Officially, It's Fall

Nothing profound...I just feel like chatting tonight. We officially crossed over that celestial line and entered fall...or autumn, if you prefer (being in the northern hemisphere). Why does this season have two names??? Other seasons seem more steadfast in their identification. I'll check it out and get back to you on that later.   Anyway...we are about to close the book on September and go into October. This is one of my favorite times of the year.

 

 

Major league baseball is entering that frantic period where every team with a pulse is trying hard to make it into the playoffs and maybe get into more post-season play and, perhaps, win the whole thing. The St. Louis Cardinals surprised everyone, including themselves, last year by staggering into the playoffs and then winning it all. They are trying again this year as defending champs...I wish them well but it's not the same team. Looks like they might get in as a wild card team.

NFL football has been a comedy of errors...literally, but no one is laughing. The referees were locked out by the owners due to a labor dispute so NFL hired substitute refs. I don't thing you can call them "scabs" since there wasn't a strike but they were truly unqualified to officiate a professional football game. It was awful and it went on far too long. Finally, the NFL owners relented and negotiated with the "real" refs and they are now back on the job this weekend. The substitutes get to slink back to wherever they came from...


Missouri University couldn't wait to join the SEC (Southeast Conference) and leave the Big 12 in their dust...but they haven't made a good first impression. They can manage to put up a fight but have been steamrolled  in the later part of the game. They played South Carolina last week and it was bad but they managed to get a touchdown in the closing minutes so that the game doesn't look that bad on paper. I don't give a diddly-squat but I think the SEC is a class act when compared to the Big 12 and hope MU can salvage a few games. People tell me we will blow them out of the water in basketball.  Okiedoke.

Of course, the presidential election is going on...almost in the last few weeks. Also congressional elections. President Obama is a consistent leader in the polls and it looks like he has the electoral votes to win. Mitt Romney looks dumber and dumber as time goes on. He picked Paul Ryan as his VP running mate but Ryan decided to still also run for his congress seat...how's that for confidence? I'm an Obama man so I'm biased but Romney is really making a fool of himself. Either he has no decent advisers or he ignores his advisers and just runs his mouth.

 

 

Missouri has a senate race that is getting lots of attention because Todd Akin, GOP candidate, is a buffoon. Senator McCaskill is nothing special but Akin is sub-human in comparison. Akin has run out of appendages to stick in his mouth and it is hard anyway because his head is so far up his ass. Even Romney asked him to drop out of the race. But, he has support in rural Missouri and could even win if the city voters stay at home.  I admit that I crossed over and voted for Akin in the primary because I figured he would be so bad that sane people wouldn't vote for him. I knew he would self-destruct but not as soon as he did. Now, in the late weeks before the election, some Republicans are slinking back to give him support...Newt Gingrich, Huckabee and Santorum, three GOP guys not running for anything, have soiled themselves by coming to support Akin. Today Akin complained that Claire McCaskill was not "Ladylike" in her behavior during their recent debate...Ladylike?

Missouri voters are an odd group and hard to predict how they will go. We elected Mel Carnahan to the senate even though he was dead in order to keep John Ashcroft from retaining his senate seat....that's right, we elected a dead guy to keep Ashcroft out. So what happens?  Dubya appointed Ashcroft as Attorney General...where he makes a fool of himself.  Ashcroft was my boss for a while so I speak with some knowledge...he is a bible-thumping, gospel-singing, two-faced, ill-informed, self-righteous idiot. But I digress. Missouri used to be known as a bellwether state, one that could be relied upon to vote as the nation would vote as a whole. Not so anymore. We have cornered the market on wingnuts and religious bigots so anything is possible.


The drought is over but Mother Nature is very confused. My lilacs are blooming. They went dormant during the drought and now think it's spring. I suppose they won't bloom next year. Much of my grass is dead. I thought it was only dormant but it is still brown in spite of the several rainy days we've had. The trees began to turn colors way back in early August but there are more now that are showing fall colors even though it is early. There were some major forest fires in the Ozarks...worse than what we have seen in the past. Apparently, the forest ids trying to recover and some plants have sprung up that we have never seen in Missouri. They were just laying dormant in the soil waiting for a forest fire. Some of them are native to the Gulf Coast while others live in Arkansas or in pine forests in other states.