Plants and weather and stuff

The unusually cool weather this summer is having an odd damping effect on flower activity this fall. Usually, inasmuch as I remember, the flower season would be completely over by now -- the fireweed would have fluffed out, the roadside flowers would be gone to seed. But they're all still going, the fireweed hasn't really gone to seed, the goldenrod in the swamp (which I finally confirmed *is* goldenrod, according to my plant book) is still blooming. I took some pretty pictures in the gravel pit the other day -- I'll try to remember to upload one or two when I get home.

We're starting to get yellow patches in the trees, a reminder that fall is very close. At least the hornet activity has died down. I forget if I talked about it in the journal or not, but this was a horrible summer for yellowjacket hornets. It wasn't just us -- everyone at work was complaining about it. The woods, literally, HUMMED. The water delivery guy told me that one of his neighbors found a hornet nest in his yard that was three feet in diameter. I don't mind hornets, I know they serve a useful function as scavengers, and I'm not allergic ... but, enough is enough. Having the walls crawling with hornets and being worried to go off the trails for fear of disturbing a nest is not much fun.

Today is the Alaska state primary election, and that flushing sound you hear ...

... is the sound of our illustrious Frank Murkowski's re-election chances going down the toilet.

Ah, Frank Murkowski, the man with the second-lowest approval rating of any governor in the country. (The only one who's doing worse is Bob Taft of Ohio, who has, let's see, admitted to assorted ethics violations and become synonymous with corruption in office.) Frank Murkowski, the man who appointed his own daughter to succeed him in the U.S. Senate. The man who convinced the legislature to buy him a jet last year with taxpayer money, and has been using it this year to fly around the state doing his re-election campaigning for free, under the guise of performing official gubernatorial business. The man who brokered a semi-secret deal with the oil companies and then sent out glossy full-color brochures promoting said deal, paid for again with taxpayer money. The man who fires people in the government who disagree with him, tries to prevent reporters who ask him tough questions from attending his press conferences, and so forth.

With about half the precincts reporting, he's currently pulling a laughable 18% of the vote. The REPUBLICAN vote. 80% of the Republicans in the state are voting against the INCUMBENT Republican governor.

Hahahahaha! Karma's a bitch, isn't it, Frank?