non-related brother, his mom was my other mom, and so on.

After high school, I left the New Jersey Shore - Tom stayed and built his business, married a Jersey Shore girl, and had two sons. As the years rolled by, I saw Tom occasionally, but once I married and started my family in Virginia (and my remaining relatives in NJ had passed away), trips home become scarce.

One does not have to see or spend time with a dear friend often to be close. Tom and his sons came to Virginia last week. College scouting for the oldest son & Washington, DC sightseeing for all were the main reasons for the trip, but it gave Tom & me an opportunity to see each other again, and for me to meet his sons as young men now - not as little boys (as I had last seen them).

Tom got to meet my children as well. Remember the comment about ‘being made of different stuff’? Tom’s family is delightful - raised with different stuff, no doubt. His sons have his wit and charisma - it will take them far.

Justin and Casey are fine young men - and Tom is the same. We laughed as we recounted endless stories and characters from our youth. Although 40 years have passed, the stories and memories were as fresh as if they occurred last week.

It is clearly the quality of a friendship, not the frequency of visits, that define its depth.

“Pooky Ports & Prints” is alive & well after all these years!
(don’t ask - you wouldn’t understand anyway - trust me)

thrifty typo

We have spell checkers built into nearly everything we ever use to enter information via a keyboard. Normally, inaccurate input equals bad results. Remember the phrase from a childhood game of Monopoly, “Bank error in your favor - Collect $200″? This recent purchase at our grocery store must have been the result of a clerk entering the wrong unit price. (I doubt that 4 cents per pound is what they had in mind). We had pork barbecue for days - all for 17 cents!

roasting goldfish

With unseasonably high temperatures in the 70s yesterday, I roasted a pound of coffee yesterday out on my deck. I was accompanied by my usual assistant-roastmaster Peter. His list of expected duties is small;

1. don’t touch anything… it’s all very hot
2. enjoy your Pepperidge Farm Goldfish

Really, there is never any need to lecture about rule #1. If there are Goldfish in hand, there will be nothing else touched. PERIOD.

generation(s) gap

Francis Gillen (1927-198 never met his grandson Peter Mankin. Here you can see how similar the two look at roughly the age of 1.5 years old. Amazing!

destination zoo

The kids had the day off from school today for Election Day. The rain came and went quickly early in the day, so we piled everyone into the car and drove into Washington, D.C.

Destination - The National Zoo!

Emma and Peter wrestle with the bears

“Don’t move, Mai Xiang
I’d like to get you in my
family picture”

“OK - got it!”

 

waldo

Rest in Peace

1993 - 2007

Read about Waldo

driving through marlboro country

It’s a common scene in my area. A school bus arrives a bit early to pick up the students. The bus is stopped a block or so before the bus stop - generally out of sight. The driver steps out of the bus and smokes a cigarette. Once finished, the driver reenters the bus, arrives at the bus stop on time and carries the students of to their school.

I have been around smokers my whole life. Some seem to ‘need’ to smoke more than others.  I remember working with a guy once who was teaching a class. It was his first day as a computer teacher, and was nervous and anxious to do a good job. He was fidgety & pacing frantically for the first 45 minutes or so. Suddenly, he called for a morning break & bolted for the smoking area outside. The students looked puzzled, and a bit put off - who could blame them. The day had just started, and they were anxious to learn - and they payed a lot for the class.

Obviously, this scenario is an extreme example, but it was real. All people addicted to cigarettes clearly have an internal ‘calling’ to take in more smoke. My question to anyone who reads this - and is either a smoker or is close to a smoker;

Does this ‘call’ to get another cigarette subtract from the whole consciousness of the smoker? If my child is on a school bus, and the driver is being ‘called’ to smoke, does it lessen his/her attention and ability to get my child to school safely?

no thanks

Earlier this evening, I looked out my front window and saw something disturbing. There was a very young Asian girl wandering around in circles. She seemed confused and lost. I watched for another moment or two, working hard to spot her guardian or parent. Surely there was an adult accompanying her. I would estimate her age to be somewhere between 2 & 3 years old. After determining that she was both lost and alone, I ran out my door to see if there was some way I could help her back to her parent’s arms. I approached her slowly. She was able to speak a little. I asked her lots of questions, and only received short, quiet and imprecise answers. She was confused, lost, and there was this strange bearded man asking lots of questions. Our neighborhood cat was walking nearby, so we chatted about the kitty for a while. Throughout our conversation, I was visually scanning the neighborhood - hoping to spot a frantic man or woman racing toward us. It did not happen. I repeatedly asked questions about family - Mom? Dad? Names? Cousins? Names? Then a familiar neighborhood name quietly fell from her lips. I recognized the name as a boy (also Asian!) who rides the school bus with Emma. I asked if that name was her brother. She said yes. I knew of another brother by name in that family, so I asked if she had any other brothers.  She said the second name, so I had figured out to which house & family she belonged. She allowed me to hold her hand and I walked her the block-and-a-half to her home. Climbing up the front stairs, I saw that the storm door was ajar. I knocked and was met by a father and son - one of the boys I knew from the school bus stop. I was pretty shocked by nearly no reaction to the girl’s safe return home. I explained that I found her down past my house, confused & alone. The father told me she was out with her brother. I explained that the brother was nowhere to be seen. Reaction - none. Reassuring hug for the little girl - none. Thank you for returning my daughter safely - none.