Smorgasbord

Hallelujah, this is the most glorious time of the year. Political ads and the MLB season are as far away as they will be all year. Glory be!

There has been an inexplicably noticeable proliferation of lizards in our front yard this fall. The squirrels moved from the back yard to the front, and I guess they invited the lizards to come with them. It's bizarre.

It's the start of the foggy season in Fresno, and for anyone who has never experienced the fog of Central California...I suggest you never do, it is incredibly dangerous and people get injured/killed every year because of it. You literally cannot see anything out there on the freeways in the country. It's bad. I can't wait for it to go away.

Speaking of getting killed, I had to run audio at the church today for a funeral for a 13 year old boy who was killed in an after school fight with an 8th grade (alleged) bully. They say the fight lasted only 20-30 seconds. It's so sad to see a child lying in a casket, but I don't know that there are many things more heartbreaking to see than a grown man completely breaking down in tears despite all his efforts to hold it in, especially when you just know he's one of those otherwise macho guys who hasn't cried in like 15 years. I always think funerals are a strange event, the solemnity of it all makes me uneasy and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I just don't like seeing people cry.

Those parents/family members of that kid get a pass on not voting today if they miss it. Every one else, no excuses. You should have been to the polls by now, although, I think it is silly that we vote on a week day and there is no holiday from work or requirement to let workers off to go vote, or at least let people vote close to work rather than close to home so it is more convenient. It's bad enough in some places that certain parties are calling people telling them if they vote they or their family will be deported, roads are mysteriously closed around polling places to make them less accessible, voting machines mysteriously malfunction, people get called and told their polling place has been changed, polling places have 1 or 2 voting machines for 3-4 thousand constituent voters, etc. If people want to vote, we should make it possible, and this election fraud/wrangling that happens every time the polls open has to, HAS TO stop. It is ridiculous and it makes a mockery of the system. It's bad enough that the politicians are crooked, but when even the machinery of the democracy stops working, it's time to start over. If this is the endgame of our form of government, if this is what newly liberated Iraq, the former Soviet bloc, the central African nations, and other fledgling democracies around the world have to look forward to in the coming century, I'd tell them to find a new model of government because this is pathetic.