Hello and welcome back.

Tuesday, November 10th, 2020

Tim Cook saying “hello and welcome back” to the amazingly empty innards of Apple Park, or at least to the TV version of the innards of Apple Park.

Because I was trying my best NOT to scroll though every moment of the Twitterverse today I managed to not think about the 1 pm Eastern Apple ‘One More Thing’ announcements until sometime after two, so I went to Apple.com and just rolled the presentation when I was good and ready and I’ll be darned if it didn’t pretty much feel like watching it “live” with most of the world.

After establishing the basics of what the M1 Apple chip was, they went on to show it off in a MacBook Air, a Mac Mini, and a MacBook Pro, any of which you could order today. (You know, the usual outcome of an Apple ‘here’s new stuff’ event.)

Did we order anything? No, no we’re OK for now.

Shadows and light.

Sunday, November 8th, 2020

I sure hope we’re getting back to the place where I don’t feel obligated to write about what we’ve been seeing on the television night after night as we’ve gone through the process of, of what exactly? Voting. And having those votes count for real.

Instead, I can just drop in an image from my walk and say see! There’s something! Ya got your shadows and your utility markings and that kinda twig-like thing near the bottom and…

That has to be better than another frame of MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki pointing at our state on his large computer screen thingie with county returns shown in red and blue.

The Sunday front page.

Saturday, November 7th, 2020

Well, one of them, at least. Posted to the twitterverse by an NYT graphics staffer.

Friday night online.

Friday, November 6th, 2020

Joe Biden on Twitter: I know tensions can be high after a tough election like we just had. But we need to remain calm. Patient. And let the process work out as we count all the votes.

* * * * *

BREAKING: Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has the coronavirus. Meadows informed a close circle of advisers after the election. Also infected: director of battleground strategy Nick Trainer, and up to 3 others high up in the Trump staff.
* * * * *

Jason Johnson on Twitter: Black men and women voted for Biden at a greater rate than any other group of people in America. In fact, Black men voted blue at a greater rate than White, Asian or Latino/LatinX/Hispanic men. They also voted blue at a higher rate than White women. Let’s remember that.
* * * * *

Beto O’Rourke on Twitter: Thank you @staceyabrams for what you made possible in Georgia and throughout this country. The example, the inspiration, the hard work, the selflessness, the generosity towards all who called on you to help. So grateful to and inspired by you.
* * * * *

Difference(s).

Friday, November 6th, 2020

Early early Friday morning, and the difference between Trump and Biden in Georgia is down to 1805.

So at some point, Biden will pass Trump in the statewide return numbers from Georgia. Which is not that big a deal to MSNBC and CNN, but here in Atlanta, it feels like a big deal. It feels like maybe our efforts to get our vote recorded along with thousands of our neighbors was worth it.

Later that same day.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2020

Okay, I’m writing this oh-so-late in the evening on Wednesday. Georgia’s still too close to call.

The late shift.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2020

Well, this is the time of night when I feel (at least) that the folks trying to give you election numbers realize that their job is to also keep you awake enough to absorb them.

Hi, I’m writing this oh-so-early in the morning on Wednesday, where the newspeople are still awake (at least on some channels) and they’re looking at the results from North Carolina, from Wisconsin, and from right here in Georgia.

And, oh yeah, from Pennsylvania, from Arizona, Texas, and…Nevada? Yeah, Nevada.

Windy.

Sunday, November 1st, 2020

We’re having another one of those late fall evenings where the wind outside is rather loud and noticeable. And I usually distract myself from those menacing gusts by paging through the internet. Tonight, two days out from the election, is not a great time to try that.

Two more days.

Please do not.

Saturday, October 31st, 2020

I’m enjoying the Google Photos feature where any readable words on the photo are indexed. Tonight I typed in “Please do not” to our own collection of a zillion pics and this is what I got…although I cheated and included a couple of results without the “please” just because I liked them.

…but still, most signs worldwide are polite about their demands.

The waiting, is the hardest…part.

Friday, October 30th, 2020

Yes, I’m quoting Tom Petty in the title there.

If this sign reflected how long until Tuesday’s election day is over, it would say “approximately 6660 minutes from late Friday to end-of-day midnight Tuesday.”

Early voting is over in Georgia. The cake is (mostly) in the oven. We’ll see what comes out in 6660 minutes or so. We are waiting, patiently, masks on and, if I believe the faded paint marks on the sidewalk, at six-foot intervals.

I guess I should explain this precise image, from this morning: why are all the line-waiters looking off to the right in our midtown Trader Joe’s parking lot? One screaming woman used her car to block the car of another somewhat less screaming woman. The standoff, with much yelling, went on for minutes. Police were called. I didn’t see the beginning of the incident, but I did see it break up.

I asked the Trader Joe’s team member “how many bells for a major parking lot disturbance?”

“There aren’t enough bells,” she replied.

Patriotic acts.

Thursday, October 29th, 2020

Look! It’s our little corner of patriotism in and among a bulletin board filled with the chaos and montage-y beauty of two lives uniquely lived. It’s right across from our downstairs bathroom.

Put more plainly, voting has always been a big deal for us. And most years, we get the little stickers of satisfaction that proud voters have been sharing entertainingly nationwide on the social internet during this remarkable period of early voting. In fact, we got two of the 2020 Georgia stickers this August when we went in and picked someone to carry out the rest of the late congressman—our congressman—John Lewis’s term. One race on the ballot to decide. We were in and out quickly, with stickers in hand.

But in Georgia, you don’t get the sticker tucked into the absentee ballot (I guess you could falsely display it on your t-shirt without having turned in a ballot and, well, what madness lies there?

So this Monday, when we used a nice, safe, secure, officially official drop box to place our oh-so-carefully filled out and sealed and oath-affirming ballots, we had to wait until today to have the more muted satisfaction of watching our online My Georgia Voter page status dialog thingie switch from Date received: (blank) to Date received: 10/27/2020. Status: Accepted.

Status: Accepted! Whoohoo! We are somebody. Now we just have to make it throuh a few more days to see what we as a country have collectively wrought. No stress there.

Soggy bands, late-season edition.

Wednesday, October 28th, 2020

The composite radar via wunderground.com at 3:20 pm Eastern, Wednesday October 28th.

I just checked, my entry from September 16, 2020 about the approach of Hurricane (later, Tropical Storm) Sally (42 days ago) pretty much could be copied and pasted for this evening’s Atlanta severe weather prospects.

I mean, we’re not expecting the big move-through until near dawn, and this one is moving faster, and we’ve had so much tropical activity that this (currently still a) Hurricane Zeta has dived deep into the Greek alphabet. What’s next, Esperanto?

But man, so much severe weather on top of pandemic on top of political chaos. I think I’m planning a bear-style hibernation from after inauguration in January until, well, maybe mid-March? I mean, why not?

It’ll probably still be super-rainy in January, anyway.

On the trail of FDR.

Tuesday, October 27th, 2020

Joe Biden in Warm Springs, October 27, 2020.

Like many who live around here, I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear that not only the Democratic presidential candidate would be visiting the highly contested state of Georgia one week out from the election, but that one of his two stops would be in Warm Springs, population 425-ish, some 70 miles south of Atlanta on the edge of the Pine Mountain ridge.

Without giving you the entire Wikipedia entry, this is where President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stricken with polio, visited for the ameliorative effects of the thermal baths. It wasn’t an easy trip at the time; a bumpy and long train ride from D.C.

But Biden, a fan of the hard repair work FDR performed for a nation in depression, found it apt to talk here. Ironically perhaps, FDR is a more vivid hero for someone of Biden’s age than, say, the generation of his running mate.

I remember FDR being discussed in fairly reverential tones around my family growing up, but I really only learned the details—what a slog it was to get reforms in place that would take care of the vast seas of American unemployed amidst an economy in the tank—after I went off to school. Many parts of his plan were (wait for it) challenged again and again in court by venal opponents who were opposed to extending an outstretched hand of help when it was needed most.

I think Biden’s remarks at Warm Springs (and on October 6 at Gettysburg, where he put Lincoln’s labors to hold together a divided people into perspective) show a man who may be of his era, but well aware of his 21st century challenges, should he gets the job he’s running for.

Put simply, Biden and Harris will have a colossal repair job to undertake if the election goes their way (and I sure hope it does.) Just under a week now.

Spam tasting.

Monday, October 26th, 2020

Every so often I take a moment and utter a silent thanks to the developers who create robust and effective spam filters, so that I am not assaulted by an inbox filled with this stuff.

And then, sometimes, I take a moment and try to imagine the lives of the people whose job it is to (and I use the term very very loosely) craft this stuff. First of all, are they even inside the United States? Do they know why Nancy Pelosi would be furious about a gold plated coin? Are they surrounded by dating-age Russian women? Have they studied American English in schools just to become facile at offering total fiction, such as “Genesis 19 and Deuteronomy 29, mentions this nutrient that seems to inhibit the aging process protecting your cells from the ravages of time” bookended by “Please Fwd this email to your friends and family if you found this article useful.”

Oh yeah, that’s going to happen.

And on days like today, I take one more moment to chuckle that Apple has, for years, used an excrementally-tinged brown as the official color of spam in their applications. Yes, indeed, the categorization comes through at a glance.

And then, one menu selection, followed by an affirmative answer to “Are you sure you want to erase the messages in your Junk mailbox?” and it’s done.

Threat assessment.

Sunday, October 25th, 2020

The hand of Abe, last fall.

The prescription is often much the same: don’t dwell on social media, don’t micro-examine the polls, don’t stress out over what you can’t control.

I am supremely imperfect at hewing to these wise directions. When I see a tweet (and I did, Sunday evening) that says

Carl Bernstein is reporting that Trump insiders are saying that he is planning “a scorched earth campaign in the final days the likes of which we have never seen.”

My heart rate kicks up and if I wore a fancy Apple Watch various alarms and buzzers would be going off.

But then I take a step back and say: is this real? Where did he report this? Why isn’t this being checked, corroborated, added to? What’s the substance of this unsourced report? And past a certain point, what’s really new about any of this?

We know Trump is going to be a jerk. We can deal with this.

And so I reset the (mental) alarms and go wash the dishes. Threat cast aside…for now.

To de point.

Saturday, October 24th, 2020

Sammy went for a neighborhood walk today, as she does most days. Sometimes strenuous, sometimes long, sometimes a unique mixture of all components.

You’ve seen if you’ve looked at Archeoƒacts at all that she has a great eye for things botanical and natural (and the tech chops to get the shot in the moment), but today she brought me an image from our neighborhood that she thought I would enjoy because, first and foremost, it is a sign.

And maybe in this maelstrom of political fury, it is a sign!

Thanks, Sam.