With the exception of this post I won’t be posting anything for the month of October. The reasons for this are many fold. Here are but a few.

First and foremost has been the unfolding tragedy in the aftermath of hurricane Helene. I have family in Georgia heavily impacted by the storm, as well as acquaintances in Tennessee and North Carolina. I’m trying to provide help and donations to as many of those effected communities as I can, starting in north Florida and continuing on up into the Appalachian states.

My part of Florida came through relatively unscathed, although the storm was wide enough to effect the Atlantic coast and send winds that toppled my last remaining oak in my front yard. That oak was finally removed this past Wednesday, along with a maple in the back yard that was nearly dead. It was miraculous that the oak fell where it did absolutely no damage, and that the maple wasn’t blown over. If the maple had come down it would have destroyed part of my fence and more than likely hit the neighbor’s house. I’d already spent money earlier this year to try and save the maple by having the dead parts cut out. I’d also had to pay for some damage on my roof when a limb came down during a particularly violent storm in January. I finally had the rest of the maple cut down and removed before it could be blown down and cause any future damage.

Then there’s the upcoming 2024 presidential election. I’m not going to make any comments except to say I’m voting straight Democratic party all the way down the ballet. By the way, it is pronounced ‘Democratic’ not ‘Democrat’. I am a ‘Democrat’ (single member) in the ‘Democratic’ (plural group designation) party. The Republican party pronounces it ‘Democrat party’ to try and get a rise out of the opposition, and example of them trying and failing to ‘own the libs.’

I grew up indoctrinated as a Republican in a Republican household listening to William F. Buckley Jr on Firing Line as it played every Sunday on my local PBS station in Atlanta (bit of irony in that). When I was old enough I reflexively voted Nixon in 1972, Ford in 1976, and Reagan in 1980. It was the first Reagan term that totally destroyed my support of Reagan and belief in the Republican party. I switched to being an Independent until I realized I was always voting for Democrats, at which time I switched to being a Democrat. I’ve voted straight Blue ever since. There is an unbroken line between Reagan and Trump, with that line running down hill. I’ll vote straight Blue this year, just like I’ve been doing since 1992.

I also have traveling and paid consultancy to fulfill. I’m going to be very busy. I will probably post something or other after 5 November. See you then.

Another Reason to Stop Writing — Autocorrect

I’m back in here to correct the weird words that autocorrect dropped into my post — ‘rook’ instead of ‘roof’, for example. It’s one thing to get red squiggles underneath words not in the browser’s dictionary, but it’s another to have some mysterious agent automatically correct what you write. I really am tired of that.