Is It Over, Yet?

I voted early last week because this twisted election year has beaten me down, and I figured that if I got it out of the way, I'd feel a bit better. I did feel a bit better immediately after I voted. I'm almost 50 years old, but I still get a thrill every time I cast a ballot in an election. I feel so patriotic and American. Not in a flag-waving, 'Murica kind of way, but in a thoughtful and appreciative way. I think of all that came before--the sacrifices and the deep thinking--that allows me to cast a ballot. I was concerned that by voting early I'd miss out a bit on that feeling, because I also like the feeling of voting with other people. You know, the energy of election day. But I didn't experience a lull.

Afterwards, though, the cacophony didn't stop. That was a weird feeling. Every other time I've voted, I've done it on the day of the election and then the noise has died down within a few hours. Not this time. I guess my actions don't control the universe after all!

But I looked at the odds of Trump winning on fivethirtyeight.com and I got nervous again. I've done some gambling and I know that longshots do come in, and I also know that medium shots come in more often. A one-in-three change doesn't make me feel comfortable. I want election day to come and go, and I want it to be a victory for sanity over insane change-for-change's sake.

And don't even get me going on what it might be like if there's a tie or some other such nonsense, causing the election to go to the courts.

October's End

It's an election year, in case you haven't noticed. Here in western Massachusetts, an ultra-liberal section of a liberal state, there isn't as much local vitriol as there is in other places, I'm sure. I met someone from rural Pennsylvania a few weeks ago and he described the divide in his town and how it manifests itself: the municipal waste removal workers have been known to treat rather shabbily the garbage cans at houses with lawn signs in support of candidates they don't approve of.

I find myself wondering how my experience in this election would have been different if Trump supporters were more than mere curiosities and instead were a more prominent part of my day-to-day existence.

I find myself thinking back to something that my father told me when I was a teenager. We were watching a documentary on World War II and Hitler, and he said to me, "Don't ever think that something like that can never happen here." I didn't believe him at the time, of course, but he's gotten a lot smarter as I've gotten older, so I now see the wisdom in what he's saying.

Massachusetts has early voting now. I'm trying to decide whether to vote early or not. On the one hand, it might be nice to get it over with. On the other hand, I like the feeling of civic pride I get when I go to the polls with everyone else.

Is Your Blog Running? Who Left This Thing On?

There's an awkwardness here, to be sure. I mean, we haven't seen each other in over three years, and we then we bump into each other out of the blue. Well, mostly out of the blue, I guess, since admittedly there was some method to my madness. After all, it wasn't like I cut all ties: deep in my Internet history, I still had your number, so to speak, in the password to get in.

So how have you been? I bet you've been lonely, or am I projecting that? It's just that you're here, kind of waiting for something to happen, and I haven't held up my end of the bargain. I haven't provided you with, well, anything.

I'm not going to stand here and tell you that everything is going to change overnight. About the only thing I can promise is that it won't be another three years before anything happens. I'm still trying to figure some stuff out, but I think that we had some good times here, and if you're still willing, I'm in. I know it won't be exactly the same, but maybe we can make this blog thing even better. What do you say?