Take heart, fellow persons disgusted with Bush (FPDB?). I think Kerry has a better shot than the media is letting on. And that’s not just because he was my senator for a very long time before I moved out here.

For one thing, Kerry is a total operator. Bush stole the 2000 election, and no Massachusetts politician is going to put up with the kind of bullshit he pulled–they’ve seen it all. When Kerry ran for Lieutenant Governor (pronounced “Lite Guv”) of Massachusetts 20+ years ago, he was so crafty with moving his delegates around for each round of voting, splitting voting groups up–it was truly a thing to behold. He got into state office by pure clever politics. Bush is seriously underestimating him.

For another, after what happened in Florida in 2000, African American voters who haven’t been registered or who haven’t voted much are stepping up in droves–especially women–and when women vote, Democrats win. There is no way to track this kind of thing before the election, but I think the turnout will be quite significant. There is plenty for this group, particularly in Florida, to be bent out of shape about–and I join them in this bending. I’m sure nobody there has forgotten the mass disenfranchisement of African American voters in 2000, and who accomplished most of it.

Finally, the polls that have Bush and Kerry neck-and-neck are telephone polls. They don’t reach folks who only have cell phones. At all. Who only has cell phones? Youngsters. Who tend to vote Democrat. I think things are a bit more in favor of Kerry than the media would have us believe.

I’ll tell you what else: Colorado is a battleground state. There are plenty of Bush supporters here, yes. Colorado has been a Republican state most of the time. However, Kerry signage currently outnumbers Bush signage by about 3-1. People are unabashedly announcing their support, and likely swaying those who are on the fence a bit at a time. That’s unusual for a state where often candidates don’t even announce their own political parties in their own campaign literature. Something special is happening here, and I would imagine, in other battleground states.

Also, Colorado is entertaining an amendment to split its 9 electoral college votes. It’s currently winner-take-all. Whichever candidate gets the most popular votes gets all 9 electoral votes. However, the decision voters make about this issue will apply retroactively to this election, and folks seem to favor it. So in this close election, there will likely be a 5/4 split. Even if Bush wins the popular vote here, he won’t get 9 electoral votes if it passes; he will likely only get 5 at most.

Certainly, it could be very deep wishful thinking on my part–I want that f*cker OUT of my White House!–but there are a lot of concrete reasons to be hopeful.

So I planted these little gourd seedlings in the spring, and watched as the vines grew these weirdass gourds I didn’t recognize. They weren’t little or bumpy or brightly colored. They were big and pale green (I couldn’t tell if they were ripe or not because I had no idea what color they were supposed to be when they were done), kinda pear-shaped but with long necks. Some of them became sort of mottled green; others were more uniform. One got to be a good 10″ in circumference and the “neck” on it was quite bulbous. It was sort of like a light green pumpkin on top of a bigger light green pumpkin, or maybe a nuclear mutant pear.

Today, though, I got a book in the mail from my mom, who has been sending me autumn gifts this week: real cider, autumn leaves, a new flannel nightgown… all stuff I miss. There in the ident-a-gourd section in the back of the book (which also contained all kinds of recipes for pumpkins and squashes–whoo-hoo!) were pictures of my weirdass gourds. This not only told me what the hell they were–bottle gourds–but also that they were probably pretty done doing whatever they were going to do on the vine. They apparently stay light green. So I harvested them. There’s one more little one I’m going to let grow until the first hard frost (soon, I’m sure), but we’ve got 7 bottle gourds in the laundry room right now. I’m going to mail a few to friends and relations, and then maybe make art or implements with the rest.