Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Election day 2012

So yesterday was election day in the US again. I started the day by getting up at 5 am and heading out to the church to make coffee. We have some ladies who bake cookies and then we offer free coffee and cookies all day long for the voters and poll workers. We've done it for several years now, and many people have come to expect it. I hear people talking about it all year long. I left the church around 5:55, and there was a line of people all the way to the door waiting for voting to start at 6 am (actually, I think they let them start voting a little before 6).

When I got back to Fort Wayne I drove by my polling place (the Waynedale library) and there were a bunch of people lined up, so I went home and had breakfast and chatted with Jane before she left for work.

I left home a little before 8 and went by the library again. There was only one other person there voting, so I went in and voted. The election workers were all in good cheer, and it only took me about 5 minutes to cast my votes. I voted for most of the major stuff, but I am pretty uninformed about the judges and some of the other things, so I skipped them.

Then I stopped at the grocery store to get juice and bread for our communion service after the polls closed. I got cran-grape juice and Hawaiian bread. When I got back to the church there were already 2 plates of cookies completely gone, and I believe they were on the 3rd pot of regular coffee, and still the 1st pot of decaf and french vanilla. I do kind of like having people come and go all day long. There seemed to be a pretty good stream for most of the day - for such a small precinct. I think it was just after noon when they told me they had already had over half the precinct vote. There are 400-some people in that precinct.

At 7 last night we had an 'Election Day Communion' service. We were one of nearly 900 congregations in the US participating in this attempt to draw people together as Christians regardless of how we voted. We just had some readings, prayers, and communion - I basically used most of the resources they offered on their website. We also sang two hymns ("Be Thou My Vision" and "Amazing Grace"), and Jane played "It is Well With My Soul" while I served the communion elements. There were 16 of us present. I was prepared for a lot more, but I guess 16 was pretty good... for us. I wasn't sure if anyone else would show up or not, since I had flyers posted inviting any voters that wanted to come. No one but our church people were there. It was a nice service. Lasted about 40 minutes.

We stood around and talked with a few people afterward, then came home and I had a piece of my birthday cake. We watched a little 'Big Bang Theory' and then a 'Seinfeld' rerun, then went to bed. No election coverage for us. I am soooo not into politics this year.

It was a long day, but overall a pretty good day, for me. From the looks of Facebook it apparently wasn't a very good day for a lot of people. But... you know... "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

Peace out; and in.

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