Spooky Season... and Halloween, too

 We've been having some fun as fall settles in, giving us glorious warm weather an excuse to be silly. This particular project is the result of me complaining for years - literally - about three scrubby evergreen bushes that were taking up space in one of the window boxes that frame our front porch. I chopped off the limbs and then tried to rip out the remaining stubs but found they were more deeply rooted than I'd expected.

Jeff spent some time with them and a shovel and we finally got them out, then created this seasonal masterpiece, which he used to post a review of a Halloween-themed beer on his beer nerd app. I'm itching to go buy more decorations.

I may not have a little one to entertain, but we have been continuing our Lido Deck gathering at the end of the work day, so it's kind of a home improvement project, right? 

In other fun news, Bob and Kathy Johnson introduced us to pickle ball and we've been playing a bit, both as a couple and me with some girlfriends.

It's a fun game that combines elements of tennis, ping pong, badminton and volleyball. I had thought it was something for old people, but there's an actual professional league. It's hard for me to take professional pickleball seriously (I think they'll need a name change before they Olympic Committee will consider adding it to their roster.)  

We've seen some older as well as younger people out zinging balls around like they're on a mission, so I should probably stop making fun of the name. Everyone I've played has been better than me, and I usually come off the court dripping of sweat and aching in more than a few of my parts. After eight months of isolation and front porch snacking, I also resemble this guy in the photo below.

 I'm hoping to more of a spear than the full dill by the time winter sets in and keeps us off the outdoor courts. 

We're excited to get to have Alison home this weekend. We had all requested an absentee ballots, but hers hasn't arrived, an omission that I'm not going to complain about. 

I'm feeling weird about voting absentee anyway. Indiana is one of only a few states that doesn't make it easy to vote by mail. You have to have one of a few specified excuses, and not wanting to die from or suffer from COVID-19 isn't included. Ali qualifies for the one we all used -- that we'll be away from home on Election Day -- but we don't.  I'm worried that someone will challenge the excuse we chose to use. So, we'll take the excuse to have her home for the weekend and vote early together.

Here's a fun tip I learned at poll worker training if you, like me, changed your mind about voting by mail in Indiana: you must bring your mailed ballot with you to the voting center. There, they will "spoil" the ballot they sent you and send you through the regular process. This will negate any issue with you having been issued two ballots and potentially voting more than once.

I signed up to work the polls after news of a worker shortage due to COVID-19 concerns. The Captain is not entirely pleased that I'm planning to be around a lot of strangers - we've been careful to minimize contact - but there are a ton of precautions that are being taken and I feel an obligation to do something to help.

I've told this story a thousand times, but the first election I remember was when my family home was a polling site. We lived in the country and my dad was the precinct committeeman. In later years, the polling site was moved to the closest volunteer fire department. But that year - it was in our living room, and my mom cooked for the Election Board (the poll workers.)

When the bus came that morning, we had to leave the house through the back door because the front yard and door had been roped off to form the chute through which voters would enter the "poll" AKA our living room. For dinner that night, I handed plates of chicken & dumplings and mashed potatoes through the dining room door to the poll workers.

I couldn't go in - and we couldn't go in the front yard or the front door - because it would have "violated the sanctity of the polling place," according to my dad. I don't know why that phrase and those memories have stuck with me all this time, but they have. It was a fun experience for me. I don't know that my mother enjoyed waiting on the Election Board for 12 hours, but I remember them being happy at their meal plan.

I don't know where I'll be assigned to work this year, or if I even will. Since the call went out, Marion County has a surplus of workers. So we'll see. Regardless, we'll cast our votes together on Saturday and I'll get to have Ali here for a while. She'll probably help push me over the edge to decorate more, too.

We call that a win-win.