Election Day

 The day began ominously.

Kevin got up at 12:40am to use the bathroom.  The lights went out when he shuffled back to bed. Why would the lights going out wake me up?  Shortly thereafter the dogs began to bark and screams from me for them to stop went on deaf ears.

I was now wide awake and restless. I had to do something now that I was awake.  I took the trash out via the front door (I usually go out via the back door) and something big rustled in the dark in the front yard.  Shit, I, thought, I'm not going out there now!  ,Whatever it was, it caused a lot of the sh,rubs to sway violently.

With the dogs still barking, I now see a woman in the alley with a flashlight walking along.  "Are your lights out?" she asked me.  "Yes," I replied.  "Remember when this happened last time?" she continued.  "No."  But even after the woman walked on, the dogs, especially Gretel, kept on barking. The outage seems to just affect two streets in our subdivision.

The 92.4% moon had risen earlier at 7:02pm and lighted up the street.  I was ready to walk the dogs for a few miles but then opted not to, in case my presence would make the nearby homeowners 2think I was trying to break into someone's home.  One man did come out of his home with a flashlight as I walked by, juast as I spotted a javelina running down the street.  That must have been what was getting the dogs all riled up: that animal was rustling around in the front yard and looking for catfood that I leave out for Willie. The moonlight showed the animal's distinctive outline as it scurried through shrubbery down the street.

My heart raced all day, anxious about election results.  Luckily I was busy with class work and students, but once I was on my way home, with a brief stop at 143 Street Tacos for take-out, I was all focused on ballot results.  I stayed home to avoid any unrest in town. Cochise County is a redneck haven in a state that is slowly turning blue.  We have a lot of fierce Trump supporters with big pick-up trucks and weapons ready to use them should things not go their way. 

Kevin had taken the day off again and was already in bed when I got home. We both, were curious about election results, but at 5pm the only "news" was chatty speculation on all the networks.  I don't want needless chatter, I was short and concise results, then switched over to C-Span.org for continued, chatterless coverage.

Biden was always in the lead, unlike four years ago when Clinton never was able to catch up to Trump's results. Biden won all the New England states, Virginia, Illinois, but Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and then later Nevada and Arizona ended the night with votes still counting, but Biden in the lead with 253 to Trump's 213 yet Trump declaring himself the victor and the results a "fraud." 

Biden is in the lead in Arizona. But all I know are the local results. Senator McSally is trailing behind opponent Mark Kelly, Brandon Martin lost his bid against Democratic Incumbent Ann Kirlpatrick for AZ 2nd District, recreational pot has been approved, and a tax increase on wealthy Arizonans to fund schools have been approved.  At least now I can imbibe in THC to numb the pain should a second Trump term be wrestles out of all the key states still counting ballots. 

Sometimes I wish I were a clueless German Shepherd Dog, to whom all this wouldn't matter.  Just feed me, exercise me, and rub my belly and legs for me.  Life would be so much better as a GSD in this home.