I went to bed last night feeling lousy -- sore throat, my ears hurt, runny nose. I was figuring allergies, but this morning I have an actual fever. If the fever sticks around, I'll go get a Covid test. Pretty sure this is just a cold, though. Which is still annoying.

Doggo was awake at 5am again. Got him to go back to sleep until about 615, after some effort. And then we were up. Took him in the car (in his crate) to get McDonald's for breakfast, because I can't leave him home so early barking his head off!! He did pretty good! And then one of his litter mates came over and had playtime so now he should be zonked out

I tlked to my dad and we briefly skimmed over current events and the election. I have a feeling he wont' be voting for President this year (he didn't last election). But he said he was torn about what to do because he's too disgusted with the Republicans to vote for them but too conservative to vote for Democrats. So his strategy in local election is to vote for Black Republicans. His theory being they are closer to his Republican views and from what he has read on the various local and state candidates it seems his theory is right.

I woke up today with a nasty sore throat and sneezing (so not Covid) and am thinking that perhaps my hasty decision to give blood yesterday as I drove past a blood drive and though "oooh, free antibody test!" was not the best decision ever. I slept 10 hours last night and am still soooooooo tired. Also, when i removed the bandage this morning my arm hole started bleeding again. Yuck, that's never happened before. On the bright side, my iron level was excellent which is reassuring after my last panel of blood work showed borderline anemia. I've been taking a "gentle iron" supplement sporadically (not with morning or evening meds so I forget it more often than not) which seems to be working.

WRT remote voting: I so wish every other state would just copy Oregon's process. It does rely 100% on USPS for ballot and voter pamphlet delivery in the months before each election, but then there are so many ballot drop off sites that i've never actually mailed in my completed ballot. I just drop it off at the local library. Or a drive-by ballot drop box. It's so dang easy, and there is an option to link your cell phone for text notification. I get two text notifications per election. First "This is Multnomah County Elections. Your ballot for the _____Election has been sent. Look for it soon in your mailbox!" then after I drop it off (usually a day or so later) "Your ballot for the ____ Election has been accepted and will be counted. Get your virtual "I voted" sticker at:[link]." Bam. I know when to start looking for the ballot, and when it has been received. If i ever didn't get the second message, I would be able to look into what happened...but that's never happened (at least not yet.)

I totally get that changing anything about how an election happens is a big fracking deal with lots of places that things can go wrong. But honestly, in person polling is a huge safety concern right now. Every American needs to have a safe, simple way of casting a ballot. Just make it so, already! (Not y'all, the Powers That Be.)

We get ballots mailed to us, too, and drop them in a drop box outside the library. My concern isn't that our ballots won't make it in to be counted, but that they won't get mailed to us in the first place.

I am just going to show up at my poll with my mask and vote. I like voting in person anyway.

Plus we have ultra reliable Scantron with paper ballots (for auditing) that are instantly counted. Easy peasy.

We're supposed to get ballots mailed to us this year, and if mine gets tome I'll probably drop it off early. If it doesn't, I can vote in person - my polling place is a mile from me and I know from experience I can be there first thing with no trouble at all to vote as soon as they open, which should make successfully maintaining distance pretty easy. I'd rather drop off the ballot early,though, just to have it done.

I'm just going to echo Hec. Same sitch.

There's no more risk to me going voting than there is going to my local cafe.

And I can hit my polling place at 10:45 when I miss the early birds and avoid the lunchtime voters.

I think we could see shooting.

If Chump splits town and holes-up somewhere (that won't extradite him) insisting he's the legitimate president in exile...

There are plenty of overly-armed jackholes who will see this as their big moment. They're ultimately no match for the U.S military, but a lot of people could get hurt.