Lowlights & Highlights: November 3, 2012

Ground Zero in New York City

She was a category 1. Seemingly no big deal. People were cracking jokes about her and calling her names. What happened thereafter was unimaginable destruction. All because of Sandy. Travel will be disrupted for weeks. The Jersey shore was torn asunder. Billions of dollars of damage. Half of Manhattan went black, along with millions of other people throughout the East coast who were plunged into darkness. Fires broke out turning homes to naught but ash and dust. Over 70 lives have been lost.

While Hurricane Sandy was technically not very strong (as I said, it was a category 1 out of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), the topography and geography of the tri-state area is such that it is particularly vulnerable to the onslaught of tropical systems. Storm surges can easily inundate the area, flooding low-lying areas, causing the Hudson to rise, and filling subway routes with sea water. Of course other areas were affected as well. Even here in Virginia there were power outages even in the southwest part of the state. The shear amount of space taken up by Sandy was huge. A satellite picture of this storm looked literally like one from "The Day After Tomorrow."

The lesson to be taken away from this is that the power of nature should never be underestimated, and a tropical system doesn't have to have high winds to be destructive. Most of their destructive power does not come from wind, it comes from water. Even "weak" storms can cause incalculable damage.

Luckily my sister who normally lives in the area was on the other side of the country.

~

I'm an unabashed political junky, which is no surprise to people who read this blog. Having said that, I've been getting really antsy over this election for the past week or two. Like many people in the country, this cycle is starting to wear on me. I have been keeping up with it in earnest since last Summer, this past Winter's endless number of Republican debates, the primary season which went on into the Spring, the ups and downs of this past Summer, and the post-convention general election of Autumn...and that's just the presidential election. There are also the congressional elections, including a contentious senate race right here in the Commonwealth. Ads upon ads upon ads, more so because I live in a swing state that is a statistical dead heat.

It is a lot to deal with, even for a political junky. This election has seemed a lot longer and denser than any I can remember.

For those who are over this election cycle, take heart. The end is in sight...barring any 2000 style electoral debacles of course. Election Day is only days away. Rejoice Ohioans, Virginians, Iowans, and the rest of the swing state populous. Rejoice people with congressional races being flooded with commercials. Rejoice people who are tired of hearing about the latest polling numbers. Those ads are about to come down once and for all. The polls are about to become completely irrelevant. Just  stick it out for a few more days and we can all breath a lot easier (assuming Obama wins).

Dammit, there's a gubernatorial election here next year. Huh... Well, at least I'll have a few months off.