That Was The Weekend That Was
This weekend was Interviewing the Candidates for the NY 23rd district. One of them, Ian Golden came in early from Ithaca, so he held a meet and greet at a local bar from 6PM to 8PM. It lasted until 8:30, then they took him down the street to the Contra dance where he apparently danced until 10:30 at which point he went out to eat with more locals until nearly midnight. At 6:30AM on Saturday, he was out jogging with still more voters and came in for the 11AM interview session. I don't know if I would have the stamina to run for office.
The Interview the Candidates was held Saturday morning. We have five democratic candidates running against GOP incumbent Tom Reed. All five are running for office for the first time. Linda Andrei, a doctor; Max Della Pia, retired military; Ian Golden, small business owner; Tracy Mitrano, cybernet security expert, and Eddie Sundquist, teacher turned lawyer. We had five rings of chairs labelled Education, Social Networks, Gun Control, Economy, Protecting Democracy. Everybody took a chair at the ring they felt strongest about. I sat with Social Networks. The candidates each took a chair and answered questions for 20 minutes before rotating to the next group.
Sunday morning was blacksmithing. The lesson was on chisels and punches. Which sounds easy, shape the striking surface you want and you're done right? Not quite. Annealing, stick it in a barrel of wood ashes and let it cool over five hours, gives you a soft metal that won't take an edge. Quenching, stick it in a barrel of ice water and cool it quickly, gives you hard metal that will break like peanut brittle. Tempering, working a little of each, makes it just right for tool edges. Yes, we made all the Goldilocks jokes and yes, we've all seen the sword making scene in Conan. Now you know the other way to upset a blacksmith. :D
After blacksmith class, was music practice. It was a very good practice. Weirdly, we have no performances coming up. None of the vigils that we know of want musicians.
The Interview the Candidates was held Saturday morning. We have five democratic candidates running against GOP incumbent Tom Reed. All five are running for office for the first time. Linda Andrei, a doctor; Max Della Pia, retired military; Ian Golden, small business owner; Tracy Mitrano, cybernet security expert, and Eddie Sundquist, teacher turned lawyer. We had five rings of chairs labelled Education, Social Networks, Gun Control, Economy, Protecting Democracy. Everybody took a chair at the ring they felt strongest about. I sat with Social Networks. The candidates each took a chair and answered questions for 20 minutes before rotating to the next group.
Sunday morning was blacksmithing. The lesson was on chisels and punches. Which sounds easy, shape the striking surface you want and you're done right? Not quite. Annealing, stick it in a barrel of wood ashes and let it cool over five hours, gives you a soft metal that won't take an edge. Quenching, stick it in a barrel of ice water and cool it quickly, gives you hard metal that will break like peanut brittle. Tempering, working a little of each, makes it just right for tool edges. Yes, we made all the Goldilocks jokes and yes, we've all seen the sword making scene in Conan. Now you know the other way to upset a blacksmith. :D
After blacksmith class, was music practice. It was a very good practice. Weirdly, we have no performances coming up. None of the vigils that we know of want musicians.