Consider this a head's up....tomorrow is a double-jeopardy day...first, it's election day in this neck of the woods...federal representative seats, judgeships, and other municipal posts will appear on the ballots...which means I'll have to get up extra early if I have any hope of having DH (dear husband) buy me a coffee after we "cast" our ballots....I'm sure there's a back story to that expression...
Today I worked at school and during lunch duty, it was explained to me that I needed to move the little lunchers away from their usual roosting spot because election workers were coming in with voting machines, etc. The church that our school lmeets in is an official lpolling place.
Being the only adult in the area at that moment, I imagine I was the only one to inwardly chortle at the juxtaposition: many US voters go to cast their ballots in polling places that happen to be within church buildings. No doubt, it is the only time many people enter a church building. I'm not sure why so many polling places are in churches....and I realize it is probably not the majority. Obviously the 'separation between church and state' spin doesn't carry much weight here...maybe there's an inherent understanding that houses of worship tend to be 'safe havens' where it is reasonable to expect some orderliness...I hope so, anyway.
I hope the first through fourth graders (who were temporarily inconvenienced at lunch time to make way for the voting machines) all grow up to appreciate the costly freedom they have inherited to live in a democratic republic. Or, perhaps, I should hope that it still is so when they are old enough to vote.
And FURTHERMORE, tomorrow is Groundhog Day! Holy Toledo...that's a lot of gravitas for one day! My husband has an "old" [in both senses] friend--going back to kindergarten, in fact--who was born on Groundhog Day. But *head scratch* for some reason, he didn't like to be reminded of that little coincidence. So they obligingly call(ed) him Earth Pig...
Which brings us back to the "heads up"....how's that for a clever segue?...OK, never mind. But, tomorrow, we'll at some point find out what happens when Punxatawnee Phil, or whatever his name is, pokes his little mammalian head out into the daylight and either does, or doesn't see his shadow.
With all due respect to my beloved dad, who used to work as a meteorolgist back when I was a tiny tot, I think the Groundhog Method of predicting the duration of winter is about as valid as all those computer models, satellite images, etc., etc. And, it's MUCH more fashionable. I've heard tell that some groundhogs have even been persuaded to pose in tophats for their moment(s) of glory! I suppose after the flash, they "eat their hat"...
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