The midterm elections happened last night but the votes in some key states are still being counted. We voted by mail weeks ago because we weren't certain we'd be back from the ill-fated road trip in time to cast our ballots. Well.....  

Florida, unsurprisingly, went totally RED but, frankly, I've given up on expecting anything better from a state run, and largely populated, by....Florida Men (and their obliging womenfolk). The undisputed upside of the election is that we won't have to see any more of those obnoxious campaign ads for another year and a half (give or take a month). So, no matter what happens, there's that, and that is no small blessing. 



Also, Dr. Mehmet Fucking Oz--thanks a lot for that, Oprah--got beat by the phenomenal John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate Race, thanks to Fetterman's absolute refusal to be sidelined or distracted by the stroke he suffered last May. Amazing man, Fetterman! Georgia, on the other hand, is headed to a runoff between Democrat Gabriel Warnock and the Republican-who-makes-Trump-look-like-a-very-stable-genius, Herschel Walker. And in Arizona, Mark Kelly is holding on to his lead over Blake Masters in that state's Senate race, while 2020 election-denier Kari Lake is already raising doubts about her own gubernatorial race against Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Secretary of State. 

Meanwhile, fuck it. 



A late-season tropical storm/potential hurricane named Nicole has Southeast Florida in its bullseye, and should make landfall somewhere in the environs tonight or very early tomorrow morning. C has moved the potted plants indoors and we've closed the hurricane shutters so we're as prepared as we can be for a soggy night that I hope won't include too much wind. Nicole is predicted to become a Cat 1 hurricane with winds reaching 70 mph so even if we don't get a direct hit, there's still a good chance we'll lose power, a first-world worry, to be sure, but a major pain in the ass, nonetheless. Especially if the outage lasts for days. And days. Take it from someone who knows. 



Now that we've both tested negative for COVID, we're keeping tomorrow's longstanding appointment with the trainer at L.A. Fitness. Weather permitting, of course. Until COVID I had a gym membership (at a different establishment) and worked out regularly. Since then I've become something of a sloth although I walk several (brisk) miles each day so I suppose that's kept a bit of the slothery at bay. In spite of that, everything seems to have been on a downward trajectory these past few years and the thought of my armpits someday ending up behind my kneecaps is appalling. Not that we're becoming gym bunnies at this point but it would be nice to rock a six-pack, and to shore up the inevitable slippage of flesh and bone that accompanies one's dotage. We'll see how it goes. As with everything else, we'll see how it goes. 

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