Scary week

 

Odd, isn't it, that Presidential Election Day always comes within a week of Halloween?  A coincidence, I suppose.  But a telling one.

Halloween this year was very quiet in my Montlake neighborhood.  Over the past few years, my two-block stretch of street has acquired quite a collection of young children, and they were organized into a Halloween costume parade just before dark.  They were elaborately costumed as they processed down the street, witnessed by adoring parents along the curb, and by others like me, peering out our windows.  

Our neighborhood leaders had suggested, in place of the traditional trick or treat, that those wishing to supply treats should leave little packets of treats out beside the sidewalks.  It was kept low key, so as to avoid predator kids from other neighborhoods descending on our goodies.  My own way of celebrating Halloween is to dim the lights and either escape to somewhere else, far away, or -- this year -- to hide out in a back room where I keep this (my computer) and my TV.  So it seemed hypocritical at this late juncture to leave treats out in front.

They don't call me the Old Grouch for nothing.  It's a testament to the genial quality of my neighbors that although I provide no treats, I still haven't been tricked.

Although there were few parties around town this year, there were many skeletons.  (See my October 17 post.)  In the past two weeks, the skeletal displays have become increasingly original and macabre.  Just the way we like them.  The caged "quarantined skeleton" above was discovered  during my Saturday walk over Capitol Hill.

And, of course, talk of scary and macabre leads directly to tomorrow's election.  I discussed my PTSD, my Skut Farkus Syndrome, a week ago.  Since then, the polls have stayed more or less the same, with an occasional outlier fright, like the Selzer poll from Iowa.   Most states still  trending blue.  But Trump and his allies keep chuckling, "Just you wait."  Trump's convinced that those hordes of voters, too embarrassed to admit that they support an infantile idiot for president, will show  up in the voting booth and mark their ballots for Trump.  

Or maybe the Republicans will just show more discipline in getting their known voters to the polls.

Or maybe Biden will seemingly "win," but the Grand Old Party will get a court order throwing out tons of votes that didn't meet technical specifications.  What?  Allow Houston voters to drop off their ballots at drive-through drop boxes?  An outrage.  Throw out all 127,000 votes already cast that way.  (Predominantly Democratic votes in Houston.)  Yeah, that particular one won't fly, but a lot of other voter suppression techniques may. 

Trump and his buddies have turned an already tense election, voting during a pandemic, into a three-ring circus, hoping to eventually win by lawsuit what they can't win tomorrow through voter sentiment.  Scary.  Bunch of dancing skeletons, they are.

We'll live through it.  When all the thunder and lightning dies away, I still think that Joe Biden will be elected.  But we shouldn't have to suffer so much stress to get there.

Election is tomorrow.  If you haven't yet voted, better hustle down to your local polling place in the morning, before the lines get even longer.