Saturday morning. Let's see what comes to mind over breakfast. It's about eight, which means I slept in for an extra hour, and life is looking up. Good. Things may be coming together.

It's after breakfast, after the parade, sitting here with the odor of my freshly painted front door that's cracked open to the hallway so the drying paint won't stick to the door jam, wondering if my lungs are being fused into one great gelatinous mass, something cigarettes would take decades to accomplish. I suspect not. Bright sun outside, crisp air. It got down to 39 degrees Fahrenheit last night, brutal weather here near the ocean. I discussed my trip to Portland with MSF at work on Friday and she mentioned that although she'd grown up in Portland, that she'd also spent many of her early years in North Dakota.

She is probably not impressed with my 39 degree feeble attempt at a shitty, um, witty remark. The traffic is terrible here during the commuting hours, housing costs are ludicrous and there are many many more people rubbing elbows in the streets and on the beaches, but it's still the San Francisco Bay and it has its attractions for an old fart in his mid fifties (57 is mid, right? It won't become late fifties until next year, right? Right? Wipe off that smirk and excuse me for a moment while I walk around the apartment and break the mirrors. There, now, that's better. Maybe it's the paint. Oil based. Brown.)

I'm listening to public radio as I'm writing and they're talking about the election (what else?), but they're talking about it in calm and measured tones, which is original, the Republican and Democrat on the show are congressmen, but congressmen nobody quotes because they don't say anything dramatic enough to make the nightly news. They both agree on some points: If there were a recount of the votes in Florida, the whole state or in the counties Gore is talking about, Gore would win. They also agree, interestingly, that if this were not a Presidential election with its special deadlines, but any other Florida statewide or local election, that recounts would be conducted. They've run into these problems before and Florida law is very specific: Recount. This does not say there will be a recount, but only that it will be clear when this is over that any sort of recount, properly conducted, state wide or just in the contested counties, would favor Gore and he would win the election.

This should make for an interesting government if Bush becomes the President, and I am assuming right now that he most likely will become the President. Gird thee, sinners, for the contest has come! Gore or Bush, there's going to be a fight! But then I've lost all of you with this now, haven't I.

Understand that my memory of Republicans starts with Richard Nixon and culminates with the tight lipped, skinny tie boys who wanted at all costs to impeach Clinton. I share a number of Republican attitudes and I am probably more a Libertarian than a Democrat or a Republican. I'm fairly radical on First Amendment issues, I believe in the right to express any opinion, dirty, stupid or hateful. The antidote for words is more words.

But I'm also less interested in making it overly hard to own guns. Useless opinion here in civilized company. I remember times during the war when the police were not always your friend, when long hair meant you had to watch your ass, particularly if you wandered outside your own territory. They kept a certain cold eyed distance if only because they never knew, never really knew if you might not be packing and they had to be careful about just willy nilly knocking your head around. Not something you think about anymore, I guess, when you're white with short hair and fifty-seven.

I'm also in favor of government subsidized prescription drugs. So I voted for Gore. Sue me. We got rid of Nixon, they came back with Reagan. We nailed Bush with Clinton and then Clinton nailed Clinton with Clinton. Like shooting yourself in the foot or more accurately your dick with your Second Amendment fully automatic self cleaning fits in the hand of even the smallest child, but still maintains its accuracy, 9mm golden Glockenspiel 100, $99.00 tax included.

It's Sunday morning, now, early. Time to go shopping.