Journeys and Multiple Destinations

Quite the day. Virtual court appearance at 11:30 followed by a live one an hour later. Both in Rochester, so I showed up at Live Place a bit before the earlier time to Zoom it.  That went well until the Live People decided I was Zooming too loud, so I moved me, my stuff and my uncomfy chair out to the hallway. First hearing in 37 years interrupted by people asking where to pay their ticket or where the bathroom was. Somehow I got through both of them, cleared an appointment in my office there, and began the relaxing ride home- only to get a text from a longtime client who wanted to adjourn a 5 p.m. traffic matter on an hour's notice. Amazingly, I was about 20 minutes away from the courthouse, and was actually dressed for court, so here I be, reliving experiences from earlier today,  and nine years ago today, and 45 years ago this past Sunday.

The 2013 experience was getting a Facebook reminder of this purchase entering our life on this day that year:



Iggy was our first electric car, from one of the first years Mercedes made it for sale in the US.  It took about eight hours to charge and had a range of about 30 miles, but it was perfect for what Eleanor needed for a five mile round trip drive to work and the occasional errand.  For my further travels, I had our final Fuckus, then the Honda hybrid that was not a plug-in, and finally the Smart gas model I still have that easily goes 200 miles on a fairly small tank.  That first all-electric, though? We loved it but leased it, and in 2016 we re-upped with a newer but mostly identical model, named Ziggy, for another three year lease term.  Same range, same destinations, and it had barely 3,000 miles on it when the fateful news came in 2018 that Smart dealers were beginning their exit from the US market. The cute little SmartCenter dealership, built like a sidecar onto the monster Mercedes dealership branching out from the Main/Transit car corner, was bulldozed a few years later to expand the sales floor for their BigAss German tanks; only a charging station remains outside it to remind passersby of what once was. 

A few months before Ziggy went off-lease, we found out about the bigger, rangier Hyundai hybrid that replaced her. She costs more than twice as much per month, but we got a large tax credit the year we bought it and in a bit over three years we will own her. ("She" got named Alanis, since the hybrid brand is the Ioniq. Cute, dontcha think?)

I now take Alanis for most of the Rochester runs. The charge still takes close to eight hours and gets just under 30 miles off a charge, but then the gas engine kicks in and the typical range on a full tank is well over 600 miles without further charging. And charge it, I do, anywhere I can find a place to: there's an AC outlet outside the Rochester office I use while there that usually builds back 5-20 of the 30 miles depending on how long I'm there. Downtown in municipal garages, and near some area government offices and businesses, there are dedicated higher-power stations that can top Alanis off in closer to three hours. It's nice work when you can get it, and increasingly, you can't.

Today was one when I couldn't. One of Rochester's newer downtown garages is close to where my Live deal was today, and I've lucked out on some previous occasions snagging one of the four ground-level charging stations in there while I was in whatever court I was in those days.  Today, all full up.  Last week, I visited friends who live about two blocks away from charging stations outside their Town Hall. Those, too, taken up.  There's been talk about expanding these options through money from last year's "bipartisan" infrastructure bill, but those are slow in coming and seem more dedicated to charging higher-range things like Teslas on interstates than for daytime commuter top-ups.  So by the time I finished my morning hearings, I was back to running on about half a tank of fumes, was only able to charge off the 110 circuit for about three miles for a brief office stay, and was just about to fill the other half-plus of the tank on my way home.... when the call came in for the last-minute 5 p.m. appearance.

We should be set for July now, unless I take that car to see the Mets. Undecided on that as of now.

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Also undecided is the other outcome of today's business. Today was Primary Day in New York, and our local polling place was my first stop before the others. I think it's the first time since they changed the rules here that I've voted on the actual day at our official spot; early voting options have allowed earlier and different opportunities before today, and those probably saved time waiting in line.

Today, that was not a problem. What’s wrong with these pictures? Do you see it?

No? THAT’S what’s wrong. Suppose they held a primary election and nobody showed up. I was the 15th voter a little after 8:30 this morning, and only number 14 was in there with me. The poll workers outnumbered us 4-2.

Even worse is what it looked like outside, on the right. Not a single campaign sign, card or campaign worker outside the required 100-foot distance from the door of the polling place. Usually the last-minute reminder placards are plastered all the way up the driveway to the 101st foot.

For all the talk about how you’re going to “remember in November,” it won’t count for anything if you didn’t get to decide who is going to be on the ballot. Republicans have figured out this strategy. They are doing everything they can, besides rigging districts and purging voter rolls and rules, to offer a little real choice as possible when November finally comes around.

It’s not a very sexy race, at least for Democrats in this town and congressional district. Kathy Hochul is probably a shoo-in, Lieutenant Guv is a pitcher of warm spit, but the only other one on my ballot was for county clerk. This is the one countywide post of greatest relevance to my job. The incumbent is a turncoat Democratic party member who has run twice as a Republican and benefited both times from low city turnout to get the job He is trying to secure the Democratic line in this year‘s election to remove any real choice in November, and is deceptively promoting himself as the only “lifelong Democrat.” They don’t call him “Tricky Mickey” for nothing. The polls close in just under half an hour, and I'll be checking how quickly the results come out. It certainly doesn't look like they'll have a lot of ballots to count.

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The final journey I recounted the other day was jogged by seeing many pictures of kids of friends graduating from their respective high schools.  For me, that day fell, also on a Sunday, exactly 45 years before the one two days ago. Some 600 of us marched across East Meadow's sweltering football field to pick up our diplomas and head out into the world.  We even got a memento of it that Pack Rat me, of course, has kept for all these years:



That back bank was a long-dissolved savings and loan, where I had my first ever savings account and my mom did her limited banking until a Buffalo-based bank swallowed it up sometime in the 80s.  The principal's signature on the diploma itself was from a John Barbour, for whom that sweltering football field is still named all these years later. A friend of mine who now lives there is on the school board and confirmed the provenance. Ours was the last class to bear his signature, as he took ill in our final year and died that following December. Probably not a soul on that field except my friend Scott, including the current faculty and principals, had any idea who the field was named for.

And I doubt our driver's ed teacher would ever have made sense of an electric car;)