Excerpted early-return election numbers:

MONORAIL:

Endless gridlock: 28,821, 67%

Monorail: 14,143 32%

I voted for the light rail project for the first time in 1990. It was projected for completion in 1995. Do date, not one track has been laid, and the downtown bus tunnel, which opened that same year with rail built in, is closed, so that they can replace the railbed, as apparently train technology, that hotbed of innovation, has advanced so far in the intervening fifteen years that all-new rails are called for. Seattle is well-positioned to continue its’ settled course of becoming just like every other car-choked metropolis in the country. Pray for a crippling recession.

NO SMOKING ANYWHERE IN SEATTLE, EVER, THIS MEANS YOU, YES YOU:

Smoker = shiftless, no-good addict low-lifes: 483,823 63%

Don’t be so absurd: 277,107 36%

I challenge you to find a pleasant, pedestrian-oriented street which includes a non-thoroughfare location more than 25 feet from a door. I wonder, are pot-smokers bound by this nonsense? Also, don’t sit on the sidewalk, and if poor, please remain south of SeaTac, mmkay? Thx.

Not like I can’t understand the votes. The fools that blew through the Monorail money killed the project, no doubt there. And who can possibly defend smoking? It’s bad, bad for you, etc. Still, it’s legislating morality disguised as a public-health issue.

Today my sister would have been 35. So not only is it Fitzmas.

I paid my first gas bill today; I can already tell that I dislike the utility company, which is clearly untrustworthy – a six dollar ‘convenience charge’ to pay via card, an online billpaying option that cancels the paper bill: the unmistakable spoor of evil.

My mail backup service plan appears to be working quite well, thank you, and I was pleasantly surprised by the professionalism and responsiveness this far on the part of my ISP. I initiated my DSL service with a mom-and-pop out of Olympia years ago, and my account has been acquired by a succession of pump-and-dump providers that really did a pretty poor job of providing support – a year or so ago when Qwest altered some technical details of the connection, I had to act as the ombudsman between Qwest and the acquiring party.

Saturday morning we’re meeting our contractor at the house. He says two to three weeks. I sure hope so. Maybe this weekend I will be able to mow the lawn.

Yesterday we signed for the house. Viv gets the keys tomorrow morning.

I’m deeply unhappy and upset about it. I feel like I’ve just murdered someone, a friend. I don’t really wish to write about it, but it seems wrong to let it simply pass by without a mention.