Election eve, election morning in Wasilla - my search for a single Scott McAdams sign among a plethora of Joe Millers; sadly, the day begins very badly for someone

As election eve electioneering in Wasilla is aimed primarily at motorists driving by in cars, I decided that I would shoot my pictures of Wasilla electioneering entirely from the car. I would do it at dusk, and in the early AM, before dawn, to match the times when commuters would be pouring back into and leaving the valley to get back and forth from jobs in Anchorage.

I actually intended to start a little bit earlier than I did, but just as I was getting ready to go, Jimmy, my good black cat, did something on my desk that caused my computer screen to suddenly go black, then light back up just long enough for me to see error messages flashing all over the place as hard-drive icons mysteriously disappeared. Then the screen went dark again.

I could not get the monitor to come back up, so I had to shut everything down and start over again. It took 15 or 20 minutes, but finally my screen came back up, all my hard drives signed back on and so I got in the car and drove towards downtown Wasilla - if there is any place in Wasilla that can accurately be described as, "downtown."

I don't think there is - but there is an often frenetically busy area, where the Parks Highway runs through the midst of malls, stores, kiosks, fast food joints and various other enterprises, so that is what I refer to when I speak of "downtown Wasilla."

Here I am, on Lucille Street, headed towards downtown Wasilla, at dusk.

Then I was on the highway and it was busy. I had to stop at a red light, alongside this truck. 

I had hoped to get a red light at this corner, because I knew that is where the heaviest action would be, but I didn't. It was green. Up ahead, I saw a preponderance of Joe Miller signs. That's pretty much how it is in Wasilla - lots of Joe Miller signs.

In fact, it looked to me like Joe Miller had this corner all to himself... but wait... there in the shadows... the dark sign that hardly anyone can see or read... Harry Crawford! The Democratic candidate up against Don Young for the House!

This has been both a noisy and a quiet election. There has been so much noise surrounding the Senatorial race that all the other contests have seemed quiet, almost like they weren't happening.

It is an unusual thing to describe any race that Don Young is in as quiet, but, the House race has been pretty quiet.

And so has the race for Governor. These other races have been so quiet that has been a challenge for House, Gubernatorial, and, for hell's sake - local - candidates to capture the people's attention with everyone focused on McAdams........... Murkowski and ........................................................................................................................................................................................ Miller.

(Listed in order of my personal preference)

It's a fact, though, that here in Wasilla, Joe Miller dominates. Don't ask me why. 

As far as I can recall, one person was denied liberty in this election: Tony Hopfinger. 

And yet somehow, we must all live together. As Jon Stewart said, we build and share the same roads, where we all yield to each other in our turn. We do this everyday.

These are my neighbors. I disagree with them profoundly and believe that if they prove to be successful today, we, they and I, will all pay the price together.

Despite all that, we've all got to get along and not shoot each other.

In Alaska, we pretty much all have guns, you know - conservatives and liberals alike.

And, despite all the scare whipped up by those who would cynically use the fears of others for their political advantage, nobody in the Obama administration has made the slightest effort to take our guns away.

And we all fly the same flag. 

This had nothing to do with the electioneering. The officer was pursuing a speeder. I was not speeding. I was sitting at a red light, waiting for it to change so that I could turn left.

Some say that she is a moderate and that we should vote for her to stop Joe Miller. Once, I did see her as a moderate and I liked her. And I still like her. I have met her a few times and talked to her and she is a very likable person.

But I'm voting for Scott McAdams.

For one thing, I invested a great deal of faith and money in a health insurance company that turned out to be opposed to my health care. A couple of years ago, my doctor found some conditions in me that, if not watched closely, could easily turn to cancer and kill me. To insure that this would not happen, I was told that I would need to have certain procedures done every year.

If I could do this, then I should be okay.

And what did my insurance company do? They jacked up my rates and jacked up my rates until I could no longer pay them. Now I have no insurance but I do have preexisting conditions. The only thing that I can do is hope that I soon make a big financial score and can pay for these procedures out of pocket - as I am a year behind right now - or I can just hang on and hope that I make it okay without these procedures for another four years, until the Health Care bill kicks fully in.

Yet, she opposed that bill, and despite the lies that she accurately accuses Joe Miller of telling about her, tried to repeal it. She has promised to try again, should she win. 

She has actively voted against my health care - potentially against my life. In her promise to try again, she has made it clear that she would take even my four-year hope away from me.

I have many friends whom I love and respect who are voting for her - some of them just to stop Joe Miller.

But I am voting for my life - and the lives of others who either can't get health insurance or find that their insurance companies oppose their health care. 

Only Scott McAdams has said he would work with the basic strengths of the bill, tweak out the weaknesses, and strive to improve, not to kill, weaken, or defund, it.

I will vote for Scott McAdams. I will vote for my life.

And for those who protest "higher taxes" - even though the health care bill is primarily a private industry plan, consider this:

Over the course of the time that I carried my insurance, I spent somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000 in premiums. I got very little back for that. I was prescribed medications for various things - but my insurance company never bought me a single pill. I spent hundreds of dollars a month, out of pocket. They never covered any routine care, and, besides what I paid them, I paid tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket for the medical care that my insurance always found a way to deny me.

What if, instead of into the pockets of an insurance company that saw my health care only as obstacle to their profits, I had paid that money, even as a tax, into a federal insurance plan that would actually cover my health care, help me, and when problems arise, be there for me, rather than to seek to find a way not to pay and even to force me out?

Right now, our health insurance practices are absurd. Up until you qualify for Medicare, insurance companies - perhaps not all, but certainly those such as mine - keep looking for ways to deny you help. If you hang on and survive in good health until you are 65, then they will likely pocket the money that you spent with them and then turn you over to Medicare, where a whole new set of tax dollars will now have to pay up your care.

Wouldn't it be better to have all the premiums that you spent over the decades, either out of your own pocket or your employer's, to be there for your care health care, once you turn 65, rather then to go to enrich CEO's and shareholders who never cared about you, anyway?

So I will vote for Scott McAdams.

But where are his signs?

I did not see a single one.

Just a flood of Joe Miller, and a spattering of Lisa Murkowski.

Well, enough of that. I did not mean to get carried away like that. I did not mean to politic. I was just going to matter-of-factly say: here are the signs, vote as you will. My anger got the best of me. Now, I will let readers enjoy looking at the signs.

I get a chuckle out of this one.

So that was last night. This is this morning. I decided that on election morning, I would have breakfast at Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant, then shoot a few more election day pictures from the car.

Here I am, at Family, where, as seen in their reflection upon the window, Connie takes an order.

As I sat there eating and sipping, a big number of emergency vehicles came by, lights flashing, sirens whining but quickly going silent. I knew that the accident had to be close by, that someone's day had gotten off to a bad start.

A very bad start. It happened very close to where I had been eating. I am back in my car, now, but still in the parking lot in front of Family Restaurant.

A terrible start. I hope not as terrible as it looks.

I hope they found success in their mission.

Just down the road, sign wavers had returned - two, at least. Both for Joe Miller. It was about 8:30 AM. Maybe other sign wavers were just waiting for daylight.

Please note the "Luv" charge on the one sign. That's the thing. It is a lie. Lisa Murkowski stood as a thorn in Obama's side. She showed him no love at all.

But you know what? When it comes to so much of campaigning, and certainly with this campaign, truth means nothing. It is an alien concept.

Wait... what is that just beyond them... just beyond the Harry Crawford sign? Is it a Scott McAdams sign?

I turn around in the Target parking lot, so I can go back and have a better look.

Yes, it is! It is a Scott McAdams sign!

I still didn't see any for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ethan Berkowitz or his running mate, my friend of three decades, Diane Benson.

I love this valley, I love Wasilla, but, sometimes, it can feel like a very lonely place.

Now I am driving down Lucille Street, headed back home. The 9:00 AM hour is drawing nigh.

I pass by Metro Cafe, where people, Republican, Democrat, Independent and indifferent, are getting their morning coffee.

I will stop by this afternoon.

I could have pulled in to vote, but I will wait until later in the day. Then I will come back here to Tanaina Elementary with Margie and we will cast our ballots.

I continue on, towards home, and see a boy waiting for a school bus.

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Where were the trick-or-treators? Halloween just ain't what it used to be... Supergirl sheds a tear

Each year, it gets a little worse. Last year, maybe a dozen trick-or-treators showed up. This year - two, both of them pretty big. The first looked to be a boy about 12 or 13 and he came with his mother. No one else could be seen on the street. Well, his mother said, it's pretty cold. That probably explains it.

Cold? The temperature was in the 20's F - and that's above zero.

Hell. When our kids were small, the streets were crawling with trick-or-treators, even on sub-zero Holloweens. Gusts of deep, white, breath would pour out through mouth, nose, and eye openings on frost-encased masks - but they were there, the trick-or-treators, not giving a damn about the weather, knocking on doors, scarfing up their candy.

Part of it just may be the new subdivisions, such as Serendipity, the ones that have destroyed the woods in which we used to frolic. These are filled with huge, expensive, homes that appear to be inhabited by rich people. Last year, we drove by Serendipity and saw a fair number of trick-or-treators on their streets, whereas ours were all but empty.

So maybe that's where the trick-or-treatos have gone - those still brave enough to venture out - to the rich people's homes.

So now we have all this damn candy left over - not only what's in this tray, but the bags that were waiting to be dumped in once these were given away.

The problem is, I will probably eat it.

As you can see, it all seems to have chocolate in it.

So I will be eating it.

No one will be able to stop me.

I had better eat it fast so that we can be rid of it and I won't be tempted by it later on.

Earlier, Melanie and Charlie had appeared and the three of us went out to get a coffee. Metro is closed on Sundays, so we wound up at the hut on the corner of Seldon and Fishhook.

I pulled up to the drivethrough window, we placed our orders and then I looked through to the car sitting at the opposite window and there I saw Superman.

I could not believe it! I had forgotten my camera. All I had was my iPhone and the lens was too wide to get close to Superman. Charlie offered to let me borrow his camera.

So I asked the barista if she would tell Superman and his mom that I would like to get a picture for my blog.

The mom said yes, but noted that there were two more in the back seat and they should be in the picture, too.

Then, two Supergirls came bounding over the seat into the front.

The problem was, I could not see all of their "super" insignias. As we were trying to figure this out, the photographer on one side of the hut and the Superman/girls on the other, the smallest Supergirl got crowded out, so that she could not be seen at all.

She began to cry. Superman and big Supergirl did what they could to comfort her.

And such was Halloween, 2010, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.

And today is the day before the big election. Today, I expect there to be many people in costume, right here on the streets of Wasilla. Later, I will go out and see what I can see.

I might add that there is great deal of debate here in Alaska as to whether people should vote their conscience or "be pragamatic" and vote not for our highest hopes but rather against our worst fears. 

I say, we should vote our conscience. This would also be pragmatic, I think, because if enough people were to step beyond their worst fears and vote their conscience, the election would turn out ok.