Monthly Archives: November 2008

4 November 2008

Exercising My Voting Privilege

By Nicki

Literally and figuratively.  I just returned, about an hour ago, from my polling place.  You see, I run to my local polling location.  Up until two years ago, this was a relatively flat prospect.  Then, the local fire department started a building project on the station on Route 26.  The polling location moved to Union Center Christian Church and has not moved back, even though the construction is finished.  The distance is not all that much – 3.16 miles round trip according to mapmyrun.com.

Was it painless?  Yes, the casting of my votes was painless.  Was it without question?  No, if you read on, you will realize that my experience has actually brought a lot of questions to my mind.

My first question was concerning the woman who entered UCCC in front of me.  She had on an Exit Real Estate shirt.  I believe I know which realtor it was but am not 100% positive.  As a matter of privacy, I walked slowly as she was not yet signing her name in the book.  Realize that my last name starts with a C and that would put me in the beginning of the alphabet and the realtor was monopolizing the woman with that book.  I took a step closer and heard the realtor say – “OH good.  He voted and so did he.”  The election worker was showing her that someone had or had not voted.  I don’t believe this is legal – family members or not – and I believe this person’s last name starts with a letter at the end of the alphabet, or in the other book.

Shock number one and I wasn’t even to the table to sign the book yet.

Once the realtor had left, I gave the election worker my last name and pointed out – as most refuse to believe that my first name is actually Nicki – my entry in the book.  No ID required though I had my license with me as I was not making the run up Boswell Hill Road more than once (see my primary experience). 

I did have to wait about ten minutes to get into the voting booth.  I have never had to do anything more than walk in and sign the book and walk into the booth.  There is only one voting booth were I vote.  From the discussion the poll workers were having while I waited, I guess there are between 500 and 600 people registered to vote at this location.  You may say, how do I figure?  There are either five or six names on each page.  The one woman said she had 43 pages and the other responded she had 53 pages. That puts me at between 480 and 576 voters in this particular election.  I was voter 147 at a little before 11 am.  My son, who left the house at 7:02 am, was voter 42.

Another little tidbit from the poll workers’ discussions came when one of them discovered pages in the back of each book for changes of addresses.  Both of them said they had no idea what these were for or what to do with these entries.  Could they take a change of address?  Could they find all the information that was necessary for each form?  What are these for?  More importantly, why don’t those working at the polls know the answer to this question.

Now came the most interesting part of voting.  A woman in a wheelchair came in.  The church is very handicap accessible.  The tables that the “books” are on are a good height so she had no trouble signing the book.  I am not sure that her voting experience was the same.  The new electronic voting machine was just off to the side of the lever voting booth.  What do I hear but the poll worker – who is digging for a key and an instruction sheet – say that the machine is set for audio voting.  This machine is not in a separate room.  It is not even away from where every one else is  voting.  If there is going to be audio voting, would a separate room not be required to keep with voting in secret?

How was your polling experience?

1 comment   |  tags: , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

4 November 2008

Strangest Weather-Related Issue So Far

By Nicki

Yes, I now have CNN on my television. CNN started publicizing a hotline to report voter irregularities last week or the week before.  They reported on some during early voting in both Georgia and Florida.

I have heard of some strange happenings in the local area thanks to Pressconnects.com but the recent voting irregularities report on CNN had the most interesting problem.

Weather in southern parts of Virginia and in North Carolina is horrible.  People are waiting in torrential downpours two or more hours to vote.  Thank you to all of you doing this as it is important that you vote.
The problem – people are so wet that their paper ballots will not feed through the optical reader after marked.  Poll workers have asked those with this problem to leave their soggy ballots in a box (a bunch of soggy paper in a box will dry?) and the ballots will be fed through the reader later. 

I am not confident in this solution for several reasons.  First, if you place a number of soggy ballots in a box, the one or two or even five or ten on top may dry out but those one or two or ten at the bottom are going to just get soggier.  Second, if people are currently waiting two hours, or more, to vote in this area, the poll workers are going to be busy.  They are not going to have time to feed multiple ballots through an optical reader.

What would you do if you were a voter faced with this issue?

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

4 November 2008

Election Night Television Recommendation

By Nicki

Should you be tired early this evening of hearing about the lines voters don’t want to wait in (this is a small price to pay for the type of society we live in), the faulty machines that are being used (I am really hoping this doesn’t make big headlines), or how close or not close the election is before people on the west coast are even out of work, turn your television dial to ESPN2.

The only NCAA football game of the day is being broadcast live from the University at Buffalo this evening.  This game could well have bowl game implications.  It will be a welcome distraction from election results.

Kick-off is set for 7:30 pm on ESPN2.  The University at Buffalo Bulls will play the Miami of Ohio Red Hawks in a tough eastern division MAC game.  You can look at Yahoo’s report on the Bulls and the game here.  Or, get a local perspective with the Buffalo News article.

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Collegiate Sports, Just my Thoughts, Sports

4 November 2008

John McCain and Crabgrass

By Nicki

Yes, I admit it.  I turn my television set to CBS when I turn it on in the morning.  I am not particularly a big fan of CBS news but I do want the local news on WBNG, the local CBS affiliate.

So, I still have CBS on and the Early Show has Bob Schieffer – yes, the man I said one the last presidential debate as he did such a good job in moderating in my mind – talking about counting John McCain out of the election.

Imagine my shock, I had to rewind my TV and listen to it again.  Schieffer said that John McCain was like crabgrass – always there.  The always there part was great but do you really compare a man who could wake up tomorrow morning as president-elect of the United States to crabgrass?

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

4 November 2008

City School Districts

By Nicki

I have always encouraged my daughter, who is a senior at Niagara University and will graduate with a degree in elementary education and a minor in literacy, to stay in the Niagara area and student teach.  My theory was that even the “city” school districts in our area are not true inner city school districts.  She needs to know what teaching in such a district would be like to be sure she would want to do that if offered a job in such a district.

She listened to my arguments and did stay in Niagara to student teach.  Her first placement was in a kindergarten class in Colonial Village in the Niagara-Wheatfield district.  She compared the school to the elementary school her younger siblings went to here locally – Maine Memorial.  She loved the kindergarten class.  Her only real shock was that most of the kindergarten kids had not been in an organized school setting previously.

She is now in her second placement.  This is in a third grade class in the Niagara Falls City District.  I received a call after she got back to her apartment yesterday.  When she got to school, the teachers were all gathered around and talking like something big was going on.  It was. 

Over the weekend, a man in Niagara Falls had shot and killed his estranged wife.  The couple had a child at the school.  The man was still at large.  My daughter was in total amazement.  There was no offer of counselling for students, or staff for that matter, by the school.  The building was not on lock down.  As far as the principal was concerned, this was just another Monday at 79th Street school.

I don’t know what would happen under the same circumstances in this area.  Hopefully, I never will find out.  I do believe, though, that local districts – especially with the father still at large – would have been under lock down.  I also want to believe that counseling would be offered for both students and staff.

In retrospect, the lock down was not necessary.  Articles in this morning’s Buffalo News and Niagara Gazette indicate that the father killed himself, most likely on Sunday evening.

Is this the reaction you would expect from the district your children attend?  What reaction do you think should have been taken?

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Family, Just my Thoughts

4 November 2008

College Students and Voting

By Nicki

I grew up in a very political home.  My grandmother was a poll worker/election inspector.  My best friend’s father was the county democratic chair.  I volunteered on my first presidential campaign in 1972 at the age of 11, stuffing envelopes for George McGovern.  My father could not believe, when I finally registered to vote, that I registered as a democrat.  My mother and my stepfather have been poll workers/election inspectors for years, although they opted to not work this year.

I have voted in every election I have been eligible to vote in since September of 1979 when I turned 18.  I never even gave it a second thought, when in college in the Adirondacks and later in West Virginia, to register in that location.  I would fill out an absentee ballot request and then the absentee ballot.  I have encouraged my voting age children – I have five of them this year – to vote here locally, either by going to the polls or by absentee ballot.  I also encouraged, once out of college and living on his own, my son in East Syracuse to change his registration to Onondaga County.

All this said, I don’t understand college students voting where they go to school.  Can someone out there explain to me how a temporary address at a college is good enough to allow registration to vote in that area?

I am not discouraging college students from voting.  Far from it.  I just want to understand why the big push to have them vote where they go to school.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

4 November 2008

Business Productivity on Election Day 2008

By Nicki

I am intrigued by this story that seems to be a non-story for national media. 

I don’t think that lines will be extraordinary where at my polling place.  Granted, there are only two machines at the polling place but things generally run smoothly.  My first time voter, 18 year old son, left the house at 7:02 to vote before school.  He really wanted to vote during lunch but he only has an hour and a half so I told him that before or after school would be better.  Since school started five minutes ago and he didn’t stop yet to get a written note that he was going to be late, I don’t think he ran into any problems.  If he did, you can be sure that will be a later blog entry.

I want to know what productivity is like for businesses today in places like Virginia – where the line just shown on television didn’t look like it was moving, places like Philadelphia – where the line was about five city blocks last time it was shown on television and was not moving very quickly, places like Ohio – where there was so much controversy last election.

Does the business you work for give you time off to vote?  Does the business you work for encourage your political voice?

1 comment   |  tags: , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

3 November 2008

Everything is Local

By Nicki

With all the buzz about national politics, please remember that everything is local as you step into that polling booth tomorrow.  I am watching a series of races – local, state and national – for my area plus a few other races that have caught my eye throughout the last two or three months.

Locally, I am very interested in the Town of Union supervisor race.  While Union is the largest municipality in Broome County and the 18th largest town in NYS, I do not believe that the best way to serve the population here is to do so with area-based representation.  The Town of Union council currently consists of one supervisor and four council people – yes, I am slightly PC.  There must be a reason that the majority of these council people live in one area of the town.  That is not the issue.  I believe that having four people who represent everyone in the town is better than a council of the same size – or possibly bigger as I have not heard the full proposal – where the council people represent a specific geographic area.  I am afraid that such a proposal – and one town supervisor candidate is making this a big point in his advertisements and his debates – would tear the town apart.

I am also keenly watching the Broome County Executive race.  The incumbent executive has blasted the local airwaves with advertising.  I am truly sick of all her ads.  I am also still annoyed with some decisions she has made throughout her four year tenure.  I do believe that the challenger has put up a valiant fight.  I am not sure how this race will play out.

Statewide races in my area are pretty much givens.  Our state senator is running unopposed.  My state assembly woman is also running unopposed.  To find a race that I want to follow the results on, I turn to the Finger Lakes area.  Incumbent Brian Kolb is running against Noah Sargent in the 129th Assembly district.  Kolb is currently in his fourth term. 

I am also extremely intrigued to see how candidates backed by Tom Golisano’s Responsible NY PAC end up in their respective elections.  Golisano, having attempted runs for governor more than once, decided this past summer to put his money where his mouth is and start the Responsible NY PAC.  The PAC backs candidates that will change the way Albany functions currently, with an emphasis on fiscal responsibility.  Interesting enough, my state senator Tom Libous is endorsed but my state assemblywoman Donna Lupardo is not.

As I look to other states, I have a close eye to my south.  I am watching two races in Pennsylvania.  I am closely watching the PA Attorney General race between incumbent Jack Wagner and current Northampton County DA John Morganelli.  I am also keeping a close watch on the  PA 12th Congressional district race.  Career politician and incumbent Jack Murtha is in a fight for his seat with William Russell.

I am also watching as a local and politically unknown teacher George Phillips is trying to unseat incumbent Maurice Hinchey.  Phillips is trying to tread a thin line between political outsider while touting his experience having been an aide to Chris Smith of New Jersey when he served in Congress.  Hinchey, on the other hand, has been in the House of Representatives for eight terms and served in the state Assembly for 18 years prior to that.  Hinchey, while a career politician, did annoy the powerful in his party by voting against the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.  Granted, his thinking was that a smaller amount would be better to start but he did, and to me principle matters, stand his ground and vote against it twice.

So, regardless of what you think, what ideology you subscribe to, remember to get yourself to a voting booth tomorrow.

1 comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts, Politics

1 November 2008

Untitled

By Nicki

I am not sure how I feel about posting something that is both unedited and unfinished.  Elise – do not read this until I tell you it is ready!

This new role that was thrust on her unexpectedly was not one she had anticipated playing so early in her life.  Lisa had played many roles in her 40 years but this new one was not one she had anticipated.  It took her back to high school in one way.  You know how teenagers never think they or their friend are mortal.  Youth makes you think immortality. 

 

In some ways, parenthood makes you think immortality also.  You will live on in your children.  As you run, bike or hike with and after them, you are in good shape.  Your health is important because you are setting an example for those you love.  You may think of wills, and are sure to have one, but it is for “just in case.”

 

Then, “just in case” comes to visit.

 

Lisa didn’t realize when she woke up that morning that “just in case” was on its way to her doorstep.  She had lived through a lot but was not thinking death was coming.  Yes, her parents were getting older.  It would be a shock if the call came from one of them but it would not be unexpected.  The problem was that the call came from one of the kids.

 

No, the kids were not hurt.  There was no big bomb at the university.  The apartment complex where another lived had not burnt down.  No one’s car had been hit.  Did you know that Dad was in the hospital?  This would have been a bigger issue but Lisa nad her ex-husband did not speak frequently.  She knew that he had had an accident about amonth before.  The accident had been small.  It had required a trip to the doctor’s and a few stitches .  Nothing drastic.  The kids were annoyed when she did not tell them about the Accident.  She didn’t really know about it.  One of the boys went over to visit and came home and told her about it.  It was not something that she or her ex thought was all that important.

 

What had happened now?  Was there another accident?  Was he drinking and driving?  Who else was involved?  More importantly, why was one of the kids calling or why did they know about it and not her?  She was pretty certain that he would have called if he was in the hospital.  Let’s think about it.  Do you really call a college student – your child or not – over a responsible adult?  Well, evidently Lisa’s answer to that question and her ex’s answer are two different things.

 

It was about midnight.  He was in the emergency room with his significant other.  At fifty, do you really call them girlfriend and boyfriend?  The problem was odd.  He had dropped a glass and was trying to clean it up.  The problem was he couldn’t.  Nor could he get up off the floor.  What were they to do?  She insisted, thankfully, that they go immediately to the emergency room of the nearest hospital.

 

Both Lisa nad her ex live in a community where there are two hospitals – a Catholic one that is small but has some specialties and a larger one that has even more specialties.   The Catholic hospital – St Mary’s – was closer to Susan’s house so that is where Randy and Susan headed when he was having problems functioning that night.  St Mary’s is the hospital where all four of Lisa and Randy’s  kids were born and was Lisa’s hospital of preference.  Lisa is still trying to piece together the sequence of events but Randy and Susan ended up at St Mary’s ER.  After a CT scan, it was discovered that Randy, from the previous accident, had a blood clot on his brain.  Why, when stitches on the face were required, the doctor who did them did not think further tests were necessary no one knows.  The problem was that St Mary’s wanted to transfer Randy to the bigger hospital.  They have a neurology unit.  They are the better place to be for this injury.

 

So, into an ambulance.  There was no getting into Susan’s car.  Once Randy had been admitted and was about to be transferred, it was ambulance travel or nothing.  In the back of the ambulance, with Susan following in her car, Randy decided he should notify someone.  At least he had the common sense to not call one of the kids away at school.  He called the one living in town.  Didn’t say much to her but that he was in the hospital and something about internal bleeding.  Well, he evidently wasn’t listening to what the doctor at St Mary’s ER said as a blood clot is not bleeding.

 

The next morning, in almost the same non-chalant manner, Debbie called her mom.  Did Lisa know that Randy was in the hospital?  Something about internal bleeding.  Debbie didn’t know much except that he had been moved from St Mary’s to Kaiser by ambulance.  Lisa asked if there was an accident.  Debbie was sure it was from the earlier one he had been in.  Now, Lisa was worried.  Internal bleeding and an accident that had been a month or more before.  Tht did not sound good at all.  Bleeding for that amount of time could kill a person.  Lisa contacted the hospital.  Nothing could be given to her.  She was not listed as a person on the file and did not have the “number” that could be given to those who can get information on patients.  The hospital could only confirm that Randy was indeed a patient in the neurology unit.

 

Neurology?  Internal bleeding?  The pieces were not fitting together.  Since Randy and Susan do not live together, Lisa called Susan.  They knew each other in passing but were not great friends.  Susan was so happy for the call.  She couldn’t find Lisa’s number.  Randy had his phone at the hospital.  Susan had wanted to call Lisa last night. 

 

“Slow down, “ Lisa said.  “What exactly happened?”

 

“The problem all goes back to the accident,” started Susan.

 

“He has had internal bleeding for over a month?,” Lisa yelled.

 

“Not exactly.  There is no internal bleeding.  Debbie must have gotten some misinformation from her father.  He has a clot, a sizeable clot pressing on his brain.  I am heading in to the hospital shortly so I am there when the doctor explains what needs to be done.”

 

Lisa was concerned but was on her way out the door to work.  “Is there any reason for me to come over for this consult or are you okay?”   Lisa was not sure just how far this relationship had progressed or exactly how assertive Susan could be.  There were a ton of questions that needed to be asked if a doctor was going to try to either remove or drain something near the brain.  Was Susan up for this?

 

Susan assured Lisa she was fine.  Lisa left Susan with her cell number and then called off work.  Lisa decided that a little time on the internet would be best for her and her children.  Best find out what exactly was going on and how it was normally treated and what the treatment would entail.  There was a ten year old to explain it all to after school.

 

Crap!  After school.  There was a tennis match that, in a course of good luck, Randy had already told Sam he wasn’t going to be able to come to.  This, at least, would postpone the information telling for a bit.  Lisa had always known that putting a ten year old in tennis lessons and a league was a strange thing to do but Randy, who never really had an interest in tennis, had insisted.  It was the sport that Sam liked.  He needed to be encouraged.

Leave a comment   |  tags: | posted in Just my Thoughts

1 November 2008

Healthy Lifestyle Journey – Part I

By Nicki

Just  quick preface – I started this post on October 1.  I added to it last on October 31.  I have decided I need to publish it and then work through the rest of the journey as time allows.  Reasoning is two fold:  (1)it will make the post shorter than if I do the entire journey in one post and (2)I want to start getting drafts off the draft list and onto my site.

I have to admit I have never been a skinny person.  Yes, at one point in college, somewhere around the age of 19, I weighed under 120 pounds but that was only for about six months.  As I went on in college, I settled at a fairly healthy weight – although at the high end of normal – of between 135 and 140.  No, I was not particularly active but I was not fat.

This all changed as I left college, entered the real world, married and found myself pregnant with my first child.  I have to guess my pre-weight for this first pregnancy was about 144.  I gained about 30 pounds with the pregnancy.  I delivered a very healthy nine pound boy, full-term and was back in my pre-pregnancy jean and down to 148 three weeks after delivery.  I wasn’t worried about those few extra pounds.  It was the holidays and I always fluctuated a little at that time of year and I was still nursing so didn’t worry much.  Had I known then how many pregnancies my body would go through in the next ten years, I might have reacted differently but I doubt it.

About 18 months after that first child was born, I found out I was pregnant for a second time.  This was going to be a wild ride.  My weight, to start with, had never really gotten back to 140.  I weighed about 150 when I started this pregnancy.  This one was very different, though.  I was getting much bigger, much faster.  My OB/GYN scheduled an ultrasound for me directly from an appointment.  It was my 25th birthday.  It seems a lot of things that are momentous happen on my birthday.  My then husband and I were flying to California later that day to visit family for two weeks.  We had scheduled the flight around the pregnancy, not wanting to fly in the first trimester or the the third.  Well, I certainly got off the plane with a surprise for my mom.

A quick trip over to the hospital for the ultrasound - you have to remember this was 1986 and an ultrasound machine in a doctor’s office was not the norm - and, then, I sat and waited.  The picture was very clear but the technician had been told to tell me to wait while the hospital called the doctor’s office to relay the results to him.  I was having twins.  Wow!  I knew I was huge – at the beginning of my second trimester, I was almost as big as I was full term with my first pregnancy.  I realized how big I was when, at the airport, I had to convince the airline that it was safe for me to fly and, no, I was not going to deliver in the air somewhere.

Little did I know, as I left for two weeks on the west coast, that I would come back to Binghamton and have only three weeks left to work.  Approximately three weeks after my return to work, my doctor put me on disability as he felt not being on my feet – did he forget I had a 2 year old at home? – and having the ability to nap during the day was best for the babies.  He did warn that, at that time in medical circles, most twins were born about five to seven weeks early.  This meant that I should deliver around Christmas time as the twins were due February 4, 1987.

Evidently, my body was made for bearing children – at least at that point in my life.  I carried the twins full term, delivering them on the morning of January 24, 1987.

6 comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Just my Thoughts

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