"Season of mists. . . ."
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,I loved Keats poem “To Autumn” the first time I ran across it. In my hot Texas upbringing, it suggested that there was a paradise out there somewhere.
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun
Well, we’ve gotten mists in Wisconsin. Also hail a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday in a four hour period I literally dumped over 100 buckets of water from my sump to my toilet to keep the basement from flooding out.
Mists? Yes. But mellow we need to work at.
Depending on the estimate concerning hail damage, which I have not been able to arrange, I may be dealing with my insurance company. Of course I’m not the only one. There’s been lots of weather damage, and at least some insurance companies are seeing global warming as a threat to their bottom lines. As a friend of mine said, “Two cheers for free market environmentalism.”
Just below, KC notes that the migrations forced by Katrina may alter Louisiana politics in the direction of Republicans. It would be interesting if this year’s weather moved some business interests in the direction of concern with global warming—and for the moment that means toward Democrats.
Who knows what these storms may have changed? My wife and I were in the bar of a restaurant called Adventures during the storm with the hail. A bit surprisingly, the cable and lights only flickered but stayed on.. The vibe was friendly as people sheltered from a common adversary. Yet as the picture flickered in and out I wondered, what if the weather keeps getting worse? What if the damage keeps getting a bit more dangerous, a bit more arduous? What happens if New Orleans does not remain isolated but becomes the first of many weather-drive relocations in this country?
Of course, I don’t know if any of that will happen. But if it did, I think I would look back on that night, in Adventures, as the first time that I felt with a twist in my gut that my world had changed.