( 9:28 AM )
First Snow
Got our first snow of the season last night. I woke up to a winter wonderland and 6" of white fluffy stuff covering the cars and driveway. It's such a beautiful scene, it makes the cold commute almost worth it. I sometimes pity the poor souls that live in areas that don't get to experience a morning like this. This is eventually balanced, of course, by those frigid, miserable mornings in the middle of February, when I can’t get to work because the door of my truck is frozen shut, or I’m standing on a train platform in freezing sleet, or I’m walking to the office and can feel the moisture in my nasal passages starting to crystallize. It is then that I start to fantasize about a condo on the water in Florida.
But this morning, at 7am, while cleaning off the cars and shoveling the driveway, and while gigantic snowflakes continued to fall from the sky, I contemplated calling in sick or “snowbound”, just so I could watch my kids' expressions when the awoke and saw snow on the ground.
Instead, I quickly built a snowman in the front yard and went to work. I’ll have to get the recount from my wife later tonight.
( 4:09 PM )
WPKN radio
It’s a cold, rainy Saturday afternoon. My mother-in-law is visiting, which relieves me of kid duties for most of the day, which is good, because I’ve got some stuff to build.
One of my favorite hobbies is hanging out in my basement workshop and running power tools. Sometimes for no reason. But today I’m building some bookshelves for one of the kid’s rooms.
The only source for music in my workshop is a crusty old radio receiver that is probably 40 years old. I got it from my father-in-law, who was trying to sell it for a dollar at a yard sale several years ago. Apparently, he got the radio as a wedding gift sometime during the 60s. I guess today’s equivalent of getting a DVD/CD player for a gift.
Since I’m in the basement, and the radio antenna is actually a piece of wire that touches a hot water pipe, and depending on the weather conditions, I can usually only get a couple of local radio stations. One of which is the local university radio station, run by a bunch of old men, rather then college students. WPKN 90.7FM, Bridgeport.
The show I usually catch is a blues show run by some old guy who knows shitloads about every blues musician on the planet. Now this guy isn’t a DJ by any means. He’s always screwing up things, and dropping the needle on the wrong spot, or pausing for ungodly amounts of seconds while he tries to find a song on an album, or while he’s coughing up a lung. And in any given hour, he’ll talk more then actually play music.
But for some reason, I find the whole show extremely enjoyable, informative and very relaxing. Today, I’m painting some shelves and just generally putting around the basement, enjoying the break from the chaos going on above me, and listening to “Feels like Rain” by John Hyatt.
( 1:47 PM )
Day after election
Like the morning after a cheap date, I feel unfulfilled and lonely after last night’s voting experience. Well, not lonely, but certainly unfulfilled.
In the end, I decided to vote for the people I thought were lying to me the least. I also didn’t vote for anyone running a negative campaign. If your best selling items are pointing out the other guy's faults, then you probably don’t have much to offer.
This morning I discovered that most of the people I voted for lost, leading me to believe that everyone else likes being lied to. Either that, everyone else is stupid.
But I also have to wonder whether it makes a difference who’s in office. For the most part, all of the candidates were saying the same things. “We need to do this, we need to do that,” “…affordable healthcare”, “…prescription drug plans,” “environment”, “education”, etc. All the key buzz words were used. But not a lot of “plans”. Just “promises”.
On another note, and general observation from my voting experience – the voting booths in my district were rather old and dusty. They were the stand-up kind, with the curtain, that looks like one of those Woolworths photo booths, where everyone behind you can see your legs, and if you’re really short they can see you scratch your ass as you try to figure out all those “buttons” or “toggles” or “switchy-thingys”.
Well, I get in there and it takes me a moment to figure out how to close the damn curtain. I’m looking up at the top of the thing like it’s a shower curtain on rings or something, and start tugging on it like I’m in the dressing room. Finally, the 109-year lady guarding the booth (from who or what, I don’t know) says, “pull the lever”. Which I do and amazingly the curtain shuts. (What technology!) Next it takes me a few moments to figure out how to read the mechanical ballot; the elected offices across the top, the line of Republicans just below, the Democrats on the next line, and other miscellaneous parties on the bottom. (Wonder who determines the order?) Now, I’m not playing favorites, but I would like to point out that some of the Democrat candidate names were partial blocked by the toggle-thingy from the Republican candidate above it. In some cases I had to crouch down a bit to read the name. Not sure that’s really fair.
I can’t believe that in this day and age of computers and space travel, we’re still using these archaic voting shower stalls. Now, I’m a well educated person, (I’m not saying I’m a rocket scientist, but I do okay) and all-in-all, it took me a good five minutes to get my bearings and complete the voting process. I can’t imagine what the experience must be like for the elderly or for general idiots.
( 1:07 PM )
Election Day
So tomorrow is election day. Yeah! Another four years for some politician to break all of the promises he or she made to me during their super-sincere, friendly-next-door-neighbor-type-person-who-will-fight-for-me, election campaign. Phone calls, train station handshakes, mailbox media blitz, television ads, radio ads. Wow….they are all so nice. I don’t know who to vote for.
I guess I could just vote for the person who’s stance on the issues is similar to mine. Oh, but wait. Cutting taxes is good? Right? Oh, but just because someone says they’re going to vote to cut taxes, doesn’t mean they will. And just because someone says that cutting taxes is not the answer, and would hurt economic growth, means it actually is and would.
We’ll I guess I’ll vote for the person who’s track record reflects their past promises. Oh, but wait. State Senator Bill Finch says (in his mailer) he voted against raising taxes and that he says “NO” to more taxes. But wait, Finch’s rival, Elaine Hammers claims (in her mailer) that “Bill Finch wants to increase your income taxes!” Hmmm….sounds like somebody’s lying. But, probably not. They’re probably both telling the truth, by twisting the words and misleading the public.
Politics is a very dirty business and it makes me ill to think that my vote may put someone in a position to make decisions that will effect my life, and yet, here I am, a day before election day, and I still have not idea who I should vote for.
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