personal

Election Night Special

Headed back downtown at lunchtime this afternoon, this time finding the place I was looking for, no problem. It’s amazing what happens when you turn the right way instead of the wrong.

Otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day, even what with it being Election Day here and everything. This year, they replaced the old voting machines, which I think were already old when representational democracy was first kicking around as a human idea, with a new paper ballot that’s then scanned into a machine. It felt simultaneously high-tech and very low-tech. But it couldn’t have taken, all told, more than five minutes.

I haven’t really been paying attention to the election results this evening, electing instead for a little calm, but I’ll admit to taking a little delight (or maybe just relief) at some of the Tea Party losses this evening. Although maybe that’s just because I know I have to steel myself to prepare for their wins. In New York, we have some important races this year, including for our new governor, but I don’t think Democrat victories were too surprising there.

And now, as I prepare for bed, allow me to leave you with Monty Python‘s “Election Night Special.”

That was Monday

Today was Monday. Beyond that, I don’t have much to say about it.

Okay, okay. At lunch time, I tried to run a little errand downtown, near City Hall and Wall Street. But I don’t know that area well at all, so even though it’s a pretty straightforward subway ride, I didn’t find the store I was looking for in time and had to head back uptown. I guess I’ll have to try again tomorrow.

In other news, it’s suddenly gotten quite chilly here. A week ago it was almost like summer again, but now I think we’re barreling straight on into winter.

Happy Halloween

A quiet Sunday here, aside from the steady stream of trick-or-treaters all afternoon. One minute they weren’t there, the next, swarms of small children in costume, ravenous for candy.

I spent the day mostly hanging around. I e-mailed out that short story I’ve been working on to The First Line, and kind of, sort of started working on another story I’ve had lingering in my brain for about a week. I pretty much know what I want to do with it, but we’ll see what happens when I’m more than a couple of paragraphs into it.

I didn’t quite finish the Sunday crossword, but it was a pretty good day nonetheless. Hope you had a happy Halloween!

Halloween Eve

A pretty quiet day here, more or less exactly what I expected of it. I think I more or less managed, somehow, to reach a kind-of ending with this short story I’ve been working on. I’ll polish it a little tomorrow and send it off. Other than that, I watched a little TV, a little of the Rally to Restore Sanity — mostly Jon Stewart’s closing remarks — and this evening The Masque of the Red Death. (After Thursday’s House on Haunted Hill, I thought a little good Vincent Price was in order. Although, really, he tended to class up even the worst joints.)

And that’s about it.