A Small Comfort

 I have noticed that when I make a purchase, I start seeing ads online for items similar to my purchase. I think it's funny that after I bought a stethoscope I started seeing ads for medical devices, along with constant emails from the company I bought from. I am unlikely to buy another stethoscope, as my first one lasted more than two decades, so the new one should be around for some time. I may, one of these days, unsubscribe from the emails, but that isn't always easy.

Yesterday, I mailed in my ballot for November's election. It seems the algorithms aren't aware of that. I take some comfort in that fact. It may be that, in fact, the algorithms are aware that I have already voted, but I keep seeing ads for various candidates anyway. I know some kind of algorithm is responsible for the political ads I'm seeing because they are for candidates for my city's council and my school district's school board. I know that the social media I use, and the browsers and search engines, and all the other techy things that make up such a big part of our lives have access to a lot of information about me. I'm sure my address is somewhere in the records in Facebook, and even though I don't publish it, the algorithms know. But they are not all-knowing. Unless they are playing a deeper game, and letting me think they don't know the current status of my ballot.

I haven't yet received notice that my ballot has arrived at the Board of Election. Once it arrives, it has to be verified. Then it will be held until election day, when it will be counted. I know about these steps, and they allow me to have confidence that my ballot will be counted and our elections are secure enough for us to accept the results as legitimate.

It seems a lot of people in America don't understand these things. Traitors and insurrectionists tried to stop the official process of acknowledgment of the outcome of the 2020 election, resorting to threats and violence to try to challenge a result they didn't like. That is scary. I hope investigations continue and everyone even remotely connected to those actions are prosecuted for every possible charge and given maximum sentences for each. I don't care if they argue that they were just caught up in the moment, and didn't intend to break the law. I am quite comfortable with sending them all to prison for as long as the law will tolerate and imposing all penalties and suffering associated with felony criminal conviction on all of them in defense of democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. Our system of government and peace in our country depend on those.

So I voted. And I will vote again next time. I will follow events and learn what I can about candidates, and I won't care much if the algorithms get better and I see even more targeted political ads. For now, I feel smarter than the algorithms, and I don't expect that to change very quickly.

Living in Democracy

 I received my ballot in the mail yesterday. The election is the first Tuesday of November, and there are races for judgeships, city council, school board, and a Special Election for Congress because my representative quit a few months ago. He would say he had an opportunity he couldn't pass up for a position he really wanted, which is something like president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. I think he's a coward and a weakling who didn't like the developments in his party but didn't try to change anything, and instead ran away. I say this because I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. If he wasn't disgusted with his party, both in Ohio and nationally, he is either lacking any morals or a dimwitted fool (which I really don't see in most of his career). But after he was first elected, his party conspired to make him a non-entity.

Which brings me to the election. I have chosen a candidate, but I have not seen any polls for this race. I don't know that there will be any. Everyone who cares about such things already has a firm idea of the outcome of this election because it is for a representative in a gerrymandered district. That is why my representative was a non-entity; he had no concerns about losing to a candidate of another party, only about a primary challenge from the crackpots in his own party. That was, and is, a serious concern. The Republican candidate in this race is one of those crackpots. He has no experience in public service. He has no qualifications for the job. I a committee of professionals were created to find appropriate candidates for this position, he would not be on anyone's list. But he will win the election because it will be an undemocratic election, gerrymandered to make sure Republicans have power and the will of the people be damned.

Ohio officials are in the midst of redistricting, and Republicans are again showing disdain for principles, even in the face of a referendum demanding fair redistricting. They would rather keep power than follow the Constitution or uphold the election results. The new rules say that a bipartisan committee should create proposed districts, which are then to be voted on, and only if the result is bipartisan will the new districts be used for ten years. But Republicans are perfectly happy to ignore the demands of the voters in Ohio and principles of democracy or morals, or anything else that might challenge their position of privilege, and will instead vote for clearly unfair districts that give advantage to Republican candidates in enough districts to maintain a comical advantage in light of the actual vote numbers, even though it will mean the new districts have to be redone in four years, under the new rules. After all, with the new districts the Republican force into place, they will just do the same again every four years. They think, and possibly correctly, that they can say they are doing what is best, and be able to keep this up indefinitely.

I don't know what it would take to change this. I have read that the Ohio Republican Party is the most corrupt in America. After all, the Speaker of the House was hounded out of office for his blatant corruption earlier this year. But still Ohioans will vote for them, allowing them to manipulate the districts to keep themselves in power. And then the public is shocked by the level of corruption we enjoy.

I will vote anyway. I will learn what I can about the candidates in the races, and vote according to whom I see as best fit for each position. And I will endure the pain of seeing the results of a corrupt system maintaining itself and feel helpless. I comfort myself with the knowledge that for the most part, they are neither bright enough nor competent enough to do much real harm. It's just sad that some good could be done if only we had a government run by people with principles.

Wow, what would happen if these idiots saw this? Would anyone come for me? I doubt it. They know that attacking your enemies only draws attention, and so long as they don't draw attention, they can get away with basically doing nothing at all, and still keep their positions.

One Week at at Time

 A lot has happened in my life this week, though not so much involving algorithms.

Last Saturday, I was in Portland. Liz and I flew out the previous Saturday to spend a week with Erin and Taylor and the boys, or most of a week. We were going to drive up to Seattle on Wednesday to see Nate and Cindy and hoping the new baby would be born by then so we could see him, too. We also set up a meeting with my brother, John, and his daughter, Lily.

The best laid plans. Cindy's due date was September 12. The baby hadn't come by then. Or by the 18th, when we flew out. Or by Wednesday, 22 September. We wouldn't have seen him anyway, because Arlo, the four-year-old, caught sniffles from a classmate, which he generously spread around. Sunday, Crosby had a fever, not high, but he was showing the effects, grabbing at his nose, and being low energy in the evening. Crosby still had symptoms, but seemed a bit better Monday.

We had fun, playing Mousetrap and other games. We ate out or brought food in, and we ate well.

Tuesday, Taylor was feeling under the weather. Erin had planned a trip to the Pumpkin Patch, so the rest of us went, and left Taylor wrapped in blankets in his chair in the living room. We went through a corn maze, saw a few cute little animals, and got pumpkins for Erin and each boy. I bought elderberry wine, because I've never tried it before. We went back to the apartment, and Taylor was feeling well enough to join us for dinner at our Airbnb, which is a guest house in back of a house a few blocks from the Clarke's apartment.

Wednesday, Liz woke up with a headache and congestion. She looked wiped out, so I sent her back to bed and texted John and Nate and cancelled our visit to Seattle. Liz slept for over two hours. She woke up when Erin came over with some soup for us. She had another nap in the afternoon, almost as long, but was feeling up to having dinner at the Clarkes'.

Nate told us Cindy had an induction scheduled for Saturday evening, which was two weeks past her due date, and was the day we were to fly back to Columbus. Liz decided to change her flight and stay a couple of extra days. She was hoping to pop up to Seattle Sunday to see Baby H, but Nate said Cindy didn't want any visitors for a few days after the birth. Besides, Liz was still coughing, which was one reason to delay her flight.

Both boys were back in school on Friday. Erin and Taylor took us to the Japanese Gardens, which were beautiful and peaceful, and made for a very nice afternoon. Then we got the boys from school and drove to Salty's, a seafood restaurant for dinner.

We went over to the Clarkes' for breakfast Saturday, then I left at 9:30 to get to the airport. I never learned how to set up direction in our rental car, a Nissan Maxima, but my phone gave me directions through my hearing aids, so the sound was clear, and I got where I needed to be.

Sunday we got an update on Cindy, but with very little detail before I went to bed that night. Monday around 11 EDT I texted to see what was happening. Nate texted a bit later to report the Baby H was born at 7:18 am PDT, so half an hour before I texted. The first information Nate shared was the the baby was "red and hairy". And Cindy was fine.

Liz left for the airport within an hour. We got statistics on the baby, weight, length, positive hearing test. Then sometime later, a name. Alistair Changning Hopkin, welcome to the world.

I got a toothache Monday. The pain came and went, but it was bad enough I was worried about it.

Liz made it home. She was pretty tired when she arrived, so we went to bed pretty quickly after the drive from the airport.

Tuesday we went to work. I still had issues with my tooth. Liz got a nap.

Wednesday my brother sent a text. It said there was a medical emergency overnight, and that that morning, Cal had died.

I stared at the text, trying to make a connection to Cal. Who was that? Then I remembered; my niece had a baby in July, and named him Callum. My two-month-old grandnephew had died suddenly. I never met him, but I had been enjoying the pictures my niece and her husband had shared. He was an adorable little guy, full of smiles. And now he's gone.

I still don't know how to deal with that. I don't know what to say about it. I haven't been talking about my new grandson because I feel like I should also talk about my grandnephew, and I can't. How can I be so happy about Alistair and so devastated about Callum at the same time? My daughter wrote a nice piece about trying to deal with all that.

Thursday, I took our old Camry in to see about the brakes, which suddenly had a lot of play in them. The mechanic said the brake lines were completed rotted, and the fluid was all gone. He said the car would need other things to be driveable, including tires soon. He was estimating about $1,200. This is a '97 Camry, 25 years old. So we needed a new car.

I also called my dentist because my tooth seemed to be getting worse. I got a message that the office was closed for the day. I took some Tylenol that evening, and was able to sleep. Friday morning I called the dentist's office again, and got the same message. I left a message that I had a toothache and wanted to see the dentist. I took meds again Friday night, but couldn't sleep for most of the night. Around 3 am I took ibuprofen, too. I did get to sleep some time after that.

I was awoken by my phone, which turned out to be the dentist's office. It was 7:50, and they offered any appointment at 9 or 8:30. I took 8:30. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, and walked to the dentist. I was 15 minutes early. The dentist came straight in, and we talked about my toothache. He suggested I needed a root canal. So I got one. He found a crack in the tooth that seemed to explain the pain. He said if the crack goes all the way down, I may lose the tooth later, but he recommended trying to save the tooth. I agreed. So now I am recovering from a root canal, with follow up in a week and a half.

While I was at the dentist, Liz and Sharon were looking over cars on the Carmax website. Soon after I got home, they drove over to take a look. They chose an '18 Subaru Impreza. Not long after they got back, they were told the computer systems were back online, and they could complete the purchase, so they went back. We have a new (used) car. We decided to call her Prudence. She is replacing Molly, but kind of displacing our main car, Scooter, an '07 Honda Fit we've had since '09. Sharon is donating Molly to NPR.

So, It's been a busy week, a challenging week. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. As Erin said, we have managed to wiggle through, and will just have to keep going, on into next week.