Hurricanes.

I'm home tonight - not doing much but thinking about football, what I'm planning on wearing tomorrow and if I can put boiled peanuts in a plastic baggie when they're still hot.

Flipping through channels I see early reports about Hurricane Ike. Beyond the whole gas crisis that silly motorists have gotten themselves in, Ike looks bad. It looks really bad. I was thinking about hurricanes. Before 2004, the only big storms I remember were Hugo and the would-be hurricane Floyd. I don't really remember the impact that nature's worst wreaked. Andrew in Homestead, Florida? Sure, maybe. There was a year in college we had a hurricane/big storm in December. I sort of remember that.

But until 2004, when Hurricane Charley hit my grandmother's home in Punta Gorda, Florida - I didn't know what they could do. After seeing the damage and destruction, I get it. Now, living closer to the coast than I ever have, I have a mini-hurricane preparedness kit. Tunafish, a couple of jugs of water, extra batteries. I watch storm paths; I study wind forecasts. I get worried.

I wonder if politics is like that. I'm really invested in this election. I'm watching to see if it's going to hit my town. If the sketchy economy, energy crisis or foreign policy debacle isn't arriving squarely on my front door, it's hitting my family, friends and neighbors. And, truth be told - it not only arrived on my front door, it's sleeping in my guest room.

The issues facing my family might not be the exact same as my neighbor (considering he has a tricked out porsche, probably not). But we're all looking for a better America, we're all looking for someone who's going to prepare us for the storm and have a plan of action to rebuild. And I want my president to know what email is - to be able and willing to READ email, even if he can't type.