LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – It’s February (really) but I forgot about that about an hour ago when I headed to the car wash to get rid of some winter grime. It was closed. Ooops. Oh yeah, it’s February. I guess I forgot what month it was after looking at my weather app and seeing that it’s 67 degrees in Traverse City.
No ice cream for me but the election machines were ready.
I also forgot that the ice cream place was closed when I swung by there too. Darn. Summer in February is no picnic – although the beach looked nice enough to jump out of the car and have one.
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But it is a lovely day to vote. No coat needed. Yes, I voted on election day, not during election week or election month. I also got my “I voted” sticker which I proudly put on the steering wheel console of my car with all of the others.
I am usually one of the first in line to vote on election day so I can hear the pledge of allegiance but I had work to do this morning (and a dog to walk) so I went to vote around 10:30 a.m.
The lone voter with five volunteers to assist.
I was the only one there voting at my precinct, which is not unusual for the area where I live. Plus most people are busy working at their jobs at that time of the day. It’s also possible that many have taken advantage of their options and voted absentee or during one of the nine days of early voting that our county had.
I’m sure that some folks voted early just in case the weather was bad today. I guess that wasn’t needed. If the election was on February 28th, it might be a different story – at least up here where it’s supposed to drop down to 25 degrees and snow tomorrow.
Traverse City in the next 24 hours…
In fact our weather from the National Weather Service is so crazy that I have to let you read it yourself:
Today: High near 70.
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Tonight: Rain showers, snow showers, and freezing rain before 4am, then snow showers, possibly mixed with sleet. Some thunder is also possible. Patchy blowing snow after 5am. Low around 20. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Wednesday: Snow showers. Patchy blowing snow before 7am. Temperature falling to around 17 by 2pm. Wind chill values as low as -3. Windy, with a northwest wind around 30 mph, with gusts as high as 45 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of around 4 inches.
Four inches of snow?? Negative three??!! Yeah, I wouldn’t have wanted to go out and vote tomorrow even though it’s only about a mile away. I guess that makes the case for early voting i.e. making sure your vote is cast in case there are election-day challenges.
The dog will adjust.
I’m not sure if my dog is going to be happy or sad about this new weather development that is coming. On one hand, he’s enjoying the longer walks on the property and all of the things to sniff (like the Boxelder bugs that came out today). On the other hand, he loves running in snow piles.
The cat isn’t too happy about the nice weather though because we won’t open the windows for her. Nevertheless, she’ll run around the house, looking out the windows watching our every move and complaining the whole time that our walk is taking too long
Yes, around this house, life revolves around the happiness of the dog and the cat and making sure that they are well fed and comfortable. The fact that there are about 10 places for them to sleep in the living room (chairs, beds, cat trees, etc.) shows how truly insane things around around here.
They’re also lucky that they don’t have to worry about things like paying the mortgage, doing dishes, making dinner (it just appears!), voting or snow removal.
Plows are getting prepped.
The building I vote in is actually one of the Road Commission buildings and there were all kinds of trucks and cars and busy work going on around there. Preparing for tomorrow’s weather, I’m sure.
Because of the drastic change in temperature, there are weird weather predictions all around Michigan. Some folks are getting rain, some snow, some thunderstorms, some ice. It looks like Traverse City is getting a little bit of everything starting around 9 p.m. tonight.
In most places in the state, the weather looks pretty nice through 8 pm when voting ends tonight. So enjoy presidential primary day.
And summer. And National Strawberry Day. Maybe you’ll have better luck finding a strawberry shake today than I did!
