Presidential Election

With only four days to go, it seems that Obama has the election sewn up.  There have been a few polls that indicate tightening, but then again the media has to have something to talk about.  The story since the financial crisis hit has been that Obama has won, and they need the story to change.

Despite the faux drama, I think it will be an early night Tuesday.  The polls generally show Obama with a 5+ point national lead.  Races often tighten at the end, except when they don’t.  I’m thinking of the Carter/Reagan election of 1980, when pollsters were saying it would be close, and it wasn’t.   Given Obama’s superior turn-out-the-vote operation, he will probably exceed the polling numbers.  I think it will be a 7-point or slightly larger margin, with Obama winning by close to 100 electoral votes.

Personally I didn’t care very much until the past few weeks.  But McCain’s performance has been erratic and at times revolting, and the choice of Sarah Palin is completely disqualifying, so I will be voting for Obama while keeping my fingers crossed for the next four years.  Obama is clearly smart, disciplined and pragmatic. He surrounds himself with highly competent people and gets the best out of them.  If the way he has run his campaign is any indication, and I think it is, then the sort of rampant incompetence that has been the hallmark of the Bush administration will come to an end.  We will see.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting here trying to decide how late I need to stay to avoid traffic during what will probably be the worst rush hour of the year in Atlanta.  Halloween is a nightmare every year, and this year it’ll probably be even worse, since it’s on a Friday.

One Freaky Incident

Last night as I drove up to my building I noticed there were two police cruisers and an ambulance parked out front on Glen Iris Drive.  I didn’t think much of it, and pulled into the parking garage.  By the time I’d wound my way up to the fifth floor of the deck it had left my consciousness completely.

As I came into the building I immediately noticed that there were several cops down at my end of the long hall.  I got closer and it was clear they were clustered around my door, along with the EMT’s and a couple of my neighbors.  They looked like they were about to kick the door down.

I has a sick feeling in my stomach as I asked what was going on.  Then I saw it: a large pool of blood, maybe three square feet of it, oozing from under my door.   It was a scene straight out of a cheap horror film.

I gave the cops my keys and they opened my door.  My dog reacted by barking so they didn’t want to go in.  They let me go in, though, and I calmed her down.  It turns out that the blood was hers.  She had a treatment for heartworms the previous day and had reacted badly.  The blood was actually bloody diarhea.  Since she wasn’t really eating or drinking it was more blood than anything else, actually, and there was a lot of it.   A couple more large pools, deep red and syrupy thick, and several smaller ones were inside, with blood drops scattered all around and even on the walls.

I took Heidi to the emergency vet and they put her on fluids and various drugs, and she’s there still.  It looks like she’ll be ok, but she won’t come home until she’s eating and able to keep food down.  This whole thing is costing me a fortune.

Believe me, you haven’t lived until you’ve come home to find cops about to storm your condo with a pool of blood oozing from under the door.