Yes we're sure glad the elections are over, that is a really good thing. But we're even more happy that they're over because of the CONSTANT commercials on TV and the, seemed like, every night calls at home. With the stretched out length of this election "season" (as it was referred to on many programs!), and with those increasingly annoying TV adds and calls to sway votes, we quit answering the phone all together, were really bad and lasted so much longer this time around. And with our ability to see regional TV from other locations in the US and Canada, what we didn't see for more local stuff, we saw the same kinds of things for those areas instead.
It was interesting at times, and thoughts of how things could have changed if the actual election had been held earlier with the rush of pro Palin, or if Obama had chosen Hillary instead of Biden, just so many things this time around had potential for some serious changes to the outcome!
But we've got what we've got and I'm among those that feel its not just the person in this day and age, its all those 'extras' that actually run the show in the background that come with and are appointed by the winner. So we'll see!
In our area one of the contests we were really interested in was the county sheriff race. We had our hopes for a new sheriff that could help our area 'get out of the 60's' as far as police work and crime control is concerned. We weren't expecting into the 21st century at the caliber of CSI, but when even the most basic evidence and testing has to be sent hundreds of miles or even out of state to be done, a little local upgrade would have been nice. But when all was said and the votes were counted it was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that won out. All but I think one person that was an incumbent kept their jobs for a few more years. Did have the largest turnout in history for an election though. Almost 5,000 people voted in our rural county.
Another issue we voted on is a 911 upgrade. Every house in the county was assigned addresses last year in preparation for something like this in the future. The government is to pay for the major upgrade to the dispatch center and for us, the citizens, it was to vote on should all of the citizens in the county pay a $1.25 line fee for line maintenance for the new 911 system. Now a dollar twenty five sounds cheap huh?
When done, it will allow the dispatcher to do an instant check to an address calling in a 911 type call. As it is now, and Stacy worked in the dispatch office for over a year, you'd have to call Verizon and have them do a search for the callers address. It could take twenty or more minutes to maybe find out where they were calling from.
Problem we had with it was when they added that the $1.25 line fee will include any and all phone , cell, and phone based DSL lines that a house might have! For us that means a $7.50 PER month extra phone charge, just like that. We and everybody we know voted NO on that one. But it still passed with barely the needed 61%. Gotta live with it for now!
And lastly there was this local proposal for our all volunteer fire department. Should we continue to pay annual membership dues to have our home protected by the fire department or should the entire area pay evenly through property taxes. To us a no brainer, everyone should pay not just have a membership. Oh yes, and how did the membership work you might be thinking? Well, even if you weren't a member they'd still put out the fire at your place, they wouldn't all get out there and watch your place burn if you weren't a member. But you would get a heck of a bill after it was all done!!! If you were in the "club"so to speak, then it just didn't cost anything other than what you'd paid for the membership.
Other stuff, well, it's not quite winter here yet. We had our first snowfall, about an inch, but it was all melted by the next morning as warm air from the south coast is mixing with the storms that have been moving through. So most of the past week and expected the next week or so is continued cloudy cool rainy weather. Staying in the low to mid 40's the snow staying up over 5,000 feet. Soon enough though it will get here!
Sandy and Erik worked with the Obama campaign. They were both doing calls to Florida from California for the cause. I asked her if she got many hang ups since I'm positive I'm not the only one that doesn't like exactly what she was doing! She said they did get a few, but a lot more answering machines that no one was home then she thought she'd get. Erik was sent to Las Vegas for the final four days and did counts and polls for it also.
Sandy got herself a new digital SLR Camera, she's been wanting one for quite a while and finally found what she'd like at a good price. She got a Nikon D-60 with the close and telephoto lenses. A case and some extra goodies in the kit. Erik's parents are taking her and her husband to Hawaii for 10 days at Christmas. She wanted to be able to try and get some good photos for that but also get better ones in her world travels for her work. Also since Sandy teaches a class in architecture at both USC and UCLA she's already found that she's able to take a basic photography class at the school for no cost to her.
In talking with her, Laura says she is doing pretty good also, although while typing this she did call me and said she'd been bitten by a dog. She says not badly but I'll know more when she calls back later today with an update. She's put in an application for an animal handler/caretaker for the Border Patrol. We hope it happens!
Sean is working a lot of overtime but otherwise is still hanging in there.
In e-mails I'm knowing that everyone else seems to be doing pretty good right now. The 6th was Dan's birthday and I finally remembered it this year!
Guess that will be it for this edition!
Type later, Tad
It was interesting at times, and thoughts of how things could have changed if the actual election had been held earlier with the rush of pro Palin, or if Obama had chosen Hillary instead of Biden, just so many things this time around had potential for some serious changes to the outcome!
But we've got what we've got and I'm among those that feel its not just the person in this day and age, its all those 'extras' that actually run the show in the background that come with and are appointed by the winner. So we'll see!
In our area one of the contests we were really interested in was the county sheriff race. We had our hopes for a new sheriff that could help our area 'get out of the 60's' as far as police work and crime control is concerned. We weren't expecting into the 21st century at the caliber of CSI, but when even the most basic evidence and testing has to be sent hundreds of miles or even out of state to be done, a little local upgrade would have been nice. But when all was said and the votes were counted it was "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality that won out. All but I think one person that was an incumbent kept their jobs for a few more years. Did have the largest turnout in history for an election though. Almost 5,000 people voted in our rural county.
Another issue we voted on is a 911 upgrade. Every house in the county was assigned addresses last year in preparation for something like this in the future. The government is to pay for the major upgrade to the dispatch center and for us, the citizens, it was to vote on should all of the citizens in the county pay a $1.25 line fee for line maintenance for the new 911 system. Now a dollar twenty five sounds cheap huh?
When done, it will allow the dispatcher to do an instant check to an address calling in a 911 type call. As it is now, and Stacy worked in the dispatch office for over a year, you'd have to call Verizon and have them do a search for the callers address. It could take twenty or more minutes to maybe find out where they were calling from.
Problem we had with it was when they added that the $1.25 line fee will include any and all phone , cell, and phone based DSL lines that a house might have! For us that means a $7.50 PER month extra phone charge, just like that. We and everybody we know voted NO on that one. But it still passed with barely the needed 61%. Gotta live with it for now!
And lastly there was this local proposal for our all volunteer fire department. Should we continue to pay annual membership dues to have our home protected by the fire department or should the entire area pay evenly through property taxes. To us a no brainer, everyone should pay not just have a membership. Oh yes, and how did the membership work you might be thinking? Well, even if you weren't a member they'd still put out the fire at your place, they wouldn't all get out there and watch your place burn if you weren't a member. But you would get a heck of a bill after it was all done!!! If you were in the "club"so to speak, then it just didn't cost anything other than what you'd paid for the membership.
Other stuff, well, it's not quite winter here yet. We had our first snowfall, about an inch, but it was all melted by the next morning as warm air from the south coast is mixing with the storms that have been moving through. So most of the past week and expected the next week or so is continued cloudy cool rainy weather. Staying in the low to mid 40's the snow staying up over 5,000 feet. Soon enough though it will get here!
Sandy and Erik worked with the Obama campaign. They were both doing calls to Florida from California for the cause. I asked her if she got many hang ups since I'm positive I'm not the only one that doesn't like exactly what she was doing! She said they did get a few, but a lot more answering machines that no one was home then she thought she'd get. Erik was sent to Las Vegas for the final four days and did counts and polls for it also.
Sandy got herself a new digital SLR Camera, she's been wanting one for quite a while and finally found what she'd like at a good price. She got a Nikon D-60 with the close and telephoto lenses. A case and some extra goodies in the kit. Erik's parents are taking her and her husband to Hawaii for 10 days at Christmas. She wanted to be able to try and get some good photos for that but also get better ones in her world travels for her work. Also since Sandy teaches a class in architecture at both USC and UCLA she's already found that she's able to take a basic photography class at the school for no cost to her.
In talking with her, Laura says she is doing pretty good also, although while typing this she did call me and said she'd been bitten by a dog. She says not badly but I'll know more when she calls back later today with an update. She's put in an application for an animal handler/caretaker for the Border Patrol. We hope it happens!
Sean is working a lot of overtime but otherwise is still hanging in there.
In e-mails I'm knowing that everyone else seems to be doing pretty good right now. The 6th was Dan's birthday and I finally remembered it this year!
Guess that will be it for this edition!
Type later, Tad
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