11/5/08

295) Election Day ~ Obama WINS!

November 4, 2008
Tuesday

El Milagro: Time Change Confusion strikes again! Twice today at work the time change tripped me up! At lunch I was about 30 minutes early because of a clock left unchanged. Then, after a meeting and a bunch of worky-type tasks I looked over at a clock on my phone and jumped up like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland: "I'm late! I'm late for a very important date!" I squeeled as I veritably ran outa the office, waving at Terry the Secretary. I rush over to the center and rush in and Celeste the Nurse reports my chair isn't ready yet... "Why're you here now... its 3:30...you're early." Okay. So now what?

Well, I can go sit at a bar somewhere, walk in the park, or just return to the office and get some more stuff done. I drive back to my office and check my clocks... my computer clock is right and my desk phone clock is still back in last week's time. I push all the buttons on it and it refuses to catch itself up... so I finally put a post-it over the time display and go on with my life. I get busy doing stuff and when it is really time to go, I end up talking to Christine the Policy Person about a situation and direct her and then am late leaving again.

Now I am back here at dialysis... and Joseph the Big Daddy Tech kids me that my chair has been ready for an hour... where have I been? He hooks me up and Celeste the Nurse does my nursing eval and we briefly talk about the election and how O'Bama can help our insurance woes. She isn't sure.

I am listening to ATC on NPR and there isn't too much election news... am waiting for the network coverage for that. My Republican friend, Jeff from Lufkin, yesterday conceded that Obama is gonna win and that with that win plus the loading up of dems in the legislature we BETTER do some good... wagging his finger at me. I can't tell if he encouraging me or taunting me in a friendly way. I want to see change without filibusters.

ABC News with Charlie Gibson starts... 130 million Americans will have voted! I watch and doze throughout my session (click Electorial Vote.com on the sidebar for more info). Later I switch through the channels and check on what each one is reporting and finally get bored and surf to the history channel for a brief watch extreme aircraft.

At 8:30 Amanda the Tech comes over and gently unhooks me and I scoot home to join Lizzie watching the election returns and Shayna, reading her book. By 10 o'clock ABC projects Obama the winner, 52% to 46% and Lizzie wakes me up from my couch slumber to celebrate. I stand up and say, "Great! I'm going to bed."

On the way up the stairs my brain is wandering thru the years I have voted, trying to figure out how many times the nation has agreed with my leanings... and there haven't been too many. Johnny & Katie voted this time for the first time and they have the experience of picking a winner on their first shot. I feel good about that for them. Back in my first vote, I chose Eldridge Cleaver in '68 and all dems after learning that the fringe votes don't count for much more than interesting stories later on. Now I lean towards the middle and think my vote can count when I jump into the bell curve rather than standing out in the tails, where my values usually reside. So it goes in 2008. History is made. We have an African American president! We have a liberal president! WOW.

Notes: In at 78.2 and out at 75.4 kgs.

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