Fringeville #202: Vacation is over…

I wanted to vote in the upcoming Pennsylvania Primary Election. I was unaffiliated. I only had three choices: Register as a Democrat, a Republican or stay home. I’ve done that last one, and don’t like it much.

I thought about it a long time, and re-registered with the Republican party. There wasn’t much chance of my registering Democrat. I’ve always leaned right and the D’s are hurtling as far to the left as they can. I’m going to cast my vote for the best R’s in the Primary, and the best candidates in the General. It will be between the good Lord and me who those folks will be each and every November.

Before my little vacation, I was an active Republican for a long time. I worked with some terrific people in NEPA and built friendships that survived politics. No one disowned me for becoming unaffiliated. I didn’t get one smidge of hostility anywhere, and I didn’t keep my unaffiliated status a secret. That said, I won’t be joining any party committees. I won’t be running for anything. I will be voting in every election again. That was my goal.

There won't be any yard signs cluttering my lawn (with one possible exception for a county office currently unopposed). This makes the missus very, very happy. Our yard was campaign central for many, many years. I promised her a sign-free lawn when I took my vacation from politics and that promise holds. (Never piss off the people who can sign your DNR order if you choke on a chicken wing.)

I won’t be pushing a political agenda. I will be voting for the best people I can in each election and encouraging others to do the same. Well, okay, one might argue that encouraging participation in the political process is an agenda. Guilty as charged. Just take the time to make informed decisions before casting that vote, friends.

If you don’t like how I registered, I offer no apologies. I’ve never based my personal relationships on party registrations (or lack of). If that's what you do, well, if it makes you happy…

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Be good to each other.

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Fringeville #138 August 16 2015

...I am experimenting with templates, so you might see the look of the blog changing one or more times until I am happy with it. A wise fellow blogger suggested that the template I'd been using was hard to read. Because I used white text on black background, this heavily influenced the way I used text elements. Changing to another template is harder than I expected because some of the text which was easier to read against a black background became very difficult to read with some of the alternate templates. Hopefully I'll come up with something that works. What I don't have is much time to mess with it these days. But if folks have trouble reading it, well then what's the point?

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Great GOP picnic in Pittston Township yesterday. Most of the judicial candidates were there. Travis Kellar from the Times Leader did a nice recap on the event: TL Covers the GOP Picnic...

I was on grill duty:  Grill it, Jimbo!
 

I am a sucker for grilling, so when GOP Chairman Bill Urbanski asked me to man the grill I was all over it. It was brutally hot, and I never even noticed. I just kept on flipping burgers and washing down root beer.

(For complete transparency, I am an active Republican Committee member and will remain so until the 2016 Primary, when I will put myself out to pasture.)

Stefanie Salavantis, one of my favorite folks on the planet, gave a great talk on what has been accomplished in her first term. I remember meeting her way back when she announced her write-in campaign, which led to an improbable victory (to the skeptics) but a very likely one from where I sat. She had fire, and she took the county by storm. She's worked hard, with a 100% conviction rate on homicides and she's been fiscally responsible. Read more on her accomplishments here: Results matter!

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis

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I had to leave the picnic as soon as the grill duties were over. I spent the balance of the afternoon helping my son do concrete work at his place. What is it with Irish guys doing things like this in the hottest possible weather? I actually spent a lot of time with my son this weekend. I've missed that; we both used to have a lot of time to spend together. Now I just grab whatever time I can with him. Fricking time is going by too fricking fast.

The day ended with more grilling: Grill it AGAIN, Jimbo!

I love summer. Just saying.

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