Distractions

So today's a big day in the Indiana for Obama department. Early voting opens today, so we're trying to get students to get out and vote. The plan was to have everyone assemble and walk over to the on-campus early voting location together, so as to generate some attention.

But there were distractions. Rather big ones. It's really hard to think about anything else when there are race cars on campus - even the sock thinks so. (It's the Year of the Rat sock. Perhaps a future post will explain what's happened to all of my other current socks-in-progress.) I guess that's the downside to having campaign workers from all over the rest of the country - it's probably hard for outsiders to understand that people from Indiana should not be expected to focus on anything else once the race cars come out. I once attended a graveside service at a cemetery near the Speedway while tire testing was going on. You can guess what the main topic of conversation was. It was good for the cemetery - quite a few people expressed an interest in buying plots.


This, for the record, is Bill Vukovich II's car from 1973. (Or at least it's painted to resemble his car - I was trying to spend my time talking to people about voting, not about race cars.) I wasn't old enough to remember it, but I assume I was there to see him qualify. This is definitely my mental image of what a race car is supposed to look like - although it's cool to see the newer ones, too.

Eventually we lined up and walked, although somewhat short of the 200 people we were hoping to get. By delightful coincidence, the local paper's reporter was at the polling place doing a story on early voting, and I was interviewed. Unlike the TV station, the newspaper respects me for my mind.

I'm not the only one who's having trouble with distractions. Aaron's trying to make a tunic.