Stormy Weather

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At last the Atlantic squall that's hammered us over the last couple of days has passed over, some respite from the battering, at least till the next one, which arrives tomorrow. I took the opportunity to get up on the studio roof and patch up the apex with the few remaining bits of roofing-felt I had lying around. Whether this will temporarily stem the leaks I don't know, but I think that at least it will mitigate the worst: anyway, I'll certainly know by tomorrow night. It's a big roof and catches a lot of water.

I need to get the place fairly dry and secure so that I can get on with using it for its intended purpose as a studio workshop/store/recreation space; rather than simply an enormous dumping ground for stuff being moved, in endless rotation, from either the house, the cottage or the garden shed. This place is a logistical nightmare. Add in the autumn storms we seem to be inheriting from across the water pretty much every year now and it can be a right royal pain trying to organise stuff.

Living in California would be an option, I suppose, but I don't really think that's viable on many levels; the present political reality being the most pressing. A friend of Jane's who lives in San Francisco has expressed feelings of bewilderment/panic/upset; nominate practically any negative emotional response, occasioned by the current administration and its leader's antics. I guess all they can do is exercise their democratic right: to vote and hope.

If they're mail-voting  however, it would appear that not only have they got the prospect of Trump refusing to believe the entire thing isn't rigged against him after the fact; they have the electoral system itself to contend with. The way mail votes are verified is by ballot inspectors having to decide if the signature on the vote is genuine or not. Not exactly a scientifically precise methodology and surely open to widespread error, let alone fraud.

The best that can be hoped for is a landslide for Biden and the Democrats, which will close down any argument once and for all. If it's a close call, then we're in for another 'hanging chads' style of fiasco, as in 2000. And look where that left the United States and indeed the rest of the world: DOOFUS as POTUS. Re-elect the current doofus and it will validate every right-wing, populist narcissist either currently in power or close to gaining it. Not a future to look forward to. Think Spain, Greece, Portugal, Chile; the very recent past. It's avoidable. 

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