Football, Pets, the World

I had a football high yesterday - all of my teams won, with the exception of three: CU, CSU, and Mizzou.  Some of the games were mind-boggling, some were routs, and others were nail-biters - it was a good day, overall.  And I was able to have a long talk with Filiberto yesterday evening, which was very enjoyable.  We spoke of our love of nature, open spaces, and wildlife.  He was extremely charming, as always. I spent several hours trying to get both Shady and Cloudy inside for the night - I'd get one inside, but not the other; and when I finally caught the second one, the first would escape as I brought the second in.  I'm sure they both had great fun "laughing" at me.
   Back at my apartment for the moment...  Nedi is on the corner of my desk, snacking.  Lovey, after she ate, went running around the apartment, growling like she does when she's caught something she was hunting, and finally ran out the door and into the back yard.  She's a little wacky this morning.  Peach, the yellow lab I take care of, has been coughing for the past couple of weeks.  I found a tumor/growth the size of a baseball behind her elbow yesterday.  She sees the vet tomorrow to have it checked out.  I'll watch the Broncos game tonight with Cloudy and Shady...
   There is just so much going on in the world today - the earthquakes in China, the waterspout and tornadoes in New York City, the drenching rain from the remnants of Isaac, and the wildfires out here in the western US.  And then there's 8 more weeks of the Presidential race...  I already know who I'm voting for, without watching any debates between the candidates.  I am terribly tired of all the negative campaign ads.  Can we have a moratorium until 5 days before the election? Please?

A New President; No Snow

Gimpy is sitting in the chair on the patio and eating dry-roasted un-salted peanuts. There are 10 birds at the feeders; Banichi is lurking outside somewhere, while Lovey is curled up in my lap. The patio door is cracked open, even though it's in the mid-30s - I have to get Banichi back inside. The storm swept over us and to the north, so while we cooled down considerably, we did not get any snow. Chain laws are in effect for the mountains; snow is falling in the high country, with fog, slick roads and, later today, blowing snow advisories.

I know my husband would have been extremely happy with the results of yesterday's election. To have a man such as Barack Obama as President-Elect is a wonderful, earth-changing, historic moment. - It makes me think of yesterday, when I arrived at my voting precinct early, and a young blonde student asked if I would take a photo of her standing outside the precinct doors, because she wanted to document her first time voting in a Presidential election - and I told her after I took her photo that she needed to remove her Obama button before going inside to actually cast her vote. She had gotten so used to wearing it that she had forgotten she had it on.-
I totally enjoyed Obama's speech - and, being me, have only one question: What kind of puppy are his daughters going to get?

Poll Checker Report

I went to Precinct 101 prepared to be inundated with voters - expecting most of them to be students and unsure of where they needed to vote. I was scheduled for 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., and was ready to work longer, if needed.

In the 3 hours I covered my Precinct, there were 35 voters. There were 3 Elections Judges inside; the Poll Watcher (attorney) left at 8:30 a.m.; the Republican Poll Checker left at 11 a.m. and had no replacement show up when I left at 1:20; and my replacement was a very pleasant lady, who showed up at precisely 1 p.m. We sent 5 people to the Clerk's Office because they had moved out of the precinct and they didn't want to file a provisional ballot. There were 7 other provisional ballots cast. (The daily total, when I left, was 77 total voters, with 7 of them casting provisional ballots.)

We did have 3 weeks of mail-in voting and 2 1/2 weeks of early voting.... I hope that the folks at the precinct don't get hammered by a huge turnout late this evening... but students are procrastinators!

National Election Day

Knowing that I'll be standing from 9:30 to 1:30 today, I only walked 3 miles this morning. It was 42 degrees outside when I got back home, carrying a warm fresh apple danish. I had fed the kits before I left, so upon my return, I opened the patio door, swept the patio and filled the critter feeders. Then I had breakfast and looked at the weather forecast and looked at the reports of early morning voting turn-out.

One of the ladies who works in the bakery made the comment that someone in her apartment complex had posted where the local precinct is located, along with an arrow for direction and the info that it was only two blocks down the street. She said she thought that was a super idea, because she hadn't known where she needed to go to vote, and she wanted to thank whoever it was who lived there. I said, "You're welcome." She blinked, then laughed, then said she should have known it was my door.

While I was doing research yesterday, I heard a very angry squirrel outside and looked to see "Momma" sitting in the peanut chair beside my desk cussing out Banichi. Momma started coming for food about a week after the little baby squirrels showed up - and her underbelly looks like she's still nursing... Banichi was just sitting there, about two feet away from her, but he was eyeing her rather intently. I knocked on the window and said his name - he heaved a big sigh and wandered back inside - I think he was enjoying listening to Momma chew him out.

Having spent 7 hours in the last two weeks in classes on how to be a Poll Watcher (and then learning the named was being changed to a Poll Checker, because a Poll Watcher was going to be a duly appointed lawyer), including a one-hour soiree last night, I will be blogging more when I return from my precinct - just so I can write about what's going on today.
Oh, and we're under a Winter Weather Advisory starting at 6 pm tonight - expecting a mixture of rain and snow Wednesday afternoon/evening. Western slope areas are expecting 4 to 18 inches of snow by Thursday morning. Looks like fall is here!