Gearing Up For America 3.0

The system had grown unstable, and we're lucky it didn't crash under that huge processor drain yesterday. For the next couple months, we'll be running on a patch. America 2.1.9, also known as "LameDuck Vista". There's still some potential for it to cause trouble. Even if it holds together for the required time, the installation process on the new 3.0 version may be intensive. It's bound to have new features, and not everyone will find them a perfect fit. Some worry 3.0 is really just 1.0 with a few new graphics and a number change for PR reasons, but even if that's the case, the classic environment would be better than known security issues of the second edition. Today, however, I find I'm actually looking forward to prospect of running a state-of-the-art machine again, after all those years of fatal errors and incompatibility.

I don't have much time to blog at the moment, as this is the first day this month that I didn't have 2,000 words written by noon. Just the same, I'm finding it hard to stay on task. Why does NaNoWriMo have to be November? If this novel started 4 days later, it'd be telling truly different tale.

Last night I watched the news till nearly an hour past McCain's concession and Obama's victory speech. I then tossed and turned all night, my dreams troubled by thoughts of the 2000 election. With some states having been called after just a few percent of precincts had reported last night, my less-than-conscious mind was unable to accept that we'd safely dodged the bullet and the jack-boot. There were fireworks at least until 3am, and my fitful brain snapped awake with each one as if it were a Flak88, not a celebration.

First thing I did on waking up was google "election results." I needed to know that it wasn't a dream, and that the election wasn't stolen away from the public by some late report or technicality in the wee hours. Twice bitten, three times shy. A few minutes on the net, though, and I was crying tears of joy. The election's over, we know who won, and there's no longer any way Bush can resist the momentum. He will hand over the reigns gracefully, as this public won't accept anything else.

A week ago, I scheduled an adjustment and a professional massage for this morning, knowing that if the election had gone otherwise, I would have needed them. I stopped short of looking up psychiatrists. The receptionist at the chiropractors gushed with me. When I first started going there, I'd answered a suite of questions on their survey (Do you consider your life high-stress? If so, why? What are the major sources of stress in your life?) with "Yes. Bush / Fascism. Election Worries." I think she'd noted it - because with a huge smile as I entered she announced "I bet you're doing well today, too!"

After that, I took a long walk around the very crowded Greenlake, and caught snippets of several dozen conversations, only two of which weren't simultaneously political and hopeful. The last time I'd been there, the conversations were predominantly fiscal and desperate.

A horrible weight has been lifted off my recently-massaged shoulders. Today, at no point did I feel the need to say loudly "The answer to 1984 is 1776" like I had the previous walk. Today, even a sour old curmudgeon like me can have hope. I'd been so terrified ever since the CCMRF stepped on our soil. An administration that has no reservations about sending thousands to their death can't be trusted. A conservative friend Monday night reminded me that the Texas constitution (?) includes a clause letting them succeed from the Union, and he, without noticeable irony, predicted over that night's dinner that that would happen Wednesday morning.


That goes to show there's still a lot of work to do. Bigots have burned our President Elect in effigy, shouted out for his death at rallies, and even got arrested for planning massive killing sprees. California voted to ban gay marriage ...again. Creationists still threaten to undermine our schools and science. The Constitution is in bad shape after numerous Bush attrocities. Our scars are visible and ugly, and we can't just look the other way for 3 or 4 years. I reflect on the Clintons - their first 2 or 3 months in office looked amazing, but then the system ground them down. I believe Obama will resist that, will persevere and bring the change he's promised. I find myself wondering what I can do to help keep us on the new and better path.


I can't stop smiling (not that I'd want to). I haven't been this hopeful for our country since... I don't know when. Sometime pre-9/11 anyway. Maybe never. It feels like a long and debilitating nightmare has finally come to an end. I just want to bask in the sunlight today.