Hot, humid, take care; Vote tomorrow!

We had a pretty calm, lazy weekend. My wife accepted an invitation to work both days making food platters for several local high school graduation parties. The weather sort of dictated we not do much work around the homestead, so we didn’t. Even my daughter and her dog stayed home so the pups wouldn’t get too hot. Saturday wasn’t too bad, but we did get a strong sea breeze at our house and that did hold the temperature down somewhat. Sunday, though, my weather station made it into the low 90s for a brief spell. But mostly we were in the 80s. Wherever my computer gets its temperature never got out of the mid 80s. Last night won’t go down as a great night for sleeping.

Our local TV station says today’s weather will produce another hot and humid day. Temperatures are expected to rise into the upper 80s. It’s early as I write this so that’s a conclusion we’ll just have to see later.

As I’ve said on many occasions, I love watching school sports on the tube. I do enjoy most professional sports, too, but if a college, high school, amateur, Little League, et al, are competing with the pros, they’ll get my attention. Beginning last Thursday were the Super Regional Championships leading to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. I think I watch all or at least most of all the games that were shown here. The Florida Gators weren’t playing. The Supers end tonight and the CWS begins later this week.

There was one interesting play yesterday. A foul ball headed toward the third base stands. But the infielder had a bead on it and it was clearly headed for his glove. Just as he was about to catch it, a fan, an older guy with a glove, reached over the barrier and snagged the ball. No interference was called and the batter hit the next pitch over the fence for a two-run homer. It did not affect the game’s outcome, however.

Tomorrow is an election day in Maine. The Democrat and Republican primaries will be held to determine who will represent the parties for various offices in the November elections. Some are contested; others are not. Possibly the most interesting races are in the First Congressional District. Several Democrats and two Republicans are seeking their party’s nomination. The Democrats also have a weak contest for the nominee to face Sen. Susan Collins in November. Former Congressman Tom Allen is expected to win handily.

There are some contested local races for the Maine Legislature in various places, but except for their locales there isn’t much publicity about them. Some local referendum questions along with at least one state wide one also face the voters.

I expected a plethora of phone calls and advertisements over the weekend, but to my surprise I only received two phone calls, one each from the Scontras’ and Summers’ camps. Both candidates did send a mailing and my inbox continued to get its share of e-mails. No one from either camp, either the candidate himself or a volunteer canvasser, visited my home.

The two phone calls I received were interesting. The one from the Scontras’ camp went something like this:

Caller: Hi, garble, garble, mushed together stuff, garble.

Me: [Honestly replying, not trying to be humorous or mean] I have absolutely no clue what you just said.

Caller: Oh, I’m sorry. Let me try again. I’m [he did give me a name] and I’m calling on behalf of Dean Scontras. Have you heard of him?

Me: Well, yes. I think I’ve heard his name mentioned somewhere.

Caller: Great. Can we count on your vote on Tuesday?

Me: I think that since I’ve voted in every election I could vote in since I became eligible to vote, there’s an excellent chance that I will cast my ballot on Tuesday.

Caller: Oh, great. That’s just super. We appreciate your support. Thank you. Good bye.

Perhaps I sounded to him as he sounded to me when I first answered.

The Summers’ call was a little different. It was a robo call by that general , Hunt, I think, that tries to convince us he knows all there is about Iraq on the local radio/television talk show. I don’t really remember his name which, I guess shows how much he impresses me. He started droning on the phone so I hung up. As I said, it was just a recording and such calls impress me not at all.

It’s very important that you do cast your votes tomorrow. I believe we have no right to complain about what we get if we haven’t participated in the process. And we can’t make any changes at any level unless we look over the candidates and their records and make an informed decision. We need to get ourselves familiar with any referenda questions, too, so we will know what we’re getting into and how it will affect our taxes. I am a complainer, as you’ve seen in some of these posts, but I haven’t missed my chance to cast my votes since the 1950s.

And the last political comment, if you haven’t already done so, seek out a People’s Veto on taxes petition and an excise tax petition near the polling places and add your name to get these on the November ballot, too.

Finally, it’s forecast to be very hot and humid today. Drink plenty of non-alcoholic beverages, water is best, and check on your elderly neighbors.

GiM