Yup. I Voted.

I did my civic duty today, just like I was asked to by the nice man from the party who called last night. I voted in the Delaware Primary Election this evening at the polling place of the 1st Election District of the 37th Representative District.

When I came down Savannah Road towards the old Lewes Middle School, where we vote, I saw lots of cars parked along the road. I was pleased, since I had heard that turn-out had been light. I was a bit surprised to see two young women in National Guard fatigues standing outside the front door. When I approached the door, they handed me a folded, xeroxed sheet.

I had gone to the wrong door. There was some sort of program scheduled in the school building. The polling place was the next set of doors down; the entrance by the cafeteria/auditorium. There was no one parked there.

In my defense, the door I first went to is one where the polling place has been set up at least once in the past.

When I got to the right spot, I found I was the only voter in the place. No waiting.

After I voted, the poll workers were kind enough (bored enough?) to let me take their group portrait.

They told me that they had seen about 200 voters by that point (around 7:00 p.m.). They said that that was about what they expected. There were only two races for that District, one each for Ds and Rs.

Filed in:

• election
• politics
• primary
• Delaware

Changes. Thanks, Ernesto.

Walking back to my car after voting this evening, I found myself looking at a scene that I'd photographed back in June. A lovely brick home with a wrapped porch, framed by mature trees. It looked different tonight. Several large tree limbs were on the lawn, and the house was no longer quite so shaded.

Here's how it looked back in June:


Now, after Tropical Storm Ernesto came through a short while ago, it looked like this:

Filed in:

• Lewes
• landscape

A Moment of Silence on 9/11

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Our Marriage Turned 18 Today

Eighteen years ago today, Karen and I called together her family and mine, and all our friends, at a Church in Potomac, Maryland, to witness our wedding.

Karen was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church, worshipping in Slavonic, and our marriage included some prayers and promises in that language. It was very high-church, with kneeling and crowns and incense and a procession three times around the alter.

I don't really know what was promised in some of that ceremony, but that was when I started following my Father's wise advice: "Do whatever your wife tells you to do." It's advice that has served me well, so far.

Whatever the details, I can say that we were pretty well completely married by the end of the ceremony.

The reception was at a country-club-type place out west of DC. Though we were the only sober people at that reception, I don't have a firm memory of what the place was called. I know that we missed most of our meal walking from table to table to meet and greet.

I asked my older sister to buy boxes of Animal Crackers for the head table; I had wanted to get a huge supply of just the Giraffe Animal Crackers, to put in bowls at every table. Karen is a Giraffe person. But I was unable to make that happen.

The band was traditional, playing polkas. At the crescendo of the evening, a huge ring danced around Karen while my youngest brother and Karen's sister collected cash donations for a shot of whiskey and a dance with the bride: The Bridal Dance. Mom still wonders at the sight she had that night of her youngest son cheerily sharing shots with one and all.

Karen was danced into a tizzy and by the time I broke through the ring to claim my bride ("Tradition! Tradition!" sings Tevye), we had collected several hundred dollars. That night, at the Admiral Fell Inn, on Fells Point in Baltimore, we counted our cash, laughed about our families, and started a life together that still includes laughter, joy, and lots of family.

I love my wife. She is a beautiful, kind, talented woman. I'm a lucky, lucky man.

Mazel-Tov! If I do toast so myself.

Filed in:

• marriage
• anniversary
• love

ax + by = gcd(a,b)

On cre.ations.net, there is a short video of a simple strobe-light-enhanced fountain, the Time Fountain. A fellow has added timed, strobing LEDs to a simple water stream to make art. The video posted on this page is neat.

A commenter on MetaChat, where I found a link to this site, tells us that this effect as a lot to do with the extended Euclidean Algorithm. I'll take his/her word on that. The EEA is beyond my ken, but the water drops sure are pretty.

Filed in:

• art
• water
• ExtendedEuclideanAlgorithm

This May be Interesting to Watch

With a tip of the cap to the News Journal editorial page, I point to a new web site: Delaware Public Notices. This is a page posted by the Maryland-Delaware-D.C. Press Association to share Delaware government legal notices.

I'll be watching it to see how complete and timely it is, but I can see this as useful in several pursuits.

The head of the Press Association has a "Delaware Voice" column in the paper as well, explaining the thinking behind the new site. He explains that the site is in part a response to a proposal in the legislature last session to stop using newspaper classified sections for state government legal ads. He argues that not using newspaper ads would reduce public confidence.

By placing notices in newspapers, the state reassures the public that no backroom deals are being cut and no contracts are being awarded under the table. The newspapers can monitor that the government has followed the law in inviting bids on contracts or is notifying the public about major projects.

For now at least, ordinary residents are more likely to come across a notice that they were not actively seeking when it is published in a newspaper. On the Internet, most people only find what they are seeking.

I'm not sure I agree completely. I have not looked at the legals section of a newspaper in ages. I don't think most people do; only those who actively seek out the government public notices.

But I have no objection to maintaining the legal ads in print. The cost is not that huge. I am glad to see another outlet for information added, though. And I think we can trust the Press Association to do a thorough job.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• government

Sometimes We Forget...

We forget how nice our City of Lewes can be. This evening, I stumbled across a blog posting from August from "Number 4 of 5." The post, In the streets of Delaware, I swear, tells about a visit to Delaware's beaches by a family from, I think, the DC area.

They were bummed by the crowds on the beach, but charmed by Lewes.

We walked a round for a while, ate dinner on the harbor, bought homemade ice cream, etc. Basically all the things you should do while in a beach town.

There are pictures of the harbor, of the Zwannendael Museum, a labyrinth in the churchyard, and that odd kid-sized plastic pirate outside Kid's Ketch.

It's nice to read someone else's fresh reaction to our town. We know it is a lovely place, but we've gotten used to that fact. This small blog entry by someone I don't know has reminded me of why I fell in love with this place 20 years ago.

Filed in:

• Delaware
• lewes

Happy Blogsday, To Me

It was two years ago today that I started this Mike's Musings. When I set off on my narcissistic journey, I wasn't sure where it would lead. I'm still not sure, but I'm having fun with it, so I think I will carry on.

Last year at this time, I took a look back and found a variety of topics and styles of posting. I wonder if I've settled into any one in the year since then?

I do think I have become somewhat less political, at least on this blog. Over this past year, several overtly political blogs have babbled up in the Delaware blogosphere. While I enjoy politics,and have strong feelings about them, I've come to think that those feelings may not be the best thing for me to post about here; not least because I have made a conscious decision to be openly me on-line.

Also, there are others on both sides of the spectrum -- left and right -- who do a more complete job of plumbing the political depths than I could or would.

So, I have continued to catalogue my daily experiences and have moved more and more into photography.

I have also started playing with various forms of blog-metrics and I have been interested to note what some of my most popular blog entries have been this past year.

My experiences last fall with a blood clot, and its treatment, for example, have turned up repeatedly as entries that new readers have found.

Even more frequently read has been my entry on adding a Sirius Satellite radio to my Prius. I get a steady stream of hits from google searches like "sirius prius" or "sirius for prius."

One foray into local school board politics, at least as an observer, has also generated some traffic. We had some worries in the winter about the intentions of the Indian River School Board towards our daughters' school. I also found time to cover the legal questions around the District's handling of religion and diversity.

Some Other Favorites From the Past Year

• A trip to Niagara Falls
• A Theory of Relative Coolness
• Two Concert Posts: John Mayer and John Mayer/Sheryl Crow
• Delaware's Own Punkin' Chunkin' is Now and International Story
  
• Arts in Education in the News
• A Walk Around the Point
• Oh, How I Love That Crazy Internet
• Report from the Keys, Part 2: Being There
• Returning to an Old Favorite
  
• Music. Two Very Different Sorts.
  
• Vacation Report, Part 3: At The Tyler Place
• Imagine My Surprise

Finally, I've been playing around with some new technologies, new blog tools. I've been trying out different aspects of del.icio.us, for example, to enhance my blog-roll and add a new tag-roll. This is my test-bed for some of the sorts of social networking tools I'd like to bring to my web work at work. We shall see.

It has been fun writing this blog for the last two years. I think I'll dish up some Ice Cream and toast to the future.

Filed in:

• Blogging

Onward and Upward, Into Fifth Grade

And then it was Christina's turn to pose for her First Day of School photo.

Christina began fifth grade today, moving up to the second floor of the Southern Delaware School of the Arts (SDSA).

Colleen started at Sussex Tech last week.

Karen is back to full-time at SDSA this year. She team-teaches, specializing in helping out special-ed kids. She had been part-time the last two years.

For Karen and I as a couple, this will be our ninth year as SDSA parents. It will be odd to go to school functions and now only see the parents of kids in Christina's class. We had gotten used to also seeing the parents of Colleen's class-mates; a group that is mostly our age. The folks we'll rub shoulders with now at assemblies and performances are mostly younger then we are.

One interesting note of newness for Christina: there is now a set of quadruplets in fifth grade with her. I assume they are split among the two fifth grade classes. Christina says some of them look alike, but others don't.

We were all excited to be fully back in the school year. Shoe was not too thrilled, though. He'll miss his human friends while we're away all day.

Filed in:

• family
• school

John Mayer and Sheryl Crow, 9/2/06, Tweeter Center, Camden, NJ

Karen and I took the girls to see John Mayer and Sheryl Crow at the Tweeter Center in Camden, New Jersey, on Saturday evening. The two are co-headlining on a tour this fall, with Mat Kearney
opening (at least at the show we saw).

This was intended to be the girls' first "rock concert," though Colleen will argue (endlessly, it turns out) that neither artist is at all "rock." She's 14. Nothing I have to say at this point in her life can ever be right, so I should just let that go.

In any case, Karen and I are John Mayer fans, and we like Sheryl Crow (even if she's not right in our musical wheelhouse). We had seen Mayer last fall, when he was out with his power trio. That show had shown us that John Mayer, while a respectable singer-songwriter dude, is also a funky, bluesy, jamming guitar player. It looks like his new release, Continuum, will be a blend of his two styles.

We booked a hotel room in New Jersey about 15 minutes from the Tweeter Center. I still like going to concerts, but I'm getting too old to make two-and-a-half-hour drives home after a show.

We got to the venue just before Mat Kearney started to play. He's pretty good. It must be tough to play to a mostly empty hall, with people wandering in, chatting, looking for friends, and generally not paying any attention. But he got through to those of us who were listening.

Sheryl Crow was next. She had a pair of guitarists, one of whom she traded bass-playing duty with, a keyboard player, a drummer, and a string quartet. A good, tight band. She played a nicely balanced set. She has plenty of hits and the crowd liked her. She has a very string voice and I heard no bad notes.

John Mayer has a larger band: drums, bass, two guitarists besides himself, keyboard, and two horn players. A very tight band.

One of his guitarists was a noticeably older man, Robbie McIntosh, who was clearly a seasoned pro. McIntosh was playing some really tasty slide guitar to compliment Mayer's funkier fingerpicking. I knew I had to look this guy up (he looked familiar) and I found that he's played with Paul McCartney's backing band and was a member of the Pretenders. I was also pleased to see, in his list of heroes, the writer PG Wodehouse, right there between Freddie King and Lightnin' Hopkins. You may have just won a new fan, Mr. McIntosh.

Mayer's set was great fun. That young man can play guitar. Now that he's freed himself from his commercial music niche, I think he's going to be fun to watch. He mixes singer/songwriter with blues and rock and hip-hop and is making something new. I like that.

I think the girls were impressed. Christina was getting weary. That's a late night for a ten-year-old. But Mayer's final encore was his early hit No Such Thing, which she's always liked. And Colleen will have to hold to her thesis that John Mayer ain't real Rock'n'Roll, but I think she enjoyed it.

So. A successful trip. And the girl's have now been to a "rock" concert.

Filed in:

• music
• concert
• mayer
• crow