Yes, I *am* feeling snarky today.

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Ave atque vale

Elsewhere:  Mark says farewell to Murphy.

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Service resumed

Apologies for the interruption.

(There might have been a post or two last Friday, except that my ISP picked that day to crash its password server.)

Then, spent the next three days away from internet service, eating too much.good.food, visiting the Schmidt Museum, and prowling through a store full of used books.

More to come, after I get things caught up. Meanwhile, here's a picture of a 100+-year-old Gingko biloba.

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Election day report

Voted this morning about 8:30am (polls open at 6:00, but since I’m not needed at work until around 10:00, I usually skip the early rush by morning commuters). This year they added a second precinct to my location, but voters had separate check-in lines and voting stations. The combined precincts resulted in a lot more electioneering (more signs and party representatives outside the polls) than in previous years, and more cars in the parking lot, but no line out the door.

We vote paper ballots with machine scan, and there are usually a couple of people waiting to use the isolation booths (actually a two-foot by two-foot counter-height podium with a screen around it). This year had the normal wait, nothing exceptional. My ballot was the 157^th scanned, which IIRC is about 10% ahead of 2004. (My precinct has a lot of retirees who tend to vote early in the afternoon.)

There has been heavy early voting this year, but absentee ballots don’t get processed until after the polls close,^[1] so I have no idea of the extent of early voting at my location.

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Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 19:01:08 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sometimes life is cruel

So I’m sitting in the office, and the phone rings.

It’s the sibling-in-law and the sibling.  Calling from the Orange Garden restaurant in Chicago.  Raving about the Sweet-n-Sour Egg Foo Young.

“You didn’t tell me you were going to be there.  I could have driven up!”

(Hey, it’s only– what– 200 miles...)

...

(Guess they’re taking revenge for the time I called them from Hall’s!)

Later:  Of COURSE somebody has posted a picture!  And here’s another.

Elsewhere:  Chicago Reader’s review

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Chaser play

A little GIMP art, to emulate a five point chaser.

Below the break, to avoid driving casual readers batty.
more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 18:28:11 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Red autumn leaves

Outside my window, on a grey Wednesday morning.

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In search of ancient technology (1)

On Sunday we went looking for a lift bridge.

When I was checking the web for road information before my departure, I ran across a web page for a project to preserve and restore a historic vertical lift bridge on the St.Croix river, just east of St. Paul. As it was already getting late, I just glanced at it, and made a mental note. And because I had several states’ pages open in different tabs, I got confused and believed that I was looking at a Wisconsin-hosted site.

So anyway, jump to Saturday. “Anything special you want to do tomorrow?” Well, unless there’s something else on offer, what about taking a drive out east to look at that bridge?

more...

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Across the wilds of Wisconsin

On crossing the Wisconsin state line, the look of the country changes. Granted, I’d just passed through the 15 miles of blasted heath that is the Tollway’s construction zone. But ignoring that, the crops in the fields are different; more hay and wheat^[1], less corn. The interstate itself seemed better kept and more stylish- for one thing, metro-area
more...

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Getting on the road

This Summer’s visit to The Sibling (and Sibling-in-Law) had been planned to commence on July 3^rd, but wound up being delayed until early on the 4th by continuing altercations between the Current Cat and the New Cat^[1].
more...

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