O Happy Day!
Today I voted. In person. For the 1st time in 5 years (3 years in Morocco, the year before on the high seas in Alaska in November). Here's how dedicated I am to this proposition. Having lived overseas, and planning to return, I didn't have a permament address. So I cleared it with the Registrar of Voters here, and picked an address that I was staying at briefly. This had the happy side effect of allowing me to vote for Jim McDermott, one of the most liberal members of congress, a consistent friend of Arabs, consistently against the war, and an all around nice guy. (I've communicated with him before by email.) And then I waited for my absentee ballot, since I'd be going to Yemen and unable to vote.
And waited. And it never came to that address. So I tried again. And waited. And it never came. By this time I was not going to Yemen, so could vote in person, so called, and confirmed that I could vote in person. And then waited for that wonderous day, a day we shall call Today.
The nice thing is that Line 36 goes right by my house, and it turns out goes within half a mile of the polling place. So I hopped on the bus and wended my way. Close to the polling place, suddenly the streets began to receive 3 signs at every intersection. I don't know why. But they did. Which made it difficult to know if my stop, on 9th & Armour, had come or not. When I asked the driver, he hadn't heard of Armour. And then we were suddenly on 10th, and he said he wouldn't be returning to 9th. So I figured I'd missed my stop, and got out, to walk back to where it must have been.
It was a long walk, over the hill. But if I hadn't done it, I would have missed the moose.
And then, just as I had walked the entire length of the street, the same busdriver pulled up, after his 20 minute mandated rest stop, to say he'd made a mistake. 3 stops beyond me, there it was, Armour and 9th. I needed to catch the next bus, and go back from whence I'd come. Just wait there.
Which isn't too bad. Except for one other thing I haven't mentioned. Right now we're experiencing the Puget Sound's worst storm in decades. Seriously. Except with Global Warming, there' s likely to be more and more of them in the future. 25 rivers and climbing are flooded, some around 55 feet high. Some won't crest until later tonight. If you're from the MidWest, NorthWest storms are a little different. They're excellent female basketball players. They also are without thunder and lightning. I can't remember the last time I've heard it. There's not an intense downpour- more like a drizzle, alternating between light and heavy, that goes on, and on, and on, till the chill creeps into your bones and you grow mold all over your skin. This one's been going on for three days. Some polling places have closed, roads have been washed out, neighborhoods completely flooded, cars washed into houses, and people stranded, having to be rescued. Thankfully only one fatality so far. Yesterday there was a slump not far from where I live on Beacon Hill. Yesterday morning we had more rain between 9 and 9:05 then we had in the entire month of August. As of last night it was 10 inches in 2 days. It's so bad there's been a run on umbrellas, in a city where it's possitively hshuma to be spotted with an umbrella. That's what I was walking in. I'm really dedicated to the franchise.
After I took the bus back to the right stop, and got out and found my bearings, I realized I had to walk around an entire cemetary to get to the polling place. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong direction, and had to walk around the whole cemetary to get there. (There appeared to be long lines to vote in the cemetary as well.) Then I got to the polling place, on the 6th floor of a Seattle Pacific University dorm.
But they didn't have my name listed. Now keep in mind, I had confirmed 3 times online, as well as over the phone with the county registrar, that I existed, and at this polling place. But they had no listing. Except...there are two polling places, both on the same street, both without address numbers, 2 blocks from each other. I was at the other one.
At the correct polling station they did have me on the rolls. To see how I voted, you'll have to view the video. But naturally I increased taxes every chance I got.
And waited. And it never came to that address. So I tried again. And waited. And it never came. By this time I was not going to Yemen, so could vote in person, so called, and confirmed that I could vote in person. And then waited for that wonderous day, a day we shall call Today.
The nice thing is that Line 36 goes right by my house, and it turns out goes within half a mile of the polling place. So I hopped on the bus and wended my way. Close to the polling place, suddenly the streets began to receive 3 signs at every intersection. I don't know why. But they did. Which made it difficult to know if my stop, on 9th & Armour, had come or not. When I asked the driver, he hadn't heard of Armour. And then we were suddenly on 10th, and he said he wouldn't be returning to 9th. So I figured I'd missed my stop, and got out, to walk back to where it must have been.
It was a long walk, over the hill. But if I hadn't done it, I would have missed the moose.
And then, just as I had walked the entire length of the street, the same busdriver pulled up, after his 20 minute mandated rest stop, to say he'd made a mistake. 3 stops beyond me, there it was, Armour and 9th. I needed to catch the next bus, and go back from whence I'd come. Just wait there.
Which isn't too bad. Except for one other thing I haven't mentioned. Right now we're experiencing the Puget Sound's worst storm in decades. Seriously. Except with Global Warming, there' s likely to be more and more of them in the future. 25 rivers and climbing are flooded, some around 55 feet high. Some won't crest until later tonight. If you're from the MidWest, NorthWest storms are a little different. They're excellent female basketball players. They also are without thunder and lightning. I can't remember the last time I've heard it. There's not an intense downpour- more like a drizzle, alternating between light and heavy, that goes on, and on, and on, till the chill creeps into your bones and you grow mold all over your skin. This one's been going on for three days. Some polling places have closed, roads have been washed out, neighborhoods completely flooded, cars washed into houses, and people stranded, having to be rescued. Thankfully only one fatality so far. Yesterday there was a slump not far from where I live on Beacon Hill. Yesterday morning we had more rain between 9 and 9:05 then we had in the entire month of August. As of last night it was 10 inches in 2 days. It's so bad there's been a run on umbrellas, in a city where it's possitively hshuma to be spotted with an umbrella. That's what I was walking in. I'm really dedicated to the franchise.
After I took the bus back to the right stop, and got out and found my bearings, I realized I had to walk around an entire cemetary to get to the polling place. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong direction, and had to walk around the whole cemetary to get there. (There appeared to be long lines to vote in the cemetary as well.) Then I got to the polling place, on the 6th floor of a Seattle Pacific University dorm.
But they didn't have my name listed. Now keep in mind, I had confirmed 3 times online, as well as over the phone with the county registrar, that I existed, and at this polling place. But they had no listing. Except...there are two polling places, both on the same street, both without address numbers, 2 blocks from each other. I was at the other one.
At the correct polling station they did have me on the rolls. To see how I voted, you'll have to view the video. But naturally I increased taxes every chance I got.
Comments
But that's an official ballot you're looking at, baby. I just should have actually signed in Arabic. Then maybe I'd have made the news. Or at least had a knock on the door.