day before

If you are an American and you haven't given the elections a single thought today, then I want to know what your secret is: how did you avoid it? And mind you, it's not that I myself seek out election campaign information, or indulge fantasies about who might win or who might lose, but because all of this is being thrown at me and then I just have to look. Too, I get about fifty emails a day asking for last minute contributions to the campaign where I had already made a contribution. And if you glance at any news source, well, it's all there, in your face. 

It's been such a slog to this November 5th that you cannot believe that in a day it will all be behind us (maybe). 

It is a gray day, but it's eerily warmish. Ed says it's like pre-tornado weather, though of course, there is no storm heading at us. It's November. Tornadoes don't come barreling through here in November. (A fact that certainly falls in the column of "why I might possibly like November.") I walk over to the barn thinking that even a hoodie seems like overkill.

Indeed, it's so weirdly pleasant that I take out my bike and go over to Tati Cafe to pick up some pastries for breakfast. Useless endeavor. They dont get fresh baked goods from Madison Sourdough on Mondays. I will never figure out their pastry schedule. 

No matter, we have frozen croissants. Breakfast...

... during which we discuss, guess what? -- the election. This morning I put on the table this puzzler: why isn't climate change up there on our list of priorities? Many scientists will tell you (indeed, they have stated this more than once) that the election, coming so close as it does on the heels of ruinous and rapidly accelerating climate events may well determine if we survive as a human species. So why isn't that on the table? 

Ed shrugs. Maybe it's like the election year where we were super charged about the possibility of nuclear bombs being deployed. There was a chance that it would happen, but there was also a chance that it wouldn't. Maybe the uncertainty in making any predictions creates indifference...

Veering slightly toward a more positive environmental topic, I tell him that I recently purchased a senior National Park pass. It's relatively inexpensive and it's good for the rest of my life. He chuckles at that, knowing we are not great National Park users. One reason -- the parks are all rather far from where we live. A second -- I'm done with camping and he wont go to the overpopulated resort type places among the beaten National Park paths. Still, I foresee some possible uses in some not too distant future (for me)! Maybe you and I should go in the off off season... -- I say this knowing full well that I wont move him out of the farmhouse anytime soon. 

He reminds me -- you know the National Parks are a great idea whether we or anyone visits them. 

From climate, to parks, to animals. But eventually we come around to the elections again because Wisconsin is always on the front pages of news coverage and so it's interesting to reflect on how the rest of the world sees us. 

 

After breakfast, I should take a walk, but yesterday threw me off of my November movement challenge (can anyone have any success in a November challenge??) and so I ignore the guilt and sit down to read about places I may visit in the new year. As Ed will tell you, nothing offers as great a distraction for me as studying train schedules between different points. From there, follows a hotel search and before you know it a trip idea is born and there goes my day.

Well, not really the whole day: I head out as usual on Mondays to pick up Snowdrop. (Ed put the door lights up! Thank you!)

And I take her to ballet class, and I meet up with her mom for a few minutes. Needless to say, it's very dark by the time I am home again. No matter. I made turkey soup yesterday -- good for tonight as well! As for tomorrow's dinner? I haven't a clue. No idea what to fix or even if I will feel like fixing it. Sweating it out, with the rest of you! 

But hey, outside, my delicate flower of hope and love is blooming today! November 4th and the gladiola murealis is throwing out its white petals! Remarkable...

 

 

with love...