I spent Tuesday evening watching the blue wave of wins wash away years of sin. A new liberal baptism in the waters of change hit the country. It was not mispolling or a blue mirage, but a strong movement back to the left and center. 2014 in reverse (when President Obama saw nine seats lost and Republican control of the Senate).
What I saw were good candidates on the blue side running against weaker Trump-picked candidates who struggled to articulate how they would fix the issues. The personal attacks and the other Bush (the older one) tactics did not play out (also explaining the one-term for Bush Sr.). Less intelligent attacks like “Democrats are Communists” make good slogans and memes but get no votes. To me, it looked like the red side had borrowed the previous failed Democratic playbook and added a Bush Sr. seasoning. Seldom does the “we are not them” strategy work, but it did this time for Democrats with strong younger candidates who were good in front of the camera.
I read more of a Canadian crime novel and waited. At 10, I was tired and had not done much, but decided to sleep. I managed to sleep, but a new issue in my right leg surprised me. Now, when I move my knee in some way (still trying to understand it), it flashes massive pain, taking-my-breath-away level of pain, and then fades. I cannot reproduce it yet. Hmmm.
I slept until the morning, woke around 4, and then went back to sleep. My colon was back to its old tricks.
Tuesday morning started with my alarm at 6:30 in the dark, and I reset it to 7:30 and slept more. I then crawled out of bed, more like Bela Lugosi than me, avoiding the sun and possibly hissing, found the coffee, “I do not drink… wine.” I heated the coffee in the microwave. “Listen to the children of the night!” My robe, more of a cape, armed with my drink, I returned to the office and watched the sunrise while I started the blog.
I wrote only for a short while, becoming more human-like as I woke and the coffee worked. I showered, dressed, dressed all in blue for Election Day, and headed out in the Air VW the Gray to Portland, stopping at McDonald for their sandwich and a burrito for breakfast. I put sugar in my coffee by mistake; for the first time in years, it was sweet. The taste was pleasant. Hmmm, twelve calories of sugar.
I arrived at Richard’s without incident and no shutdown highways. At first, it was a surprise, but then Robin and James appeared. Everyone was running late. We started up the cooperative role-playing game, ISS Vanguard, Jame’s version, a huge investment (I see prices of over $1,000 for all the add-ons and painted figures), and we will likely play this for a year. It takes us until 11 to get to the mission. It is about 90 minutes of ship management, which is also interesting and highly immersive as we make choices and invest in technology and production.
Today’s mission goes unexpectedly; we abandon the mission (no planet book is opened at first) and find ourselves on our ship, ISS Vanguard, fighting a battle against something (again, no spoilers) that fits better with a version of the Starship Troopers movie. It was a close thing, and I am surprised to deliver the winning blow; I play engineering.
Robin is still not getting the team and RPG process. She is a board game person and was trying to win, or at least not lose. Richard correctly determined this was just a desperate fight, no puzzle to solve, and we piled on. It was very intense and interesting.
With that done, I headed out; there was no real traffic. I was quickly home, and soon headed out again. The lawn service was scooping up the mass of leaves in the driveway, and I waited for them to finish. Their truck was stuffed with leaves, but it does not look like the trees have even started. After they left, I watched a slow stream of leaves fall. Soon it will look like they had done nothing.
I had lunch at BJ’s Brewhouse and had their lunch special. I was offered a red ale, but I said I would not drink one on election day and instead selected a Boston Lager, something more liberal. And read my book on my Kindle. I had coffee and dessert.
I tried, returning home, to focus on cleaning or Dungeons & Dragons, but the polls were closing on the East Coast, and I just followed the election and read when it got boring.
I also finally finished the blog and published it late.
Thanks for reading!
