Storm und Drang

It's easy if you don't pay attention to the news. Or weather. Or traffic report.

As we write this on Tuesday afternoon, we have a feeling of sick anxiety and foreboding in our stomachs. We were trying to decide whether this is due to the predictions of tornadic weather for our area today (and especially for our daughter in the Oklahoma City area), or if it was anticipating Tuesday night's primary election results.

And then it dawned on us that there's really no difference between the two. Powerful forces are at work which are likely to wreak havoc, and there's really not much we can do but wait it out and hope that no one near and dear to us gets clobbered. Then again, we hoped the same thing for the Obama administration, and look where that got us.

The parallels between twisters and elections run deep. A collision of hot air with cold facts causes massive instability, and all that collected energy has to do something pretty drastic. And in the meanwhile, we watch the news coverage to see the colors rapidly changing - whether it be precinct locations or storm fronts of varying intensity.

At Hope n' Change, we've got a healthy fear of both politicians and tornadoes. The reasons for the former are obvious; the reason for the latter is that we were raised in Indiana and had enough close calls (including saying goodbye to Mrs. Jarlsberg while under our trailer as the sirens wailed, the wind roared, and sky-tentacles of destruction raked the land around us) that our pulse quickens and our bile rises when the skies turn grey-green and the clouds begin to boil.

We'd say more, only now we're starting to scare ourselves (nervous grin). In any event, here's hoping that all of us survive the coming storms - be they meteorological or, in the case of politics, totally illogical.

Quick! Everyone into the tax shelter!

BONUS: BIRTHDAY GIRL!

As daughters go, she really DOES take the cake!

Perhaps the predicted winds are really intended to help blow out the candles on Daughter Jarlsberg's birthday cake today! We hope you'll join us in wishing her the happiest of birthdays and an exciting and successful year to come!