MichaelandChrissy.com

When I first turned eighteen, I was excited to vote in the 1992 presidential election.  As a poor college kid, I disliked Bush, and I couldn’t wait to vote for Bill Clinton.  When I finally got my chance to vote for the first time, I discovered that there were other choices there besides “President”.  Which Senator should I pick?  What’s a “County Assessor”?  Should this judge be retained?  Lucky for me, there was a handy-dandy “click here to choose all Democrat selections” button there.  This made things easy.

I voted for Clinton again in 1996, because all was right with the world and why change a good thing?  That, and I still really liked Bill Clinton.  I voted for Al Gore in 2000 because I was so used to voting Democrat.  I also thought (and still do) that George Bush should not be rewarded for his father’s failure in office.  Bush stole the election with his brother’s help in Florida, however, much to my chagrin.  By then I had started to pay attention to the county and state elections as well.  I was voting for more than just a President.

My choice for President in 2004 was easy: Anyone But Bush.  Bush was following in his father’s footsteps (catastrophically low approval rates, a failing war in Iraq, painful international gaffes), so it was time for him to go after his first term (just like his Daddy).  Locally, I also routinely voted for Democrats for county and state elections.  I liked their stances on education, jobs and crime as they pertained to Northwest Indiana.  It also felt good to be more informed about local politics.

As I grew older, however, I came to believe in some of the tenants of the Republican party: a strong military, smaller government, and fiscal responsibility.  I supported the “War on Terror”, even if it was becoming unpopular.  I saw the Democrats squander their majority in Congress, a huge opportunity to do some good.  I still didn’t like Bush, but that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t vote Republican for the next guy.  Once John McCain got his party’s nomination, I was all set to vote Republican for the first time in 2008.

Then McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate.  At first, I thought it was some sort of trick, leaking out disinformation in order to illustrate how sad Barack Obama’s lack of experience was.  Politically, it was a terrific choice: a running mate that shared Obama’s lack of experience, so there was no way for the Democrats to criticize her, and a woman, who would soak up votes from disenfranchised Hillary supporters.  In practice, however, it didn’t make any sense to me.

I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for a Vice President that was so fantastically under-qualified as Palin.  Not while McCain was seventy-two years old and in questionable health.  He’s a spry old guy, and I dig him, but he could drop any day, leaving a stereotypical soccer hockey mom as President.  I could see a soccer mom as Governor, or State Representative, but not as President.  Joe Biden predicted a catastrophe to test Obama within six months if he took office, so imagine what would happen if Palin were in charge!

So now I’m in a pickle because I can’t vote for either candidate.  I don’t like Barack Obama.  I think that Obama will raise taxes, increase the size of government (bureaucracy, inefficiency and spending), ruin our military, negate any gains we’ve made for Democracy in the Middle East, and go on to liberalize the Supreme Court (killing moral legal decisions at the national level for generations).  Yes, I would like to see Health Care and Social Security reformed, I support that, but at what cost?  What to do…

I’m at a stalemate on the national level, and I can’t seem to get off the fence.  So, I turned back to the local elections.  I researched the candidates at the county and state level in the local newspapers (all of our television comes from Chicago, so I know far more about candidates from Illinois than Indiana), and once again found myself leaning towards the Democrats.  I guess I could split up my vote between the two parties, but I just can’t stay away from the “click here for one party” button.

I reluctantly voted straight Democrat this year.  I’m still on the fence with Obama, but I’ll remain cautiously optimistic as long as he doesn’t invite Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into any high-level government positions.  I was also well informed on some town issues that I was glad to put my vote in for.  I feel like a part of my local community, and it’s nice to be able to make a change for the better at the local level.  I just hope that I helped make a change for the better at the national level too.

I love to vote.  I do it whenever I can.  I usually don’t have to wait in a long line to vote, but this morning was an exception.  I normally vote on my way to work: just drive up, walk in, vote, and bounce on out.  Even in the tight 2000 race, the voting line wasn’t too bad.  I already knew that there would be long queues at voting polls this morning though, so I decided to show up early.

I woke up at 6 AM, as I normally do, but immediately slipped on yesterday’s clothes (they were still on top of the laundry hamper) and ran out the door.  It was a nice walk down to the elementary school where my local precinct votes.  The sun was just coming up, the leaves on the trees were all red and gold, the air was warming up.  Then I got to the poll and found a line!  It was 6:10 in the morning!

There was about a dozen people in front of me, and that was just to get inside.  Once inside, another two dozen (those that had been waiting outside in the dark before 6 AM) were already signing in to vote.  I finally got inside the doors to sign in after about half an hour.  They required a driver’s license, and you had to be on the books already.  Another half hour later, and I had voted.

I guess an hour wait is about the average across the country.  Once I got home, I ate some breakfast with the boy and watched the news about the voter turnout in other areas.  I thought that I had it bad, but there were some ridiculous lines in other states.  On the bright side, I got a free “tall” coffee from Starbucks for voting, and I don’t even like coffee.  How’s that for Democracy?

Halloween is a pretty big deal in our house, and this year marks Aiden’s first real “Trick or Treat” experience.  I was really looking forward to it.  When I first heard that Barack Obama was holding a political rally at nearby Wicker Park on the same night, I wondered why he would overlap with a holiday.  The rally even started right in the middle of Treating hours!  To paraphrase from the great works of Dr. Seuss:

Clearly Obama hates Halloween!  The whole Halloween season!  Now, please don’t ask why.  No one quite knows the reason.  It could be his head wasn’t screwed on just right.  It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.  But I think that the most likely reason of all, may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

I understand that there is less than a week before the election, but at least give more than two days notice for such a huge rally.  My first reaction was to take the whole family to see it, but not during my favorite holiday.  Wicker Park seemed more than happy to pre-empt their own Halloween concert schedule, however, and many others ditched Halloween to go see Obama.  Our usual huge crowds of costumed revelers were severely stunted.

Some people stuck around for Halloween though.  We had about a dozen small groups stop by.  Just before Trick or Treating started (only from 5-7 PM in our town), we took the boys around the block to Grandma’s house for photos.  On the way back, Aiden got to try out Trick or Treating for the first time (in his adorable lion costume).  Then we hung back on the neighbor’s new front deck to pass out candy.  Due to the sparse turnout, we packed up early.  We still had fun though, and I’m looking forward to a better night next year!

Aiden was too young to carve pumpkins last year, but we thought it would be fun for him this time around.  We bought our pumpkins about a month ago, and they’ve been sitting on our front porch for a while.  This weekend was the last chance to carve them before Halloween, so we got to work on them.  We haven’t carved pumpkins for a few years, so this was a re-education process.

We picked up a carving kit last year (we love day-after-Halloween clearance items!) that included some awesome templates.  I picked out a ghost template that didn’t look too complicated and Chrissy picked out a “spooked” face.  The tools that the kit came with made carving easy.  We put down newspaper and gleefully cut them open.

The evisceration quickly got messy.  We stripped Aiden down to his diaper so that he could help clean out the pumpkin guts without ruining his clothes.  He didn’t like it.  Chrissy’s tiny carving saw bent halfway through, so she gave up early to take up baby duty.  I finished my ghost and then turned hers into a “puke face” pumpkin.  They turned out pretty nice!

Scheeringa Farms is a fresh produce vendor not far from where we live.  It’s a nice, family-owned place close to Cline Avenue and 45th in Highland, IN.  They have a petting zoo every year around Halloween, but we’ve never taken Aiden there before.  Chrissy’s Mom took Aiden last year, but Chrissy and I have never gone ourselves.  Well, today we took Aiden and Gavin.

Aiden enjoyed feeding the animals, but they were really hungry and sort of aggressive.  There was a vendor that sold animal food there, so we bought an ice cream cone full of seeds to feed the goats and llamas.  We didn’t get far with that cone!  One llama ate the entire cone right out of my hand!  I had Aiden in the other hand, so we both got mugged by that llama.  It was funny though.

We also fed carrots to some goats and donkeys.  Although the animals were hungry, they were very gentle, so no one was bitten while feeding them.  Aiden also got to pet the bunnies, his favorite animal.  He got to play the ubiquitous duck game as well.  Gavin slept the entire time in the Baby Bjorn, but he was under a blanket due to the chilly weather.  It was a nice little outing for a cold Saturday morning.

Gavin was baptised on Sunday, October 19th, 2008.  We now have two Catholic boys in the family!  Gavin was very good: he slept through most of his first mass, but woke up just before receiving his baptism.  It was a very nice ceremony.  Aiden was very good throughout the mass as well.  Our family members took lots of photos for us.

Afterwards, we had a family gathering at our house.  It was still early in the Fall, so we had the tents up in the backyard while the weather was nice.  Everyone had a good time.  We’re looking forward to spending more time with Gavin’s new godparents, Cassie and Nick.

We took the kids to the County Line Orchard last weekend for Pumpkin Days.  Aiden loved it last year, and he really enjoyed it this time too.  The trick is to get there early to avoid the crowds, especially on the weekends.  A tiny petting zoo is no fun when it’s packed with two hundred soccer moms, colliding double strollers and battalions of sugared-up children.  We were lucky, and the line for the Moo-Choo was miraculously short.

We have never been in the Moo-Choo before.  It’s basically a row of plastic drums, each with wheels and a cow head attached to it, tethered together and pulled by a tractor.  The tractor leads the fake cow cars along a path through the woods and part of the apple orchard.  The path was decorated with Halloween stuff and some of the trees were adorned with big happy faces.  I pointed things out for Aiden, and he craned to look at them.

Because we got there just as they opened, we got to talk one-on-one with some of the animal guides that were there.   There was a girl with a rabbit and some sort of fluffy baby bird.  She was nice enough to get down close to Aiden and let him pet the baby rabbit.   He loves rabbits, and always points them out in our yard.  He rarely gets to touch one, however.  There were plenty of animals for Aiden to interact with at the petting zoo though.

We even got to see Peter the Pumpkin Eater, a huge dragon with light-up eyes that talked (and sang!).  Peter is usually sleeping when we visit.  Speaking of sleeping, Gavin slept through most of the outing in the Baby Bjorn, but he did wake up long enough for Chrissy to feed him.  We didn’t want to be lost in the corn maze with a tiny baby, so we skipped that this year.  After the petting zoo, we bought a few dozen fresh pumpkin donuts (an annual tradition) and then headed home.

Tonight, we reached a milestone that we have long anticipated: Aiden has pee-peed in the potty for the first time.  We’ve been sitting Aiden on his little training potty for about six months now, just to get him used to it, but he has never done anything in it before.  Last week, Chrissy moved the training potty from his room to the bathroom so that the serious training could begin.

Aiden has an issue with warm bath water, in that he pees almost as soon as he hits it.  Gross, I know.  But tonight, Chrissy set Aiden down on the potty before she put him in the tub.  To get him “in the zone”, she splashed some warm water on him while he sat on the potty (like a sleeping college frat boy).  Sure enough, he started to pee.  We cheered.  He was so proud of his pee.

The next step will be to get him to come to us when he has to use the potty.  I’m not sure how quickly potty training is supposed to work, but it’ll be nice when I don’t have to change his diapers anymore.   I always tell him, “We wouldn’t have to do this if you would just pee-pee in the potty…”  But I shouldn’t get my hopes up completely, as we still have to tackle the poo-poo.  I’m so not looking forward to this.

On the day after Halloween last year, Chrissy and I bought a whole bunch of new decorations on clearance.  In fact, Chrissy left early that morning in order to get the best deals on the 50%-off holiday swag, and she grabbed so much that she had to call me at home to come and man a second cart.  We toted two jammed grocery carts out of Target that day!  We got two stand-up interactive monsters, a giant pumpkin, several new tombstones, a weird skeleton lamp post, and other assorted goodies.

Fast-forward to this year.  I usually wait until the last second to put up Halloween decorations, but the neighbors next door started putting theirs up last weekend.  Then the people across the street saw them doing it, and immediately ran outside to get theirs started too.  What’s the rush?  There’s still a good week of September left!  Of course, Chrissy saw all this and ordered me to pull all of our own Halloween decorations out of storage as well.

I had completely forgotten about last year’s post-holiday haul, so I was amazed at home much I had to carry down out of the garage rafters.  We almost have as many Halloween decorations as Christmas decorations now!  Well, maybe a 2:3 ratio, but close to 1:1.  I used as many extension cords to electrify everything as I usually do for Christmas, so that’s a lot.  I’ve got a big front yard, so I haven’t really been satisfied with our anemic Halloween setup until this year.

Everything looks really good though.  And I haven’t even put out my strobe lights and fog machine yet!  I took Aiden outside with me last night to plug in the final few decorations (the mosquitos chased me off the first time).  He’s enamored with the six-foot-tall monsters on our front porch.  And anything that even remotely looks like a cat.  He loves those.  We’ll have to see if he still loves them when they get all spooky on Halloween night!

The remnants of Hurricane Ike came up through the Midwest from Texas and hit Northwest Indiana hard. It rained for several days straight, causing all of the local rivers to flood.  The Little Calumet river crested and flooded many Northwest Indiana towns along its banks.  Nobody seems to notice the Little Cal until it rains too much, but no one could have expected the nine to ten inches of rainfall that we received last weekend.

The news is showing aerial footage of Calumet Avenue in Munster where the Target and all surrounding roads are under water.  Lake George has gone all wonky in Hobart (where I grew up) and washed away the Third Street bridge.  In Highland, the Highland Plaza parking lot was completely under water.  The Lake County Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency Monday morning in the wake of last weekend’s record rainfall.

The heavy flooding is causing road closures all over the place. The Borman (80/94), which runs parallel to the Little Calumet, was closed from 394 in the west to Cline Avenue in the east. The Bishop Ford was closed completely. The onramps to the Borman were under water at Calumet Avenue and Kennedy Avenue.  Cline Avenue was closed as well, but I’m not sure how bad the flooding was there.  Since I live south of the Borman, I couldn’t get to work at all this morning!