Yesterday afternoon, Jack’s brother-in-law called and said that he was at the downtown early voting station, and there were no lines. The downtown center is just three blocks away from where I work, so I walked over and waited less than five minutes to vote. Most painless voting ever, even the time I was organized enough to get an absentee ballot. As always, I was a bit bemused to have to vote to retain judges. (Colorado requires a vote to retain judges in office, even though they are not originally elected by voters.) All the voting stations were full, and the worker who shepherded me through the process said they had been staying busy.
Category: Life
Early Voting
According to the CS Independent, early voting in Colorado Springs starts Monday, October 20. Centennial Hall is two blocks from where I work. The 2008 State Ballot Information Booklet, also known as the Blue Book, is available online. The Blue Book gives a fairly objective overview of issues on the ballot, and is guaranteed to be better than hot milk for curing insomnia.
Insults and Taunts ….
Perspective
For those days that require a little perspective, xkcd – A Webcomic – Height, is just the thing. Be sure to scroll down and see the whole thing.
Mimic
Yesterday morning, one of the smoke detectors started its low battery chirp. I took it down, but couldn’t figure out how to remove the battery. I didn’t think Jack would think it was a sufficient emergency for me to wake him up before he would normally wake up. I put it in the mudroom, where I wouldn’t hear it chirp, since the mudroom is on the other side of an exterior door. When Jack got up, I asked him to remove the battery and it stopped chirping.
Later, when I went out to feed horses, I was astonished to hear the chirp again: same pitch, but at a more rapid interval. I was finally able to track the source of the sound: a magpie sitting on a telephone wire. It must have heard the smoke alarm chirping in the mudroom, through the dog door, and decided to incorporated the sound in its repertory.
Ike
Monday we heard from our only family in Ike’s path: Jack’s niece who lives northwest of Houston. Although the path of Ike passed close-by, she said that their house sustained no damage aside from some loose shingles, and lost power for over a day. She noticed it more than her kids, who thought it was a “sleep over.” Her husband’s family lives in Louisiana, and they had more significant damage, but are all okay.
The short – but eventful – life of Ike – The Big Picture – Boston.com has an impressive photo essay about Ike.
Childhood Dream
When I was a child, I dreamed of something like this tree house.
Small Victories
For the first time in more months than I care to count, we can park two cars in our two car garage. Yay, us! Although in summer it isn’t too bad, I hate having to clean ice and snow off my car in the morning in winter. And after thirteen or fourteen years with horses here, I finally have a tack room (or at least a corner) in our mud room. All this is courtesy of the Tuff Shed that was delivered and installed on Wednesday.
Lucky Bunny
I was scouting around the backside of the house looking for debris to go in the dumpster which departs tomorrow and checked the window well. Sitting at the bottom of the window well (about six feet deep) was an indignant looking bunny rabbit. Jack crawled into the window well with a box and gloves. I stood at the top of the well. Jack sort of scooped the rabbit into the box while lifting it, and I lifted from the top as soon as I could reach it. The rabbit leaped out of the box and dashed down the fence line, greatly entertaining the dogs. (We are keeping the Furry Golden Horde for the next ten days.)
Since we never ever look in that window well, I figure the rabbit was pretty lucky that I had to go to the north side of the house to look for trash. Jack went off to buy a window well cover.
A Productive Day
As a consequence of having some major house repairs done, we have had a construction dumpster by our house for a week. In addition to the debris from the house repairs, we planned to fill it with the old barn that suffered major structural failure during a wind storm eighteen months ago. Not going to fit.
However, we have filled the dumpster, and a lot of the barn is gone now. I couldn’t actually stand to watch Jack do the demolition part: he is scary enough when he is putting something together. And then there is the worry of trying to do demolition in an area that is inhabited by three horses, one of which is Hap.
I used to wonder how Hap found so many novel ways to hurt himself, and then realized it was a consequence of me protecting him from the obvious dangers. He has to be creative to get hurt. One time he got a foot through a pallet and spun in circles in a small area until he broke the pallet and trotted off on three legs. I don’t think I started breathing until I saw him put the fourth foot down. When I examined him I found some abrasions and bruising, but nothing serious.
Still to go: outside painters and roof repair.