my swimming pal, Buddy van Kirk passed away recently — I shared a pool, a lane, with him more times than I can count here in Prescott. either at the “Y” or at the college pool. he was there practically everyday to do a leisurely but long swim. he had knee problems and some heavy arthritis, but always kept moving. you will be missed Bud!
the migrating realities book is about to go to the press in Vilnius after a long haul on editing. I like the design although I’m not thrilled about the font face that the designer chose. more on this when the book comes out in hard copy.
stopped by the county elections office to keep on track as an elections volunteer, and now they want me to be a polling trouble-shooter which is a bit daunting (given the contemporary predilection for very third-world election standards here in the US and the dearth of International observers, not sure I want to get caught up in that). not to mention that the county uses a combination of paper and electronic balloting methods. we’ll see. the ladies in the office were quite nice and joked about locking the doors after I had said I was there to volunteer — apparently they never have enough people to help out. technically it’s not a volunteer position either, as one receives for the 0500 — 2100 day around USD 90 for helping out.
driving around, I pass the migrant worker hang-out, the corner Lincoln and Grove Streets, the site around which numerous letters-to-the-editor have addressed both sides of the illegal immigrant issue. apparently some Minutemen have set up a post across the street, although I didn’t see them today. there were plenty of Latino fellows hanging out under the scraggly trees that lead down the dip in the road off Grove to the flood wash. I can imagine the tanking economy makes marginality even more precarious.