Election Day 2012

This is what I found outdoors today when I went to the front step to pick up the newspapers.

No bicycling today. It occurs to me that these little episodes could just as well except for a couple of degrees on the thermometer be snow. Soon they will be.

Of course, I had other activities planned for the day anyway.

I waited about 20 minutes after signing in (plenty ID in my personal opinion for the exercise of a constitutional right even if not quite enough ID for swiping my debit card at Rainbow, it is different after all) before inching to the front of the line and receiving a ballot. A few minutes to vote and now for one of the best days of TV of any four year period.

Some bicycle content still seems in order though, so I checked the log.

On Election Day 2008 (November 4)I had 4,028 miles. That was my final total for the year with last ride taken on November 2. Of course, I had a job then which made riding after the end of daylight savings time very unlikely and quite rare. The log doesn't note first snow but it does note cold and wet for Saturday, November 8. Presumably the same conditions were in place for Sunday and by the following weekend we probably had snow cover.

By Election Day 2010 (November 2) I had no job and I actually rode 26 miles after voting that day. That gave me 4,230 miles for the year on the way to 4,386 with a final ride on November 11, gloom on November 12, snow on November 13.

This year I am about two weeks in France away from reaching my annual goal. Final tabulation, however, will not occur until after the fat lady sings (opera reference to confirm my multiple cultural competencies). Of course, most will know that this reference in American popular culture is most often associated with sporting events.

Someone cue Brünnhilde.