Early Voting Day 4

Early voting (for me) is over. My 13 hour days have come to an end. Hallelujah!

I have a week to recuperate. My big-girl Presiding Judge voice (tm) is exhausted. More than once today I demonstrated how, "No" is a complete sentence.  

By the way, there is a faction of the population who need to learn a few things about Civics before casting their ballot. All'y'all are scaring me with your lack of understanding. 

Incidentally, if you walk into a polling place, announce you are high on an illegal substance and then demand to vote, it isn't going to go well for you. If you start talking on your phone while you are voting, expect the presiding judge to call you out on it. If you tell us you picked the "wrong" ballot because you want to vote for Marianne Williamson and Asa Hutchinson, we aren't going to be able to reissue you a new ballot. Please don't be those people. 

Please! 

The good news is I had two very competent clerks today. Through no fault of my own, I went through seven clerks in four days. Of those seven, three of them I would recommend.  One I would fire and not look back. Two I would suggest remedial training. Two I would promote to judges. One I would not promote to being a presiding judge because I like her too much and I know she doesn't want the job ever again. 

As for me, I enjoyed being a judge. I'm naturally bossy. I'm in a point in my life where I have enough outward confidence to make it look like I have a clue of what I'm doing and people usually take me seriously if I position my face the right way. I'm not Southern, so I don't feel the need to sugar-coat my, "you need to take your political signs down on my side of these cones because we both know you are flagrantly breaking the law," talk with candidates and their surrogates. 

I also like preserving our country's right to free and fair elections. 

I like that part a lot.

Next week is Super Tuesday. I'm going to miss working 13 hours a day, because working on Super Tuesday is a much longer day than that. 

By the way, please be kind to your election workers. Thank them for what they are doing. In some parts of the country, they don't get paid. In Bowie County, we make a pittance, but I'm not doing this for the money. If you think of it, ask them what they want to drink and bring them a bottle of water or something back from Sonic, QT, or McDonalds. I promise you that will be so well received. Election workers are thirsty folks who have to talk all day. 

Night all. Tomorrow I'm playing with plants and I'm sleeping in until 7 a.m. Can't wait.  

 

The Voting Polls Day Three

Should have brought a book

The day started with a flurry of texts from Darwin and Squirrel. Well, to be fair, every day starts with a flurry of texts from Darwin and Squirrel. We chat every day. 

Today's texts were different. Today's texts were about Dad. And our tribute to him. We sent pictures. Made ice tea comments and made inside jokes only the three of us and Dad would get. I miss my daddy. I'm glad my brothers understand. 

All this was going on while I was working the election site. When it is slow, I don't mind if the people working are on their phones. After all, there is only so much we can discuss at 8 a.m. otherwise, we stare into space, looking stoned. For those with the foresight to bring a book, the more power to them. I was not that person today. 

We had two new clerks (you may remember my head clerk was promoted Saturday afternoon when Kara left with a family emergency). Clerk A seemed to have her act together. Clerk B was a little more discombobulated. Both clerks are old enough to know how to act.  

Clerk B, never really got her act together. She shopped on her phone and planned her daughter's wedding every chance she got. I had to remind her three times (three times!!) to keep her equipment--which is normally plugged in and there's no reason whatsoever it should be unplugged--plugged in. At the end of the day, the head of the Bowie County elections called me wanting to know why one station was at 30 percent, letting me know that any equipment under 100 percent battery was unacceptable. I wanted to know why this was the case too, but I gave up four-letter words for Lent. Anyway, you get the idea about my day with Clerk B. She won't be there tomorrow.  

Turns out she too is in the Master Gardener program. She questioned if I was really in it, because she didn't see me Saturday at some event. Nope. I was working the election. 

It's supposed to be the Easter Bunny,
not a caterpillar

We had two complaints today. One from a woman frustrated because she felt there wasn't enough signage in the parking lot of the Church of Christ (where the elections are held). I'm sure if we had a neon arrow, and a conveyor belt which would carry her car to the designated spot, it would not be enough signage. But, I took down her concerns, and passed them along to the Powers that Be.

The other complaint was from a woman who was not voting. She wasn't even in the voting room. However, she felt the people in the room were too loud and it was unfair for those who were voting. Her specific complaint came in when a group of older men were checking in and their voices were booming. Oddly enough, she and the people she drove to the voting place stood outside the room after she whined to me talking loud enough that I'm pretty sure Arkansas got an earful. However, I registered her complaint with the Powers that Be as well. 

Around 5:30 Polly arrived with Chick-Fil-A. It was a surprise dinner for me. She told me she met Buckaroo at the restaurant who was also planning on buying Chick-Fil-A for me! However, she beat him to it. 

One more day this week. I'm looking forward to sleeping in until 7 a.m. on Wednesday. 

Dads and Moms (Day 2)

One of many symmetrical designs.

Let me start by saying, whoever decided the polls should be open on a Saturday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. needs to come see me. We need to talk. It's a stupid idea. It means I wake up at 4 a.m. and have to be people-y all day. Especially when I'm in charge. 

I will also say around noon I texted Marty and told him he needed to gather bail money. Kara was on my last nerve. I think that was about the time she started bragging to everyone about "tarantula season" in Arizona. Or maybe when she started bragging about how she should have a PhD in property management because she's rented so much. Or maybe it was when she shared her sage (and extremely unpleasant) opinion on Catholics. 

For the record, there's an awesome app on my phone called "Happy Color." It kept me busy so I didn't have to respond. 

Also for the record, Kara's okay as a person when I'm not trapped in a Breakfast Club scenario with her for 12+ hours at a time. I don't see us being besties but in small purple patches she's fine. Oh, it also turns out she's in the master gardener program too, so I'll be seeing her more.  But enough about her. (for now).  

Back to Early Voting at the Church of Christ on Saturday in Texarkana. We had a trickle of people in 12 hours. The good people of Texas paid their tax money into having folks like me sit at the election poll, color on my phone, play with "I voted stickers" all while making polite small talk. 

We did have one gentleman come in. He is 88 and was cantankerous as anything. He used a walker. originally refused to give photo ID--giving my new clerk a hard time--and griped about all the "technology" associated with voting these days. The three Southern women I worked with cringed, unsure how to approach him. He seemed to chew their politeness out and spit it back as venom. As for me, I cracked my knuckles, got my best no-nonsense face on and said hello. All the while, all I could think of was how much I missed my father, because everything from his crusty-on-the-exterior demeanor to his disability reminded me of my Dad. 

Normally I don't offer to assist voters (we help when THEY ask), but I already figured out that he just wanted attention and most of what he was doing was a ruse. I brought him a sample ballot. I talked with him for a moment and even moved the chair out of the way in front of the voting station so he could sit on his walker instead. I showed him all the fun features (like the "next" button) the voting machine had. I even listened to him give his opinions about the candidates. When he was done voting, his rough exterior had melted and he'd taken the "I voted" sticker from me. As for my co-workers, they were impressed. He'd been the toughest voter we'd had. 

When he left, I went in the bathroom and wiped my eyes. Monday will be two years since Dad died. It's been on my mind for days.  

The afternoon wore on, and we made more small talk, I colored more pictures, and I made more designs with the "I voted stickers." Just so you know, it is against the law to take pictures in the voting room. So, the picture I took was because we all moved the table to the doorway during one of the hour-long lulls we had. 

Sadly, Kara received unfortunate news around 4 p.m. Her mother had been hospitalized and she is several hours away. Kara left early and won't be returning for the remaining shifts. Therefore, because I need a co-judge, I deputized one of my clerks. 

Part of me is thrilled I won't have to work with Kara for the rest of this election. However, I also remember how I felt when my father was hospitalized and I was out of town. It is a feeling of abject helplessness. For her sake I hope this is a false alarm and her mother is fine. 

Day One Done

Today (Friday) was my first day of being a precinct judge for early voting. I was one of two judges. The other one, Kara, belongs to the other political party--assigned this way by design. We also have two clerks--one from each political party--working at the polling place. 

Earlier in the week, I'd reached out to Kara to introduce myself. She didn't respond. I then took the initiative of sending out an e-mail to our team, introducing myself, setting the schedule and breaks, etc. I bring this up, because given she couldn't bother to get back to me, I had a feeling I knew what I was in for with my co-judge. And I was not wrong. 

The good news is I have only three more shifts with her. The bad news is she reminds me too much of Marty's sister-in-law (his brother's wife), who will not lift a finger to help with anything, whines about how horrible her life is and has to one-up everyone around her. If you won the lottery, she won it twice. If you lost your grandmother, she lost two grannies and a cat. Anyway, I have three more 13 hour shifts with Kara.

I'm not making her sound worse than she is. However, I am making my threshold of tolerance sound lower than it is. Pretty much, I tuned Kara out most of the day while she blathered on to the clerks.  

Kara's abject laziness and non-stop talkativeness aside, today went well. There was one slight hiccup. I stepped outside to eat lunch when the tabulation machine started beeping. One of the clerks hunted me down to tell me I needed to get back into the voting room right away, as if my mere presence could stop the beeping. It could not. 

The only other interesting tid-bit is I kicked out a Southern woman who started talking trash about "those people." I was horrified. I have experienced racism one other time since I got here with a member of the Ladies Auxiliary (and probably one of the primary reasons I don't want to hang out with them). My feelings then and now aren't different. If the woman I kicked out today feels the need to call the Secretary of State's office to report me, I will give her the number. 

Overall, I enjoyed my first day. Corona Patty and Corona Gail stopped by to vote and say hello. Many people thanked us for working the voting polls. With few exceptions everyone tended to be polite and friendly. Now off to sleep. I need to be back at 6:15 tomorrow. 

Random Texarkana (Small Town Stuff)

On the Facebook Texarkana Metro site last December: someone posted they lost their debit card in the parking lot of Hobby Lobby. They were currently forty miles away. Would someone be so kind as to head over to that parking lot, take a peek and if they find it, the owner of the card would be happy to cashap a few bucks to them for their time. The following post a few hours later was the same person, praising the sweet man who went over to the Hobby Lobby parking lot and found the debit card. 

-------

Our garage door is broken. It is a major inconvenience. It will be another three weeks before our new replacement door comes in. Meanwhile, I'm using the front door for all egress and ingress. However, I keep forgetting to lock the door. I realize Luna will probably scare away anyone with impure motives, but the big-city girl in me should know better than keeping the door unlocked. In fact, I'm home right now and my front and back door are both unlocked. I do that now. 

However, two weeks ago, Wake Village had a rash of violent crime, all within 24 hours and all on the same block. This has been the ONLY violent crime since we moved here. A juvenile shot his father (non-life threatening). A man stabbed his two girl friends (also non-life threatening). Another man took off with his brother's car and the brother held on and was dragged down the road (also non-life threatening). The first two were immediately apprehended. The car thief's brother's face was plastered all over--you guessed it--Facebook and was found and caught within 24 hours. All are being held in the bi-state jail. 

-------

I left my house ten minutes from my appointed meeting time at the barbecue joint on Stateline Road, which is roughly six miles from my home. Anxiety set in, I wouldn't have dreamt of leaving my home ten minutes prior to an appointment and having to drive six miles in Phoenix. Without speeding, I made it in seven minutes. I really need to chill out about travel around here. 

-------

Nobody--and I mean nobody--gives directions based on cross streets. Want to know where the Dairy Queen is? It is across the street from the old K-mart. Where's the old K-mart? Right next to the Dollar General located near the skating rink which isn't there any more, because "they" turned it into a car wash. Want to know where the book store is? In the old print shop on State Line, next to Mr. Tupper's former gallery (which went out of business 26 years ago). If you can't find these places, just go to Facebook. Nobody here has an actual Web page. They all use Facebook. 

Cheese, Beverages and Dallas

Texas Bluebell Fabric
Squee!!!

I might have mentioned this before: Marty Sunshine hates to go anywhere by himself. Anywhere. And now that the kids are older and more independent, it is left to me to honor the fine print of our marriage contract and make that !%*&$ drive with him to Dallas. 

It isn't that I don't like Dallas (okay, it's a big city. I'm done with big cities. They drain me.). It's just that I don't know my way around Dallas. And between Marty and myself, I'm the one with the better sense of direction. Anyway, for the third trip in a row, that's how I spent Saturday. 

Our first stop was a quilt store. I offered to help him find a chair and get comfortable while I looked around, but honestly, as far as quilt stores go, this one wasn't that great--though I found some Texas bluebell fabric. I've already warned him there will be other quilt shops in the future. Dallas has several. 

We then went to Winco which seems to be the closest place to us that sells this one type of coffee Marty can't seem to find anywhere else. We also stocked up on the non-perishables we can't find locally. If you need small jars of adobo chilies. Hit me up.

And, because I had to go to Dallas, I wanted a reasonable lunch. Fortunately, Dallas has restaurants. We found a place with fabulous grilled cheese sandwiches, which we shared and chased down with a flight of beer. Not necessarily a culinary paring. But hey! I live in Texarkana where "culinary pairings" include brown gravy and boiled okra. 

After lunch, we hit up Trader Joes and got Marty's tea. We bought several other things as well. My freezer is now full. And as much as I would have loved to have bought the ice cream sandwiches, I doubt they would have survived the drive home.  

On our way out of town, we stopped by Costco and ordered a cheese pizza for the young adults. They love Costco cheese pizza. Too bad we didn't buy any beer to pair it with.  

I Promised

My favorite human (and nephew), Patrick, called me last week. He told me he will be getting his black belt in karate later this year. He said, "Remember how you promised you'd come to my black belt ceremony?" I do remember. He then threw this at me: "Awesome!!!! I will see you in August!" 

Sure, Fine, Why Not?

 I am a Presiding Judge for the upcoming Presidential Primary Elections. This happened for a litany of reasons. 

1. Deb fled the country is on vacation in Mexico until some time in March. She usually has this role. She hates me thought highly of me enough to suggest to Ritchie, one of the Powers that Be, I might be a good fit. 

2. My political affiliation made me a good candidate for the position. They already had enough Presiding Judges from the other party. Though Texas doesn't have voter registration based on political parties, the voting places still need this represented for some reason. 

3. I didn't say, "not it," when Ritchie asked for volunteers. Actually, Ritchie called me directly and inquired about my day. He had "God Bless America" on Muzak in the background and talked about our God-given freedoms, the Constitution, and the American way. Then he sprang it on me that he "needed" me to be a judge. Okay, the second sentence didn't happen--but it felt like it did. 

Anyway, I agreed--this once--to be a presiding judge. This once, Right? Who am I kidding?

Phyllis is Right

 

Luna-Tic

Luna LOVES toys.

The two weeks of winter has subsided (for now). My tulips are starting to sprout. No word from my daffodils and crocus bulbs I planted, but it's only February 1st. Luna is no longer spending the day, hiding under the blankets.  (More recent pictures below because, reasons.)

The warmer weather is bringing out the puppy in her. Therefore, every day she and I go for a walk.  Unfortunately, even after copious amounts of obedience training, Luna still has a bit of a rebellious streak. Any stray squirrel, armadillo (no kidding), possum, cardinal, chickadee, blue jay or cat requires me to restrain all 70 pounds of muscle and repeatedly command her to heal. 

Plus, after we adopted her, we found out Luna had been a bait dog before we rescued her. She's been traumatized by other dogs and that's just the way it's going to be. Therefore, if any of my neighbors--which seems to be ALL of my neighbors--have their unleashed dog out in the front yard with them, I live through a special hell. 

My other option is not to take her on walks, which is like holding a tightly wound spring in my hands for hours at a time.  I'm thrilled Luna is still so active at her age. Even better, I'm glad I'm getting such a great resistance training workout every day. I just wish my arms were still the same length. 

Luna in January

Luna today, after her walk