I'm getting ready to go vote. I SO like early voting! It's wonderful to be able to walk right up, check in and then go vote. No waiting on a machine, no making sure you're in the appropriate line for someone whose last name begins with the letter yours does and then going back to the end of the other line because you were in the wrong one. Now, voting here on election day isn't all that bad- this isn't one of the places you heard about in 2004 where people would wait in line all day to vote, only to have to go home because the polling station closed before they got to the front of the line. All the same, it is a lot more convenient to early vote. I would recommend that anyone who lives in an area where it is an option do it (vote early). You know what they say: "Vote early, and vote often!"

BACHELOR PAD

My wife (let's call her J) and daughter (we'll call her C) and mother-in-law (we'll call her Mother-in-law) are going to Atlanta on Thursday to visit the aquarium. That should be fun. I think they'll have a nice time, too. They are going down on Thursday (as I said three seconds ago) and coming back Friday. Not a long trip, but still...

I don't have any plans. Maybe there's a decent band playing somewhere in Knoxville that I can go see (hear? Not much point in going to SEE a band, is there?). I found a cool site that lists the happenings and other thing to do in K'ville, so I will look for something to do. Or, maybe I will sit at home and update this. No, I won't-I'm lame, but not that lame.

BOOKS

I am right now (not actually this second) reading Travels with Charlie in Search of America, by John Steinbeck. (I know, I know. It's nice to be at the leading edge of American literature.) I'm enjoying it enough. It's certainly more sane traveling with John than Jack (Kerouac). I wonder if Steinbeck read On the Road and thought "That is not the way to travel at all. I think I'll show 'em how to take a trip across the US." It's easy to see the differences in the two. Kerouac set off with what, no money? Very little, anyway. Steinbeck prepared for months: he ordered a custom-made vehicle and outfitted it against all foreseeable obstacles. It would be very safe to go somewhere with Steinbeck, but how much fun would Jack Kerouac be? Man!

TRAVELS

I've been a few places in my lifetime. I was born in Chicago, but left there to move here when I was two years old, so I don't remember it. "Here" is Backwards-Red-State-Conservative-Heaven, TN (real near Knoxville). My mother grew up just south of Atlanta, where her mother lived until the mid-nineties, so many a Thanksgiving and Easter and spring break were spent there as a kid. My father grew up in Cleveland, OH, and we made a few trips there, as well. His parents moved to south FL eventually, so many a spring break have I spent there as well. My brother lives in San Diego, and we went there in May. God, that is a NICE place. Don't get me wrong, this is a beautiful area. Lots of green in the spring and summer, fall leaves, mountains, lakes, streams and the like. But the people here. It's not like there are a few people I encounter with whom I don't see eye-to-eye. I disagree deeply with most everyone around here. You hear about "southern hospitality," but you don't see much of it anymore. Sure, people are nice if they know you; but if they don't-not so much. California is where I want to be (so why don't I load up the truck and move to Beverly (Hills, that is)?).

digression--C, who is 6, likes to watch old TV shows. I Love Lucy is her favorite, but she's OK with The Beverly Hillbillies. She calls it the "Bubbly" Hillbillies, however. Say that out loud to yourself a few times: bubbly hillbillies, bubbly hillbillies, bubbly hillbillies...

Actually, Europe is the nicest place I have been. Amsterdam was nice, but I don't speak Flemish, and they didn't seem to speak too much English. Germany is nice, and I can carry on a conversation auf Deutsch. Paris is great (and the people were really nice), London is a really cool place (Londoners were not as nice-but for someone, like me, who loves punk, London is Mecca), but Switzerland was AMAZING. It's got it all: scenery, German-speaking people, great skiing and BEER, lots of it! My German came in quite handy one day in Paris (where one would think being able to speak German would be rather unnecessary). I went down to the hotel bar, and the bartender spoke only French (great! I know like 10 words in French). The man next to me turned out to be from Belgium, so he spoke French, but not English. It turns out he did speak German, though. So, through this stranger, I was able to converse with the bartender and get pretty drunk on creme de menthe (it took a LOT of creme de menthe, but he was drinking it himself, and poured it free for me. I'm not one to turn down free alcohol all that often.)

I also traveled with J to visit her parents when they lived in a little town south of Mexico City (they are divorced now, and her mother lives here-he got transferred to China a couple of years ago). Mexico was alright, but it's very poor. That's one reason I don't have a huge problem with illegal immigration. Mexico is sooooo poor, and there is no opportunity there to better oneself. Sure, we send our factory jobs down there, but the reason we do is to pay them $100 a month to work in our factories, and their government does nothing to help improve things. I can't find fault with a person who, faced with a future so bleak and fruitless, sneaks across the border in hopes of finding a job where he can make enough money to get a little bit ahead, and his kids can get educated, so that they won't have to work all their lives for next to nothing. I know it's illegal, and we need to respect the laws we have written, but this is a country of immigrants. Native peoples are now minorities in the US. I know there are people here who are unemployed and need jobs, but I truly believe that illegals take jobs Americans won't. Some argue that they pose a public health problem with all their diseases, and that one is simply not true. They are not a disproportionate strain on the economy. Many of them pay social security and Medicare taxes that they can never hope to recoup, and all of them pay sales and use taxes when they purchase goods and services. In short, there are many more urgent problems facing our nation right now.

Look at that. I squandered my whole lunch hour. Oh, well. Let's go vote!

snikta