The Rock Wall

It’s 2:12 on Tuesday afternoon and I just have three tasks left for today: I have to go vote as soon as Kimball gets back to the office, I get to chat with you and I have to get the election grid ready for the election results.

I’ve voted in every election since we moved back to Missouri in 1978. I’ve written most of the Rock Walls since July 1, 1979. Kimball had to take over for me when I was in a coma for 20 days. When I was in the nursing home for a week, I surprised some folks when I asked for my laptop and wrote my column after midnight in the dining room. I don’t have a clue what to chat with you about this week. The election will be over by the time you read this. I don’t have a crystal ball so I can’t guess what to say about the election that hasn’t already been said so many ways ad nausea.

Kyle Vickers joined Kimball and me for lunch. As usual, we kept the conversation away from politics as we all recognize full well there is no hope of converting any of us.

I occasionally share a quip from Walt Smith, a former owner of the Sun, who we suspected was a Democrat as we are sure Kyle is, but had his own way of expressing himself. I told Kyle a while back that Walt talked about some of his acquaintances who “were Democrats to the nutty stage.” Kyle just laughed.

–  We have now seen a whole roll of sonogram shots of Baby Long. Davis and Erica tell me it’s a girl. I just took their word. I looked at the little darlin’s face and that’s what Kimball said she did. Her arms are so tiny which is what you’d expect at 20 weeks. She has a fat little face. They said she is a real acrobat – all over her confined space. Sometime around March 17 her pituitary gland will tell Momma it’s time to kick her out into the harsh world, if I remember correctly from my Zoology class.

– It is now 3:23 p.m. Kimball and I just returned from voting at City Hall. We show our voter identification but the election judges seem to know us. One greeted me, as she did last time, with “Here’s trouble.” When I fed my ballot to the machine, the counter on it said 618. I asked if voter turnout was heavy and one of the judges said it was.

– Now I can complain. I usually don’t but I have poetic license because I voted. So do you.

-It is now 6:18 p.m. Just had a Tuesday surprise when Davis’ studio computer that he uses to work photos wouldn’t connect with the server. We tried everything we and our tech/friend Dewey could think of. Nothing worked.

We tried the cable out of the studio computer on Gwen’s subscription computer. Worked fine. Tried her Ethernet cable on the studio computer. Nothing. Davis switched out hard drives into another G5 chassis. Still it would not connect on what we knew was a good Ethernet cable. I pulled the cable out of a five-place multiplier and plugged it directly into the computer. Worked. Now I wonder if the five-place connector was the problem all along. It worked when we connected Gwen’s computer. Oh, well, as Dewey said, “We got it working.”

– OK, Gotta get busy on the election grid a few hours later than I intended. Hope you voted. KL