Cooler Weather, Texas Politics and a Raccoon Boot Camp

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Doug Pike (0:17)

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Doug Pike (0:52)

All right, on your mark, get set, go. Welcome one and all to Fifty Plus, the only show around here, of which I'm aware anyway, that looks at life through, well, through reading glasses most of the time. Thank you all for joining us. And I hope your day is going well. I really do. In case you were confused when you walked out the door this morning, that strange sensation you felt was slightly cooler, drier air moving gently over your skin.

It's been a while since humidity was this low. And honestly, I'm really glad we've turned that corner, even if it's only for a day. Low temperatures are in the 70s, by the way, all the way across the board. And starting next Wednesday, at least according to the forecast this morning, we're going to have highs in the high 80s.

And just for giggles, I went ahead and took a look at the extended forecast into the first week of October.

And if you can overlook four straight days with a 100% chance of rain, which is not easy, although we could use the rain, that's fine, I'll take that, you're going to be glad to hear that all those showers are riding our way on a cool snap that, God, dare I even say it, that on Thursday, October 8th, is supposed to bring to us a high temperature of 69 and a low of 56

Now, all of you are keenly aware of how little, how little stock I put in weather forecasts out past about maybe 48 or 72 hours. So let's don't just, let's don't just all sing and dance in the streets just yet.

But it's coming.

It's coming.

Fall, however you want to call it, is coming. And I can't wait. In market news, thanks to financial algor, algor, no Doug, algorithms, all four major indicators rebounded from yesterday's losses up across the board, which at the same time, oil fell about two bucks. It's not down anywhere near where we need it to be, but at least it's pointed in the right direction. And gold, just for those of you who have bouillon laying around the house, gold picked up 35 bucks an ounce and was at, I think, 34, 44, something like that. All things considered, just another day in the paradise we all call Southeast Texas.

Going back to the weather for a second, much farther east and on a broader scale, the National Hurricane Center's map shows a brace of tropical storms out there. Fay, pretty much in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic Ocean, has reformed yet again, but also again, is supposed to fizzle out and disappear in a few days. I hesitated to say disappear because we've already seen that movie. We know it doesn't turn out the same way. This will be the third, I think, iteration of Fay.

But I think this is going to be it for that little storm. It's just run out of gas, I believe. Anyway, there's another one as well, and that tropical storm is named Gonzalo, which is at least another, that one is at least another thousand miles farther from our country than Fay. And Fay's way out there, so nothing to see, nothing to worry about. It's forecast, by the way, is no worse than that of Fay. They say it's gonna wander north, actually, away, way away from us. Three, four days of that, and then, just like Fay, kind of fall apart out there. I'm not a hundred percent sure exactly what's causing these storms to react the way they have this year, but I'm not gonna ask any questions. Let's just let them do what they do. Let them stay out there in the middle of the ocean, where ships can go around them if they have to, and we'll just sit over here and enjoy some better seasons than we've had in the past.

All right, changing gears here. Let's tee it up with some interesting news about Senate hopeful James Talarico, perhaps one of the least Texan Texans I have ever encountered. Saw a map at the houstonchronicle.com yesterday that shows which zip codes nationally are donating money to Talarico and which are contributing to the campaign of Ken Paxton. And honestly, it's pretty frightening. Paxton's money comes almost exclusively from Texas with a couple of zip codes kind of here and there that are fairly active. Also in Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, even Northern California, there's some money going into Paxton's account. The rest of his money is sprinkled very lightly, just a dusting, if you will, across the entire country. There are people, maybe former Texans, whatever, maybe people in certain industries that want to contribute, but not a whole lot of that.