The news tells me that we're experiencing the worst flooding we've had since 1990 here in Seattle. One entrance to the parking garage at the airport has been flooded and can't be used, and farmers are being encouraged to move their livestock to higher ground. Hunters are missing after their truck was lost in a flooded river. We're expecting a higher-than-normal tide tomorrow as well.
It's all a bit surreal to me since I haven't left the house since Saturday, before the storm began. My driveway isn't flooded at the moment, even though it normally is when we get a lot of rain.
Fortunately I live way up on a bluff, or whatever you would call it. There's a bay just outside my neighborhood, but to get into the neighborhood you have to go up a very steep and winding hill, and all the houses are set up on this large hill. There's little chance our house will be flooded. Sometimes houses in this area will get flooded by runoff, but there's no way the Puget Sound or my local bay will rise up and engulf our houses.
There are multi-million dollar homes about a mile from my house, situated on a spit sticking out into the bay. This I don't understand. I bet the crawlspaces of all of those homes are taking on water.
In other news, I have voted. My county, along with the vast majorities of counties in the state of Washington, has gone to all-mail voting. This means I have to fill out my ballot, put a stamp on it, put it in my mailbox, and pray that it gets to the polling place. Alternatively I can wait till tomorrow and then take it to the local ballot drop-off location, which is three times farther away from my house than my original polling place before we went to all-mail voting.
I don't know why it bothers me so much, but I don't like the idea of all-mail voting. I want to go to a polling place and vote. There is something about standing in line (although I've never waited very long), being handed your ballot, and going to your secrecy booth and voting that just feels right. I feel like I am participating fully in the election process, something my forefathers secured for me 200+ years ago, and which my foremothers fought for me in 1920. I don't feel like I have really voted when I sit on my couch and fill out my ballot, only to drop it into the nearest mailbox.
A lot of people say they like the all-mail voting because they don't like spending too much time in the booth trying to figure out whom to vote for. That's why Washington state gives out voter pamphlets. You're supposed to mark who you want to vote for in this booklet, and then bring it to the polling place with you. That way you can simply transfer your answers to your ballot without taking up time, if that's what you're concerned about. But I figure you should be able to take as much time as you need to in your booth.
Voting was rather easy this time around. Most of the races that I had to vote for had incumbents running unopposed, so I just re-elected them. The few races that included multiple parties I had already made up my mind on. The only thing I really had to look up in the pamphlet were the initiatives on the ballot, as well as a few very small races, like whom to vote for in the race for Public Utilities Commissioner.
I'll be glad when the election ads are off the tv. That's one thing I have really enjoyed about having the DVR. Now I just fast-forward through the darn things.
Elections are so frustrating. None of the people running for office really want to tell you what their platform is. They tell you they're for change in Washington, DC, that they want to lower taxes, that they want to make sure Washington students are getting the proper education. Like who's going to argue with that?? Both the Republicans and the Democrats are running on such bland platforms. Then they come out with election ads that simply sling mud on the other candidate. One ad here in Washington actually takes still footage of a candidate and digitally throws mud onto her, while accusing her of being the mud-slinger.
It just all hurts my brain.
So today I shall go to the post office to drop off my ballot, and then try to round up animals two by two. Wish me luck.