Posts Tagged ‘primary elections’
Proud Again
At quarter to one, we put Asher in the car and drove up to our township voting location at the town hall. After Cyndie and I cast our ballots in Wisconsin’s primary election, I left Cyndie to fulfill her volunteer role as a poll worker. Asher and I had the place to ourselves for the rest of the day.
We didn’t choose to harvest the chicken of the woods mushrooms that sprouted while we were up at the lake.
There sure are a lot of ‘em. Cyndie was looking through the many ways to prepare them last night. I think we’re going to give it a go this time. We picked some last year when a friend first pointed them out to us, but never got around to eating them.
Asher and I walked the grass trails to assess the percentage of mowing that is needed. I find it extremely frustrating because there are places where the grass is completely dried out and dormant, but then a small section where it’s getting ridiculously tall.
I will need to drive over the dormant grass to reach the portion that needs cutting, but I try really hard to stay off the sunburned sections.
Well after dark, Asher and I drove back to the town hall to pick up our intrepid volunteer. She had a good day and gained new insights about fellow citizens of our township and about the details involved in supervising voting. There are so many layers of checks and balances that the validity of the outcomes can be confidently assured.
It was a rewarding exercise in civic participation. I’m excited that she has made new connections with more people from the township than we had in the previous 13 years we’ve lived here.
This is all because a couple of elections ago, we were surprised to find one of the poll workers in our township was someone we knew from our school days in Eden Prairie. We had no idea she lived close to us. We’ve connected many times since, and this eventually led to Cyndie choosing to pursue the steps to get certified to perform the duties of facilitating elections.
She thanks me for supporting her efforts, but that’s easy compared to the amount of time and study she has put into becoming an election inspector. She makes me proud. Again.
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Fading Light
Not all sunsets are spectacular scenes, but that one looks like there is some symbolism occurring. Cyndie captured the weird sky on her last walk of the day with Asher. We are home from the lake! The drought continues to wither most of our grass to within a slim margin of its life, so there’s not much urgency to mow.
My partner in ranch operations has requested I mow the hay field to knock down the weeds since we were informed the neighbor won’t be attempting a second cut of hay. I guess now is as good a time as any. Diesel fuel probably won’t get cheaper any time soon.
Today is Wisconsin’s primary election to determine candidates for November’s general election. I don’t usually vote in primary elections because I am unaffiliated with any political parties. Cyndie has volunteered to be a poll worker and will be putting in a long shift from noon until after the polls close this evening. She wants me to vote since Wisconsin primary elections are open and I can choose any party, as long as I stick to just one.
I’m more inclined to let each party hash it out among themselves, and then I’ll weigh in after they show me which candidate they have to offer for November.
I will not deny that the pessimist in me fears our democracy is a fading light. I wish I could believe that our elections will get us out of the mess the current administration has created, but both main parties are responsible because none of the people in office with a lick of sense has figured out a way to curtail the insanity. Merely saying they object without doing anything about the daily malfeasance has gotten nowhere.
It would be great if any campaign promises to fix what is broken by getting elected in the midterm election actually came true, but there isn’t a great track record throughout our country’s history to inspire hope from the usual rhetoric.
Getting to rub our dog and the horses again after four days away was a welcome portion of my otherwise uneventful day. Asher’s coat smells like he rolled in something stinky, and the mares were all business at feeding time, but seemed happy to see us bringing a return to the usual routine.
Our health and safety feel all the more precious after viewing videos of Colombia’s powerful earthquake as it was happening. That’s something that cell phones with quality camera features have made a powerful impact on for newsworthy events. I have never been in an earthquake, but seeing videos recorded during quakes that were happening in Venezuela in June and now the one in Colombia yesterday has given me a more intense sense of what it must be like.
The ever-increasing prevalence of surveillance cameras has also recorded as-it-happens depictions of the shaking that have been very informative for me.
I suppose people living through major earthquakes are equally impacted by watching the increasing numbers of tornado videos getting posted these days.
The drought we are suffering in our region isn’t nearly as dramatic. You won’t find many videos of grass slowly getting burned to a crisp by the sun.
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Relative Something 