Before our quiet evening, we headed to Fairview to vote, which I thought would be an easier polling place, once we finally got there. It was much easier, once we finally got there. There was exactly one person in line ahead of us. The polling place was well run, and we were in and out in fifteen minutes.
The town of Fairview had more severe damage from Hurricane Helene, including the library. The library itself wasn't open, but voting happened in the small meeting room. I'm not sure what the damage was, because everything looked to be normal. I didn't see a tarp on the roof, for example. There wasn't mud that indicated flooding had happened.
We took Cane Creek Road, and there was plenty of mud along Cane Creek Road. Cane Creek runs beside the road, and it had overrun its banks during Hurricane Helene. The damage was staggering, with stacks of debris all along the way. I cannot imagine where all this debris will end up, debris from all across the mountain.
It was a gorgeous day, another sleeveless shirt kind of day. On our way back, we stopped at Turgua Brewery; I wasn't sure it would be open, since it was so close to the creek. I knew if it was open, they could probably use our business, but more than that, I wanted a place to sit outside in the sun with my sun-starved spouse.
The brewery was open, and although the outdoor space had a few picnic tables, so we got ourselves settled. The beers were tasty, and the sun was glorious. I felt relief at getting voting done early, along with happiness that so many people are voting. I always get a bit emotional thinking about what the ancestors did to get more voting rights for all, and I'm always happy when people are voting.
I am also amazed at the pace of hurricane recovery, at the presence of disaster assistance folks from the federal government to private groups. We went through several hurricanes, under several different administrations, in South Florida, and never had this level of help. Is it because Hurricane Helene was more severe? Is it because it's an election year? Do people care more about the mountains than South Florida? Is it because the mountains are closer to assistance than the tip of the Florida peninsula? It seems like any or all of those things could be true.
We ended our Halloween by watching the original Halloween movie, the 1978 John Carpenter film. I'd seen bits and pieces, but never the whole thing. It's about as scary as I can stand, and it's not as scary, because I had seen the ending, so I knew that one babysitter would survive. I'd still have preserved something lighter, but if those shows exist in our streaming services, we couldn't find them.
I feel like I should end by saying something pithy about the survival instincts of virginal babysitters and the value of a good coathanger in a closet and our modern time, but I'll just close by remembering one of the best compliments I've ever gotten, on Nov. 1 of 1983 when one of my male friends said that I reminded him of the character in Halloween who survived, because I would be able to stay cool in an emergency or any kind of crisis.
May it continue to be so.
