The Coming Storm

[mallorys_camera]

All morning long, I’ve been thinking about Florida.

Wondering what it feels like to be old & tired on the other side of a massive hurricane like the one currently poised to take out Tampa Bay.

Milton! A name more appropriate for a comedian than a cyclonic storm system.

You’re still wearing the madras seersucker pants & Crocs you were wearing when you finally decided to evacuate. The Crocs are covered with mud. Maybe you’re holding a pet carrier. You’re too stunned to cry. In a single instant, your home, your car, your furniture, every material possession you owned, everything that anchored you to your place in society, has been wiped out.

What’s left? The feeble promises of a government that’s been running on empty for at least two decades. (The current federal deficit is something like $36 trillion.)

A sizeable proportion of the folk who just got wiped out by Helene & will shortly endure the ravages of Milton are elderly retirees with little or no insurance.

###

Meanwhile…

Due to abnormal levels of solar flare, an aurora was visible in the backyard last night. To the naked eye, all it looked like was a faint green luminescence along the northern horizon. But here’s what it looked like on my iPhone camera with a three-second shutter delay:



Yesterday, I didn’t do much of anything but Remunerate & tromp & debate with various people via long strings of text. (Ichabod & RTT on the devolution of Elon Musk into a fascist asshole: Junk yr Teslas, boys & girls!); BB on why mysticism is valid even if proofs of its existence lie outside the realms of deductive science.)

Also, I found myself bracing up one of the heads of the Shawangunk Democrats because there are only 27 days left in this election cycle, and she is completely burned out.

I’m a mess! Kelli texted.

No, no, you’re a HERO! I texted.

And this exact exchange went on for at least 10 iterations.

The Feliway seems to be working. The cats are still hissing & sniping at each other but in a halfhearted way.

And I am worried about money, so I guess I better start Remunerating.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I went out looking for the northern lights not last night but on Sunday night, as my sister had emailed that UMass was saying they were visible in my area. I walked and stared at the sky and determined two things: (1) many of my neighbors have REALLY bright houselights. (2) A wishful heart can seize on a certain something in the sky and say, "Maybe that's it!!" And maybe so... but I know sometimes it can be bright and distinctive enough that there's no question with the naked eye--my parents both saw them in the Albany area. I guess for you yesterday it was distinctive enough, even if it wasn't as glorious as what the phone shows--anyway, you were able to tell with certainty! I will keep waiting for the day when I can tell with certainty....

(Good job, Feliway!)

[mallorys_camera]

I could barely, barely see them without the camera. They really only show up when you take a photograph and put the shutter speed on delay. (iPhone's "night" setting.)

[adoptedwriter]

We have too many big trees and hlls to get to see Northern Lihts. Bummer...Yeah...Florida