Yesterday was a “down day” at daisyfae’s dream condo. Home theater/audio installation day*. The Boy and one of his friends were sleeping in, after being up late the night before playing billiards and drinking cheap beer…
With the installation noise, The Boy was up earlier than expected. Sitting with me at the table, he mentioned that he might want to vote absentee. Asking me about issues and candidates, we went through a League of Women Voters summary of the five state-level constitutional amendment issues on the ballot.
The Boy: Issue 1 is stupid. Who cares how many days there should be for filing petitions. i’m not voting on that… Issue 2 is about green space? Parks? Acquiring green space? Does that mean they’ll exercise eminent domain over homeowners and take property? Fuck that!
daisyfae: No, it’s about issuing bonds to raise funds to purchase land. Very different.
The Boy: OK. Issue 3 is about the rights of people who are living on the shoreline? Isn’t that the issue Dad was involved in?
daisyfae: Yep. Another “property owners rights” issue. Allows people who live on the shoreline to have access to the water without paying taxes to the state. Seems reasonable to me since they pay a premium to buy the land.
The Boy: Where the fuck is Issue 4? Why does it go right to Issue 5?
daisyfae: i have no idea… What’s issue 5?
The Boy: Payday lenders? Those fuckers can charge more than 28%? That’s robbery! Shut ’em down… bastards.
daisyfae: Another case where people who are desperate aren’t always doing the math… May be good to have legislation regulating interest rates.
The Boy: Issue 6 is the casino thing? Hell yeah! I don’t care who’s backing the damn casino. How am i ever going to get a job as a poker dealer if we don’t have casinos in the state?
And so it went… We talked about candidates, issues, and taxes, too…
The Boy: Is there a police levy?
daisyfae: Nope. Just schools and mental health…
The Boy: Fuck the po-lice. i’m looking forward to voting against police levies. i’ll vote for schools, fire levies and anything else, but fuck the po-lice.
Off to a halloween party...
The Boy woke up his friend, and they reviewed issues and candidates. They went to vote. i’ve seen so much energy from the “young ‘uns” regarding this election. They are – across the board – engaged, and paying attention. As my friend ctyri writes “I can’t express how great it feels to be witnessing a new direction for our country”. And he and i are both hard core cynics… It’s their country. They need to take charge. i’ll cheer wildly from the sidelines. There’s a future… fingers crossed…
Last night, as friends and i drank our way through my liquor cabinet celebrated the new home theater/audio system, The Boy headed out for a halloween party as The Dude, from The Big Lebowski**. And despite the bathrobe, shades and dirty t-shirt? i was kinda proud…
* And the Geek Gods sang “Ahhhhhhhh!”. And daisyfae was in a state of perpetual electronica delirium as she tested each sound zone, humped the new HDTV/Blueray system and flitted about like a school girl in heat…
** renal failure offers brilliance for halloween costume cool-if-ication. Zombie up, bitches… My suggestion was to go as The Zombie Dude…
Trailer Park Refugee 
It’s quite inspiring (and sometimes frightening) to watch this election from afar – we are all holding our breath …
Totally geeked out on the theater, eh? Don’t blame you.
Hey, it’s scary watching this election from up close, too. Glad the young folks are getting into it.
You and The Boy have a beautiful way of boiling down the issues to their core meanings.
awww… your little anarchist is growing up into a respectable raging liberal hippie, just like his mama… *smirk*
you must be… should be proud. we need to rely on the young uns to save our butts.
he does a great Lebowski 🙂
tNb – holding your breath til you turn blue? (that’s a joke, internal to the US: “Blue” states are those who vote democratic/obama and “Red” are those voting republican/mccain)… my daughter said the same thing from Beirut! listened to the debates via mp3… strange!
silverstar – it’s totally geek-a-rific! i may never leave home again! and it is cool to hear some of the young skater-dudes talking about details of presidential policies. makes me very happy!
unbearable banishment – it helps that we’re both pretty simple minded! i get more irrational in discussions of local candidates (many of whom i know personally through community activities). “RP is a complete FUCKWIT! i don’t know who’s running against him, but vote twice…”
gnu kid – had to read that twice. on first read, i saw “antichrist”. but yeah… he’s quite the little libertarian! after a few police “profiles”, detentions and attempts at illegal search, he has every right to be!
nm – scary thing? it comes pretty naturally… he’s been wearing the bathrobe all weekend. i’m concerned about my rugs…
There was no rug incident though I hope.
alex – so far, my rug is fine… but no one’s been kidnapped yet. stay tuned!
Yeah – you’ve got our collective futures to vote for. Going to be interesting.
What, didn’t The Boy have friends who could dress up as Walter and Donnie?
dolce – regardless of the outcome, the US will remain divided. popular vote will not be a landslide, so we’re looking at some ugliness… oh, and who cares if the glass is half full, or half empty? you’re bound to spill it, so what difference does it make? 😉
renalfailure – they didn’t, but should have. one friend looks like Walter, but is the one that is often told “Shut the fuck up! You’re out of your element”. Ok. Maybe not the nicest thing for me to say to one of my kids friends, but still…