All I Can Do Now Is Wait

Missouri is late to the party when it comes to making voting convenient. The only way to vote absentee by mail is if you:

• Are confined due to illness or physical disability (or care for someone in your house who is)
  
• Expect to be absent on Election Day
• Are an election worker, first responder, or healthcare worker
• Are prevented by religious belief from going to the polls on election day 
• Are incarcerated but haven't lost right to vote
• Are an active-duty military personnel (or a close family members living with them) or a Missouri citizen living outside the U.S

The one time I requested an absentee ballot no one verified my reason, and I suspect quite a few people misrepresent their plans in order to get a ballot.

There is also a two-week period of no excuse in-person absentee voting, but it is usually only at the Board of Election Commissioners office. This year it was expanded to 14 locations in the metropolitan area. This option was so popular some people I know waited at a polling place an hour or more for the privilege of casting their ballot early.

That seemed crazy to me, and I decided that my plan would be to wait until Voting Day when there would be substantially more polling places (and hopefully shorter lines). Because voters can choose any polling place in the county, this morning after a chiropractor appointment I pulled up a wait time tracking website and found that the five locations closest to his office had somewhere between zero and six people in line. I headed towards the most convenient one.

The polling place was in a high school gym. It was well organized, with a line up indicator that wound around two sides of the room. However, there was no one in line and I was able to move immediately to a station. The worker scanned my ID, which told him which ballot I needed. After I had my ballot another worker directed me to a seat.

I pulled out my pre-filled sample ballot and got down to the task. Filling out all the bubbles was the hardest part. In addition to the national and state races, there were a half dozen state amendments/propositions, three county propositions, and two local ones. Including votes for a couple dozen judges that were up for retention, that was a lot of marking! 

After I submitted my ballot I chose a sticker from the selection at the machine. The poll worker thanked me for coming in.

 Five years ago today: Adventures In Selling And Buying

From Peaceful To Disgusted

Last night Hubby Tony said he wasn't feeling well and went to bed early. Because Tony wasn't available, Pimento the Cat deigned to come over to my side of the love seat and cuddle.

Thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time and the early sunset it felt very late, although it was only a little after 9:00. I had the television on for noise, but my attention was mainly on my laptop screen. All of a sudden I heard a strange announcement from the screen. It said that the upcoming commercial was a paid political advertisement that by federal law the network was required to carry, it contained disturbing scenes, and viewer discretion was advised.

Just a few seconds after the ad started I saw a graphic image of an aborted baby. I picked up my laptop and held it in front of my eyes so I couldn't see anything else. All of a sudden the house felt scary. When I went to bed I turned on the lights as I went down the hall.

This morning I did research into the topic. I won't refer to the fringe Presidential candidate ad purchaser by name and increase his web presence, I found out that the vile anti-abortion ad has been running in states that have abortion measures on the ballot. The Federal Communications Commission’s rules say that stations are prohibited from rejecting or censoring political ads paid for and sponsored by legally qualified candidates. All they can do is include the warning statement.

Easiest Overwintering Ever

The first summer Hubby Tony and I lived in our condo I got some flowers in baskets to hang on the deck, but it didn't take me long to realize the orientation of the building wasn't conducive to growing annuals. The deck didn't get enough sun for them to thrive, but got too much sun for shade lovers. My solution was to get a supply of metal flowers, which I display in two large ceramic pots filled with pea gravel.

 When the weather turns cool, instead of pulling up spent plants all I have to do is carry my 'garden' inside. I check the flower stems for rust and bundle them together, then carry everything down to the storage area. Flowers go on the shelf. Pots go on the floor

Happy Halloween!

One of the things I love about my area is the local custom of having some type of "trick" to get a "treat". The trick is usually some type of corny joke or groaner.

Our condo building has a buzzer system to let people in, so there will be no trick or treaters tonight. Instead of getting a new supply of one-liners from them, I had to search the internet for my own.

Why don't ghosts like rain on Halloween? It dampens their spirits.

I bought 75 percent of shares in a vampire hunting business. I'm the main stakeholder.

What kind of medicine do witches use on their warts? I don't know, but it's not working.

What do you call a lost wolf? A where-wolf

What does a panda ghost eat? Bam-BOO!

What do you call a movie about zombies finding true love? A zom-com.

What’s the best thing to put into a pumpkin pie? Your teeth.

Why do vampires love baseball? They turn into bats every night.

Which position do ghosts play in soccer? Ghoul-keeper.

Five years ago: The Lee Family

Weather See-Saw

The weather here has been a little bonkers. The average high for late October is in the mid-60° F range, and the average low in the mid-40° F, but only two out of the last ten days were average. Today when I rolled out of bed it was almost 70° F, and the high was forecast to be 86° F! 

The above-average numbers are doing a number on my mind and body. 

• The weather swings have impacted my sleeping. My body had gotten used to brisk overnight temperature, and last night wasn't. I was too warm with the sheet on but too cool without it. I tossed and turned so much I woke up with a stiff neck and a sore lower back.

• It's hard to figure out what to wear. Sunday was one of the normal temperature days. When I left the house in the morning I wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a denim jacket, and a fluffy scarf around my neck. This morning when I left for a yoga class at the gym I wore shorts, a tee, and sandals. Later in the day I had to dig through my clothes to find things I thought I was finished with for the year.
  

• The days are getting shorter, which means the sun is lower in the sky at this time of year, but my brain associates warm weather with the length of the day. In the morning the sun should have been much higher in the sky as I was driving to the gym. At the end of the day it felt like it was getting dark way too early.
  

• After lunch Hubby Tony and I took a walk through the neighborhood across the street, where we admired some impressive fall foliage. A brisk wind kept things feeling cooler than they actually were, but I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible because in the sun it was hot! I came home sweaty enough to change my clothes.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 80s again before rain comes through and knocks the temperatures back down to normal. I can't wait.

Dramatic Tragedy

On Friday night Hubby Tony and I went to the Hi-Pointe Theater. From now until Halloween they are celebrating with a "Hauntathon".

 I'm not a fan of blood and gore horror movies, but not everything they're showing fits into that category (as evidenced by the marquee sign for the sold-out showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show). Instead, we saw a classic suspense movie-the original version of The Phantom of the Opera.

I thought I knew the plot of Phantom, but my knowledge is based on the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical. It turns out that the title character in the early version was much more malicious. The story revolves around The Phantom (AKA Erik, a disfigured, masked recluse who lives underneath the Paris Opera House), Christine Daaé, (a young opera singer that he mentors from afar, then kidnaps), and Vicomte Raoul de Chagny (Christine's beau). In his lair Erik professes his love but is spurned. He vows to get revenge on both Christine and Raoul.

Every silent movie has a musical accompaniment. I expected some type of traditional organ or piano. Instead, two musicians at the front of the theater played a moody electronic score, which corresponded perfectly with what was playing on the screen and added to the eerie mood. I was caught up in the plot twists and turns. Even though I was pretty sure I knew how things would end it was still bittersweet when the movie was over.

Signage Of The Times

Here's a selection of political items that have recently caught my eye.

Yes it does! Please do it.

Or Indysplendent, Librarytarian, or Greeny?

Yes! And in my opinion the order is important.

Someone repurposed an old Biden sign into an 'H'.

I think it's for Harris, but why not just get a new sign?

A St. Louis-centered sign with the Gateway Arch in the graphic.

STL is a nickname for the city.

Who needs a elephant or donkey?

The Cocktail Party works for me!

(For what it's worth, I tried really hard to showcase both major political parties. In a month of searching, all I could find were standard-issue Trump signs.)

 

Five years ago today: I Could Be A Barking Bison That Grunts

Helpful Or Weird?

Several months ago I often started seeing Google AI (Artificial Intelligence) Overviews at the top of the screen when I did an internet search.

At first I shunned the summaries, preferring to click on the old reliable hyperlinks. However, I'm starting to see the advantages of an artificially generated summary of information from multiple sources.

To see what the AI engine could do I did a search for 'Google AI Overview' (pretty meta, right?). According to the Overview from that search, a generative AI learns patterns and determines which links to include. It's available for some, but not all, searches.

However, not all of the Overview information is correct, and you should do a fact check if the answer doesn't feel right. For example, in my search the Overview said you had to be signed in to your Google account. That was originally true, but changed back in August.

If you use Google for searching you can't turn off the AI Overview feature, but there are a couple of ways to get around it. One is to use the Web tab at the top of the search results just under the search box. Some browsers may not show the Overviews. Depending on your browser, you can install an extension that blocks the feature.

Did you know about the new Google feature? Have you used it? What do you think about it?

Five years ago today: What The Heck Is Cascara?

Creepy, Comical, and Cute

Otherwise known as a collection of Halloween decorations I've seen in the past few weeks.

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For some reason this skeleton walking its canine skellys across a lawn made me think of Son Donald, who is tall and takes his two small dogs out for a walk every day.

This tall skeleton knows its pet owner etiquette. See the poop in the bag its holding?

Skeletons also like to dress up and celebrate the holiday.

This collection of Halloween inspired painted rocks is cute. (Sorry about the glare on the top one.)

Someone left their foot in Aisle 3.

I wonder how often this dude sitting at a cash register gets mistaken for an actual store associate?

Five years ago: Special Sink

What A Difference One Letter Makes

Today I volunteered to hand out information at a vendor booth during a domestic violence awareness walk.

Last night the booth organizer and I were emailing back and forth about the details. I asked her for the address. She gave me a location. Google Maps recognized the address, but said it was in a completely different part of town.

I did some internet research on the event and found out that the actual address needed to include an S (as in SOUTH). With that information I was able to find it just fine.

(And when I pointed out the discrepancy to the organizer, she apologized for forgetting that detail.)