This felt like such a long day, full and unresting, except I was very well rested. I went upstairs shortly after ten last night and watched TV until about ten thirty, then slept until past eight pm. I slept so long that I was groggy when I woke up and had to sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes while my mind came back to the conscious world.
Checking my phone twice in slight disbelief, I went to the bathroom and took my morning pills, now with the ‘go-go’ pill re-addition. Coming downstairs for the first time already showered and dressed seemed to through my morning off just a bit. No hour smoking my pipe complaining about the Today show. Ha! Wanna know how observant I’m sometimes not? Just the other morning, I realized one of the co-hosts is a previous president’s daughter. Go-figure.
Checked the mail and brought it in, a pile to go through tomorrow. Worked on this site a little bit, added some tags to a few pages and added a “Public People” menu, so that people can quickly find the articles in which I mention others.
Hm… Watching channel 10 news and they have predicted the winners of today’s local election, Daniel Mahoney and John Wilson. John Wilson is the candidate I have the closest thing you could call a “working relationship”, that is, we have an established report. Daniel and I have also always gotten along well, though, to this point, I have not yet had the occasion to debate any issues with him. From what I have seen though, I find him as reasonable as could be expected of a Mayor with nearly two years experience.
That is another way to say, I know that he now knows the reality of his position. His opponent, the candidate I voted for today has not held office yet. To me, this will be an interesting election season for several reasons. One, I have an availability of free time. Two, I think this could be a good opportunity to promote truth in an area that I could impact. Three, who knows, by Election Day, I could be a candidate myself (anyone could, as a write-in.)
Okay, back to the day. Shortly after noon I went to vote and ran into some fellow parishioners in the parking lot- the gentleman’s name escapes me, yet I recall he often volunteers as a greeter/door opener at the rear door at most Saturday Masses. Once inside the community room, it was good to see so many of our election workers that I’ve become familiar with. Also great to see them training new faces that will keep our local elections ticking like clockwork.
Then downtown to City Hall, it always feels nice to walk inside there- even if I was just going to pay a water bill and check and see if I owed any taxes for the last calendar year (my accountant can now e-file my City taxes, yet I have to pay manually.)
I seriously considered lunch while I was downtown, and I knew I would and had already prepped my response: I had a fresh loaf of bread at home just waiting to be grilled with cheese. I made it home and made lunch for myself.
Next, I got a call from Progressive, their photo analyst deduced from my uploaded photos that my car incurred about $2900 worth of damage. From what he could see. I mentioned the potential of the frame twist (and I know a great mechanic that would be happy to write that up for me,) to bump that estimate a little more. The adjuster then mentioned the top limit of 70% of their ‘book’ value of my car- which is apparently up to another person in their company. I’m not waiting for another call from them in another day or two.
Reheated the last of my rice/beef/tomatoes (my youngest son had named this meal: Calories on a plate.) I preferred to call it homemade hamburger helper. Covered with some finely shredded fiesta cheese, I think it’s pretty good. Tomorrow will be a batch of spaghetti.
Some time on Facebook, correcting a few bits of slight misinformation. One thing that I love, honestly love about our local government here in Jackson, is that it is (supposed to be,) non-partisan. I didn’t realize how important that was before or how important it is to protect it. At other levels of government (County, State, Federal,) one citizen, almost no matter how informed, cannot grasp the entire system, I don’t currently think. Because of that, teamwork, and alliances are necessary to combine knowledge and intent across the system to create your desired effect. Those alliances are, loosely, our political parties.
Not so much at the City level, here the entire “company” of The City of Jackson, can be grasped by one person (by many.) Also, our City is small enough 33,000 total, 20,000 registered voters, and about 4,000 active voters, that a single person- if properly equipped with the requisite skills can truly “feel the pulse” of the mass of voters. It’s a “big” City, yet it’s just our little town, and most people- even a complete stranger in a line behind me- can be connected with just two or three degrees.
I’ve thought a bit about how to combat misinformation, I’ve thought a lot about how my brain processes information. For me, I have to ask good questions. It seems like everyone has an agenda, as they attack other people for having personal agendas too. What would happen in an election if all voters were informed of all relevant information? Overload I suppose, most wouldn’t read “all” the information. That is another issue I’ve thought about, how to provide accurate information in bite-sized bits.
Ha. To think that I could have the answer for politics. That really is almost funny. And I figured it out when I broke my brain.
Would any group of Americans elect a brain-damaged candidate for public office?
Okay, I suppose I can’t be counted out.
Time to rest.