December 11

Rainy and windy this morning. I have been thinking of changing out our door autumn door wreath for the winter wreath. It just doesn't feel like winter yet. We did get a smidge of snow that stuck around for a few hours but nothing significant.

I found this item on Crooks & Liars this morning. The writer is most worried about right wing agitation for an Article V convention but given how much discontent (to put it mildly) on both sides of the political divide we might worry about the left wing as well. About 30 years ago I heard the same notion from a colleague (a black woman) and mentioned that once that convention met many of the rights we have come to rely on might be excised or drastically rewritten, for instance voting rights for minorities or property ownership for women. She blithely claimed that "they wouldn't dare." However, we said the same thing about Roe v Wade until the latest Supreme Court decisions.

Just woke up to the horrific news of the tornado storm that has cost at least 50 deaths in one city alone. The story keeps getting worse as the emergency services can now work in daylight. We looked at the initial story, which hadn't yet incorporated the damage and death info, and noted that this is a springtime pattern. I commented that just as the west now doesn't have a discrete "fire season" the Tornado Alley states no longer have a discrete tornado season. The meteorologists and reporters have made similar observations and noted how abnormal the weather pattern has been.