It's been raining here since yesterday.  Good NorCal rain, where it goes for several days without end.  The sky is a uniform gray and the rain is  unrelenting, sometimes heavy, sometimes light, sometimes only a drizzle, but always something.  When the rain slackens to a drizzle, trapped people rush from buildings and stores to their cars and then off to their next destinations.  It's good to have the rain back.

Today the senior center had early voting going on; it ran from ten until four.  When they opened up at ten, there were about a dozen people in line, and it continued like that for several hours, despite the rain.  Even when the long lines were gone, there were almost always people at all the voting booths.  There were young people and old people, people with partners and friends and children and people by themselves.  College students, retired people, working people taking advantage of the opportunity to vote on the weekend.  They came on foot, by bike, in their cars, by Community Transit, and even by taxi.  I worked as a pollworker for years, presidential elections included, but have NEVER seen anything like it.  It was wonderful.  CousinJ came in to vote, so we got to talk for a minute about her voting choices and about CousinC's wedding.  She told me I'd get to meet CousinC's husband at The Niece's wedding in January, as they were planning to come up for that.  Good.  I hated to miss their wedding and look forward to meeting him for the first time and seeing the two of them together.

For our program, we had only a few clients and several extra volunteers.  Several of our clients were sick and couldn't make it in.  LadyP wasn't there; our director told me that she had moved into a nursing home sometime in the past week or so.  I'll give her husband a call to see how he's doing and to find out if he thinks LadyP would like a visit.  I was so sorry to hear that she had to go to a nursing home because it was a move that her husband was dreading.  He hated so much the thought of her being frightened and confused, but it really was to the point where she wasn't entirely safe at home.  Alzheimer's is horrible.  What a ghastly disease it is--inexorably robbing victims of their true selves, piece by piece, without benefit of anesthetic or tranquilizers.

We had a client who was new to me (this was her second visit, but I hadn't worked the last session).  She was short and probably weighed no more than ninety pounds, and she looked for all the world like one of those little dried apple dolls.  Her eyes were little and dark and bright, her face round without being plump.  She kept her lips together and kept a placid look on her face most of the time, but her eyes never stopped moving and taking everything in.  Occasionally she would did speak, always to the point and frequently displaying a sharp sense of humor.  (This client didn't have Alzheimer's--she was frail from several strokes.)  When we did indoor bowling, she played to the crowd like a queen, regally taking a bow when she knocked over most of the pins and then grinning slyly at our pleasure in her joke.  We all enjoyed her addition to our little group immensely. 

One client was brought in by her hired caregiver, a woman from Kenya.  That woman was very pleased to see the long line of voters.  I told her that I hoped Kenya would be having one heck of a party in three days, at which she grinned broadly and nodded. 

I just finished reading "Clinton in Exile," by Carol Feldenthal.  It was interesting, with an overall anti-Clinton tone.  There seemed to be good documentation for most of the direct statements, but the author also clearly implied that Clinton, while jetting around the globe on billionaires' planes, was likely engaging in sex with girls, some possibly underage.  It'll be interesting to see how history judges him.  He was so intelligent and so flawed, all together and at the same time.  Goodness only knows what his weaknesses cost us.  At the very least, his failings gave us the past eight years of George W. Bush instead of Al Gore. 

I wonder a lot about the evolutionary advantage of traits like conservatism and liberalism.  There is more evidence all the time that the attitudes that lead to one way of thinking or the other are innate, which makes sense to me.  If everyone in a group were of a conservative mindset, resisting change and sticking to the tried and true ways, it would be more difficult for that group to adapt to sudden changes; and at the same time, if everyone in a group were of a more seeking mindset, more likely to go looking for new things and trying new methods, the group might be led into trouble through insufficient attention to those same tried and true ways.  Having members of both persuasions could be enough of a balance to allow the group to manage most contingencies.  I used to vote like that, going Democratic in one place and Republican in another, hoping that some balance of power would keep either group from taking us too far in one direction too fast.  Not anymore, though; the Republicans of today don't feel like the Republicans of my younger years--they are too mean-spirited and exclusionary for me.

Tomorrow KidThree and I are going to find a place to see "W."  We'll also go to a La-Z-boy store to try out furniture.  We won't be able to buy a couch or even a loveseat until the new year, but it'll do us good to find one that we like, one that KidThree can get into and out of easily and that is also comfortable for me.  It's more fun to have a specific goal in mind instead of a nebulous 'something, someday.' 

KidOne didn't get an invitation to The Niece's bridal shower.  She doesn't mind, as she isn't interested in going, and is fine with my going.  So, I'll go, if Mom is going.

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