Elections

The last week or so was very busy for me. I did a bit of local sightseeing. The first place that I went to was the Lincoln Depot. Abraham Lincoln's final speech to the people of Springfield was given here. The next time this town would see Abe would be in a casket, delivered to this same train station. The depot's website is very weak, and it is generally the ugly duckling of the area's Lincoln attractions. It is owned by the nearby State Journal Register, which might account for it's low-budget presentation. It was worth the quick visit, despite its shortcomings.

I made another visit to the Dana-Thomas House. Frank Lloyd Wright is the most famous American architect of all time, and one of his masterpieces is sitting right next to the YMCA that I used to hang out at. It really is an excellent place. It is tempting to underestimate a house that I have driven by and ignored so many times, but it is a real gem. I definitely recommend it. I've probably been there five times now, and I still enjoyed this latest time very much. The design is so excellent that at it times things seem very new rather than very old. Of particular interest is a personal bowling lane situated in the basement. There is even some occasional Japanese influence hiding in the house, which is of particular interest to me. He even designed a few structures that were built in Japan. What a guy.

I took Angelica to the St. Louis airport on Monday, and I've been doing alot of running around getting her ready to go home. We still don't know her visa results, so who knows if she is even going to come back here. Luckily I still have my trip to Colombia to look forward to, or that would have been a much more depressing drive home.

Today has been pretty slow in comparison. I voted in Springfield's local elections today. I didn't really have to do much soul searching this time. My main local concerns are few. I think that the smoking ban needs to stay in place. The write-in candidate for mayor, Mario Ingoglia, seemed to be running on an interesting working man, populist kind of campaign. Once I heard him say that he wanted to get rid of Springfield's smoking ban, though, I stopped listening. True, it might bring a few more jobs, but the big increases wouldn't be in the waitress or bartender positions. I think they the big increase in jobs that smoking brings is all the nurses needed to bring jell-o to people dying of lung cancer. No thanks.

The other thing that bothers me is all of the people sleeping at the library. They've got to go. Let's find a better place for them to stay, maybe. But turning the library into a scary shanty town isn't going to do anything but shoo away the few people that want to take advantage of the lincoln library. Laziness is enough of an obstacle to keep people from reading, panhandlers will pretty much seal the deal.

Other than that, I am working like a beast of burden everyday. I watch my Lost, play the occasional video game, and do my best to keep it real.