Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

I am so done. (the last day I didn't go into the office was Oct 26, which held a dr appt + FCB (all sight reading!) rehearsal + chore catchup from the prior week not at home.) We had various staffing issues (a co-chair's 90yo dad fell and banged his head, so she had to bow out on Sunday; Monday we got a call from one of the closing crew that her mom had gone into hospital for breathing/lung issues and her dad needed help, so she wasn't available) added to DC's back issues. With CoChair out, the usual drive-to-AA driver wasn't available; so I got tabbed to do that -- the other people going either don't like driving at night and/or don't like driving in AA. Whatevs, I'll drive. AA at 11pm is pretty easy, as long as you don't freak about about one way streets and construction messing with traffic patterns.

We convened the AVCB for two days (by common consent -- we decided that since we were allowed to break AV processing over two days, we would!). Processed 400 ballots on Monday, another 540 on Tuesday. And duplicated nearly 30 ballots -- most due to voters' idly tapping a pen in the wrong place on the ballot, or putting the ballot in the outer envelope incorrectly so that the letter opener caught the ballot as well as the envelope, but some were actual mistakes by the voter. State Elections has an entire procedure for determining what the voter actually meant, but when the voter writes "oops I meant this other candidate", it's pretty easy to figure it out. We got a note from one voter apologizing for making extra work for us, but as she's housebound and couldn't come in and get a new ballot.... (I remember talking to her, and I said "if you can't come in, just make it clear what you mean, and we can make it happen. There's a procedure for that.") The Live voting floor got 640(ish) voters, there were 210(ish) people who did Early Voting, so that makes 1790(ish) votes cast in a jurisdiction with 2200(ish) registered voters. AV skews blue, Live skews red; but more people vote AV, so the jurisdiction went blue.

J and I went in this AM to finish resetting the offices -- various bits of furniture had to be returned to their usual spots (including our basement), all the election equipment had to be shifted to the basement storage, the meeting infrastructure had to be re-assembled (I can take it down, but IT needs to reset the system and I don't want that job), etc. Tomorrow, I go in and wrangle paperwork and find my desk.

Now I'm going to go veg for a while. (and do laundry, but that's pretty easy.) It's raining, so I don't feel too guilty about not working in the garden. I do have errands to run, but I'm ignoring them until tomorrow (Wednesday is my usual errand day, but I'm beyond tired and it's raining...).

It was mostly elections, no gardening (when I had time, it was cold; and when it was acceptable weather for gardening, I was either not home or there were birds/bees I didn't want to disturb in the gardens I wanted to work in, so...).

Friday I got my HepB vaccination (part 1). Saturday I swapped some seasonal clothes out, and did lots of housework, etc, that had not gotten done when we were gone and I didn't have time to do during the week. Sunday I sang at church, and then went off to AA to usher for the Sphinx Virtuosi American Dialogues 250. The musicianship was excellent. The vocalist's voice was gorgeous. Could not understand most of the words, and she was theoretically singing in English (and she's a native English speaker). Apparently that's not a concern anymore. I needed the text in the program notes so I could tell what she was singing. Which is too bad, because I think actually understanding the words is important to the impact of the piece. But hey, I'm an Old.

In election stuff, we've been getting ready for the public accuracy test of the voting equipment. And scheduling election workers, and remembering where we filed things. (WHY we had to have the office furniture replaced *during* election set up is baffling to me. It's hectic enough already, and you want me to juggle a complete office reorg at the same time?! Aaaaiigh. And I wound up doing most of the actual reorg, including doing 'heavy analytical work'* for J as he moved furniture.)

I have hopes of getting into the garden, but J was making noises about doing the last of the furniture moving today. But right now he's off providing technical assistance (getting Excel to *print* at a readable size is not for the faint of heart). So I'm doing laundry and cleaning the living room.

I have the door cracked open because it's lovely and sunny out there. (and 60F, which is why the door's not wide open.)


(* 'heavy analytical work' was my Dad's formal name for "here, hold this" type of assistance.)

And gardening was accomplished. Sort of. I weeded the strawberry bed on Saturday. Sunday, I got a few hours of work done on the E garden before my back was done. There's at least another week's worth of work left. It will be interesting to see if I actually get it done before it gets too cold to work out there. Monday afternoon, I tackled the door-side garden that was looking more like unmowed grass than a garden (a lot of the plants in there are of the hyacinth/allium variety, so they look like grass unless they're flowering). The actual grass growing into the garden did not help that impression. Unfortunately for me, weeding in that garden involves a lot of moving/holding tree branches out of the way, so it's a lot harder to work in that garden than the E garden. I have another hour+ of work left in that garden, but it's the easier side. And it's currently in the sun, and I have nothing on the schedule for this evening. Guess I'm going out there after I post this.

I got a few more file boxes filed into the new space. I will have to go in on Monday and make a dedicated run at it in the hope of getting all those file boxes out of the boardroom before the board meeting on Tuesday -- I just don't have time to do it while I'm also doing election work.

And that is my life right now. Election and garden. whee?

{edit for clarity. and nouns. and verb/subject matching. It's been a week at work, and my grammar brain is all used up, apparently.}

DC and I packed 1002 AV ballots T-W-R, and I came home via the PO Thursday afternoon to drop them in the mail. Thursday afternoon before I left we started packing up the office in preparation to receive new office furniture on Monday. (No, we didn't have much say in when the furniture was delivered. The installers don't have enough space to hold the furniture for a week, and neither does the twp hall.) This morning, J and I went over with a couple of furniture moving devices and emptied/packed/moved the large furniture out of the office, and my desk+chair came home. (Where I have to find a space for it, but ::shrug::.) DC says she will stop by the hall Sunday evening to see if the cleaning lady has actually *cleaned* the empty office.

Today was supposed to be more fully scheduled, but tonight's UMS usher gig was cancelled because the performers went on strike.

Sunday was going to be full; then call-time was changed and it became impossible (still haven't developed apparition/teleportation *or* bi-location), so I declared defeat and asked for cover on Sunday morning and someone stepped up (I had taken Sunday morning because no-one else was available, but apparently I wasn't the only one with schedule changes).

I guess this means I really should get into the garden tomorrow, eh? Or maybe I'll just sit for a while and relax....

{edit for nouns and things like that.}

Still working on the final documentation of the election. It's been certified by the board of canvassers, so there's that. Still waiting to hear whether our number came up in the random audits. Next week (!) I need to send out AV applications to people who haven't returned their application yet. DC is recruiting hard for election workers. We'll have way more than we need at this rate, and some people get irked when they go through all the training, etc and get put on the reserve team. But it's not my problem anymore. :) I will also begin really training DC on running an election, now that she's mostly done with learning the financial side of the Clerk job. Tuesday I went in early and wore my "assistant to the Treasurer" hat, as both the Treas and DepTreas had kids to deliver to university on Tuesday. It took me longer than it should have to remember how to do that job, but fortunately the first customer of the day was someone I knew from school, and we were able to commiserate about remembering stuff.

We got a nice all day rain on Saturday, so I waded into the garden that really needs the work, and have spent most of the week working on it. Tomorrow after errands, I need to wade into the E garden and determine how many sq feet of space I need for the new iris bed, and how many plants I need to fill the space that the irises will leave.

There are many hummingbirds at the various feeders. It's been nice enough that I've been able to leave the front window open, and I hear lots of vroooming from hummingbirds, and occasional chips as they squabble about access. There's also a new fledging of finches swooping down from the gutter and back up again as they learn to fly....

the final results for the 2027 summer season are in. Due to Band's flexibility, the record was a decent 7 and 5. Bands rescheduled two concerts, both of which did happen in pretty much perfect weather. I missed two matches due to scheduling issues, and those matches are not included in the final record.

Last night was the LCCB season final in Hartland. I had forgotten that they paved the parking lot last year, so I could have worn sandals (gravel parking lots are either mudpits or dustbowls by mid-August, and I don't like wearing sandals in either of those). It was a bit humid, but not hot or raining, so it was fine. SectionLeader said that if she'd known that the other TSax players were going to ghost us, she'd have left me on TSax for the summer. I know I would have preferred that, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Today I took both saxes up to the shop in Okemos. I have bailed on Marshall's for the bari because getting to and from Troy is a real PITA, the good tech there has retired (afaik), and the ELansing shop is very slow. I'll probably go retrieve the horns tomorrow. I may not be playing the tenor for a while, though. I will miss the first LCCB concert, and possibly the second one as well.

Election day is over. we processed 730AV ballots, 350 people came in to the hall, and another 25 voted early. There were a bunch of people who got AV ballots who didn't bring them to the hall when they voted in person, so they had another couple of things to do before they could get a new ballot. Some other clerks saw the same thing, and are assuming some sort of protest/agitation/influencer thing, but I've worked with voters long enough to know that there are people who lose their ballots and don't want to admit it, or screw it up so badly that they bin it, or just don't bring it because "i'm voting in person, why do I need to bring back my ballot?" (because we need to make sure that you don't vote twice, that's why).

There were a few people who asked "how did I get on the permanent ballot list?" "you asked to be put on it." "no I didn't" "well, we didn't put anyone on the list who didn't ask, so somewhere along the line you had to have made that choice. I can take you off of it right now." (it's not my fault that you ticky-boxed the "Permanent Ballot: you will get a ballot mailed to you for every election" -- which is well away from any other ticky-box on the form -- without understanding that this means *every* election.)

Then I got drafted to go to County to turn in the County Clerk and Canvasser envelopes. whee. (The Floor chair who usually takes the envelopes in asked for a rep from the AVCB to come with and answer any questions about the AVCB because she knows that we have one, and who's on it, but that's pretty much the extent of her knowledge.)

So I need to go in today and finish resetting the rooms we used for election functions, and work on building the Audit Book.

Two concerts this week! Who are all of these people? And why are we all wearing the same color/style of shirt? Why is that man waving his arms at us? {the parenthetical 1 is for the FCB at Heritage Park which has been rescheduled to next Thursday. We'll finish the season there this year, after years of starting the season there....}

Monday's FCB outreach was a bit hazy and hot, but the show went on. A few people bailed because the AQI was too high for them (about 130, which is probably higher than prudent for most people, but cabin fever is a thing). We were in a courtyard with a swirling breeze, so that was fun! I forgot my dots, so between that and people not showing up, the set-up was a little more freeform than usual. But we muddled through, and the audience appreciated it.

The LCCB concert in Howell was lovely, if a bit cloudy and breezy. Got a few tiny raindrops on us during the first piece, but the rest of the concert was dry. And the temperature was dropping, fairly quickly, through the concert (the car thermometer said 67F when I headed home).

In driveway news, the driveway "eater" showed up Monday evening while I was off at the FCB gig. Much of the driveway is now pulverized asphalt and gravel. They did go over it with a roller so that we could actually *use* the driveway until the excavating crew showed up. Last Friday afternoon, J and I moved the cableTV cable, because it was running under the corner of the new driveway. So that was fun! (FSVO -- heat index around 100F, AQI over 400.)

J got his truck back Monday evening, so early Tuesday AM he headed north. He'll be home Sunday or Monday after a long weekend in the Desolate Wasteland. The gang bailed on the 5 day hike on Isle Royale because of the smoke. Which is also why J bailed on riding the motorcycle to the Desolate Wasteland.

(edit for clarification of J's status)

The season series is now even, and in a delightful fashion. The rescheduled FCB concert went quite well on Monday evening. The weather was terrific (air temp around 80, but we were on an island and the river breeze was lovely, it was sunny but not glaringly so), we played quite well, and the audience was appreciative. I got in the wrong lane in a construction zone on the way home, and wound up coming home back roads, but it was fine. Probably only a few minutes longer than if I'd navigated the (new since the last time I went through there two weeks ago) traffic pattern correctly, and 7 Mile Rd is a nice drive when you're that far west.

We were able to cobble together enough people to work the election. The webinar we did a couple of weeks ago pointed out that I really should not chair the AVCB -- if BC should be unavailable on election day, I would need to step in to many of her duties because DC is not at all comfortable with them. The AVCB as constituted is qualified and well able to do the duties allotted to them without me there, but they are _required_ to have a Chair. (Thanks webinar provider! I don't like being Chair anyway, because I know that I will be called away to do "clerk-y" things.)

We got an email from someone who said that when they stopped by to put their ballot in the drop box, a pair of ballots that were not completely inserted into the slot on the drop box fell out. They said that we should "do something" about it! I can't fix stupid. If you're the kind of person who will just shove envelopes into a slot and drive away, would it help if there was a sign "be sure to insert your ballot completely into the slot"? We've been using this drop box since 2022, so five elections, and this is the first time we've had ballots not completely inserted.

And in things I cannot control, the USPS is being difficult. To be fair, it's one out of 1000, which is pretty good. Several of our voters go Up North for the summer. I checked with them all to determine where their ballots should be sent. One of them was returned with a Twp forwarding address. sigh. no, I'm pretty sure this person is at UpNorth address right now. So I emailed the voter and asked him to go poke the local PO so they'd not return his mail again. We've gotten other ballots back as not deliverable as addressed, but those are all on the voters who moved and didn't tell anyone but the PO. I have followed up with them using BoE procedures. (and this is why the voter rolls have "extra" voters on them. Federal law says we can't remove voters from the local rolls unless they tell us (in writing!) they've moved or it's been two Presidential election cycles since they last voted. there are procedures for deceased voters that don't take that long.)

Last night's LCCB concert went off quite well, especially when you consider that the band hadn't played in 3 weeks. I sight-read two pieces, and a couple of others I hadn't played on Bari for years! I still don't like the way DM does LaLa Land, but I think I've figured out how to count it.

The parenthesis is for the FCB concert scheduled for tonight, which has already been postponed due to weather uncertainty. They're pretty sure it's gonna rain tonight, but when it will start is (still!) unclear. Whether the concert actually happens on the tentative new date, we shall see. Now I have to decide if I'm actually going to put all of that gear away, or find a corner to stash it in until I need it. (Hey, I can run errands this afternoon, rather than Friday. I like that idea.)

We have gotten most of the ballots ready to mail. There are still a few left, but there's a (annoying) Zoom seminar that we're doing tomorrow afternoon, so I will finish up the ballots then, and get them to the PO on Friday. (I've looked at the slide set for the seminar. exactly two slides apply to me. I'm gonna take my tablet and run the seminar in the workroom while I stuff envelopes.)