Investiture

It's 1am and Shannon just finished emptying my fridge of anything that might try to form its own canton while we are away the next two weeks. The incipient canton of white chicken chili is no longer delicious and has a hard time finding an exchequer. Today was a wonderful day. We are now officially the next territorial baron and baroness of the lovely Barony of Marinus. I lost my voice over the course of the day so I sound awful but I'm feeling okay. I have been a baroness before but I'm rusty and the technology has changed a bit in the last 14 years. But the personal aspects are still all the same and I was continually reminded today of why I love this role in the society.

Many years ago I was talking with my mom and she mentioned my brother Perry had the cv boot on his Jetta go out. He called his friend George at 4:30 on a Sunday when the parts store closes at 6. George retrieved the part, met him on the side of the road and helped him fix it. My mother exclaimed, "Perry has friends - real friends!"

As Shannon threw out old strawberries and did my dishes at 12:47am I thought of Perry and George. So to quote the Golden Girls, thank you for being a friend.

Loose ends

"We are not as divided as our politics suggest." We have been avoiding election coverage for most of this evening. I figured we had enough stress in this house as it is without adding vote counting to it. Until recently, Rich has been playing Borderlands 2 while I've been hemming sleeves.

I did reach out to Catherine, though, to see if she had time to help me with my over gown for this weekend. The hem alone is probably 120" of blue wool and 80" into that I might just collapse. Death by wool. Catherine enthusiastically offered to help and I decided to drop off the dress tonight so she could work on it at her leisure.

I was going to walk as it's only around the corner but it's cold and wet outside. I pulled the van up into the driveway and the headlights cast upon their Romney/Ryan yard sign. They greeted me at the door and I stepped into the living room to give Catherine the run down on what I needed. As we discussed hems and bias cuts, the TV was quietly murmuring poll results.

We talked about the waits to vote today and how their location across the street put them in a different polling location lately. Catherine mentioned they had four votes in their house now, with the boys being grown. Donal added with a smirk that not all those votes were unanimous, though. I told them it is the duty of many a child to cancel our their parent's vote on occasion.

And then it was time to head back home so I could finish some hemming of my own. I thanked Cathy for her help and she reminisced about scrambling to finish her own garb for her and Donal's investiture 25 years ago. It seems fitting (no pun intended) to have her help for this investiture.

As I stepped out onto their porch, I dodged the Don't Tread On Me flag that was paired with the stars and stripes. Cathy cheerfully pulled down one flag to roll it up out of the rain. As I got in the drivers seat and looked back, Donal was waving the other flag with both arms like a one person rally on his front stoop, rain droplets flying across the lawn like fireworks. It looked fun and a bit ludicrous.

There has been so much vitriol on TV and Facebook lately, it's easy to think that everyone has gone insane. Many people can't wait for all this to go away. I get that. I cringe at conflict like a lot of other folks. But there is a lot more that unites us than divides us.

Tonight, it's 120" of wool, but it represents much more.