And now, the end is near...

7:40 PM
So the wait in line for free ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s was way longer than my wait to vote just now. Can you imagine if Amherst Brewing Company across the street was giving away a free pint to everyone who voted?

Hey maybe that is how we can increase turnout for the local town election this spring, when the winner of today’s Select Board contest has to run again. And rather than the 85% turnout we get for the Presidential election the usual 15% trudge to the polls to vote for the local hands-on government that has WAY more impact on everyday life here in the People’s Republic of Amherst.

But still, I savor this election turnout: God bless America!

Amherst Town Center: a tad later

3:15 PM
Kind of the "low rent" time period, with a little less traffic flow. The favored candidates are off sucking down cappuccinos at Starbucks bolstering themselves for the busier after-5:00 PM time (although visibility becomes a factor)

High Noon Amherst Town Center

Actually a tad after 1:00 PM so they are packing it in until the 5:00 PM rush
I wonder how the dog would vote?

Even in Amherst

10:30 AM
Of course if McCain wins somebody will need to call out the National Guard for this Amherst abode.

And the winner is...

(8:50 AM) Unidentified Pilot: “Anybody know what that smoke is in lower Manhattan?”

Yeah, I know many weeks back I predicted a McCain victory on Mary Carey’s About Amherst blog but a week later kind of wanted to take it back. Not that I changed my mind about voting for him, only that a majority of Americans would not follow suit.

But now with the bewitching hour fast approaching I will go on record on my own blog about who will tomorrow’s epic contest. McCain.

Not that Obama made any major screw-ups over the last month (that I was anticipating) although a few smaller gaffs BUT one big one from his running mate. By saying that President Obama “would be tested” in his first few months in office by folks who want us all dead Biden returned the focus to the one issue that makes all the difference in the world to me: the safety of my family.

And yeah I do think race, unfortunately, will play a role. In the privacy of the voting booth you can do things you don’t confess to for any reason at all, even a bad one. But I think safety is the crucial deciding factor --and that’s a good one.

Springfield Republican‘s stunning Sunday editorial

A horse is a horse...

So Kira placed in every event she entered yesterday at Muddy Brook Farm horse show including a Blue Ribbon for costume division. Not bad for her first time out.

Criminal indeed

So our illustrious Select Board, none of whom have any business background, asked ever so nicely for Municipal Department Heads who oversee our $65 million operation to come up with coping mechanisms for next years budget (besides drugs of course):

Cherry Hill—you know, that vital luxiourious game of golf—came up with a dozy:


8. List at least one area where efficiency might be improved for FY 10.

Utilize Department of Corrections inmates to a greater extent to provide no Cost maintenance work at Cherry Hill.

Wow. The NIMBY’s are just going to love that! (Especially battle ax Hilda Greenbaum). Sure, bus in the muggers, rapist and murders--as long as they work for free.

Since it was the immediate neighbors (especially the Greenbaum’s) that brought us Cherry Hill to begin with over 20 years ago, sounds like poetic justice to me.

In 2001 the cost of incarceration in Massachusetts was$37,718 annually while the national average was only $24,052. And I have got to believe it’s a lot higher now. Yeah leave it to a town bureaucrat to shift costs to some other (state) budget as long as it makes her look good.