Thunder Rolls

This is a re-post of a blog originally posted on the Clarion-Ledger site.

Well, I finally did it....always said I wouldn't....resisted for years. But, I finally made the decision to do it. I bought a weather radio.

You may ask, "What's significant about that?". I dislike, no detest, well, to put it mildly, I hate TV weather warnings! I consider them to be intrusions into my personal space like uninvited overnight guests in my home and boogers in my nose.

I don't like the little bitty weather maps in the corner of the screen either. Gee, it might as well be a map of Wisconsin for all I know.

I hate the program interruptions. I dislike getting the scroll across the screen telling me about a flood watch in some county a hundred miles away. Usually I'll cut the TV off before I'll watch the warnings all night.

Hey I admit, I'm a little nuts. But I really only get excited about tornado warnings. So, I searched long and hard and found some weather radios that not only allow me to pick the counties I want alerts for, but specifically what kind of alerts I wish to be notified of.

In fact this baby is set up to deliver over 100 different types of alerts. Some can be programmed out, while others like tornado warnings, cannot be disregarded.

So true to form, mine is set for any tornado warning in Rankin County. Not enough for you? Well, it also makes me listen for Chemical Hazard, Earthquake, Hurricane, Land Slide, Tsunami, Volcano, and Wild Fire warnings. I really don't mind that, but if I ever get a tsunami warning in Rankin County, I know I'll need clean underwear pretty soon.

There's a couple of optional warnings I considered adding for fun; Blizzard Warning, Avalanche Warning, and Iceberg Warning to name a few. Can you imagine? No sir, Mr. Insurance Agent, I really wasn't aware of that iceberg in the middle of the reservoir. But, I probably should have known there would be one after that blizzard warning.

Anyway, I finally gave in. Joined up with the rest of the weather freaks. And now....well, I guess I feel a tad more secure. Today, the alarm went off about 30 seconds before our sirens started wailing. So I got a bit of a head start.

My early warning system is almost complete. I have four fire extinguishers, six smoke alarms, one co2 alarm, double dead bolt locks on all the doors, a police scanner, and now a weather radio. I think I'm going to start looking at security cameras....with battery backup of course