Averbuch.net

(By the way, I have today off from work due to President’s Day… hence the goal of getting a couple of blog posts in)

In my last post, I mentioned how nice it was for neighbors to get together and talk. There’s actually been a few opportunities for this recently, and it’s one of the main reasons why I am so ecstatic moving where we did:

1. The leaf-blower discussion
2. Breaking out the bbq due to the good weather last night (hint: if you make a dry rub mix, use a lot less salt than I did, especially on kosher/salted meat), our next door neighbor and his family came out to talk to us about the ‘hood and the changeover once the weather changes.
3. Caucusing 2 weekends ago.

Caucusing (it was the first time either Joelle or I had participated), was something I was very much looking forward to (especially since the Washington Primary doesn’t count at all for Democrats this go-round). While I am still not sure I buy the full premise of the caucus (it does seem to disenfranchise voters who work during those hours), I do have to argue in favor of them just for the mass community spirit it brings out in everyone.

What I liked:

1. We met at the middle school across the street from us (across the park across the street from us to be specific).
2. Walking over there, we were amazed – the line was down the street, around the block. Democrats were everywhere!
3. Turns out, about 8 different precincts voted in our same building, and it was actually really nice to see a bunch of people we knew already hanging out and waiting in line (and in some cases, registering voters and running their local precinct).
4. People were excited to argue politics.
5. Parents brought their kids to experience politics in action.

What I would have liked to see changed:

1. Our particular precinct wasn’t particularly well run; others in the same room were having much better conversations and new what was going on.
2. No one there knew that the King County Convention had received a date change. I wish someone would have – both Joelle and I would have been delegates!

And for the record, our precinct was 69-16 in favor of Obama.