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Voting in the dark
Nov. 4th, 2014 10:23 pmWell, that was different!
I made it to the polling place a little after five this afternoon; I was unexpectedly joined by my husband and the Emperor a couple of minutes later. The line was longer than I've seen in quite a while, so I was glad I was there to help out with Emperor-distracting. (ASD+ADHD = really bad at waiting patiently and quietly in line.)
Then, just when we were a couple of bodies away from the front of the line, the power went out, and the emergency lights kicked in. There was a lot of confusion and people holding up cell phones to see what was going on. I had a couple of small flashlights in my purse, favors from the wedding we went to last month. I gave one to the election judges at the computers, who eventually announced that people were welcome to stay and keep voting if they wanted, as long as they could provide their own light. I signed for my form and voted with the Emperor's "help" in holding the flashlight ("This is not a disco - please keep the light still!"). My husband followed right after. The young man at the scanner flicked a lighter to show people where to manually feed their sheets into an open slot, so they could be counted later.
Thus was voting accomplished!
Then we got home to a dark house. *sigh* At least I could rustle up some flashlights and candles pretty quickly, and cook dinner on our gas stove. The power came and went several times, leaving me very nervous about the contents of my fridge and freezer. I was very happy that the rain had stopped so the sump pump in the basement took care of all the water before the outage, and that the outside temp was pretty mild so we wouldn't get too cold in the worst case scenario. I put the Emperor to bed, and came downstairs to call a friend a few blocks away to get an online report from the power company. After we'd been chatting a while, the power came back on, and has been on for a couple of hours now. I think it may have stuck this time. *knock on wood*
Now comes the nail-biting wait to see how the results come in for the House and Senate. I'm very lucky that I live in a firmly Dem state, so the Senate and Governor slots are safe, but ugh, it looks like the local Republican Rep held onto his seat. At least this means an end to the non-stop political ads and phone calls, at least for a while.
ETA: FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. The millionaire Republican won for gov. Excuse me while I go cry.
I made it to the polling place a little after five this afternoon; I was unexpectedly joined by my husband and the Emperor a couple of minutes later. The line was longer than I've seen in quite a while, so I was glad I was there to help out with Emperor-distracting. (ASD+ADHD = really bad at waiting patiently and quietly in line.)
Then, just when we were a couple of bodies away from the front of the line, the power went out, and the emergency lights kicked in. There was a lot of confusion and people holding up cell phones to see what was going on. I had a couple of small flashlights in my purse, favors from the wedding we went to last month. I gave one to the election judges at the computers, who eventually announced that people were welcome to stay and keep voting if they wanted, as long as they could provide their own light. I signed for my form and voted with the Emperor's "help" in holding the flashlight ("This is not a disco - please keep the light still!"). My husband followed right after. The young man at the scanner flicked a lighter to show people where to manually feed their sheets into an open slot, so they could be counted later.
Thus was voting accomplished!
Then we got home to a dark house. *sigh* At least I could rustle up some flashlights and candles pretty quickly, and cook dinner on our gas stove. The power came and went several times, leaving me very nervous about the contents of my fridge and freezer. I was very happy that the rain had stopped so the sump pump in the basement took care of all the water before the outage, and that the outside temp was pretty mild so we wouldn't get too cold in the worst case scenario. I put the Emperor to bed, and came downstairs to call a friend a few blocks away to get an online report from the power company. After we'd been chatting a while, the power came back on, and has been on for a couple of hours now. I think it may have stuck this time. *knock on wood*
Now comes the nail-biting wait to see how the results come in for the House and Senate. I'm very lucky that I live in a firmly Dem state, so the Senate and Governor slots are safe, but ugh, it looks like the local Republican Rep held onto his seat. At least this means an end to the non-stop political ads and phone calls, at least for a while.
ETA: FUCK ME SIDEWAYS. The millionaire Republican won for gov. Excuse me while I go cry.
