12:29 pm
Hmm....I guess writing about my day working the Michigan Primary was about as exciting as watching paint dry on a wall....
Its a grey gloomy day here in SE Michigan. The weather is rapidly moving from winter to spring and not just here. Yesterday saw a massive outbreak of over 30 tornadoes including one F4 which resulted in 12 dead.
I'm sure we'll be hearing about this tonight at our first CERT class. Now while I have seen wild land fires and been through a earthquake,I have yet to see an tornado here in Michigan,my first year here was the closest I have come,we had a storm touch down at the airport,fly over us and touch down in a junk yard in Detroit.
I have always wanted to see one up close but Lori has said "no" to my request to go storm chasing in Kansas or Oklahoma.
Davy Jones of The Monkees died yesterday at age 66 of an heart attack. The Monkees were America's answer to the crazy ride that was The Beatles in the late 60s. While the Monkees were a cookie-cutter band put together in Los Angeles and despite having a cartoon like show,still managed to have several international hits and selling over 65 million albums and singles.
Davy was definitely the heart throb of the group and became a huge teen idol. That led to a now famous guest spot on The Brady Bunch where Marcia Brady had a huge crush on him. While the group went their different ways,Davy Jones remained in the spotlight the most while the others faded quietly into doing music,small parts in TV and other interests.
R.I.P. Davy and thanks for the good times...
Got a bit of a shock yesterday....local Channel 7 sports director Don Shane called it quits after 23 years on the air. I like Don...a lot. He has always been a steady professional and his reporting was firm and straight to the point. Sports reporters are blessed to have so many teams to cover here,it makes the job a lot of fun. But Don grew tired and found it less and less enjoyable as time went on and he also missed spending time with his family. So yesterday,while on the air,he announced he was retiring.
But I'm also very excited because this will mean my favorite sports guru,Tom Leyden,will be stepping into the spot and I couldn't be more happy. Tom is the man behind the Sunday Sports Final show on Channel 7 and that show,besides the Let It Rip show on Channel 2,is must see TV. Tom's style is loose and relaxed and keeping area sports in perspective,unlike ESPN/MLB Network,etc...Tom makes it fun without mocking it or just showing up and going through the motions (right,Bernie??).
The only downside of Tom moving into the main newscast is this might mean the end of his run on the Sports Final. And instead of 30 minutes of fun with Nate and Stoney,he'll get his 3-5 minutes a hour to drop a score or a highlight. And most importantly,it means he most likely won't be able to wear his Yankees cap on the air again...
But to honor my buddy and his new job,I'm once again going to fly my Met's logo on my FB wall as my way of saying "congratulations"! Lori will be happy however,I'll be going to bed a little earlier on Sunday nights now.
Saturday morning....8:50 am
Back in the saddle,with a twist.
Its a cold and very windy day outside.Its been blustery all night in SE Michigan but after seeing what has been happening to Illinois and Indiana,we have been rather blessed. Tornado season has decided to show up and in major force with over 100 twisters already touching down and killing 28 people so far.
Just hope its not an omen as I started my 9 week CERT class in my town. While the first session was a bit stiff and not very exciting to say the least,our instructor showed us a training video on how a CERT team works and if that is how it does,every city should try and create one.
I thought my city already had one in place but found out that we are the first group to get this training. Of course a vast majority of the 35 folks have a fire/medical/armed forces background so there will a great core to start with. The class is being taught by our city's Emergency Management Director,she has been trying for four years to get this program funded so it could be established. She said that she was lucky to get funding for maybe 3 classes but feels the funding will dry up soon. That is a shame because after seeing these towns get the catpoo kicked out of them by these storms,they sure could use the help that a CERT program could offer.
Went to Ann Arbor yesterday for a medical appointment for Lori. Things are looking very positive for us right now,the PA told Lori was her appointment schedule would look like for the next 5 years. Why 5 years you may be asking....because if you are cancer free after 5 years,you are considered healed. So to mention that timetable is very encouraging indeed. This is what we are striving for...SO KEEP THOSE PRAYERS coming,they really are working!
Pinched a nerve in my back...not a fun thing I have to admit. Did it on Thursday and despite heat,motrin and a long soak,there is little improvement. Just what we didn't need right now....but we'll deal with this and I will hopefully be back and feeling better in a few days.
Lori and I spent some time in our den last night,I was reading Tom Delay's book "No Retreat,No Surrender" and she was watching Davy Jones videos on YouTube. Soon we talking about childhood crushes and I said it seemed like Davy Jones was like a LOT of women's first crushes. Lori asked me who my first crush was and that was a pretty easy answer. My first crush was on Tina Louise of the old Gilligan's Island series.
Tina was a sultry redhead who played Ginger the movie star. She was forever using her charms on Gilligan to try and find out secrets or offering up ideas she has gotten from roles she played to help the castaways get rescued.
Now I didn't know for a long time that the show was much older then I was when I first watched it with my brothers. But even after I learned that,I still followed Tina's career even though she didn't do very much.
As crushes go,soon it went away but years later I found a CD of her music that had been put out by her daughter Caprice. Once again I got to rediscover my first crush...so it fun watching Lori talk about Davy Jones and then Bobby Sherman.
So it got me to thinking....who was your first celebrity crush? Just a drop here or on the FB group wall...it will be a bit fun to see who liked who...
Showing posts with label CERT program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CERT program. Show all posts
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Working the Primary
Its 9:38 am
Its a cold grey morning ...still recovering from last night when Lori woke up with a terrible leg cramps. Leg cramps can be a real nasty and a really painful ordeal and you have to know how to react to them in order to end them quickly as possible. I went from a dead sleep to working those cramps out in 2 seconds flat. The cause could have been lack of liquids or a reaction to a dream,who knows...but it hurt like hell. Was able to work the cramps out and have her back to sleep in 20 minutes.
Pretty jazzed up again as I have picked up another reader and someone is starting to repost some of my entries via Google+. I noticed that with my Falkland Islands entry and now my newest entry also has been liked that way. Slowly making progress....and pleased as punch to see so many of Paul's friends are still coming over to read my entry and sign his petition over at Change.org. Thank you so much for supporting a true pioneer who is just trying to hang on to his home.
Still working on my first two "8 Questions with...."stories. Joan Lemon is currently in a middle of a move and I'm still awaiting for social activist John Cromer to send back the interview. John is an amazing story. He has overcome a nasty crack addiction and a 13 year stretch in jail to become of one Detroit's bright spots in help the young men in Detroit get jobs,training and encouragement to overcome impossible odds and make real difference in the world. I'm excited to share with his voice and as soon as I get the interview ready,I'll post it here.
As I posted on Monday,I worked the Michigan Primary yesterday. It basically turned from a 4 man race to just Mittens and Insantorum. The Lizard and Ron Paul quit running in Michigan a while despite making a few in-state appearances,they didn't run any TV ads and we nary got a single robocall from them either.
I drove to my post at 5:45 which was based at our main fire station. From 6 am to 7 am,we set up the precinct and got it ready for action. We had a crew of 5 which turned out perfect. Our chair was a delightful charming Virginia transplant named Bettie,our vice chair was a lady named Ginger who could pass herself off as a Molly Shannon double,a very wise man named Bernie and a plucky woman named Becky.
Now when you are going to be working together for almost 14 hours straight,its really helpful that you have a nice crew to work with and I have to say we had a blast. We had our station up and ready at 6:40 for a 7 am start. Bettie and Ginger were old hands at this while us other three were rookies so that helped in getting us ready so quickly.
Now our precinct has 1,272 registered voters and before the day started,we took a guess at how many voters would actually show.
Bernie said 75
Bettie said 110
Ginger said 183
Becky said 251
and my guess,based on the calls and media coverage,was 597.
I know,goofy,but I really did expect a very heavy turnout based on all the teapublicans who say they can't stand President Obama. Our city clerk has predicted a 30-32% turn out so could say for sure.
Now there are certain rules for working a ballot station and the first rule is ,NO TALKING POLITICS while voters are around. We are not allowed to comment or even say the name of the parties because of the possible influence of altering someone's vote.Even among ourselves we had to use tact....so of course we came up with code words....I threw out "Mittens" and Bernie offered "Sanitation" . Turns out we barely talked about the primary,we talked more about families,jobs,kids,cats and our city.
We listened to the fire station calls which a included a 3 year old who managed to get a bead stuck in her nose. Voters started straggling in....one at a time,sometimes 2 or 3 at a time. By 9 am,Becky,Ginger and myself knew we weren't going to win.
We all turned out to have a love of reading and had brought books..Ginger read hers on a Kindle while the rest of us read via the old fashioned way.
We each took an 40 minute lunch break while the voter still trickled in. The city clerk came by and we when asked how everyone was doing at 1 pm,she shrugged her shoulders. While we had in 49 ballots cast,another station only had 16! Less then three voters per hour....
When folks asked us how many had turned and we told them,many of them were angry to see such a low turn out,the teapublicans felt they needed a large vote to prove that their candidate,no matter who it is,should feel they have a real shot at carrying Michigan and a low turn out would show apathy.
The afternoon was pretty quiet,I finished the book I brought got ready for the last two hours. From 5 to 7 pm ,we saw the heaviest rush as people coming from work dropped by and voted. The last two voters can in at 7:55 pm and at 8 pm,the polls were closed.
We shut the doors and proceeded to break down our equipment,we had actually started that at 7:30 pm so we could leave as soon as we could.
Our final tally over 13 hours was 105 voters (out of a possible 1,272) We don't know how many were absentee voters but we didn't think it was that many. The breakdown of who got the votes:
Mittens 42
Insantorum 36
Ron Paul 17
Obama 5
The Lizard 4
Undecided 1
We said goodbye to Bernie and Becky as I went with Bettie and Ginger,wheeling the heavy gear back to city hall and the counting station. Then off I headed to home.
All in all,I enjoyed the process...now will I work the general election in November? I don't know yet,hopefully I'll be working but even if I am,I might just ask for that day off because I really liked the folks I worked with.
And starting tomorrow night is my CERT class. This will be a 2 month course where the city will train us to help our First Responders in case of a major emergency,much like what Elizabethtown,Kentucky is going through after being hit with a tornado today.
Friday will see us in Ann Arbor for an appointment so no entry about CERT til Saturday.
Tomorrow I'll share what happened after I got home last night....its one for the books.
That is all I got for now.....thanks for reading!
Again,thank you all so much for dropping by and reading this. It means a lot.
Congrats to Wendy for winning a Shorty Award and happy birthday as well!
Happy birthday to Mocha's mom,the wonderful Camille!
And bittersweet to see of our best journalists to retire,Bill Gallagher,we salute you!
Zorro,don't bite the hand that feeds you...
Its a cold grey morning ...still recovering from last night when Lori woke up with a terrible leg cramps. Leg cramps can be a real nasty and a really painful ordeal and you have to know how to react to them in order to end them quickly as possible. I went from a dead sleep to working those cramps out in 2 seconds flat. The cause could have been lack of liquids or a reaction to a dream,who knows...but it hurt like hell. Was able to work the cramps out and have her back to sleep in 20 minutes.
Pretty jazzed up again as I have picked up another reader and someone is starting to repost some of my entries via Google+. I noticed that with my Falkland Islands entry and now my newest entry also has been liked that way. Slowly making progress....and pleased as punch to see so many of Paul's friends are still coming over to read my entry and sign his petition over at Change.org. Thank you so much for supporting a true pioneer who is just trying to hang on to his home.
Still working on my first two "8 Questions with...."stories. Joan Lemon is currently in a middle of a move and I'm still awaiting for social activist John Cromer to send back the interview. John is an amazing story. He has overcome a nasty crack addiction and a 13 year stretch in jail to become of one Detroit's bright spots in help the young men in Detroit get jobs,training and encouragement to overcome impossible odds and make real difference in the world. I'm excited to share with his voice and as soon as I get the interview ready,I'll post it here.
As I posted on Monday,I worked the Michigan Primary yesterday. It basically turned from a 4 man race to just Mittens and Insantorum. The Lizard and Ron Paul quit running in Michigan a while despite making a few in-state appearances,they didn't run any TV ads and we nary got a single robocall from them either.
I drove to my post at 5:45 which was based at our main fire station. From 6 am to 7 am,we set up the precinct and got it ready for action. We had a crew of 5 which turned out perfect. Our chair was a delightful charming Virginia transplant named Bettie,our vice chair was a lady named Ginger who could pass herself off as a Molly Shannon double,a very wise man named Bernie and a plucky woman named Becky.
Now when you are going to be working together for almost 14 hours straight,its really helpful that you have a nice crew to work with and I have to say we had a blast. We had our station up and ready at 6:40 for a 7 am start. Bettie and Ginger were old hands at this while us other three were rookies so that helped in getting us ready so quickly.
Now our precinct has 1,272 registered voters and before the day started,we took a guess at how many voters would actually show.
Bernie said 75
Bettie said 110
Ginger said 183
Becky said 251
and my guess,based on the calls and media coverage,was 597.
I know,goofy,but I really did expect a very heavy turnout based on all the teapublicans who say they can't stand President Obama. Our city clerk has predicted a 30-32% turn out so could say for sure.
Now there are certain rules for working a ballot station and the first rule is ,NO TALKING POLITICS while voters are around. We are not allowed to comment or even say the name of the parties because of the possible influence of altering someone's vote.Even among ourselves we had to use tact....so of course we came up with code words....I threw out "Mittens" and Bernie offered "Sanitation" . Turns out we barely talked about the primary,we talked more about families,jobs,kids,cats and our city.
We listened to the fire station calls which a included a 3 year old who managed to get a bead stuck in her nose. Voters started straggling in....one at a time,sometimes 2 or 3 at a time. By 9 am,Becky,Ginger and myself knew we weren't going to win.
We all turned out to have a love of reading and had brought books..Ginger read hers on a Kindle while the rest of us read via the old fashioned way.
We each took an 40 minute lunch break while the voter still trickled in. The city clerk came by and we when asked how everyone was doing at 1 pm,she shrugged her shoulders. While we had in 49 ballots cast,another station only had 16! Less then three voters per hour....
When folks asked us how many had turned and we told them,many of them were angry to see such a low turn out,the teapublicans felt they needed a large vote to prove that their candidate,no matter who it is,should feel they have a real shot at carrying Michigan and a low turn out would show apathy.
The afternoon was pretty quiet,I finished the book I brought got ready for the last two hours. From 5 to 7 pm ,we saw the heaviest rush as people coming from work dropped by and voted. The last two voters can in at 7:55 pm and at 8 pm,the polls were closed.
We shut the doors and proceeded to break down our equipment,we had actually started that at 7:30 pm so we could leave as soon as we could.
Our final tally over 13 hours was 105 voters (out of a possible 1,272) We don't know how many were absentee voters but we didn't think it was that many. The breakdown of who got the votes:
Mittens 42
Insantorum 36
Ron Paul 17
Obama 5
The Lizard 4
Undecided 1
We said goodbye to Bernie and Becky as I went with Bettie and Ginger,wheeling the heavy gear back to city hall and the counting station. Then off I headed to home.
All in all,I enjoyed the process...now will I work the general election in November? I don't know yet,hopefully I'll be working but even if I am,I might just ask for that day off because I really liked the folks I worked with.
And starting tomorrow night is my CERT class. This will be a 2 month course where the city will train us to help our First Responders in case of a major emergency,much like what Elizabethtown,Kentucky is going through after being hit with a tornado today.
Friday will see us in Ann Arbor for an appointment so no entry about CERT til Saturday.
Tomorrow I'll share what happened after I got home last night....its one for the books.
That is all I got for now.....thanks for reading!
Again,thank you all so much for dropping by and reading this. It means a lot.
Congrats to Wendy for winning a Shorty Award and happy birthday as well!
Happy birthday to Mocha's mom,the wonderful Camille!
And bittersweet to see of our best journalists to retire,Bill Gallagher,we salute you!
Zorro,don't bite the hand that feeds you...
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