On a normal day, I wake up and immediately dress for a workout. Sometimes I run. Sometimes I walk the dog. Sometimes I do yoga in front of the TV.
This morning, instead of getting dressed for exercise, I awakened excited. Today, I got to exercise my American rights. I got to vote for president.
In fact, all three of us got up early to vote; Tyler and I actually cast ballots, Cas observed. I thought it would be a good educational opportunity for Cas to see how the whole voting process works. He will, after all, be 18 the next time the nation votes for president, and he spent as much time as I did watching the presidential debates. What’s better than preparing a child to be a good citizen?
We arrived at the polling place at 6:57 a.m. Cas was the only kid in line, and I was almost the only woman. It appeared that a lot of men were there to cast their ballots before their commute into work. We stood in line for about a half hour. We had the kind of voting machines that are electronic with a paper backup. Even though Cas’ political tastes tend to mirror his father’s more than mine, Cas actually watched me vote.
Our ballot included a question about having a state constitutional convention, the president (of course), Senator, Congressman and a number of county seats including a bunch of “yes/no” questions on county judges. (I don’t think Minnesota puts its judges to election this way because I don’t remember it.)
After voting, we all went to Allen’s Corner for breakfast. It’s one of those hole-in-the-wall diners with sinfully delicious grill food that always ridiculously packed on weekends. Checking it out on a weekday was much more pleasant. And it turned it to be a good thing to fill Cas’ stomach with decent food because he had a big test a school today.
After we dropped him off at school, we picked up the dog and went for a walk in the nearby forest preserve. It was a glorious day that was perfect for exercising my right to vote AND my legs.
Yes, we do vote for judges; I used to vote for anyone but the incumbent because I was resisting being told whom to vote for, but lately I have been told that most people who challenge the sitting judge just have some axe to grind and really don’t know as much about the judicial process and being a good judge as the sitting judge who has had experience. It made sense to me.
It was 15 above here this morning so I did not go for a morning walk; I am having lunch with Joyce at noon so will go to Curves afterward.
We checked on the price of train tickets for Christmas and they have almost doubled. So since the price of gas is about half of what it has been, we are probably going to drive to your place for Christmas. We can even stop at a motel overnight both ways and not spend more than we would for the train tickets. We wouldn’t do that unless we ran into bad weather.
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