Decision 2024

It’s October 24, the first day of early voting in my home state of Maryland. We have one week, October 24 through October 31. I’m not sure why early voting doesn’t run right through that next weekend until the day before Election Day, but I don’t get to make those calls. 

Today is the day I shop for our crazy old lady. We’re well into year 5 now and it’s just part of the routine. By the time I finish that, I probably won’t want to go vote but we’ll see. I’m definitely planning to do it sometime during the early voting window, though. I expect long lines on Election Day. Maryland’s electoral votes will certainly go to Harris no matter what I do, but we also have a very close Senate race here, and I want to make sure that Larry Hogan doesn’t win a Senate seat. He was a competent Governor and is one of the few decent Republicans left, but I don’t want to see a Republican majority in the Senate. And I like Angela Alsobrooks. And when I’m old(er), I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that I voted for the first woman president. 

*****

It’s Saturday morning and our backyard is covered with leaves. The trees are in full multicolor autumn mode, and the morning light is golden and warm. Just a few weeks from now, the trees will be almost bare, filtering white-gold November sun for a few weeks of perfect light before the winter starts asserting itself and everything turns leaden gray and stays that way for four months or so. I need to pay attention to what’s happening out there. I need to go touch grass today, or leaves, or whatever. I don’t want to miss mid-November, no matter what happens on the 5th. 

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I was thinking about going to vote today. I was going to wear my Kamala 2024 shirt, with a sweater over top so that I’d know that I was wearing that shirt, but the election judges wouldn’t. I was going to bring a book to read. I was going to wear comfortable shoes, suitable for standing in a long line. I had a plan. 

Then last night I was home by myself, and when I looked up the open hours for my local early voting site, I saw that it was still open for 45 minutes, and I decided to go and vote right then and there and I did. The line was very short, and the election workers were in good spirits, and even though I know that Kamala will win Maryland with or without me, I still wanted to make sure that my vote was on paper and counted. 

So now I have more free time than I thought I would today. It’s a beautiful day so I’m going to go outside. It’s going to be a long 10 days.