Glad to hear that Sue and Mike and their critters are doing OK (though a big soggy). Hopefully things will get back to normal down there sooner rather than later. My brother on Long Island has apparently made it through unscathed, though they’re without power (probably for quite a while, if past storms are any indication). I’m glad I don’t have to deal with a flooded basement (or worse), though I can’t help be a touch envious of everybody who has the day off. Especially since today is stupid meeting day. But it beats having a tree smash your roof, or having your car carried away by the flood.

Speaking of trees, other than the one that came down in my driveway (smashing the snow fence on the way down), I don’t appear to have any other damage. I cleared the driveway when I got home last night (thank goodness for chainsaws and tractors), and hopefully that will be it in terms of storm damage for a while (though it looks like “frankenstorms” are going to be the new normal from here on out).

I’m also glad we didn’t get the snow that West Virginia got from this thing (two feet and counting in some parts). I heard a caller to NPR yesterday (not sure exactly where he was at), who said he was in the mountains and they had gotten 8 inches of snow, but it was OK because they were used to snow. After all, he said, “two years ago we had 80 inches for the year, so we’re used to snow.” I wasn’t particularly impressed, of course.

We do have some snow in the forecast here for the weekend, though nothing that’s supposed to accumulate. Still, things are turning colder, and I suppose it’s about time to put the snow tires on the car, and the chains on the tractor.

I guess it’s too much to hope for another winter without snow.

Good luck to everybody who got nailed by Sandy. I hope that socialist FEMA comes through for you (no matter what Steve King thinks).

Speaking of FEMA, here’s a story I heard on the way in to work this morning, and, while I’m not usually stunned by the gall and hypocrisy that gets spewed on a daily basis, this story had me gobsmacked.

Micheal “heckuva job” Brown thinks Obama acted way too soon in preparing for hurricane Sandy.

Michael Brown is standing by his suggestion that President Barack Obama acted too soon to call attention to federal disaster response efforts to Hurricane Sandy.

“…I simply said he should have waited,” Brown told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon. “The storm was still forming, people were debating whether it was going to be as bad as expected, or not, and I noted that the president should have let…the storm [get] closer to hitting the…Washington, D.C.-New York City corridor.”

Yo, Brownie, if there was ever a time to STFU, this would be it.

Oh, almost forgot. Happy Halloween.