Ethan's First Steps...Gotta Love Him!

My Grandson Ethan is approaching his first Birthday.  Today was the first time he actually walked/took steps by himself without any support.   It's so cute to watch & I thought you'd get a chuckle like I did.

During my 45 year broadcast career, one of my biggest responsibilities was to keep my viewers from panicking.    I went to the store this afternoon and you'd think a Cat. 5 hurricane was coming.    Shelves stripped of hand sanitizers, Lysol spray, Hand wipes & even toilet paper.  One cart was filled with nothing but water.  What is going on?  Why are so many so scared?  Here's my take.  After consulting with several doctor friends & seeing Dr. Corey Hebert & Dr. Bronson Lutz on TV say the same thing..."Get a grip people/take a deep breath."  The media, & especially social media, has totally overhyped this crisis.  Should we be concerned?  Duh, of course, but the press coverage of this crisis versus the Swine Flu crisis back in 2009 is striking.  The Swine flu virus killed  thousands of Americans compared to roughly 40 so far from COVID-19.   So what's so different in a little over 10 years?   Facebook, Twitter etc. are instant spreaders of  rumors & misinformation.   The 24 hour News Channels are constantly slanting the "facts" to hype their agenda (Election coming this Fall)  Everybody now is married to their cellphone.   Bottom line should be, Americans coming together to solve this problems instead of blaming each other.  As I said during many hurricane crises,  " We have been here before and we will get through this."  I mentioned several posts ago, the only thing we need to fear is fear itself.  If you are older with health issues, then mainly stay home and don't be near crowds.  The rest of us need to go on living, need to keep supporting local businesses taking the common sense precautions of proper sanitation,  Personal responsibility is important. Don't get sucked into the panic mode.

It's amazing how the weather pattern has stayed the same for many weeks keeping the real cold far north and soaking the SE time and time again.  Remember the Tennessee tornadoes a few weeks ago? 

Well SPC has placed a large area from Arkansas to Kentucky under an enhanced risks for storms tonight.   This is along a frontal boundary separating he warm Spring-like air over the South from the cold, winter-like air up north.  This pattern is likely to continue for another week.

We don't need more heavy rains to our north since the Mississippi River at the Carrollton gage is still running around 16 feet.  So many things to worry about that I'm not even going to mention the probability of dense fog tomorrow.  Stay tuned!