Hurricanes and Conventions

This week is marked by two named tropical systems invading the Gulf of Mexico and making landfall, along with the Republican National Convention...taking place in a virtually televised format as was the Democratic Convention the previous week.  I studiously avoided the Democratic Convention and will continue in this regard this week with that of the Republicans...I've known for some time how I will vote.  The real question I have is how can anybody planning to vote this November NOT already have made up their minds?  Yet I am supremely confident that, as has been the case in the past five presidential elections, this one in 2020 will be decided by a relative handful of dunderheads who will still be undecided with less than two weeks to go and who will allow some contrived last-minute "news" story to manipulate their vote for one candidate or the other, thus tipping the election.  So already knowing this will happen, why should I waste my time and attention keeping up with the Trump and Biden campaigns, as if my awareness of what is happening will somehow influence anything or anyone?  My answer is that it won't, so I'm not.  If you want to get all bent up out of shape over what's going down and are filling your Facebook page with partisan political rants and posts...some of which were probably planted by Russian intelligence...then you can rest assured that I've already "unfollowed" you until after the election...

Just a few days ago the big story was how two twin hurricanes were going to hit land at the same time...possibly even the same spot...on the Gulf coast, an unprecedented occurrence.  Now, though, the two storms Marco and Laura have diverged a bit, both with their relative strengths and their trajectories.  Marco, at one time on Sunday with minimal hurricane intensity, got severely hit by wind shear and reduced to a manageable tropical storm level.  It only skimmed the Louisiana coast as it diminished to a depression...most of its storms were over southern Alabama and far western Florida.  Laura, which not only has been projected to reach level two hurricane status, is also on a different path than Marco, slated to hit land late Wednesday or Thursday in east Texas/west Louisiana.  Both Marco and Laura thankfully have been speeding along quickly and once Laura dumps its storm surge, wind, and rain on its targeted area, it should rapidly go on its way inland...no doubt unfortunately causing flooding and damage while dissipating.  I'm thankful that Florida is being spared...at least until the next storm comes around...