Yes, I did.

 Vote, that is.  My spouse and I ventured out about 10:30am to head to our local voting place (right across the street from the entrance to our subdivision).  When we arrived we were astonished to find a long line of people ahead of us, outside the building, waiting to vote.  Happily, it was a lovely sunny morning with a temperature in the mid 60s.  Unhappily, we discovered that the line, when we finally got inside the building, extended a long way into the building, then down a long hallway and back up the same hallway. It was not a short line. 

In our previous experiences, mid-term elections did not draw that much interest and we were typically in and out in 10 to 15 minutes max.  Not today however.  

In their infinite wisdom (also possibly because of a lack of volunteer help) the powers that be in Allen County did away with small local precint voting places, cutting the number of voting sites way down, and then allowed residents to vote at any one of the sites.  Evidently ours was a very popular place, or, as in our case, the place we had always voted. 

There were several volunteers working at our site and at least 10 voting machines but it still took us almost two hours to get through the process.  It didn't help that the ballot itself was nine pages long.

 I'm wondering if the large turnout was, at least in part, due to the fact that one question on the ballot was should we allow a casino to be built in Allen County. 

It should not surprise anyone to learn that my wonder spouse and I did not vote for all the same people.  It will be fun to see, as the returns come in, which of us had the most winners.  I doubt that the results will affect our everyday life very much at all.  

a new concern

 I have done my research, made my decisions and am ready to vote tomorrrow. But now I have a new concern.  As we were driving through town earlier today I saw a sign that said "52 Days 'til Christmas." Yikes! How can that be?  I double checked and the sign was right.  28 days left in November and 24 days in December equals 52.  Christmas day doesn't count unless you plan to do some last minute shopping at a gas station.  I don't recommend it. 

The days of big fat catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Ward's are long gone (although I have many happy memories) but Christmas catalogs do still arrive in the mail.  They are just much thinner and more specialized. 

One that was in the huge stack of mail waiting for us when we got home from our vacation may actually prove useful.  Most of the people to whom I give Christmas gifts are adults.  The young adults, aka grandchildren, like money. The older adults (our 50 something children) say they don't need anything. 

But there are two people on my list who need fun toys, at least I think so.  They are my spouse's youngest granddaughter, age 9, and my great grandson, age 8 months. Happily, I now have in my posession a "Fat Brain Toys" catalog full of fascinating toys. I haven't made any decisions yet (I really do need to get my wonder spouse's thoughts on this) but I think the Air Toobs system would be great fun for the 9 year old.  I know that my EE spouse would enjoy helping her set it up. For the little one there are several colorful squishy toys.  I'm leaning toward the Klickity or the Inny Bin or both.  We probably should consult with their parents, but I am looking forward to having something fun to wrap. Ho Ho Ho everybody. 

For your information...

 Please consider this a public service announcement.  Did you know that you can go to ballotpedia.org and access ballots and candidates' information for upcoming elections?  I didn't until my wonder spouse made this discovery.

I have just spent almost two hours reading through detailed candidate information for our local election, which will take place two days from now.  I learned a lot about who I do and do not want to vote for, and feel more prepared for this election than I ever have before, and I have voted in many, many elections (almost always a split ballot, in case you're interested).  I will be voting in Allen County, Indiana so, if you don't live near me, this next bit won't apply to you.

So far my very favorite candidate for any office is a gentleman named Phillip Beachy who is running, as an independent, for our representative to the US House of Representatives from Indiana District 3.  In his bio he lists his religion as Mennonite and his profession as "semi-retired carpenter and refrigerator technician."  My wonder spouse's response, when I told him about Mr. Beachy, was "Well, at least he does something real."  I agree on two counts.  My father was a carpenter and we recently had our refrigerator repaired by a refrigerator rechnician for a very reasonable price, saving us the cost of buying a new one. 

So before you vote on Tuesday check out ballotpedia.org. You may not find Mr. Beachy on your ballot, but you'll be glad you did, anyway. 

Boooo!!!

 It's Halloween, that evening when strange creatures of every size and shape show up at your door shouting, or whispering (depending on the age) "Trick or Treat!"  

We had many, many young ones come to our door this evening, dressed in a great variety of costumes, from princesses to dragons to super heroes and one lady bug.  One little girl, dressed in jeans and a sweat shirt with a painted on mustache and beard, told me that she was dressed up as her father.  Since a similarly dressed man was standing out by the curb, I could believe her.  

It was a great night for going door to door, chilly but not cold, no precipitation, just a light breeze. We were comfortable standing out on our porch to hand out candy.

This was my favorite costume of the evening. Very scary! In addition to being Halloween, my west coast brother informed me that today is "National Knock Knock Joke Day" and here's the sample he provided:

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Owls. 

Owls who?

Yes they do. 

That's it for this evening.  I hope you all got plenty of candy.

Cheers....

 Today the car got washed and we bought groceries, all part of the settling in (it's good to be home) process. Part of our shopping included a stop at our favorite Amish bakery for cinnamon swirl bread, apple bread, and sandwich bread.  We also bought a small cherry pie. At the Amish produce market we bought cider, potatoes, and some other stuff.  The cider was most important, and we were delighted that they had some available.

We did enjoy a few drinks while on our trip, but only after we were safely in a hotel for the night.  A  beer for my spouse and a gin and tonic for me were our typical drinks.  We were even given free gin and tonics at our hotel in Durango. 

All good drinks, but not nearly as good as cider.  This evening we both had a large mug of cider, heated gently and with a cinnamon stick floating in it.  Soooo good!!! and healthy - just the best juice from pressed apples.  No sugar or anything else added. 

Thinking about Durango brought back memories of our ride on the narrow gauge train, pulled by a steam engine, from Durango to Silverton and back.  Lots of fun and the drinks were good, but not as good as this evening's cider.  

Here's a picture of the little engine that could, with my wonder spouse admiring it, and, with his EE brain, figuring out how everything worked. 

Day 16, trying again

 I thought I had just posted a blog for today but for some mysterious reason it has disappeared.  Perhaps my faithful computer is upset with me because I neglected it for so many days.  Anyway, we had a safe trip home today, and my wonder spouse and I are both looking forward to sleeping in our own bed.  Tomorrow we will tackle the small mountain of laundry waiting in the laundry room.  Meanwhile here is a picture I took as we left Knoxville TN this morning.

I liked this view of the Smoky Mountains as we started our drive north.

The autumn colors were glorious.

Because I couldn't post pictures with my earlier blogs on this trip, I'm going to include some with my upcoming blogs.

The first stop on our journey was at the St. Louis Arch. It was huge.

We took the tiny elevator to the top, a fun ride, and looked down on the mighty Mississippi.  A wonderful first adventure on this trip.

Day 16