The Electoral College

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Funny how I forget, every presidential election, that my vote isn’t really cast directly for my candidate choice, but for some unknown person who is appointed by the political parties in my state. By agreement, this person who is appointed to the Electoral College will vote for the candidate who wins the state. Seems like that’s basically giving the vote to the candidate who actually gets the most votes. But, Electoral College appointees are not ‘bound’ to vote for the winning candidate. Nope. They can vote for whoever they want.

There are 538 of these people who determine the outcome of any presidential election. Maybe they are used for other election, too, but I’m not aware what elections those might be. So, I’ll just continue to pretend I know what I’m talking about and say that only presidential elections are involved.

The 538 Electoral College members mirror the number of Senators and Congressmen and dictate how many votes each state has. Oregon has 7, Rhode Island has 4. Respectively, those two states have populations of 3,831,074 and 1,052,567. Using a little bit of basic math that I learned in the third grade, using much smaller numbers, I see that each electoral vote in Oregon is determined by about 547,296 people, and in Rhode Island each electoral vote is determined by about 263,142 people.

Hmmm. So, one electoral vote in Rhode Island represents the desires of 263K people but in Oregon it represents almost twice as many people. The average for each electoral vote for the entire United State is about 547K which makes Rhode Island’s 4 votes appear to be a little out of balance. I checked a few other states and found that the numbers are generally higher, like 677K for each of California’s electoral votes.

Granted, that’s only 2 states out of 50-something, and probably isn’t truly representative of a fair comparison, but considering the stakes you would think there would be a little more equality given to each state by population. Either that, or divide the votes in a different manner. I suggest that each state have only one electoral vote, regardless of population, and it would take 26 to win.

Better yet, I suggest that each state have as many electoral votes as they do citizens and that it would take 1/2 +1 to win the vote.

Oh, wait! That would mean the candidate with the most popular vote would win.

I’m sorry I suggested that because from a purely political perspective and I’m sure that would be illegal, immoral, and unnatural. But, gee, that’s the way all the other elections, state-by-state, are determined aren’t they?

Very confusing and, I’m guessing, designed that way so simple folks like myself get dizzy trying to figure it out and just give up.

That’s what I’m going to do, now.

Give up.

At least for now.

In the future I might just decide to vote for whichever candidate I think has the fewest tan lines.

Something Other Than Politics

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early so Cedric, our grandson, could participate. We’ll be delivering him to Kitsap Naval Base next Thursday on his way to his first real duty station, the USS Nimitz. He’s really happy to be home for these two weeks, but excited about moving on.

So, to keep this post on a positive note, I’m skipping the political angle and focusing on family, food, and the beauty of nature.

This is most of the crew. Left to Right – Lydia Claire, Grandma Diane, Ceiarra Jean, Daniel Dean, Ahmed Hassan, Jeran Daniel, Cedric Dean, and Great Grandma Jean’s left hand (I think). For clarification, I assigned “Jean” as Ceiarra’s middle name because I don’t really know what it is, or if she has one. I’m sure that will be corrected by someone who knows.

This was Diane’s idea I everyone thought it was terrific. Cedric prayed for us to start things, then Diane explained that each person in turn, beginning with Cedric, should light their candle from one of the two lit candles (purple) on the table and make a wish. It could be shared or kept secret. A solemn start to a wonderful meal. For Ahmed, who is an exchange student from Pakistan, this was his first experience with Thanksgiving.

Now for some pretty stunning sunrise photos. This first one I took from my rocking chair where I generally take my morning naps. I would have been sleeping, I’m sure, but Diane left the drapes open. When the light hit my eye I saw this and figured I was meant to capture it for you all. The funny thing about mornings like this is the color like this is only visible for a few minutes before it fades. This one was from November 3rd.

This is from November 10th.

This is also November 10th reflecting from the living room window.

This is the breakfast I had on November 3rd after the sun woke me up.

For Veteran’s Day Diane took me out for a pedicure, a new experience for me. I’ve gotta tell you it was pretty awesome.

Diane got one, too.

Then I decided to see if I could get my 2-wheel drive truck up the soggy path into the back yard.

Didn’t quite make it, no matter how many times I tried. The goal was to see how much of the truck I could stuff into that tan tent thing in the background. It’s intended purpose is for yard tools so I guess Karma intervened to prevent access to the upper back yard.

This is what it looks like after finally getting it back together, for the third time. The first two times I put it together a very zesty wind storm blew it down and bent a bunch of poles. That was in the upper yard. This time I carved out two trees (holly on the left, and some sort of bird bush tree on the right. I suppose another strong wind could dislodge it unless I lash it down to the trees. Jewel helped me resurrect it, so thanks, Jewel.

I guess that’s enough for now. Just another few ho-hum days in the great Northwest.

Was Donald Just Messing Around?

Posted on November 12, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

I have an opinion.

Actually, I have lots of opinions.

Perhaps that isn’t news for those of you who know me, or who stumble across this blog once in a while. The opinion is about President Elect Donald John Trump and the turmoil that led up to him winning the election.

Now, I’m not going to dissect all the issues raised against both major candidates. No, I’m just opinionating about Donald’s reason for running and about the inflammatory things he said during the run.

First, it is my humble opinion that DJ initially threw his hat in the ring on a lark with no expectations of winning the nomination for the Republican Party. But he did, no matter what he did or said. So, he did and said pretty much anything he wanted and the media ate it up, beating him up for his blatant refusal to adhere to accepted political correctness as defined by the ACLU. That’s an opinion about the ACLU, too. I’m not sure they care about anything except messing with the lives of the majority.

So, there goes Donald, happily inflaming everyone, seeing his frowning face alongside Hillary’s smiling face on every newscast. Regarding that … I think it’s very evident which way a newspaper, or network was leaning by those photos. Sneer vs. Smile. What could go wrong, right? The entire nation was against him, it seemed. No one thought he had a prayer of getting the GOP nomination and I think that was right on target for Donald. He was having a great time.

Then he was nominated so had to up the stakes by offending as many people as he could. Build a wall between us and Mexico then bill the Mexican government. Silly stuff like that. Saying things and offending people in a giant effort to avoid the possibility that he would be elected.

All the polls indicated Hillary was beating Donald on all fronts. He didn’t have a chance. So they said. Then, on November 8th, all of Donald’s fears were realized when he started to win those Swing States. I can just see him as he sat in his 3-story penthouse, seeing that he was winning states he was supposed to lose and thinking, “man, if this keeps up I’m going to have to move. That won’t be good.”

When the final bell rang, and Hillary lost, there was Donald shaking his head in amazement. He won! How in the heck did that happen when he’d done his absolute best to lose. Or, was he simply making a point, showing that America was looking for someone different, really different. Someone so unlike your run-of-the-mill lifetime politician that it was offensive. If that is correct, he certainly did it, and that it happened makes him look like some kind of genius.

Now it’s four days later and Donald seems to have mellowed. A lot. He’s talking about retaining portions of Obamacare, something he was going to totally dismantle not too long ago.

Now the intended joke is a reality and he’s either got to make good on all his early promises, or fold a little like all the previous winners did. Funny thing, though, the promises he won’t keep were never realistic, and everyone knew that.

So, why did they vote for him? Hard to tell, but they did. And he won. And he’ll be moving out of that 3-story New York penthouse in January. During a snow storm.

I don’t know about you, but I’m mighty curious to see what happens. I already feel pretty good about what’s currently going on because the world didn’t end on November 9th as I suspected it might.

Maybe that’s what’s next.

Oh … being curious about the meaning of GOP so I Googled it. Turns out to mean “Grand Old Party”. I think that’s a pretty frivolous moniker for an organization as serious as the Republican Party. OK. That’sa joke. Kinda.

Civil Disobedience and Riots in Portland

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Riots in Portland? Really? What’s that all about?

According to the news I listened to, those who did the rioting just wanted to make sure their voices were heard. A far simpler way would have been to leave a message on someone’s answer phone. Instead they went about destroying numerous vehicles at a Toyota dealership ($200K), smashed windows along the street, in addition to stopping the commuters on their way home by walking on to the freeway and MAX lines. I’m guessing the message they want heard is not the one they delivered last night during their melee.

There is info suggesting they aren’t going to stop until someone listens. This is all in the wake of President Donald Trump beating Hillary in the election. Maybe they just want a vote recount, nationwide, to rectify what they view as a disgrace of the American Voting System. Maybe they want Donald to just step down and allow the rightful heir to the throne assume her position. Who knows? All they’re doing is breaking stuff.

I think they need an interpreter.

Knuckleheads.

The Day After . . .

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Wow! Trump is our President Elect and world didn’t end.

Actually, nothing changed at all, but we have a couple of months until he gets sworn in to office.

It’s going to be an interesting future for us all.

Now, get back to work.

I need that Social Security to continue.

Election Day 2016

Posted on November 8, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Thank God! It’s almost over. Starting tomorrow we can be rid of all those nasty campaign ads flinging mud everywhere like there’s no tomorrow. Then it will be all over and everyone will be friends again. Weird. Kinda reminds me of one of those MMA fights. You know, the octagon thing, where two people beat the crap out of each other than hug when it’s all over. They’re buds again.

Maybe we should have politicians do the same – duke it out, winner take all.

Then, with all the concern about everyone’s heritage, the loser gets sent back to the country that Ancestry.com determines has residents with the closest match based on DNA evidence.

Yeah. That’s the ticket.

Fall Back, whether you want to or not.

Posted on November 5, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Last Wednesday, since it’s voting season, Diane voluntarily accepted being sequestered at the County Court House for the day. It was the first of many she will suffer through until the election is over and all ballots counted. Those occurring this week were normal work days but next week will include at least one all-nighter. Since I didn’t have any direction for today, I went golfing with Doug & Junior.

It was beautiful and warm on the course. I would have taken photos, but you’ve seen those. Oh, heck. Here’s an old one, from last week.

On Thursday, when Diane returned to the courthouse, I had breakfast at the Kozy with my friends Larry, Larry, & Howard. As we always do on Thursdays, we solved the ills of the world but, like normal, no one listened. Earlier in the year we discussed the possibility of one of us running for president, but nothing came of it because we all had better things to do. So, we must live with the choice of the people for the next four years. Or, is it the the ‘choice of the Electoral College?’ Sometimes that doesn’t relate to the will of the people. Sad, huh?

On Friday while Diane was busy with ballots, I made lots of room in the basement by removing a large horizontal surface. That would be a very large pool table that’s been there for years waiting to be reassembled. Instead, it’s served as a huge table on which most of our spare throw rugs have been stacked, along with some Christmas ornaments that never made it back on the shelves from last year. Since Christmas is right around the corner, I guess it’s OK. We’ll need them. Just so you know, the pool table parts are safely stored just in case we change our mind about it. Since Diane has two more long days of work next week I might just totally rearrange the entire basement, making it more user-friendly. I’ve been thinking about moving my computer down there. Maybe it’ll be faster in the basement. Sure isn’t speedy where it’s at.

Another task I’ve taken upon myself, in Diane’s absence, is to hang up as many framed pictures as I can find. I already hung a mirror in an inappropriate location so figure 40-50 more things on the wall just won’t matter. I’m talking in the basement, of course. I have no jurisdiction for hanging things above the last basement stair.

Yesterday afternoon Cedric flew home on the way to his next duty station – USS Nimitz CVN-68. He’s home for two weeks until the 18th. Lydia and Ceiarra picked him up then he took them to dinner on the way home. I texted him a little while ago, welcoming him home, so know they made it safely.

While the kids were working their way home from the airport, St. Helens High beat Hermiston High in first state playoff game 12-7. Score was 7-6 Hermiston until St. Helens scored with 16 seconds remaining in the game. Diane and I were going to attend the game, but her long days were tiring so we opted to order Chinese in, which was a terrible idea. Everything was totally overcooked and really not tasty. So, we’re taking them off our list of places to eat for a while, as we did with Taco Bell Thursday night. Two horrible dining experiences on consecutive days kinda takes it out of a guy and makes him lose faith in the cooking industry. So, we’ll be eating home cooked meals for a while until we think things have improved. I suspect we’ll have good luck at Hometown Buffet if we wind up going to Portland for something.

For those of you afflicted with Day Light Saving Time, don’t forget to Fall Back one hour tonight or your Sunday will be totally messed up. Really, it will be.

Now I’ll share some photos from the last few days. First is Mt. Jefferson as the sun goes down.

This is Mt. Hood, which is a bit left of Mt. Jefferson.

Then we have a sunrise view looking toward Mt. Hood. I haven’t figured out what makes all the smoke every morning, but notice that it’s not there during the afternoon.

This is what I had for breakfast Thursday morning.

Good thing I had that breakfast Thursday because the crappy Taco Bell tacos and burritos for supper really sucked. Might just stick to PB&J from now on.

Cheers.

Happy November 1st, the sugar rush Teachers love

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

Yes, it’s November 1st already and I’m betting all the teachers will be glad when it’s over. I say that because Halloween was yesterday, on a school night, and there’s no doubt that most of the kids in their classes consumed way more sugar than normal last night. And, they probably brought some with them so they can taper off throughout the day. What fun, right?

Because of that I’m surprised our government hasn’t taken steps to move Halloween to the last Friday of October so the candy rush might wear off a little by Monday. After all, they changed a number of holidays to Monday so the work force could have more opportunities for three-day weekends, right? If I were president I’d make it a priority. Yes sir. I’d do that.

We didn’t have trick-or-treaters last night for two reasons: 1) We live on a dead-end street that doesn’t have street lights, and; 2) We ate all the candy so left the porch light off to ward off the adventurous tot’s. Does everyone realize that the word “tot” is actually an acronym for trick-or-treaters? It’s true. It’s a term for children that should only be used on Halloween.

You naysayers are no doubt thinking, “OK, why are there ‘tater tots’?” right? I’m with you on that. I think that’s a total misuse of the word and we should ignite a protest insisting that they be changed to ‘tater chunks’, ‘tater slugs’, ‘tater cubes’, or something equally more descriptive. Who’s with me on this?

It’s another lovely day here in River City and I may just have to mosey out to the burn pile and ruin it for anyone down wind by lighting up my burn pile. It won’t take long and it will give me an opportunity to take pictures of all those pretty flames. I’d wait until tomorrow, but Junior wants to go golfing and we don’t pass up those moments. Also, I need to work up an appetite for our late lunch because Diane is boiling eggs to put on our afternoon meal of Dungeness crab salad. My favorite thing in the entire world, right after Diane’s meatloaf and beef stew. Oh, and maybe homemade chicken and noodles. I guess it just depends on the day and what’s available. Food is good.

Now I must go to work.

The end result of an afternoon of burning is that about 1/5 of the pile is ashes and my right should is totally unusable.

But I’m still going golfing tomorrow. That should be fun.

As reported, Diane made me an epic crab louie this afternoon that had at least half a pound of fresh crab in it. Pretty tasty.

Now I’m done for the day, waiting to see if I’m going to have a bout of gout.

Red Light Cameras, Walnuts, Poodledoos, and OTI

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

A month or so ago, while Diane was driving around Beaverton, randomly, she had the misfortune of making a right turn on a yellow light that turned red before the turn was completed. This caused what I’m sure is a very expensive camera to snap a photo of both the front and rear of Diane’s pickup. The resultant photo, which we were able to view using a handy URL provided by the Beaverton Red Light Camera People (BRLCP), provided indisputable evidence that the light was indeed red before Diane’s truck completely entered the intersection. The URL also revealed that Diane was to make an appearance at the Beaverton Municipal Court on the 26th.

So, that’s what we did. We went to court. Well, Diane went to court. I just watched. The original fine was $260. Paying the fine is an admission of guilt and the ticket goes on her record. To avoid that she paid $200 to the court and agreed to take an online training course that costs $40 which she agreed to do. Doing this keeps the ticket off her record. So, we saved $20. What a deal.

Fortunately, we had other things to do in the greater Portland area so the pain of a trip to court was attenuated by the prospect of snagging a good deal on a bag of walnuts. We tried to get some before flying East last month, but they weren’t ready. They didn’t become ready until we’d been home from that trip for a couple of weeks when the grower called to say they were ready. We opted for 20 pounds of cracked walnuts. Cracked means that they weighed the nuts before cracking then shoved everything back into the bag. So, the task upon returning home, was for us to separate the shells from the edible parts. We did that yesterday, the three of us, sitting around a cloth laid on the rug in the living room. I made an epic mess while sitting Indian Style, knowing I might never regain my feet without a 911 assist. In the end, I was able to attain a vertical position on my own and managed to stand in place for only a couple of minutes before regaining the ability to move my feet in a manner that would result in forward motion without falling down. It was all good.

Once all the shells were removed from the 20 pounds we purchased (for $52) we were left with 10-12 pounds of useable walnuts. using basic math, at which I’m an expert, because I graduated from Scappoose High School, I determined that our $52 purchase resulted in walnuts that cost between $5.20 and $4.33 a pound. For comparison, Jewel reported that 4 pounds of walnuts from Costco cost $15 which works out to $3.75 per pound. On the surface it looks like Costco was the better deal but that price doesn’t take in to account the family time required to obtain the reported results. It also doesn’t take into account that between the three of us it’s possible that we consumed a pound of product which certainly skews the end results and dollar amounts which I’m not inclined to recompute because I just don’t want to do it. That, and I’ve reached my equasional limit for this weekend. The Costco purchase also doesn’t take freshness into account which our which our walnuts certainly were. They are really good which is the reason approximately one pound went missing during the processing effort. And, we know exactly where our walnuts were raised to maturity. In Oregon.

Last Thursday I took Ozzie to his hair dresser for his monthly poodledoo. He was in dire need because the appointment had been moved out twice. He was a mess, ready for the original appointment, so moving it out a couple of more days gave him ample opportunity to just make things worse. He’s good at doing that. Matter of fact, he has no problem at all of taking his brand new $37 haircut into the lower field where he follows the big dogs around and does his best to pee on them while they’re peeing but only manages to wade through peed on grass which kind of counteracts Kaykay’s efforts with the shampoo and clippers. Kaykay is his hairdresser. She’s the only one Oz will allow to wash him. He’s very picky, but I don’t know why when he really doesn’t care if he gets a haircut or not.

Later Thursday evening Diane and I took Lydia to Wilsonville where she was being courted by Oregon Technical Institute (OTI) for her continued education when she graduates from High School next June. Ahmed, the exchange student who has been assimilated into the Walters’ clan, also went along for the ride. While they were being wined and dined, Diane and I retired to a nearby Shari’s restaurant for a snack. Then we visited the Goodwill store that was also nearby. I only lasted half of that visit before finding a need to return to Diane’s truck where I read my iPad book until Diane returned.

OTI released their guests shortly after 7:30 pm and we drove them home in about an hour with no mishap. It was a good day.

Today Diane and Jewel did a lot of running around town buying stuff while I stayed home with strict instructions to not do anything dangerous. Actually, Diane asked me if I intended to do anything dangerous. The only answer to that was “Yes” because it was true at that moment in time. After they left, I had no idea what I was going to do. But, keeping the “dangerous” aspect in mind, I simply weeded the new little garden out back that was being overrun with unwanted grass. I also perched a very nice bird house on top of a tall 4×4 post. Doing so required my use of a power tool. Battery power, but power none the less. Thankfully, I did not sustain any visible injuries in the process so my secret is safe.

Golf, Our Furnace, and Golf

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Jerrie Cate

So, I played another bad 9-hole round of golf today and had a great time with my former classmates, JP and Doug. I also played an enormously bad 18-hole round of golf last Saturday with a fellow named Dennis, and two former classmates, Jim and Doug and had a great time doing that, also. Although I had great fun golfing badly on those two days, I came away with new knowledge that will affect the future of golfing efforts. The main takeaway from those two days of bad golf is that my current body will not tolerate more than 9-holes of golf on any given day. Swinging a club, and looking for my balls for 18-holes, on the same day, is just too demanding for many parts of me. In order of importance, the parts that suffer most are my shoulders, and my egos.

Before you get all technical on me, I’m aware that my ego isn’t technical a part of my anatomy. I’m also aware that most people do not have more than one ego. So, the only part of that really hurts is my shoulder – the right one, to be more specific. My ego just gets a bit bruised from doing badly, but the company I keep makes up for that. By doing 18 holes, like Jimbo does on a regular basis, both my should and ego suffer more. By only golfing for nine holes, the damage is halved and far less painful and I heal in half the time.

Sorry. That went way farther than I intended it to go, but think I made my point that I will probably not be signing up for rounds of 18 in the future. Nine is the limit, I’m afraid.

Yesterday Ryan, from Columbia NW Heating, in Scappoose, paid us a visit to give our furnace a once over before the snow starts flying. I’m sharing this simply because I want all those other husbands out there to know how important it is to listen to their respective wives and to pay really good attention when they add tasks to your personal calendar, like “Jerrie Cleans.”

The first time that showed up on my calendar I admit I was a bit concerned about what I was supposed to clean because as stated, it’s very ambiguous, leaving too much room for interpretation which in turn provides too many chances for doing a terrible thing, like cleaning the wrong thing, in this instance. So, ignoring my male instinct to continue forward without asking directions, I asked for clarification.

“It means that’s the day you are supposed to clean the furnace filters,” I was told.

“Oh,” I replied. “But it only says ‘Jerrie Cleans’ on my calendar.”

“Really?” she said. “You really didn’t click on it to see the entire entry?”

“No,” I replied. “I thought it might be a test to see if I would ask for help, so I did. Did I pass?”

“No,” she said, “you didn’t pass,” then turned to her computer and got busy on the keyboard. Presently I heard a ding and a notice that the calendar had been changed. All those entries for the 25th of each month now read “Jerrie – Filters.”

Problem solved. Since then I’ve been faithfully cleaning the furnace filters on the 25th of every month, whether they need it or not. Actually, they always need come cleaning because of the animals that run in and out of our home all the time. In the summer I use my air compressor to blow out all the dust most of the time, but other times I use my power washer. When I do that, I use the compressor to dry them off. There are a couple of pieces of the filter that look kinda like a honeycomb which takes an incredibly long time to dry so I only use the power washer on them on really hot days so I can leave them in the sun to dry.

The main purpose for sharing all this filter cleaning task is to report that Ryan, the furnace technician, told both Diane and I, right out loud so we could hear him clearly, that our filters were the cleanest of any furnace he’s ever serviced. I asked him to repeat it to ensure Diane heard him because I thought that was pretty significant but she heard it the first time. The cleanest filters in Ryan’s service territory. Wow! Diane went right to the calendar on the refrigerator and put a gold star on it. It was awesome because I don’t get many gold stars, just mainly silver and red ones. The last time I got a gold one was when I remembered to take the garbage out every Monday evening for an entire month without being told.

Thankfully, since the furnace was essentially overhauled yesterday, I didn’t have to clean them today. Now I can relax for another month.

To end, I will share a few photos I’ve taken over the past few days …

This is Dennis. When I first saw him it was about this angle and my heart skipped a bit because with just a glance he looked a lot like my older brother, Lyle, God Rest His Soul. Kinda spooky.

This is for Jewel because she likes weird fungi. This is a rare R2D2 fungus that only grows on the Wildwood golf course.

The remainder of the Saturday foursome … Me, Jim, and Doug.

This is what the sky showed us before I left to golf this morning. Looks like aliens are looking for something.

I’ve been meaning to clean out my golf bag for a while because it was getting kind of heavy. That, and I was looking for a bag of tall tees that I used to have. I didn’t find the tees, but I found all of these balls.

Here’s Doug who was so excited about all those leaves that he got out a bag so he could take some home since he doesn’t have many of his own. Actually, that’s a towel and he’s preparing to pick up his ball and wipe the mud off of it. He’s got many acres of trees that drop leaves like this so he doesn’t need to import any. It’s really pretty on the course this time of year, but finding a ball amongst all those leaves is a real challenge. We generally find them.