Admittedly, I don’t have a lot to say today, but since I’ll be away for the next week and a half, it seemed like I should put something out here for anyone that might happen to read it. So I’ll provide a potpourri for you, a few quick thoughts that may have no connection to each other at all.

I voted on Monday. You may have heard that there were big crowds at polling places around Florida as early voting began. I went in the early afternoon, and it was busy, but there was no wait. I like the concept of voting before Election Day, but a couple of things about it make me wonder.

First, it allows dead people to vote, something that may not have happened since 1960 in Chicago. It’s likely that some percentage of those who vote early will not live until Election Day, but their votes will count anyway. Of course, the same would be true of people casting absentee ballots. I wonder which candidate is leading in the deceased category.

Second, we are expecting both presidential candidates to spend a lot of time, money, and energy in Florida during the next two weeks, as this is again likely to be a pivotal state. But if a large percentage of the electorate has already voted by, say, next Monday, the candidates might decide that the important votes have been cast, and direct their attention elsewhere. Well, it’s a possibility anyway …

Early tomorrow morning, I’m on a flight to Brazil. The first part of our trip is in Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon. There’s a Rotary Youth Exchange conference there, and during our time in that region, we will have a night at a resort built in the Amazon River treetops. Check out www.ariautowers.com - it looks like an amazing place. The second half of our trip will be with friends in the coastal city of Salvador. Eu acho que esta viagem vai ser muito divertida!

So, while we’re away, we’re going to miss the entire World Series. Quite a story line this year, with the Tampa Bay Rays doing the best imitation I’ve ever seen of the 1969 New York Mets. I’d like to see them win it all, and they just might do it. I’ll have to follow the progress of the Series on line, because I doubt that Brazilian TV will be carrying it.

Since I won’t be blogging during the next ten days, might I suggest some other reading? Our exchange students send in journals on a regular basis, Florida teens telling about their adventures overseas, and foreign kids talking about life in Florida. Some of the journals are really outstanding, and new ones arrive almost every day. Check it out at www.ryeflorida.org.

That’s it for today. Wish us “boa viagem!”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am and is filed under Al. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.