Maryland Primary Day Voting

Of course I voted.  Since I turned 18, I've only missed one Primary or General Election.  That was Carter vs Reagan.  I din't want to vote for either.  I preferred John Anderson then and the lines were so long it didn't seem to be worth standing in line for a few hours for a protest vote.

Maryland (at least my part of it) is VERY good about providing many voting places these days.  20 years ago, the lines were HOURS long; today, they are MUCH shorter.  

Today, I rolled in and there were no lines.  Got approved to vote, was given a folder with a strip of paper, escorted to a touch-screen voting machine, and told to entry the paper strip into a slot.  It didn't work.  So they escorted me to another.  That one accepted the paper strip.  

Voting was so easy.  Tap a button for your choices.  A review comes up showing your choices, offering ways to change them in case of a mistake.  If you agree, the votes are recorded.  The machine sends the paper strip back out for a final review.  It was correct.  

Then you bring it to the counting machine.  And, BTW, the election officials won't even touch your slip of paper (lest there be any "sleight-of-hand").  I was in-and-out in 10 minutes.  I can't think of any way Maryland could make the voting process any easier or more secure!  And I got another "I Voted" sticker...  I wish I had saved them from decades ago.  I would have quite a collection!

I won't reveal my votes for the major Democratic Primary candidates (they all won, so you can figure it out if you want to).  But there were 10 Electoral College candidates and you could vote for 9.  One was "uncommitted" and the others were committed to my Presidential choice, so I voted for them.

School Board candidates are usually difficult (yes I even care about them).  I used to read summaries about each one from The League Of Women Voters, but they are blocked from providing information like that now.  It's not like they made recommendations.  They just allowed each candidate to provide several paragraphs about themselves.

I used to read those carefully.  School Board is officially non-partisan, but each candidate almost always used a few hints and code-phrases to tell you where they stood.  I miss that information very much.

But it didn't matter this time.  There were exactly the same number of candidates as there were positions to be filled, so there was no point in voting for them.  Maybe next election, I'll toss my name into the list!  I care about general education enough.

I now look forward to the General Election.

Grocery Store Pickup Results

 Well, the pickup process was actually a bit confusing.  I had set a pickup time for 2PM and I expected that meant I should just arrive there at that time.  No, not quite!  I received an email the evening before that said my order would be ready between 2-7 PM.  What?!

I would receive a "notification" when it was ready.  But they didn't tell me what form the notification would be in.  They had my phone number and email address, and I had unchecked mobile phone text.  Searching their site and even talking to a chatbot didn't reveal anything.  

So in the morning, I called an 877 number to a centralized location.  The agent there couldn't answer my question, but did give me a number to the store customer service desk (CSD).  Amazingly, the CSD couldn't tell me how I would be "notified" either, lacking a smartphone app.

However, some good news!  No sooner had I hung up with the CSD than I got a call from a store shopper saying my order was ready to be picked up.  She even said the shallots were rather soft, did I still want them". (no).  I explained I had some mobility problems but would be there in 15 minutes.  So she said she would keep watch for my arrival (green Subaru SUV).

I got there and got out of the car and someone came out with a cart of bags.  Wrong person, LOL!  But she went back inside and found the right person.  That person came right out, loaded the bags into my car.  Even refused a tip.  She said she was paid to do pickup orders.

It was a wonderful experience and I will do it again.

There were 2 minor problems.  I had clicked on "no substitutions" for every item.  I ordered minced horseradish and got "creamy".  OK, I can live with that.  The other seems to have been my fault.  I wanted Breyer's chocolate chip ice cream and got regular chocolate.  I don't like regular chocolate.  But after reviewing my original order, it appears I clicked the wrong one.

Well, my good neighbors across the street are taking care of 3 grandchildren.  I bet some of them like regular chocolate ice cream.  It will be a gift; they have certainly done more than enough for me!

I haven't tested it yet, but I bet the items I ordered this time will be close to the top the next time.  The Safeway digital loyalty card section notices my routine preferences, so I expect the online ordering one will also do that.

Grocery Store Pickup

My right hip is causing enough problems that I can't go through the grocery store to choose items, even with the roller/walker I bought.  Can't manage the roller and a shopping cart at the same time.   So I decided to surrender and get store pickup.  I can drive without any difficulty.

I have had a few CT and X-rays of the hip, but nothing is "for certain" yet.  I'll tell you all when it is.

I say "surrender" because I am fussy about fresh fruits and veggies.  I'm sure I will get hard peaches and limp lettuce.  I think my "fussy" days are done.  I can use the roller in small shops where I am buying small amounts.  But my grocery-shopping is bountiful.  

So I tried out shopping online at Safeway (and I'm sure other stores are about the same).  It was difficult.  OK, it was the first time...  I had to look up categories and scroll through pages of items by popularity to find what I wanted.  They seem to think that everyone wants only canned, frozen, and prepared foods.  And I suppose they are right, but I'm not in that group.  

So I went through veggies, fruits, condiments, and a few other categories.  Finally finished with 48 items.  And then couldn't check out!  Went around in circles with the cart and "continue" several times.  Finally saw a small chatbot button and tried it.  It's pretty stupid, but eventually I figured out the right question.

Apparently, even though I was signed in, I had to sign in again.  I guess that the 2nd sign-in actually registered I was placing a pickup order.  Even then, I had to go through my entire shopping order to undo "allow substitutions".  Seriously, if I am ordering yellow peaches I don't want a white nectarine.  They should have a button at the top to say "no substitutions" for everything.

I wish I was a young coding expert working for them who could do things like that.  But then, they probably just order delivery food every day.  And just mentioning that the store cashiers are baffled at things like bok choy or parsnips.  Well, OK, I understand.   If it isn't something you buy yourself, you don't recognize it very well.

But I finally managed to get to a payment page!  After that I got an email confirmation on the order.  I sure hope the stuff is decent quality...

I'll tell you how this all went tomorrow.

The Wildlife Is Vanishing

Yes, true worldwide, but I'm thinking of the local ones.  And specifically my yard.  

I keep a mostly organic yard (OK, I spray individual poison ivy plants).  But I do things to help the birds and bees and other stuff thrive.  Half my backyard is left semi-wild.  Lots of small trees for bird-nesting.  I have black oil sunflower seed in one feeder for most songbirds, 2 thistle seed feeders for the purple and gold finches, and 2 nectar feeders for the hummingbirds.

I have 5'x3'pond for frogs.  With plants and debris at the bottom to support aquatic insects.  I have butterfly bushes, pollinator plants, and plants that insect larvae can develop on.  

I used to see some possums and raccoons at night.  I used to hear thousands of Spring Peeper frogs in the swamp across the street in the Spring.

But that has been changing.  I noticed a few years ago that the Swamp was quiet; no Spring Peepers calling in the thousands.  I used to see deer in my front yard and the neighbors in snow prints and visually.  I used to see snow prints of other various critters.

When I moved here 37 years ago, there were no cardinals, finches, etc.  But when I set up feeders, I got up to 6 pairs of cardinals, a bunch of purple finches, a dozen goldfinches, and various smaller birds (titmice, wrens, woodpeckers, etc).  Sometimes, the sunflower seed feeder was mobbed by starlings (I did tend to chase them away as they would just empty the feeder in a few hours, leaving nothing for the other birds and the stuff is somewhat expensive).   I haven't seen it mobbed in a few years.

I think we are in trouble.  If my generally organic semi-wild yard can't support cardinals, finches, and other small birds with good food, something is going very wrong.  If there are no frogs in the pond, something is very wrong.  If the deer (those damned landscape-eaters) are becoming more rarely seen,  something is very wrong.  

My hummingbirds haven't come back this year.  I haven't seen a single butterfly.  I haven't seen a possum on the deck at night.  I haven't seen many bees (Honey or Bumble) and it has been warm enough for a month.  I haven't seen any hornets (not that I love them).  But still, that is not a good sign.

Something is going bad, and I think we are causing all this.  As Pogo said "We have met the enemy and it is us".  

 

Last Daffodils and Good Deck Pots

The daffodils are fading.  This is from a week ago on their final days. 

Fortunately,  my cherry tomato pot has these survivors from last year.

The pansies are finally blooming better.  They just didn't do well over Winter.

Several different color combinations.  When I bought them in Fall, there were no blooms, so it was all random.

I like the purple ones.

I'm not sure if these are asters or tithonia.  Regardless, I will enjoy them.

These are Moonbeam Coreopsis.  They have been growing in that pot without much care for about 15-20 years now.  They might outlast me.

The star-gazer lilies are growing again.  They are about as old as the coreopsis.

I need to go off the deck and the pictures of the yard flowers...

May 4th

 May The Farce Be With You this day!