The Turning, Churning Tide
2006-11-09, 15:20

Oh, what a good day was yesterday! I really feel like America woke up, after hitting the snooze bar in '04. The Year of the Fire Dog has really been doing its job, I must say. Let's hope that the effect lingers into the next Congress, so that serious truths can get out. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said, "The best disinfectant is sunlight."

And it's not just that the House and, most likely, the Senate have been lost by the Republicans (as opposed to being won by the Democrats, which is less the case), it's that there's a general wave of sensibility sweeping the country (if you manage to ignore the seven states that passed gay marriage bans, that is), or at least Ohio: we (and Kansas) worked at cleaning out anti-science members out of their state school boards; a majority of school levies passed; the smoking ban issues played out sensibly; we even locally passed a levies for the county park system and the county home (which faced closing down without it). Yay. My only hope is that all this is not just a temporary lashing out by an otherwise docile public. After all, we still have Mr. Asleep At The Wheel himself, Ralph Regula, in office. Anyway, here's to swift, sensible change and a reckoning for the injustices done over the last six years.

Oh, and a fond farewell to Rummy - you've done a heck of a job. You go ahead and keep looking for those things you don't know that you don't know (click) - just do it somewhere else, please.

Now, I have no illusions that the Bush legacy is yet through potentially doing more serious damage, or that our upcoming Democratic Congress will be any more effective (or ineffective) than the current. But at least there's some hope now, and that's more than we've had since the end of 2000. Maybe one day, we'll get that America I remembered the other day back for at least a little while.

In other news, we bought a new washing machine last night. It's one o' them new-fangled high efficiency front loaders the kids have all been talkin' about. I went to five different stores in Fairlawn before finding the one we got at Lowe's, and it started to feel like the holidays, what with all the shopping and Christmas trees around and all. Sick and sad, I know - but never underestimate the power of cool air and strip malls.

I sometimes wonder whether I don't have a sixth sense about physical dimensions, because the washer I bought, in box, honestly just barely fit through the door to our basement. Granted, they have doorframes in mind when they design these things (unlike couches), but our basement doorframe is a little smaller than the average door, it being an older house and all. Maybe it's all the practice I've had moving over the last 15 or so years.

Anyway, I managed to get the thing properly installed and working last night and, because it came with a sample pack of detergent, we got to send a load through. I sat there like a kid with a new toy, watching it do its thing, watching the clothes tumble through the thick door. It's so damn quiet it was almost comical. After the water was sprayed in, there was no sloshing or churning, just a casual, near-silent tumbling. Truly, we had leapt into the new century with this device. If only I could leap into this century with my computer, too.

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