1.  You ever have one of those posts where you just vomit up all the thoughts clogging your brain? Yeah, yesterday was like that.

2.  No regrets though. It was all stuff that had been weighing me down for a while. Sometimes you’ve just gotta purge.

3.  The remnants of Storm Zeta passed through here yesterday.

4.  We have a small section of trees behind the house and I’ve been watching colorful leaves fall over the last few weeks through the family room windows. It’s a nice way to unwind.

5.  Until Thursday morning when I saw those tall trees bending at a 45° angle. Suddenly I was thinking things like what’s the trajectory for a tree that height if 55mph wind gusts topple it? If it falls toward the house will it crash through this window? And where’s my closest pair of shoes?

6.  Storm readiness, y’all. It’s a thing.

7.  We weathered – bwahahahaha! – the morning fine. There’s a cold front moving in, though, so they’re calling for possible storms from 8pm to midnight. Fingers crossed.

8.  My own weather prediction: Since it was eighty degrees this week but drops into the fifties/sixties overnight there’s a 100% chance of froggy throats over the weekend.

9.  Anyone else suffer from hideous allergies?

10.  I’ve got a pollen alert on my phone. I find it reassuring to know which part of nature is making me miserable, I guess, but corona complicates things.

11.  There’ve been a couple of times when I’ve called an office with my scratchy throat and when they ask – even though I know it’s allergies – I still feel like I’m lying about some sort of covid exposure.

12.  Strange times.

13.  Just saw a commercial for Let Him Go, a movie set for theater release in November. My brain can’t process this.

14.  Are movie theaters even open? Would people even go? I can’t remember the last time I set foot in a theater.

15.  Just kidding. It was the middle school outing I tagged along on in January. The kids picked Fantasy Island. I wasn’t a fan.

16.  Except for the comfy stadium seats. I was a fan of those.

17.  Hold on a sec……

18.  And now I’m hiding in the basement bathroom with a nervous girl and confused kitten.

19.  Turns out those possible storms morphed into a tornado warning morphed into a holy hell everybody get in the basement RIGHT NOW.

20.  This is a simple directive, right? Walk down the stairs, settle in the basement, the end.

21.  But wrangling two teens, two dogs, and two kitties one of whom is still in isolation is what some might politely call challenging. Others might call it a shitshow. Bygones.

22.  Cue melodramatic if my PC’s gone when I go back upstairs pronouncements of doom and gloom.

23.  Spoiler alert: we went back upstairs and the PC was still there. Rest of the house, too.

24.  It’s been an exciting day but not in that hey-I-just-won-the-lottery kind of way.

25.  Now we’re inching up on midnight. I’ve got two dogs passed out and a cat prowling the room while gamer sounds float down the hall.

26.  This is totally normal for a Thursday night, right?

27.  I’ve been watching court decisions on challenges to absentee ballots received after November 3rd and it’s been a ride.

28.  If you’re curious typical absentee ballot counting rules are here but you can find 2020’s absentee and mail voting policies here.

29.  It’s an interesting hodgepodge of deadlines. Some states are all screw you, if the ballot isn’t in our hands by November 3rd you’re out of luck. Some adapted their absentee requirements for covid, others adjusted their allowable number of days past November 3rd for postal service delays. One thing they all have in common is that the states decide.

30.  Which is why it makes me nervous when the federal government steps in to move up the cutoff date.

31.  We trust the states to make appropriate decisions for their electorate. Or we used to.

32.  These are crazy times, I get that, but here’s what I’ve been thinking. Every citizen has the right to vote. Every citizen deserves to have their vote counted. So how about we let everyone vote, we wait for all the ballots to come in, then we count all the votes to learn who won the election. Simple, right?

33.  I’m feeling like we could create a new system here because some of this stuff is absolutely cuckoo for coconuts.

34.  What kind of country has citizens waiting upwards of twelve hours to vote? Oh wait, that would be ours.

35.  And don’t give me I breezed in and out, 45 minutes tops. If one of us waits twelve hours then we’re failing.

36.  Some states run every election by mail – every citizen, every vote, every single election by mail in ballot. Others demand a DNA panel and two doctors’ notes to grant an absentee exception.

37.  Some states demand an absentee ballot be notarized. This is a big inconvenience in normal times but in corona days?? Come on.

38.  The process just seems like it could be streamlined a little. And don’t even get me started on the electoral college.

39.  Here we are rolling into Halloween weekend. I don’t know how you’re handling things but Halloween’s cancelled around these parts. And by “around these parts” I mean “in this house” because apparently people are still trick or treating.

40.  Parents of littles, you have my sympathy. Covid has taken a lot from us and no kid, regardless of age, has escaped unscathed. I say load up on candy and let your kids roll around in big old pile of sugar. There’s always Halloween 2021.