Storm Barra - December 7th/8th 2021

You should turn off the internet just to be safe

Only seeing this now. Two things:-

1. Did I say schools shouldn't close?
2. All I said was that, factually, a lot of school time was being lost right now due to Covid. By way of illustration, 21 of the 30 kids in my kids' class have covid (including my kids) and are presently in the middle of a two week stretch off school (so ironically today being off has lessened the amount of school work they are missing). Of course some kids have full attendance records, but many, many don't.

Anyway, not looking for an argument. I thought I had made an uncontroversial comment.

What's the bin etiquette during a storm lol.

Two neighbours use a different bin co. to the rest of the block. Their recycling is everywhere in our gardens and not a scrap in theirs, grrrrrr.

Should I put what I can in the nearest bin? They are rolling up and down the road, and overturned before collection. I know, it is a serious matter here folks!

Pretty wild here on the Waterford/Kilkenny border. Office is getting a hammering, but no rain for the past few hours.

Nowt a puff in North Dublin

I honestly would not have thought there was a storm only for the mention of it in the media and schools closed. Would have thought it was just a breezy day. Seeing loads of snide remarks to people questioning decisions to close schools and an over-reaction etc. And telling them the world doesn't revolve around them or whatever.

Of course they are talking about their own location. It doesn't mean they don't acknowledge it is bad elsewhere. Like my comment above. It is completely related to where i am in coastal north Dublin. The west or south west of the country can be completely different and a red may be warranted and the closures that went along with it. Where i am was orange and it has not been bad at all. So i can see why people may question some decisions made.

Perhaps i'm spoiled a bit from growing up in the American mid-west and having a lot of experience with bad storms. But it can be a dangerous precedent to be overly cautious when it comes to weather warnings. I've seen it loads of times when in the US where we had local TV stations being over the top with warnings and it turns out to be not much of an event. It erodes peoples trust in the warnings and the next time there is a warning they may take risks based on previous experiences. I've seen countless reports of people losing lives where family members were blaming a very cautious warning system and they didn't heed future warnings based on past ones.

Puffing plenty in south city centre Dublin! Thought a tree that is safely nestled in a corner of my back garden with the top sticking up over the wall was going to come down just now.