Seminar Sucked. Hugely.

God. This was a "law for real estate people" thing, and my new boss T and I gave up on it and cut out early. It wasn't just dumbed-down for non-legal people, it was utterly irrelevant. Real estate people need legal seminars, God knows I am asked how to fix the shit they step in at random on a weekly basis. This was not what they needed.

Thank you all (esp. Amie) for the lovely invites and warnings re Wilma. But seriously folks - I live where they evacuate TO. (Yeah, I know that's ungrammatical, like that's a big shock around here?) Where am I going to go, besides, uh, Maine, and Baltimore? Not that this doesn't sound wonderful, but not for three days. Next time I head up 95 it may be with a moving van following me, but for this crap? Naaah.

My source for sanity is Weather Underground. Dr. Jeff Masters and Steve Gregory have been dead on the money so far. Weather.com had us in stitches last year when we were getting pounded with 3 inches of rain per hour and they were cheerily estimating our total rainfall at 3 inches. I listen to one local weather person and Weather Underground. The rest of them, eh.

I did eavesdrop on a hilarious display of fuckwittage at the grocery store yesterday - when a Pompous Potbellied Middle Aged Male held forth that the "local yokels" didn't know what they were talking about, because when they "draw" those hurricane lines, they always show one coming up near us. The hurricane can't come near us (even though we got hit with three last year?) and this whole fuss is stupid! Obviously the News Is Fake!

Maybe this is the natural outcome of the Lying Liberal Media brainwash - now, the weather isn't just inaccurate, it's faked!

Dear Mr. Fuckwit: they don't DRAW those lines, they are showing you computer models created by scientist types elsewhere. They will tell you, if you take your goddamn fingers out of your ears, that they are models, they aren't writ in stone and nobody's supposed to panic and flee the state at the sight of them, but they aren't invented by "local yokels." It was the tone of "Well, the news lies to you!" that got under my skin - apparently even the weather is now part of a lying liberal media conspiracy.

The coastal area where Wilma comes ashore could get pounded, it could be an economic disaster on top of two other disasters on top of the disaster that is this Administration, and I'm scared for our long-term economic health, because while last year the National Guard was out tarping roofs for free, just call and help will come, this is not an election year, so FEMA is contracting roof tarps for an insanely inflated price. Last year FEMA was all over it, mobilized before the storm hit, high profile, a well-oiled machine. But this is not an election year, and President Lame Duck's Bro's chances of shitting in the Oval Office are slim to none, after two crappy BushFam performances, would even the most blindly rabid Republicans want to go for another round? So now we give pornographically fat contracts to our buddies to screw the taxpayers for nailing sheets of blue plastic over damaged roofs. You know damn good and well the guys on the ladders in the sun are NOT getting that money, too.

I'm freaked out for the long term implications for our country, but I'm not scared for my own house. We'll be fine, thanks. Let's hope this thing slows down when it hits the cooler Gulf water, and nobody gets whacked hard.