Shadowscope

We had some pretty severe weather here in west hell this afternoon. The wind howled, rain was coming down sideways and there was the threat of tornados most of the afternoon. There was at least one that touched down north of here in Polk County. At least two people died because of it.

Mayor Shirley Franklin and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue have also declared a state of emergency for the city of Atlanta due to storm damage and they are urging people to stay inside unless absolutely necessary.

Another tornado also touched down in Atlanta as well. Cabbagetown is a pretty historic area of town and about 20 homes were damaged or completely destroyed. The police are urging people to stay away for the time being.

The last big tornado that hit the city was back in 1975. I remember that one. There was a swath of damage for miles. Three people were killed in that storm.

I just got finished watching a video that looks like it was shot from a cell phone. It’s in a neighborhood near Camp Creek Parkway (west side of Atlanta) and clearly shows a funnel cloud moving through the neighborhood. Whoever shot it was obviously upstairs shooting out a window. All I could think of was “what a dumb ass”.

Here are some pictures of the tornado damage in Atlanta, thanks to Voxant Newsroom.

We were pretty lucky out here. The wife and kids were up and down the stairs to the basement most of the afternoon and without power while I was stuck at work. No damage to our neighborhood or anyone I know, at least that I have heard. My sympathies go out to those folks that have been hurt or the families of those that have been killed.

Shortly after he surrendered to Police in the matter of Eve Carson’s murder, Laurence Alvin Lovette was charged with first-degree murder in the January killing of Abhijit Mahato, a student at Duke University.

Well, duh…
Newsmax Correspondent Philip Brennan describes why he agrees with the founder of the Weather Channel that global warming is the greatest scam in history. He also says that the fact that John McCain is on board with the environmentalists scares the hell out of him.

So the maintenance man and I were talking a couple of days ago at work just about stupid stuff. He and I have been around for several years and I know him pretty well. He’s a good guy and will be retiring soon. I hate it because it means that we will end up with someone that just doesn’t know nearly enough about that stuff. They unfortunately don’t pay enough to get a top-notch maintenance man. With our guy’s case he makes a bit more because he’s been with us so long, and he has a nice bit of change tucked aside in stocks so that he can retire.
Anyway, he was trying to decide what to do with the van. He has to replace some of his storage cabinets and was looking at Jobox storage drawers for it. I don’t really know what the difference is between those and other’s so I just stand and nod and agree with him every once in a while. That’s when I found out he was retiring. I hate to see him go but he’s worked pretty darned hard and wants to spend some time with his grandchildren.
I still have a bit of time (like a couple of decades) before I retire but I darn sure and starting to look forward to it.

Sgt. Steve Morin Jr.
34 years old from Arlington, Texas
111th Engineer Battalion, 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard
September 28, 2005

From the time he finished high school, Sgt. Steve Morin Jr. made serving in the military his career.

“He always stood up for what he thought was right,” Gwendolyn Michelle Morin, his wife, said. “He was a fighter. He would never give up.”  “He had called me to let me know what he was going to do that day,” she said. He expected to be able to call her more often because of the missions he was being assigned. Sometimes they would go 11 or 12 days between calls.

Morin enlisted in the Navy after graduating high school in his hometown of Brownfield, Texas at 17. By 34, Morin had devoted 14 years to the Navy, served in the National Guard for two and planned to attend Officers Candidate School.  Morin was still in the Navy when he met his wife. At the time, the two were working for a photo company; he was Santa Claus and she was an elf, she said. Both were attending Texas Tech University.  “It was funny because we always kept running into each other. He would hang outside my classes and wait for me with a Diet Coke,” recalled Gwendolyn.  “He knew how to make me really happy.”

Sgt. Morin died when an IED went off, overturning the vehicle he was riding in near Umm Qasr, Iraq.

“He’s very strong willed, very determined. Humorous, a clown, but he was also very disciplined and very passionate about what he believed in,” Gwendolyn Morin said. “He always wanted to serve his country.”

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday.  For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll.  For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

I thought that this was a pretty cool picture, which is what prompted me to post it here. I normally on post NASA stuff on one of my other sites, but am cross-posting it both places today.

The Space Shuttle Endeavor created a glow in the night as it launched at 2:29 a.m. from Launch Complex 39a at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning. Endeavor and her crew are delivering a Canadian Space Agency robotic system an a logistics module for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to the International Space Station. This is to be a sixteen day mission.

According to the story (below) they are also swapping out an astronaut for a long-term mission and one of the EU astronauts is returning home.