Life of Wry

Not much anyway. Jim and I talked tonight about how tacky that’d be .. to gloat… at least via social media. I said that since my blog has a readership of about six people and I think I know most of those, and for the most part they swim in my puddle, it was probably okay to gloat here.

I listened a lot to the returns today. From the time I got up (6am, after going to sleep at about 3am) to now, the election has changed substantially. It’s not a sure thing that Joe Biden will win, but it’s looking likely. He won Wisconsin and Michigan today, which, given where those two states were last night (firmly in the Trump column) was a tectonic shift. Arizona and Nevada haven’t been called but at this point Joe’s in the lead. PA is narrowing, as is Georgia, neither of which Joe needs.

This is way too much detail… written by someone who’s been completely immersed in returns all day.

Bottom line, started the day in despair, ended by happy-shouting at my computer — where I was watching CNN — taunting and nah-nah-nah-nah’ing Trump at the top of my lungs (while doing a jigsaw puzzle).

Talk about Cloud 9.

I know from roller coasters, however. This is the T administration… the most unpredictable, unstable, flame-throwing administration in history. Who knows what will happen between today and January 20. I know not to count on anything.

Here are some pics from the past couple of days:

This was the morning of election day. I was training volunteers on phone banking — the last 6 hours of our 45-hour Call-a-Palooza. Yes, still training folks on the day of the election! Peter joined us all the way from Michigan. He made 37 calls, I believe, but more notable, he spent 90 minutes on the phone with an 80-year-old voter in Montana. He learned about the guy’s life experiences and what brought him to his world view, including Vietnam. It may not have been the most productive phone banking session in terms of voter contacts, but it was a memorable conversation for Peter (and very likely the gentleman). We know now that we did not flip the Montana senate seat; Steve Bullock did not win. (In fact, most the senate races we poured our hearts into over the last 8 months did not flip, despite polling that suggested that they were close and flippable. I’m feeling like the country is so polarized and so settled into their chosen silos that NO AMOUNT of political action would have made a difference. Cynical me.

Here is a race that did flip, however. Mark Kelly! New Senator from Arizona.

This is a shot of election night where we SD and IY folks gathered every hour on the half to just be together. We had an informal program that lasted a few minutes, including our reporting on less mainstream races (I had Iowa). Early in the evening, it was fun and light. By the later hours, it was awful, as Biden was losing and we were all experiencing PTSD reminiscent of 2016. Many tears.

One of the good things that happened last night was Kelly’s race: she won! This is a screen shot of her phone, and represents the results from Sac County. Her race encompasses both Sac and Yolo County, so this is not the whole picture, but it was fun to see how Sac County voted

This is a shot of last night’s Electoral College map.. which was AWFUL! This map really says it all.

This is my favorite postcard of the season… one hand drawn by Audrey’s 6-year-old daughter.

And finally… as I felt a lot more relaxed today, allowing myself to believe that Biden might actually win this thing.. he at least has the momentum. I walked downtown, on a 70 degree sunny fall day (they’ve all been like this for weeks), listening to music. I am so fragile, a sunny day and music made me cry. Here’s me, sitting at Cloud Forest.