November Here We Come!

 After a very hot summer, we are now experiencing our best weather. The mornings are cool, sometimes even brisk, but by the afternoon a lighter change of clothes is needed. And so far, it has been sunny, which is such a positive factor for me. As I write we are getting wind from Zeta and possibly thunderstorms in the afternoon. 

We are creeping closer and closer to the election and my friends and I feel like the guy to the left! I have moments of optimism when I see the number of people voting, but then something slithers in and I panic! I have waited until this week to vote, waiting for the lines to go down. Even so, someone just posted online that it took them 2 hours this morning at my nearest location. I took Reyna with me and it took 1-1/2 hours. Thank goodness it was overcast with a little breeze, so it wasn't too bad.

In addition to taking Reyna to vote, I got my cleaning lady's niece registered and printed out a sample ballot for her. I also requested a mail-in ballot for Nancy, the lady that Reyna looks after. I've also signed up to take people to the polls if they need a ride, something I've signed up for before but never been called upon to do. Our last effort, due to repugs stealing every sign we put out, will be to hold signs on major routes of those going to and from work. We did it yesterday and will do it again on Friday and Monday. Some of you may remember that we did this 4 years ago for the same reason, but this year the response has been different. Many more people showed up to hold signs and this year we have received many more honks, waves, thumbs-up, and smiles, as well as the usual thumbs down and birds....but we know what to expect from them. In any case, that will keep me busy through Monday, and then it is a matter of getting through election night, and however long it takes beyond that! I'm hoping we find some relief and hope when it is all over.

 

Everybody is Zooming and Liberal Ladies is no exception. Our speaker at our October meeting was Jaime Harrison who is running against Lindsey Graham. He was outstanding. He spoke for about 15-20 minutes and then answered questions.....yes, he actually answered them rather than dancing around. It was very refreshing. It just so happened that he surprised us by dropping into our Executive Committee and Precinct Leaders meeting that night. That same day he was on Morning Joe and the Reidout with Joy Reid.  I guess that is campaigning during the pandemic. Our November speaker is going to be Chris Matthews, formerly of MSNBC fame! It will be on Nov. 11 and he will give us an election analysis. Of course, I'm still wondering what got him booted so suddenly. I doubt that will be mentioned. In any case, he was a coup for our program planners and that will be a hard act to follow.

Funny Story: This is my new neighbor, the adorable Felix, whom I described last time. You can see for yourself how cute he is. His white hair is long and scruffy and his black hair is short and close, so he really does look like he has a white mane. The remainder of his body that you can't see is black punctuated by a white tip on his tail. He really is handsome! One day I was on my way out the back gate to Kroger when I saw Mark and Felix walking. I rolled down my window and mentioned tha they were a long way from home. Mark said they were just exploring. I also told him that Felix had gotten a mention in my blog and I'd like a photo sometime. When I got home, Mark brought his card over and said he'd like to check out the blog. As much as I talk about politics on here, I thought this could be a make or break it time with my new neighbors! So I emailed a short note with the blog link saying that I hoped my politics would not be off-putting and that my blog was for friends who knew my leanings. Sure thing, I ran into them the next day on their morning walk and Mark said that when he read my note he thought, "Oh, no! Is that nice lady a republican"? He said he was so relieved when he read my blog and found that I am liberal. I told him about our efforts to identify and unify liberals in the Crescent. From where we were standing, I could point out a few close neighbors who are Democrats. He said that the neighbors were all "very nice" but even so, he wondered if they were "his people". Our encounter certainly made me feel better and I hope it did the same for Mark, Maria, and Felix, too.

I am happy to report that Rosie seems to be feeling better - her ears and tail are up, she plays with her toys more, and she comes to me more often for attention. She is definitely enjoying the cooler weather and has decided to explore the other side of the street and a nearby street that we have never gone down in all these years! And, of course, she loves meeting the new doggies in the neighborhood and EVERYONE she meets. I'm trying to be careful with the leash not to pull her, but she sometimes pulls against it. She definitely has a mind of her own and will pull the leash to get her way. I'm not sure what to do about that, but I do try to control the things I can!!  

She got on the rug to play and fell asleep!

Moving Toward the Election!

I forgot to tell you about our conversation on the way home from the GOP protest shown in my last entry. David and I road together and on the way home, David said he was going to have to decompress when he got home. Needless to say, I agreed, and simultaneously we both said…..and take a hot shower!! After walking Rosie, that is just what I did. And I took an OTC sleeping med to be sure I would sleep. It took a while to get all of that hatefulness out of my head.

I wanted to tell you about a new gadget. My Fitbit (don’t laugh!) died and I was looking at a Samsung watch that would sync with my phone ($150+) which price-wise was comparable to the Fitbit that only lasted a year. Anyway, I got on Amazon and found one that sounded good. I bought it and set it up and it’s great. In addition to having an easily readable face (except in bright sun and I don’t think there are any that show up well), it counts steps/ mileage/calories burned, it tracks sleep, and it records heartbeat. It also notifies me of incoming cell calls and texts, as well as reminding me of tasks on my calendar. If I have been sitting too long, it will remind me to move my body – sometimes I listen, other times I don’t! It is also easy and fast to charge and holds the charge for a week. I love it…..and it costs $25!! It s such a fun product and seems to do everything a Fitbit or Apple watch would do….and I wondered how their sales were doing. It is not a famous brand name and it is amazing how we are so influenced by brand names.

On Saturday (10/3), I volunteered to "speed canvass” an area of Bluffton. Needless to say, we were not knocking on doors and talking to people due to COVID. We had a very nice door hanger and we just split up into teams of 2 and covered a community (The Farm). There were six of us and I was the oldest by far, with the others literally being 1/3 my age. Even so, they were very welcoming and helpful. Justin drew the short straw (joking) and became my partner and he was great. I had met him at the infamous protest we did when Lindsey Graham didn’t show up at the opening of the GOP headquarters, so we did have that connection. Each team covered about 150 homes in about a little over an hour. On that day I did 13,000+ steps, and very few of them were made once I got home! It is definitely something I will do again, probably next Saturday!

On that note, I have to say that our newly formed Bluffton Democratic Club and county groups have done a great job of getting out the word/vote. No one wants to make phone calls (and people don’t answer anyway!), but we have done lots of postcards, door hangers, texting, etc. I actually think it may be more effective than phone calls when all is said and done. I hope all of our hard work pays off!! On Sunday I did about 115 postcards to send to likely Dems in the Crescent. Lynn and Chris did some GOTV postcards for people who have not voted in some time. We are all doing our bit!

Politics aside for a moment, we have lots of new dogs (9) on our street – if Rhonda T were still here, she would never get any work done!! The new neighbors directly across the street have Felix, a totally adorable and friendly rescue. He has a black body with a real white mane and a white tip on his tail. Up from him is Enzo, some type of bulldog and cute as a button. One new family has four dogs and I had not met them because one is aggressive and whenever she (the mom) sees another dog approaching, she crosses the street. On Sunday I was taking Rosie for her walk by their house and 6 people come out the front door. Well, Rosie is pulling at the leash, whining, wagging her whole back end, etc. to cross the street and say hello – and she won’t move along with her walk. The new neighbor sees her and walks across the yard to see her. I loosen the leash and Rosie runs to her….as Rosie does, and before I know it, Rosie is surrounded by 6 adults cooing over her! This is life with Rosie. The next time we passed, the couple was working in the yard and called to her by name! She is the most spoiled dog in the neighborhood and it isn’t all my fault!!

Speaking of Rosie, she had gone quite some time without a shivery episode, but she has had two fairly recently. The second one was at 6 AM so there was no immediate activity involved. She was against my back and I thought I felt her shivering and when I checked, she was. Needless to say, it is unsettling to both of us and I hope they do not become more frequent.

Last Wednesday (9/30), I don’t remember what politically horrendous thing had happened (another day, another drama!), but I received a phone message from David about it and decided to take Rosie to Drinking Liberally to cheer David. When I arrived, I told them I had the therapy dog! Normally, that would be fertile ground for Rosie with everyone sitting around to pet her. Well, we meet on the porch of a community building and the porch was raised. It was unsettling for her and she didn’t want to walk around and work the crowd as she usually does, so she wound up sitting in my lap or in David’s. A few people succumbed to her cuteness and came over and petted her. Even so, I left early and gave her a good walk around the park before coming home.

As you know, Lynn, Tom, and I are organizing/informing the Dems in the Crescent and we have passed along via email any Democrat events that are happening in the county. Yesterday was the Blue Bash, which was an assembly at Eagles Field followed by a car parade through Bluffton. I had participated in one earlier and it was lots of fun. Well, yesterday was dark and rainy, which discourage a lot of people......but my partner in crime/Resista Sista Tippy attended with me.  Joe Cunningham, our Congressman, was there as were most of our local candidates. When it was time for the car parade, the sun came out, we put the top down on Tippy's car, and I held a huge Biden/Harris flag as we drove through old town Bluffton. We were really encouraged by the honks of support we received along the way. We aren't easily identifiable in any of these photos, but you can get a feel for it here:

 https://www.facebook.com/BlufftonDC/photos/pcb.381993223178018/381991556511518/

Okay! Just to prove that I'm not always politics all the time, I'm going to share our daily walk in our neighborhood. I don't often take my phone on our morning walk, but I wanted to get this photo of my neighbor's Halloween decorations. To me, the sign was the perfect touch! This was her third machination of her two human and two canine skeletons! The first time they were fishing. The second time they were bicycling! This time they look like they are just having a keg party! At this point, I'm expecting something new tomorrow!

Can you see this tiny, baby squirrel? The first day that I took my phone to take a photo of the revolving Halloween scene, Rosie decided not to go that way! So, we walked up the street across from me. As Rosie is sniffing everything, I noticed this tiny squirrel on the pavement. I touched it and it was alive, but it wasn't moving much. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to draw Rosie's attention to it, I just left it there. In the meantime, as we finished our walk, two cars passed by and I'm fearing it will be run over! Finally, we get back to it and it had not been run over. So, I picked it up and placeed it near a tree where we had seen an adult squirrel. I have read that they often take in orphan squirrels, and I hope that is the case. When we came by the second time, he had unfurled his tail and he responded to touch, but I couldn't figure out what happened. He was not under a tree, so if he fell out of a tree, he was moving in unsafe territory....and maybe the road, the cars, etc. had stunned him. In any case, I hope he is okay. I have a history with squirrels. My father ran a rural general store. There was always a lot of logging going on and sometime the loggers would bring baby squirrels to the store and we would raise them, feeding them with baby-doll bottles! My father even made a cage on our porch for them. One of the times I got into big trouble was when I opened the cage, let them out on the porch, and they chewed up our wooden porch furniture!!! Mama and Daddy were not happy with me!! That baby squirrel brought back heartwarming memories and I hope he survives.