593 Autumn

593 Autumn

Wasn't much of a summer here in the Northeast. Not that it's over, yet. Officially, there are some weeks to go yet. Unofficially, Labor Day is six days away, and we've come to accept that as the end of the warm weather vacation season.

Warm weather? The only warm weather we got was that few days in mid-August, those same few days the central air conditioning decentralized into a heap of busted parts and pipes and dumped a minor flood on the basement floor. We experienced that brief flash of summer as our forefathers did: sweating profusely.

Hurricanes and potential hurricanes are swirling here and there. Forecasters are playing with dozens if not hundreds of computer models trying to figure out what might be coming next -- and where. And they're trying to figure out what the upcoming fall and winter have in store for us.

The forecasters will hit some targets and miss others. And we can forgive them, because we know weather forecasting is as much an art as a science and as much translating as it is composing.

Here are some hints: It will be colder in October than it was in July. There will be some snow in the months ahead. It will be lovely to look at and a pain to navigate.

TV news will be at the ready when departments of public works prepare for winter precipitation. For the umpteenth year in a row, some guy in coveralls will point to a mountain of sand or salt in front of which sits a truck and tell us how many tons of the stuff they have on hand, how they'll pay for overtime for the workers and so on.

They could have shot this scene in 1960 and just run it every year thereafter, because it's always the same.

Public officials will arise from their card games long enough to warn us about the road hazards.

Other than this, you need little more prediction about what happens between now and next spring.

Shrapnel:

--It is September and the eleventh soon will be upon us, when politicians and other self-interested parties will violate the spirit of those of us in New York City, Washington and Pennsylvania who lived through this thing and survived it. To those of you who would politicize this great American tragedy: Go away, Republicans and Democrats alike. We do not need and do not want and cannot stand your idiotic posturing, your cheap attempts to turn this into a cheap political event and your sleazy effort to capitalize on something you cannot understand.

--Guys of my political stripe are supposed to like the Ed Schultz show. But I find him annoying and pointless. Is this the best that moderate lefties can turn out, and if so is it any wonder that liberal talk radio is a flop?

--I am also getting tired of the Olbermann-Madow Television axis. But at least they can be funny. And they get good guests.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009