I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

November 05, 2008 - 11:27 a.m.

Age of Obama

I got up early today lets see if I can finish this before I leave for school. If I can't I'll email it to myself and finish it before class.

The country went through an historic change; I got news about my personal life undergoing an historic change; my mind hasn't undergone an historic change so I'll start by writing about commuting problems.

My plan was to leave for Philadelphia immediately after school. The internet at Nora's went out the night before and I was busy with school work so I couldn't spend much time on the internet during my break so I checked email and took care of my e-business after class. I took a little longer than I wanted to on that. Then on the ride home the E train was delayed by about 20 minutes for reasons I didn't discover. The upshot was that I had to leave for Philly during rush hour. My GPS with real time traffic with the help of my basic knowledge of traffic patters combined to get me out the city with only a 15 minute delay. That was fortunate. I ended up getting to Steve and Lori's a bit before seven and we went out for dinner. Well not immediately. Have I mentioned that I don't have a brain? If I didn't it is because I don't have a brain. I realized on the way down that I forgot my pill box. I need my prednisone so we had to stop at the drug store. The problem with that plan is that I didn't have a prescription for it. Lori asked me where I filled the prescription and I told her CVS; so we went there as it would be on file. We got online for the pharmacy when I remembered that CVS is where I buy my eggs not fill my prescriptions. Have I mentioned that I have no brain? We then went to the right chain. I explained my situation to the woman at the pharmacy and she thought they wouldn't be able to look up an out of state prescription. She explained it to the pharmacy. She asked the pharmacist what to do. He asked what I needed and told him two prednisone and he said, "just give them to him." So she put them in a bottle, did no paperwork, and didn't charge me. Next time I'm asking for oxycodin!

After dinner I stopped by campaign HQ and I discovered that I was supposed to work the polls at 7 AM the next morning. I was just covering till someone else showed up at 10. I see I forgot to mention that I was working on the Joe Sestak campaign. He's Steve and Lori's congressman and way cool. When we got back to Steve and Lori's and I unpacked: guess what I found; my bottle of prednisone. I had forgotten my pill box but had packed the bottle just in case. I forgot about that. Have I mentioned I have no brain?

I got up bright and early the next morning and went to the polls. My replacement never came so instead of being the floater filling in where needed I spent 13 hours outside of a poll handing out the card with the Democratic ticket. I worked with a lovely and interesting woman, Sarah. She's a geologist by training and an environmental scientist by profession. She's also a lifelong baseball fan. We had lots to talk about.

Things went pretty smoothly during the day. We had only two people who weren't in the book and couldn't vote. One just left the other filled out a provisional ballot. We talked to the election lawyers about them but not much could be done. Our other issue was that the Republican greeter (we were greeters) kept going inside the polling place and handing out literature which is illegal. The lawyers made the judge of elections, her husband, kick her out.

Oh, did I mention that it rained much of the day? I was pretty much on my feet from 7AM to 8 PM. I was in the rain. I had a ball. It was the same rush as volunteering at WFUV.

During the day someone from Washington state came over to just check things out. We started talking. He was wearing a shirt from a string band festival. He was a folk musician. We of course ended up talking about that. I gave him a Budgiedome card. He gave me a CD. I have to go. I'll finish this in the office. I'm in school. Let's see if I can finish this before I give my test. His name is Robert Sarazin Blake; anybody heard of him?

At 8 PM we went inside for the vote count. I watched them break all the seals on the voting machines, remove the tape and results printout. Sarah wrote down the numbers and sent them into Sestak HQ. Sestak and Obama both won about 63% of the vote in the heavily republican precinct. Nader got 3 votes and Ron Paul got one write-in. I didn't stay for the absentee ballots because I didn't want Lori and Steve to have to wait for me. I grabbed some dinner at KFC and went back to their house. Lori got back soon after I did and we left for the post-election party. There was plenty of food and drink. I celebrated with chocolate and coffee. We all knew that Sestak had won because he won the precincts of everyone we talked to. He ended up with 60% of the vote in a Republican majority district; that's impressive. Joe came out around 10 and gave his victory speech. We stayed around till the polls closed on the West Coast and Obama was immediately declared the winner. Everyone cheered and danced and whooped. It has been a long time since any of us had an election day like this.

We would have loved to stay for Obama's speech but a bit before midnight we decided that to go home and get some sleep. I had a long drive home of course. I didn't get back to 2 AM. I was still charged up and couldn't go to sleep till 3:00 I had my alarm set for 7:15 but I was up by 6:30. I did not get a lot of sleep. I woke up to good news, for the first time in 40 years the democrats took control of the New York State senate! Yes I'm excited. We might actually be able to get something done. There has been nothing but gridlock the last 40 years.

Speaking of home. I got a date for closing, on Tuesday. Well that was what we agreed on but I got an email when I got home from my lawyer saying that had to change it because Tuesday is Veteran's day. Whatever it is, I'll move in the next Tuesday or Thursday afterwards. I'll call my lawyer as soon as I finish writing this.

I'll save my analysis and thoughts for the future for another time. WFUV's question of the day was to suggest a song that expresses the way you feel today. This was what I sent in.

Aquarius

by James Rado & Gerome Ragni

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!

When the moon is in the Seventh House
and Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

As our hearts go beating through the night
We dance unto the dawn of day
To be the bearers of the water
Our light will lead the way

We are the spirit of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius
Aquarius! Aquarius!

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
Angelic illumination
Rising fiery constellation
Travelling our starry courses
Guided by the cosmic forces
Oh, care for us; Aquarius


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Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile November 05, 2008
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