Ran Today's Cold and Windy Depot Parkrun 5K

This morning the southern tip of a strong continental winter storm (The Weather Channel names it "Cora") swept through northern Florida, leaving the weekly Depot Parkrun 5K here in Gainesville under chilly conditions with overcast skies and gusty northerly winds.  It had also rained a bit over the previous few hours, so when Melissa and I showed up it was no surprise to see the volunteers huddled under the roofed pavilion instead of the usual site, an open area near the starting line.  According to my weather app, the temperature at race time was 55 with 99% humidity...it only got colder as time went on.  The paved pathway around the park (we do four laps) was also damp enough to cause me concern about possible slips, so that in itself impeded any plans for me to run a fast race.  Still, unlike many other bundled-up participants, I showed up "like a Canadian" in a simple tee-shirt and shorts.  Melissa walked the course as well, and after I finished I joined up with her to walk the last couple of laps.  Our Alachua County today celebrates its bicentennial, apparently established only some six years after Florida was acquired by the United States from Spain in 1819 and twenty years before being admitted as a state.  While we were in our race, they were starting to set up the park for that observance...hope they enjoyed it all: we got out of there as soon as we finished.  I timed my finishing time at 28:16, but once again they screwed up the results page, this time giving me the time of the runner finishing just ahead of me: 27:51.  Well, I rolled with it a few weeks ago when it went against me, so I guess I'll continue likewise when I'm favored...click HERE to see those results.  Now I'm hunkering down, in a heated house and bundled up like a true Floridian, insulated against the brutal 47 degrees outside...

Early Voting Begins Saturday for August 23rd Primary Elections

The state of Florida is holding the primary for its off-year 2022 election on August 23rd...that's when registered voters can show up, from 7 am to 7 pm, to cast their ballots in person at their respective assigned precincts. For those who want to vote early, Alachua County has seven locations for this: four in Gainesville and one each in Newberry, Hawthorne and Alachua.  Early voting will start this Saturday the 13th and end on Saturday the 20th...voting hours are from 9 am to 6 pm.  After updating my personal information per the new state law and switching my party affiliation to better vote against fascists who denied the 2020 presidential election, I didn't expect to receive a mail-in ballot, but I did and plan to go ahead in send it in although my preference is to vote in person on election day...barring pandemics.  The Republican incumbent governor and U.S. senator are running unopposed in their respective primaries, but Democratic voters will have to choose their party's nominees for these two races.  The US House Florida District 3 is being contested in both parties, with the incumbent a controversial figure. Florida state cabinet seats are also on the ballot, more races contested on the Democratic side than the Republican. With the state legislature, only one race, state house District 22, is on the ballot...I'm in 21.  There's a circuit judge race I'm clueless about.  And there is a slew of local races, four on the county school board, mayor, and three districted city commission seats...these local races are all nonpartisan.  My votes this time around will be based on the following priorities. 

1-Is the candidate fascist-leaning, i.e.. accepts only election results when their own side wins?

2-Did the candidate support public health recommendations like masking, social distancing and vaccination to prevent the spread of Covid?

3-What are the candidate's positions (in local commission and mayor races) on single-family housing and utility rates?

That's it regarding my priorities for this election...you're free to prioritize your own vote and I'm not campaigning or endorsing anyone.  I will say this in closing: much has been made of voting as a "right", but I'm convinced that the civically-correct way to see it is as a solemn responsibility, a duty that comes with our citizenship...and I urge you to inform yourself and vote, regardless of your political philosophy. 

You can access information about the primary election in Alachua county by clicking on their voting website here...

Got COVID Vaccine First Dose Yesterday Morning

Very quickly after Florida's Governor DeSantis lowered the eligibility age for the COVID-19 vaccine from 65 to 60, effective March 15th, my local Alachua County Health Department messaged me to make an appointment...I just received my first Pfizer dose yesterday morning at the nearby Trinity United Methodist Church.  After seeing the initial problems on TV in various places across the state and country with elderly people waiting outside for hours, I was hoping that they had the bugs all worked out...and they did!  My appointment was for 9:30, I got there a few minutes early...and by my appointed time I was already in my post-vaccination 15 minute waiting period.  My second dose is scheduled in the same place three weeks from now...

It's been a year since our society went off on a major freak-out lockdown panic over this pandemic...unfortunately, the way I see it the lockdown part in hindsight was a bit overly draconian while I distinctly remember our nation's Surgeon General strongly urging folks NOT to wear masks at the time...he did a fast turnaround on that issue the following month, but the damage was already done.  Along with our then-President's cavalier, mocking attitude toward both the coronavirus and masks, tens of millions of Americans denied the severity of the outbreak, which to date is responsible for over half a million deaths over just a year's span in this country alone.  It is a modern miracle of partnership between science, technology, business, government and academia that a number of effective vaccines have been developed and produced on such a mass scale in such a short time span against a novel contagion like COVID-19.  The U.S., lagging behind the world with its lack of compliance and safety measures among the general population, is nevertheless leading it...along with the United Kingdom...in vaccinating its population.  But as our disease experts point out, the world's population needs vaccination as well because it is here where vaccine-resistant variants of the disease are arising.  I'm resigned to getting booster shots in the future if need be...just set up my appointment time and place.  I've also had my eyes opened wide as to the callousness and utter disregard for my health and that of my loved ones from those people around me who have refused to do a simple thing as wearing a mask in my presence while smiling in my face...

Quote of the Week...from a Local Hazardous Waste Center Employee

When in doubt, bring it out!                     --Alachua County Hazardous Waste Center Employee

Having accumulated assorted old bottles of cleaning agents, paint cans, other caustic agents...as well as a couple of useless old push lawn mowers, I decided to unload them and discovered that here in Alachua County we have an excellent one-stop center for doing just that.  Called the Alachua County Hazardous Waste Center, its at 5125 NE 63rd Avenue, which you get to going north on Waldo Road a little past the NE 53rd Avenue light and turning right just past the green roadside sign advertising the site.  Then go down a little and follow the sign on the right and you're there.  Earlier this week I somehow managed to cram the two cruddy old mowers into my two-door Honda Civic and drove down there and then to the drop-off spot the helpful gentleman working at the site directed for me.  After that I mentioned some other items I might bring on another day and he bestowed the above perfect quote on me.  I recognize that this waste center is a bit of a drive for many, but it has the convenience of being available when you want to use it (weekdays and Saturdays), instead of having to wait for specified times of the year for drop-off.  Here's their webpage, which lists the various items that they will receive: [Waste Center].  Hopefully, if you live in a different area, your own community provides a similarly convenient service...

Primary Election Day Today in Florida

Today is primary election day for the state of Florida if you're planning on on-site, in-person precinct voting...Melissa and I mailed in our ballots several days ago and, thanks to Alachua County's online ballot-tracking feature, we are confident that the elections office received them and everything is in proper order to process them tonight in the count.  I've noticed that my county provides Business Reply postpaid ballots for voters while others...neighboring Gilchrist County, for example...don't and have the voters put a stamp on their ballots.  And I wonder whether this simple convenience (or lack) will influence relative voter turnout, we'll see.  If you applied for and received an absentee ballot, I recommend that you drop it off at the local elections office (in Gainesville it's at 515 North Main Street) instead of using the mail if you still want to vote that way...the one here will be open for drop-off until 7 pm.  If you have your absentee ballot but haven't sent it yet and want to instead vote in person, take it to your local precinct polling place and surrender it for a new one and vote there...or simply show up if you never applied for a mail-in ballot.  This election is just a primary yet will essentially decide who will be our Alachua County sheriff along with two school board seats and a state representative race.  And since the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 seat always goes Republican due to the demographics of our area, whoever wins that party's crowded and increasingly mud-slinging contest will almost surely be the next representative here.  No president, governor, state cabinet or United States senatorial races are on the ballot so it's not as "sexy" as the one we're facing on November 3rd...even then, Florida isn't holding gubernatorial or U.S. Senate races in 2020.  Since I applied for absentee ballots for the upcoming general election I'm probably going to continue to vote by mail during this pandemic...

I'm hearing all this hullabaloo about the postal service being attacked by Trump as if it's something new...not only has he been railing against my employer for years but the Republican Party has been trying to privatize it for decades.  They pushed through an onerous bill that President Bush signed into law in 2006 compelling the USPS to prefund all of its employees' retirement for the next 75 YEARS..a deliberately backbreaking measure that no American business had ever been forced to operate under.  Yet just three years later we had a Democratic president, Senate, and House and for the two years they controlled the federal government from 2009 through 2010 they did NOTHING to help us out.  And now the same people are clamoring about the how the good old post office is under attack...but I think the main reason they're concerned is because they see it as a threat to the plan for universal mail-in voting that they are promoting, something that is currently being practiced in only nine states and which in all likelihood will not expand nationwide this year, pandemic notwithstanding.  I have my own opinions about the subject of universal voting and voting in general that I plan to share in a future article...

Voted Today (Mail-In) in Florida's Primary Election

In Florida the 2020 primary election (not the presidential primary, which we had back in March) will be held August 18th with early voting going on now.  Melissa and I applied for mail-in ballots, which we just filled out and will put in the mail tomorrow.  Florida holds its governor and state cabinet elections in off-years, and neither U.S. Senate seat is up for election in 2020. The only race on my ballot with national ramifications, Florida's 3rd Congressional District with incumbent Ted Yoho retiring after four terms, is up for grabs...at least for Republicans, that is, since although Gainesville is primarily Democratic the surrounding population for this district is overwhelmingly Republican.  So whoever wins the Republican primary race this month is almost certain to win in November: as our president recently said on a different topic, "It is what it is".  There was one race for state representative I got to vote on, and the rest were local in scope: two county commission seats, two school board seats, property appraiser, party leadership committee posts, and sheriff.  The sheriff's race bothered me since essentially only registered Democrats will decide who our next sheriff will be after Republican and Independent voters were shut out by a loophole in the election law because somebody with virtually no chance of victory earlier filed as a write-in candidate...that just doesn't seem right to me.  I still haven't decided whether to try and vote in person for the general election or not, but I'm keeping my mail-in balloting options open.  If you're in Florida and are registered to vote, this particular primary election may or may not be important for you...but I'm pretty sure that the general election in November will be...

Annual Medical Checkup Okay, Some COVID-19 Talk

Yesterday I had my annual April medical checkup at my local hospital, to undergo tests on the progress of an ongoing serious medical condition first diagnosed when I was 55 but which has actually preexisted from birth: everything checked out fine...they'll see me again next year, no treatment necessary.  Toward the end of March I was sure that they would contact me for rescheduling in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they kept the appointments and everything went according to plan...other than the temperature check upon entry into the building and everybody wearing masks with lines taped on the floor that people had to stand behind for distancing.   At last report there were in my home Alachua County in northern Florida some 227 reported coronavirus cases, one death and some thirty-odd hospitalizations...the extensive medical network here may find itself, however, dealing with cases from other counties that don't possess the means to accommodate the patient load should that need arise.  But that hasn't happened yet, and just going by the rate of increase of confirmed cases, the infection curve around here seems to be flattening...this area had shutdowns and restrictions in place early on, several days before the state government imposed its own statewide.  I am not yet all that eager to resume "normal" life the way that some of my fellow Americans are itching to do...in all fairness I recognize that many have lost their source of income and are in a desperate economic fix, none of it of their own doing.  I don't think the protests we're seeing across the country are helping, though...especially since they started after talk from officials had already begun about gradually reopening the economy.  So I'll still keep on wearing this awfully annoying-but-necessary face mask when out in public around others, practice social distancing and hygiene, and be thankful that at least up to this point my family and I have been spared this horrendous illness...

2018 Midterm Results, Comments

Now that it seems we can finally report on the Florida election results after recounts, ballot design controversy, impromptu election fraud accusations, and tabulating machine breakdowns have headlined news stories of late concerning the two very close races for governor and United States Senator.  Regarding what happened in south Florida, I'm all for the votes all getting counted...but for the entire state, not just those counties that were going for one party over the other.  And it is wrong to take ballots and "assume" the voters' intentions when they are not explicitly stated...we went through all this nonsense before in the presidential election of 2000 as well as the very close Democratic primary for governor in 2002.  And what fool in Broward County designed the ballot to put the all-important Senate race at the bottom of the first column following the long, boring instructions section...apparently many thousands of voters (I'd call them fools as well) just skipped on to the next column and didn't vote on the Nelson-Scott contest, to Nelson's detriment since this county was polling 2-1 for the Democrats.  Well, now that all this nonsense is over, I feel I can finally get on to reporting on the different results for this 2018 midterm election...

For Florida governor, Republican Ron DeSantis won a tight race over Andrew Gillum, and incumbent US senator Bill Nelson lost his contest to Rick Scott...a flip for the Republicans in that body.  Republican incumbent Ted Yoho breezed to reelection against Democrat Yvonne Hayes Hinson in my Congressional District 3. Keith Perry won another close race in my own state senate District 8 over strong Democratic challenger Kayser Enneking.  My own state house district wasn't on the ballot...incumbent Clovis Watson ran without opposition.  Democrat Marihelen Wheeler won the Alachua County Commission District 2 seat and the judge retention questions all went "yes".  For the state cabinet positions, all went to the Republican candidates except for Agriculture, which went for Democrat Niki Fried. Gloria Walker won for circuit judge as did Meshon Rawls for county judge.  For the twelve state constitution amendments, only Amendment 1 was rejected (and narrowly at that).  Locally, the only defeated measure was the one proposing outside control of the GRU utility...

Regarding judge retention and constitutional questions, I believe a lot of voters weren't interested or informed about these items and tended to just bubble in "yes" or "no" on them according to their own general dispositions.  I heard from somewhere that this midterm election saw nationwide a 49% voter turnout...much higher than usual but still, in my opinion, abysmally low.  Well, we have our results: the US Senate, with next month's Mississippi runoff election almost certainly going to the Republican incumbent, will be a 53-47 Republican majority while right now it looks as if the Democrats have flipped the US House of Representatives with about 233 seats to the Republicans' 199...3 others yet to be resolved.  So I suppose now that this election is over with, all the buzz in the media will shift to the 2020 election for president: it just never ends, does it...

Alachua County Commission Structure Antiquated, Needs Reform

As a citizen both of the city of Gainesville and its county, Alachua, I live under the government of two coexisting commissions: the city and the county.  The city commission, which employs term limits for its members, has three at-large commissioners (including the mayor) elected by the entire city and four districted commissioners who respond to the needs and priorities of those belong to their respective districts.  This system strikes me as being eminently fair, both discouraging career politicians from dominating the commission as well as encouraging a greater political diversity within it...from time to time we get a conservative voice or two there, although Gainesville as a whole tends to vote Democratic.  The Alachua County Commission, on the other hand, neither employs term limits nor does it elect its commissioners by district: although it assigns each elected commissioner a district, they are all voted on county-wide.  The result has been a liberal Democrat-dominant county commission with little conservative opposition and entrenched, powerful commissioners with little desire to ever give up their seats...Mike Byerly's been there since 2000.  This coming election has two seats up for vote...wait, make that one: "District" 4, held by Democrat Ken Cornell, is unopposed, so he's already "in".  The other is between Democrat Marihelen Wheeler (a former candidate for state legislature and the U.S House), Libertarian Party candidate Gregory Caudill, and non-partisan candidate Scott Costello. The traditional party of opposition, the Republicans, apparently have seen the pointlessness of tying to put up and fund candidates in races that they have little-to-no chance of winning.  That's too bad: although Gainesville as Alachua County's population center heavily leans Democratic and liberal, the outlying communities and unincorporated, more rural areas tend to be conservative and more supportive of Republican candidates.  If the county commission were to adopt the city's system of combining districted seats with at-large ones, I think we'd see a better, more inclusive county commission that properly addressed its people's concerns...the way it ought to be.  And just what is it with their refusal to enact term limits, anyway?

Main Candidates in August 28th Primary Election in Florida & Alachua County

If you're planning to vote in the upcoming primary election on August 28th (early voting August 18-25), you might want to know some of the candidates running in the various races here in Alachua County, Florida, and the United States Congress.  Since it's a primary election...other than judge and school board seats...registered Republicans and Democrats have been receiving their own different sample ballots.  And although there are lots of choices in the respective races (especially for state governor in both parties), it's generally acknowledged that there is a small number of leading contenders, which I'll discuss here...

For Florida governor, which Republican Rick Scott is vacating after eight years because of term limits, the Republican primary leader...according to polling...is U.S. Representative Ron DeSantis (endorsed by Trump), followed by Adam Putnam, currently our Commissioner of Agriculture.  These two have been fighting a brutal mail campaign with each accusing the other of selling out conservatism.  On the Democratic side, Gwen Graham, daughter of former Florida governor and senator Bob Graham, is ahead of businessman Jeff Greene.  Greene is coming out very strongly against Trump, especially regarding gun control, while Graham is touting her stances for education and the environment.  For the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bill Nelson, the incumbent is running unopposed...his Republican opponent in November will almost certainly be Governor Scott, who has token opposition in this primary.  For the U.S. House of Representatives District 3 seat, comprising Alachua County (among other areas), Republican Tea Party incumbent Ted Yoho is opposed by Judson Sapp, who claims to be more pro-Trump than Yoho. With the Democrats, Yvonne Hayes Hinson, Tom Wells, and Dushyant Jethagir Gosal are on the ballot...I don't know who the favorite is here, but Hinson seems to be winning with the most campaign signs so far.  There are primary elections in each party for the state's Attorney General and Agriculture Commissioner seats.  The State Senate District 8 seat, currently held by Republican Keith Perry who has no party opposition, on the Democratic side has Kayser Enneking facing off against Olysha Magruder...whoever they are.  There are also State Representative primary elections for each party: District 10 for the Republicans and District 21 for the Democrats (at least as far as my own precinct is concerned). For the Alachua County Commission District 2, Randy Wells is running against Marihelen Wheeler in the Democratic Primary election...

There are two nonpartisan judicial races, one for the 8th Judicial Circuit, Group 8 and the other for County Judge, Group 2.  Also, three school board races are on all ballots.  District 1 has incumbent April Griffin vs. Tina Certain, District 3 has incumbent Gunnar Paulson against Judy McNeil and April Tisher, and District 5 has incumbent Rob Hyatt going against Paul Wolfe.  I probably should have been paying more attention here, but with the judges how am I supposed to know who to vote for?

It will be interesting to see what the voter turnout is for this primary election.  A high turnout would be encouraging, but I'll believe it when I see it...

Tuesday's List: August 28 Primary Election in Alachua County

The state of Florida holds its primary election on Tuesday, August 28...just three weeks from now.  Voters will have several decisions to make on their ballots, although some races are unopposed...at least at the primary stage.  Depending on which party you're registered in, you will receive different ballots with your party's candidates on them to choose from...along with nonpartisan races on all ballots.  Here are the positions up for primary voting...I used the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website to obtain them:

U.S. SENATE

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISTRICT 3

FLORIDA GOVERNOR & LT. GOVERNOR

FLORIDA COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE

FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL

FLORIDA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 8
FLORIDA CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

FLORIDA STATE REPRENTATIVE DISTRICTS 10, 20, 21

CIRCUIT 8 JUDGES GROUPS 3, 4, 5, 8

ALACHUA COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICTS 2, 4

ALACHUA COUNTY JUDGE GROUP 2

ALACHUA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICTS 1, 3, 5

ALACHUA COUNTY SOIL & WATER CONSERVATION DISTRICT: GROUPS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

From what I can gather at this time, unopposed primary races for Republicans are: Florida Senate District 8, and Florida Representative District 21.  For Democrats the unopposed primary races are US Senate and Florida Representative District 10.  In that body's District 20, Clovis Watson (Dem) is unopposed for both the primary and general election...a coronation of sorts.  With the Alachua County Commission District 4, Ken Cornell will likewise "run" unopposed throughout as will this county's Soil & Water Conservation District 3 candidate Danielle Sullen: don't expect to get to vote on these seats.  As for the judges up for consideration, how is anyone supposed to know which candidate to vote for: any constructive advice is welcome.  Other than mentioning the names of the individuals assured election because no one saw fit to oppose them, I deliberately left out the names of the candidates involved in contested contests, either now or for the general election in November.  That's because between now and August 28 I plan to discuss some of them on this blog...stay tuned. 

And no, there isn't a sexy presidential race on the ballot with idols and villains to choose from...just most of your government!  Voting is voluntary, unlike jury duty (unless you belong to one of the exempted categories of humanity).  So naturally since it is voluntary, the government has gone to some pains to make it more convenient, either through absentee ballots, early voting, or polling stations conveniently located near most everybody's residences.  As for early voting in Alachua County, the Supervisor of Elections site lists five locations:

Supervisor of Elections Office

515 N. Main Street, Gainesville

Millhopper Branch Library

3145 NW 43rd Street, Gainesville

Tower Road Branch Library

3020 SW 75th Street, Gainesville

Legacy Park Multipurpose Center

15400 Peggy Road, Alachua

Melrose United Methodist Church

5802 Hampton Street, Melrose

Early voting at one of the above locations will be from Saturday, August 18 and last through Saturday, August 25 with the voting hours on all days being 9 am to 6 pm...

How Alachua and Broward Counties Voted for President Since 1960

I was wondering not only how my home state of Florida voted in past presidential elections, but also about my home counties of Broward in south Florida, where I lived from 1960 to 1977, and Alachua, where I've been since 1977.  As you can see below for the elections since 1960, sometimes my counties went along with the state's voting...and sometimes they diverged.  When I grew up there, Broward was widely considered a Republican county, even going for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and being greatly responsible for the election in 1966 of Claude Kirk, the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction.  But since 1992, both Broward and Alachua counties have gone strictly Democratic in presidential elections regardless how the rest of the state went...or the country, for that matter...

The Democratic winners are highlighted in blue while the Republicans are in red, with the names listed by national, Florida, Alachua, Broward, and my "winners"...although of course in the end only the national winner really counted.  In making this list I'm presuming you know who these names represent.  Major party losers not appearing are McGovern-D (1972), Ford-R (1976), McCain-R (2008), and Romney-R (2012).  I got the data from a great archives site...click on its name to access it: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.  Since this list is more of a chart, you might read it better on a smartphone by turning it sideways.  Finally, regarding the final column showing how I personally voted during those years, I wasn't of voting age until the 1976 election.

Well, here it is...

YEAR  U.S. WINNER   FLORIDA        ALACHUA        BROWARD            ME
1960     KENNEDY-D     NIXON-R        NIXON-R           NIXON-R                ---
1964     JOHNSON-D    JOHNSON-D  JOHNSON-D     GOLDWATER-R   ---
1968     NIXON-R          NIXON-R        HUMPHREY-D  NIXON-R               ---
1972     NIXON-R          NIXON-R        NIXON-R            NIXON-R               ---
1976     CARTER-D       CARTER-D     CARTER-D         CARTER-D           CARTER-D
1980     REAGAN-R       REAGAN-R    CARTER-D         REAGAN-R          did not vote
1984     REAGAN-R       REAGAN-R    REAGAN-R        REAGAN-R          MONDALE-D
1988     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          BUSH-R             BUSH-R                DUKAKIS-D
1992     CLINTON-D      BUSH-R          CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D         CLINTON-D
1996     CLINTON-D      CLINTON-D   CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D        DOLE-R
2000     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          GORE-D             GORE-D               BUSH-R
2004     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          KERRY-D           KERRY-D             KERRY-D
2008     OBAMA-D        OBAMA-D      OBAMA-D          OBAMA-D           OBAMA-D
2012     OBAMA-D        OBAMA-D      OBAMA-D          OBAMA-D           OBAMA-D
2016     TRUMP-R        TRUMP-R       CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D        CLINTON-D