Fifth Day of the World Course, 37th of Autumn, 526 M.E. (Electra): Tropical Depression Nine is now Tropical Storm Isaias. It's forecast to become a hurricane by tomorrow morning and make landfall on the coast the day after. A life-threatening storm surge may accompany landfall along with damaging winds. Isaias will bring heavy rainfall to much of the southeast U.S. over the weekend, along with flash floods, urban floods, and isolated river flooding. 

It's forecast trajectory has it going straight into the heat of Alabama this weekend, which is ironic because the much anticipated Georgia-Alabama college football game is scheduled for Saturday in Tuscaloosa. It's also appropriate, because the Stable Genius had threatened to attend the game, and as we all know, everything he touches turns to shit, including the probability of this game occurring as planned. Despite the distraction, as a Georgia Bulldogs fan I was actually glad he would be attending, as hos presence at sporting events has generally jinxed the home team. But this one might get rained out, if not altogether washed away.

It's "ironic" that Isaias is coincident with the football game, and "appropriate" that the Stable Genius plans to attend given his propensity for disaster. A friend of mine once hypothesized that in literary criticism, everything is either appropriate or else ironic. If something's obvious in a book, no matter how banal or heavy-handed, critics say it's "appropriate." On the other hand, no matter how unlikely, unrealistic, or far-fetched something is, it's never "inappropriate" or even "fucking stupid," it's always "ironic." As in, "It's appropriate that the villain died from the gunshot wound, but it's ironic that the bullet then ricocheted off the metal valve implanted in his heart and hit the hero right between the eyes." 

"Get in the habit of using those two words," he advised me, "and you're guaranteed a job as a book or movie reviewer."

Anyway, best wishes and safe-keeping to the good people along the Gulf Coast. Be careful out there. 

Good news! I got my cardiology appointment moved up from November 4 (Fourth Day of Hagwinter) to October 22 (52nd Day of Autumn). Last week, my personal-care physician, alarmed at my test results, insisted that I see the cardiologist "within two weeks," so I was disappointed that the earliest I could get an appointment was five weeks out. The new date is three weeks (two weeks from today), which makes me feel better, at least psychologically, than waiting five. It's "ironic" that I had been initially scheduled for five weeks away, but it's "appropriate" to now wait only three.