Something caught my eye when I walked by the empty Raleigh Convention Center last night: every escalator in the place was chugging along though there was no one in the building.
What a bunch of wasted electricity! These are hefty machines and they’re left running? And though it would be an improvement if someone would come by and manually shut them off, what would be even better would be to give the escalators the ability to turn themselves on when needed.
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When I contracted with GSK in the early days of the Bush administration, one of the things I found puzzling was the dual U.S. headquarters GSK maintained: on here in RTP and one in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was like a snake with two heads or something.
Well, the N&O says that now RTP will be the only headquarters. Yet there’s this one interesting tidbit:
Spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne says that’s meant to eliminate confusion. Rhyne says there are currently no plans to cut jobs or close offices in Philadelphia.
No job cuts? Seriously? KOP will no longer be a headquarters but nothing is really changing? Or will the folks supposedly doing HQ jobs be given new jobs?
Sometimes I just can’t figure GSK out.
On the way in to work I heard a car horn and turned to see a jubliant African-American woman spontaneously shouting “Obama! Obama!” through her open windows. I couldn’t help but laugh.
What an amazing night.
No matter which candidates you supported in yesterday’s elections, I think you’ll agree that the Wake County Board of Elections did an outstanding job managing the election. Early voting was super-easy and wildly successful, voting machines worked well, ballots were easy to understand and counted fairly, and poll workers knew their jobs and performed those jobs efficiently. Rarely did I see anyone waiting more than 5 to 10 minutes at the polling places I visited. Even the Board of Election’s post-election results webpages, farmed out to SOE Software, easily handled the load.
Managing a presidential election is a mammoth project but from what I can see Wake County pulled it off flawlessly. Kudos to all the poll workers who put in long hours to make voting so effortless!
Wow. I had the most amazing dream last night.
Its been a long day, but it had a happy ending (except for my friend Al Swanstrom, who sadly lost in a squeaker). I’m beat and the blogging will have to wait but tomorrow will sure feel like a new day in more ways than one.
I’m in the eye of the election storm right now. Just got back from the Apex polling place where I’ve been campaigning for Al Swanstrom since 6:30. Things went well except for the bone-chilling drizzle. I came prepared for that with a raincoat and an umbrella, though I didn’t use either of them. More of that in a minute.
The polling place was at the Fairview Rural Fire Department station on Ten-Ten Road. When I arrived at 6:30 there were cars lining both sides of the road. I parked about a quarter-mile away as that was the closest parking place. When I got there there were perhaps a hundred people already waiting inside.
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I’ve taken tomorrow off to campaign for a few good candidates. I’ll be in Apex tomorrow working as a poll greeter for Al Swanstrom (NC House). Then in the afternoon I’ll be in Raleigh’s Five Points campaigning for Josh Stein (NC Senate) and Grier Martin (NC House). I hope to wrap up the day celebrating victory but I won’t know that until the evening.
Believe it or not, I’ll be so happy all this is over, even if its just a little while. Its high time to get on with other things!
The N&O talked to some campaign supporters for a story in Sunday’s paper. I found this one totally laughable:
[Christine DiPietro, the 21-year-old head of the N.C. State student group Students for McCain,] said that after sitting in class next to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan wars, she considered which candidate would make the best commander in chief.
“I feel John McCain is the best man for that job,” she said.
Amazing. Sitting next to actual veterans has given DiPietro special insight into the mind of veterans. It must work like osmosis or something. Hey, I sat next to a brain surgeon on a plane once. Now I can perform brain surgery!
Maybe DiPietro should venture outside of class every once in a while. Then maybe she’d find out that our troops support Obama over McCain by a six-to-one margin in donations. And if that’s not enough insight into the military life for her, maybe DiPietro could take a four-year hiatus from class and sign up herself. No osmosis needed!
She can support McCain all she wants but she should find a reason other than that’s what she thinks veterans want.
Kelly took the kids up to visit her parents this weekend. I stayed around to get a few things done and take care of our new dog, Rocket .. er, Rocky. He’s been keeping me company and snores below me at this moment as I sit on the couch. Rocky’s been getting lots of exercise this weekend, and by extension so have I.
I took him on his first visit to a Raleigh greenway yesterday, though he opted to drag me along for most of it. I then let him hang out in the backyard while I spread some mulch around in our front flowerbeds (it was a picture-perfect fall day). I felt like rewarding Rocky for his patience so we hopped into the car again for a trip to the dog park. He and I were both ready for bed around 9 PM, though I had to change almost 600 clocks to standard time before going to bed.
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