Varied and sundry
1. I voted yesterday. In Wisconsin you can cast an absentee ballot if you are "unwilling or unable to vote on election day" (you sign a statement to that effect and voila, absentee ballot, aka early voting). In an effort to avoid what are likely to be insanely long queues next Tuesday, I took an hour off from work yesterday and stood in a lengthy queue outside the County Clerk's office, which is 3 blocks from where I work. There were probably 70 people ahead of me and actually getting into the Clerk's office took almost an hour. Once I was inside, I think it took maybe 5 minutes for me to get my ballot, mark it (I voted for each individual office, just to be careful about it), fold it, stuff it in the heavy manila envelope, sign the envelope and have my official witness sign and take it from me. When I left that office, I saw that the queue was now much longer than when I had joined it 63 minutes earlier so I'm glad I went there at 10:30 a.m.
2. This morning I took Darling Daughter to an orthodontist appointment, at which she got headgear for the first time. I didn't look at it closely and I haven't actually seen it ON her yet (I was in the waiting room while it was being fitted) but I think it's this type or maybe this kind. Dr. F told DD that if she wore the thing almost all the time, she might be done with it in 2-3 months. She's supposed to wear it at least 12 hours a day. That's a lot less than she was supposed to wear her Frankel appliance, which was removable and which she wore from approximately May 2004 to September 2006. At any rate it isn't a big huge thing that covers her head or sits on her forehead, etc.
3. On a very sad note, when I got to work this morning I was told that one of my co-workers, Dan R., died yesterday. He was 59 and had been fighting cancer of the esophagus for about a year. Dan was an environmental engineer who took a leave of absence in 2000 to spend 2 years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. He was a really nice person and I remember talking with him in the little kitchen on our floor within the last 2-3 months. I knew he hadn't been at work recently but I had no idea he was terminal. So sad. I guess I'll be going to his memorial service tomorrow at 5 p.m. SIGH. Fifty-nine is way too young.
2. This morning I took Darling Daughter to an orthodontist appointment, at which she got headgear for the first time. I didn't look at it closely and I haven't actually seen it ON her yet (I was in the waiting room while it was being fitted) but I think it's this type or maybe this kind. Dr. F told DD that if she wore the thing almost all the time, she might be done with it in 2-3 months. She's supposed to wear it at least 12 hours a day. That's a lot less than she was supposed to wear her Frankel appliance, which was removable and which she wore from approximately May 2004 to September 2006. At any rate it isn't a big huge thing that covers her head or sits on her forehead, etc.
3. On a very sad note, when I got to work this morning I was told that one of my co-workers, Dan R., died yesterday. He was 59 and had been fighting cancer of the esophagus for about a year. Dan was an environmental engineer who took a leave of absence in 2000 to spend 2 years in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. He was a really nice person and I remember talking with him in the little kitchen on our floor within the last 2-3 months. I knew he hadn't been at work recently but I had no idea he was terminal. So sad. I guess I'll be going to his memorial service tomorrow at 5 p.m. SIGH. Fifty-nine is way too young.