CODY SOSSAMON PUBLISHER I was at the beach for a few days last week if you happen to be wondering why I did not have a column in Wednesday’s Ledger.

Also, neither my wife nor I own a laptop computer so I was unable to write one and send it in from North Litchfield Beach.

As you recall, Hurricane Earl was churning off the coast and I was busy keeping a watch in case we had to viewers about a “killer hurricane” though, when the sun is shining brightly and little kids are hamming it up in the background.

But they did their best. They brought on their hurricane

experts” to explain how bad things “could” get if Earl decided to head for land. They showed the satellite views, which were pretty impressive.

They showed the traffic heading out from places along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where some “models” had Earl taking dead aim. Boy, don’t you just know all of those folks who sat in traffic for hours to escape nothing are just little bit upset.

Think they’ll think twice before leaving NEXT time?

And that’s what the Weather Channel talking heads will discuss when called upon to inform the U.S. weather-watching public about upcoming storms. That brings up another question: What do the hurricane experts do from October to June when there are no hurricanes? And just exactly how does one become a hurricane expert?

If I seem to be obsessed with the term “hurricane expert,” it’s because I am. Never before had I seen a subtitle under someone’s name: “HURRICANE EXPERT.”

One of the regular weather persons was interviewing some guy in a harbor at Cape Cod. He seemed rather snobbish, but that could have just been his accent. He wasn’t the least little bit worried about Earl even though at the time most of the “models” had Earl hitting right where he was standing.

“We’re used to storms. We have nor’easters all the time.”

Now, I don’t like to wish anything bad to happen to anyone, but after hearing that guy, I was kinda hoping Earl would blow him and all the pretty boats behind him to Canada.

A nor’easter is like a gentle breeze compared to the likes of Katrina or Hugo.

The same regular weather person interviewed a mother and her daughter at the same harbor in Cape Cod after any threat of Earl hitting had passed.

“We’re a little disappointed. We were hoping for a little excitement.”

I suppose I understand that thought pattern. I myself admit to getting a little shiver down my spine when some kind of major weather event is forecast. Like big thunderstorms or snow or yes, even hurricanes.

You kinda want something to happen, but you kinda don’t. We want a foot of snow, but then we don’t want the power to go out and be stranded in a cold house with nothing to do but wish it hadn’t snowed so much.

I like to watch the lightning that comes with thunderstorms, but when a transformer that supplies power to my house is knocked out or a tree is blown over blocking my driveway, I don’t like it so much.

Maybe that’s why we have this perverse attraction to the bad side of Mother Nature: the danger of it all.

I’ve never been directly affected for more than a few days and then it was a simple power outage. I cannot imagine the trials and tribulations of those who experience direct hits and suffer for days, weeks, months or even years.

I doubt anyone who was in the New Orleans Superdome when Katrina hit will ever get excited about an approaching hurricane.

So, go ahead and get excited when the next big weather event is forecast. That’s human nature. Like when we all get rubber necks passing a wreck on the highway. We have to look. Just have to.

Too often, though, we don’t like what we see.

As in so many aspects of life, reality can be painful.

Cody Sossamon (cody@gaffneyledger.com) is publisher of The Gaffney Ledger.