1 down, 5 to go

Well, day 1 is over. I'm tired.

(I'm tempted to end the post right there, but I figure the guy who paid for me to come out here wouldn't like that. So I continue).


After enjoying a nice continental breakfast/chat with a lovely elderly couple, I meet up with the rest of the group and we head to the Chabot headquarters. (Side note: Nathan's little plan to scare me did not go as he had planned.)


We get to the campaign headquarters, and it resembles everything that any movie which invokes politics and campaigning suggests it should (Man of the Year, Primary Colors, Dave, Swing Vote, Definitely Maybe...yep, I have seen the last one... -10 guy points). We meet with a few people and then head out to drop fliers off at specific houses. After Father Time figures out how to get to the precinct we are going to, we head off and get to work.

We drop fliers at 700* houses today, spending about 8 total hours doing so (there is a morning run, back to the HQ for lunch, and then an afternoon run). For the most part it goes well and without incident, but I have a few encounters worth mentioning.

(*Rough estimate-author not so great with numbers)

As I am starting to get the hang of what we are doing in the morning run (walk up to house, put flier in door/under doormat, turn, walk away from house. Repeat.), I walk up to a house that has the main door open but screen door closed. As I am leaning over to put one of the fliers under the doormat, I am startled by a thunderous bark. I look up to find myself looking into the face of a not-so-welcoming German Sheppard. Not trusting the screen door, I find out just how fast I am. Usain Bolt has nothing on me.


In the afternoon, an elderly lady comes out to greet me as I am going up to her house. We strike up a conversation and she invites me in for some hot cocoa she has just made. I almost say yes, but realize I have 50 more fliers in my hand, and Lisa "the dictator" Valentine will not approve of this. So I move on.


Later in the afternoon, yet another elderly lady strikes up a conversation with me. As we are talking (she tells me she thinks John McCain will make a wonderful President, and "that Palin...well anyone who tries to say you have no experience after popping out 5 kids clearly has no idea what they are talking about...plus she hunts!" Yep, I love this lady), her husband wanders out. He is sporting calf high tube socks, mid thigh high shorts, a white t-shirt, and bed head at 4 pm in the afternoon. This is the guy I hope to be after I retire one day in the distant future. He is mumbling about something, notices me, and asks "well who the hell is this?" The lady tells her husband I am volunteering for Chabot's campaign, and that I am "just so polite and pleasant to talk to" (POS'ers, you know it's true). So after my exchanges today I've concluded that should I ever decide to run for office in Ohio, I've pretty much got the +65/female vote locked up. Fantastic.

We finish up with the afternoon precincts and head back to the campaign headquarters, thinking they will have more for us to do. They tell us to go home, and who are we to argue? So we're now back at the hotel and getting ready to head to bed. More to come tomorrow.