I am a weather wonk. Did you know that? If you’re new to the inside of my head, you should be warned — I become a five-year-old when the meteorologists call for a thunderstorm or a snow flurry. Thunder and lightning make me giggle. (And cuddle, but that’s irrelevant.) I will check the hour-by-hour forecast somewhat excessively until I remember that, Doppler or no Doppler, the meteorologists are about as accurate as fortune cookies.

Regardless, this has been a lovely couple of days for my rainy-day coziness. Lots of grey sky above, lots of puddles below. This is less convenient when you’ve lost weight and only feel like wearing flip-flops — I’ve had to deal with sopping denim cuffs, but I’m okay with that.

As the year winds toward another presidential election, I’ve been looking back a bit and thinking about how much crap this administration has been responsible for and its effect on society in general. Shortly after Bush took office in January of 2001, all hell broke loose. Terrorist attacks, war, faulty intel, more war, secrecy, torture, recession, wiretapping, faith-based funding, evangelical influence, scandal, abstinence-only sex ed (a small detail, but for Pete’s sake, it doesn’t work)… The last seven years have been a giant clusterfuck based on poor judgment and lack of insight. Personally and politically.

I call Do Over. I don’t care about getting my 20s back — my youth, it springs eternal. 😉 But I would very much like to take another crack at the last seven years. So much has been lost. Lives, loves, liberties… Some of these are gone forever.

As for the others, rediscovery and repair may be possible, but how do you get past seven years of wrong turns? If you give something up, however foolishly, can you regain it? Do you deserve to have it back? Can you trust yourself not to take it for granted ever — ever — again?

Various (and mostly misattributed) versions of the phrase “Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither” have floated around for generations, but, as a friend recently pointed out, we rarely get exactly what we deserve.

In this case, perhaps, thank God for that.