If’n You Don’t Like the Weather, Just Wait…

Last week I was riding my motorcycle, enjoying the sunshine, watching the birds twitter and chirp. This week I’m shoveling the walk, hunched against the wind, watching the birds twitch and shiver. Things got nasty in a hurry! It’s not good on a body.

The past few years have been odd, to say the least. The summer of 2004 never really happened. It was gray, chilly and damp most of the summer. Last winter never really happened, either. It was gray, chilly and damp, but it never really snowed, nor did we get our traditional bitter, bone-snapping January freeze. This summer actually started a bit early, and was mostly sunny and warm all summer. And all fall. In fact, it was in the 70’s just a few days ago. Now it’s snowing.

We’ve only had a few storms, and most of them were out of season. When’s the last time you remember tornadoes in November? Say what you want about global warming, but the weather patterns are changing. I remember as a child being snowed in at the farm for weeks at a time. I remember jumping off the roof of the house into the snow for fun. That surely didn’t happen last year – I think I only had to scoop my walk three times, and I don’t remember there being more than an inch or two of snow on the ground at any given time.

What kind of world are we leaving behind? It scares me…

Poll Vaulting

Here’s an interesting fact for you from CNN: “In the poll, 56 percent of registered voters said they would be likely to vote against a local candidate supported by Bush, while 34 percent said the opposite. Only 9 percent said their first choice in next year’s elections would be a Republican who supports Bush on almost every major issue.” source (The italics are mine.)

That ties in well with this particular gem from the New Jersey Star-Ledger…

“Doug Forrester, in his first postelection interview, laid the blame for his loss in the governor’s race last week directly at the feet of President Bush. He said the public’s growing disaffection with Bush, especially after Hurricane Katrina, made it impossible for his campaign to overcome the built-in advantage Democrats have in a blue state like New Jersey.”

I thought it was interesting.

Huh? Can you do that?

U.S. President G. Walker Bush made what many believe may be the worst speech of his career last Friday. On Veterans’ Day, Mr. Bush gave a 50+ minute speech, during which he said: “While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.” As Jon Stewart pointed out on The Daily Show, that’s when the President started rewriting history. Just about everything he said after that was either an outright lie or was just plain incorrect. But he mentioned nine-eleven, so if you disagree with him you’re unpatriotic.

It makes me sad. But it’s dinner time, so I’ll quit being sad now and go eat. That always makes me happy…