![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I Voted. I'm Sick. I'll be Sixty.
Nov. 7th, 2019 09:33 pmThere. Past, present and future. Got ya covered.
(There'll be some almost-present in my next post, about a show I just got back from, but it deserves its own entry.)
Sunday, we headed over to the closest early voting site to our home. Erie County set up 37 of them, and you could cast your ballot at any of them through Sunday, with the poll workers using tablets and printers to print an instant ballot for the voter wherever they showed up; Monday, there was no voting to be had, and for this year at least, ED itself brought back the requirement of showing up at your usual local polling place and signing the paper polling book.
Turnout Sunday was decent; we had a grumpy old couple ahead of us where Mrs. G had helpfully scribbled out instructions to Mr. G on a Republican mailer reminding him who to vote for. We quickly canceled those grumps out, I got my stinkin' sticker-
- and by Tuesday night, it was clear that a Blue Wave was cleansing much of the state. Turnout was way up compared to the comparable 2015 campaign season; the Democratic county executive gained his third term, and his counterpart in Rochester defeated the GOP incumbent by a hefty margin, making it one of the few times in my upstate life that both counties will be headed by Dems at the same time. Even judicial candidates with typical suburban/rural Republican support lost to Democrats, here and in Monroe. And the trends around the nation, in Kentucky and Virginia among others, bode well for a year from now.
----
The workweek was relatively quiet, with no court (I got out of appearing at a couple of things) and only a few client appointments. That's just as well, because Tuesday morning dawned with the unmistakable feeling of malaise that comes from an incoming bug. It's mostly a cough, and Mucinex has helped but not defeated it. I made my one weekly Rochester trip Tuesday just as it was beginning to germinate, because they'd scheduled a birthday lunch for me there. The past two days, I've gone in to the office, left rather early and tried getting some rest and extra fluids at home.
This has, of course, given me more opportunities to see the animals in their native habitats: Pepper, mistaking herself for a lap poodle over the weekend-
- and, the morning after the election, elephants and donkeys giving way back to the usual battles around here between cats and squirrels-
And not to be out-cuted, Zoey took a perch on top of our Bluray player the other night. I couldn't pause a DVD in there even after aiming closely at the player and changing the battery in the remote; turned out she was blocking the receiver with her beyootiful tail:
----
Late Monday, before the bug really settled in, I left the office a little early and ran a needed errand. I've been getting by with a El Cheapo™ home repair of a pair of glasses, the ones I broke over a year ago and then replaced with the pair I lost in New York this past August. A local chain was running a deal on such things, so I headed into North Buffalo, gave them my prescription from a couple of months ago, and will have two new functioning pairs in a couple of weeks.
Since I was "in the neighborhood," after getting the fitting for those, I drove up a mile or two to one of Buffalo's few not-so-late-night record shops, this one run for years by "Dan the Record Man."
Alas, Dan is Closed Mondays. But the place next door was open, and brought back all kinds of memories:
I remember it being a KFC way back in the day, and I remember walking there from my law school apartment in Eggertsville, via back streets between the Boulevard and Delaware, to get my six piece extra crispy. Now it’s an Indian and Halal joint, but the architecture from its past life is unmistakable. I ordered some tandoori chicken, just for old times sake. I hope it didn't get the Colonel too upset;) Then, to get home, I drove back by my old walking route- Linden Avenue, then a quick jog onto Highland Parkway, past Colvin and the big church to the old train tracks (which I think still had trains on them at the time), across them on Harrison which then went all the way to the Boulevard. Wow. I walked a LOT back then.
----
Had my second office birthday lunch today. Saturday, when I formally roll the odometer to LX, my college roommates will be catching up with us somewhere between here and Seneca Falls. I've received many memories of 1959 from my sister and officemates, and going out tonight reminds me of how blessed I am that I can still see, hear and get to things that I find moving.
(There'll be some almost-present in my next post, about a show I just got back from, but it deserves its own entry.)
Sunday, we headed over to the closest early voting site to our home. Erie County set up 37 of them, and you could cast your ballot at any of them through Sunday, with the poll workers using tablets and printers to print an instant ballot for the voter wherever they showed up; Monday, there was no voting to be had, and for this year at least, ED itself brought back the requirement of showing up at your usual local polling place and signing the paper polling book.
Turnout Sunday was decent; we had a grumpy old couple ahead of us where Mrs. G had helpfully scribbled out instructions to Mr. G on a Republican mailer reminding him who to vote for. We quickly canceled those grumps out, I got my stinkin' sticker-
- and by Tuesday night, it was clear that a Blue Wave was cleansing much of the state. Turnout was way up compared to the comparable 2015 campaign season; the Democratic county executive gained his third term, and his counterpart in Rochester defeated the GOP incumbent by a hefty margin, making it one of the few times in my upstate life that both counties will be headed by Dems at the same time. Even judicial candidates with typical suburban/rural Republican support lost to Democrats, here and in Monroe. And the trends around the nation, in Kentucky and Virginia among others, bode well for a year from now.
----
The workweek was relatively quiet, with no court (I got out of appearing at a couple of things) and only a few client appointments. That's just as well, because Tuesday morning dawned with the unmistakable feeling of malaise that comes from an incoming bug. It's mostly a cough, and Mucinex has helped but not defeated it. I made my one weekly Rochester trip Tuesday just as it was beginning to germinate, because they'd scheduled a birthday lunch for me there. The past two days, I've gone in to the office, left rather early and tried getting some rest and extra fluids at home.
This has, of course, given me more opportunities to see the animals in their native habitats: Pepper, mistaking herself for a lap poodle over the weekend-
- and, the morning after the election, elephants and donkeys giving way back to the usual battles around here between cats and squirrels-
And not to be out-cuted, Zoey took a perch on top of our Bluray player the other night. I couldn't pause a DVD in there even after aiming closely at the player and changing the battery in the remote; turned out she was blocking the receiver with her beyootiful tail:
----
Late Monday, before the bug really settled in, I left the office a little early and ran a needed errand. I've been getting by with a El Cheapo™ home repair of a pair of glasses, the ones I broke over a year ago and then replaced with the pair I lost in New York this past August. A local chain was running a deal on such things, so I headed into North Buffalo, gave them my prescription from a couple of months ago, and will have two new functioning pairs in a couple of weeks.
Since I was "in the neighborhood," after getting the fitting for those, I drove up a mile or two to one of Buffalo's few not-so-late-night record shops, this one run for years by "Dan the Record Man."
Alas, Dan is Closed Mondays. But the place next door was open, and brought back all kinds of memories:
I remember it being a KFC way back in the day, and I remember walking there from my law school apartment in Eggertsville, via back streets between the Boulevard and Delaware, to get my six piece extra crispy. Now it’s an Indian and Halal joint, but the architecture from its past life is unmistakable. I ordered some tandoori chicken, just for old times sake. I hope it didn't get the Colonel too upset;) Then, to get home, I drove back by my old walking route- Linden Avenue, then a quick jog onto Highland Parkway, past Colvin and the big church to the old train tracks (which I think still had trains on them at the time), across them on Harrison which then went all the way to the Boulevard. Wow. I walked a LOT back then.
----
Had my second office birthday lunch today. Saturday, when I formally roll the odometer to LX, my college roommates will be catching up with us somewhere between here and Seneca Falls. I've received many memories of 1959 from my sister and officemates, and going out tonight reminds me of how blessed I am that I can still see, hear and get to things that I find moving.