When Weather Changed History

Weather Channel fans? Never mind :)

OK, so the weather didn't really change anything. Obama won all three "Chesapeake" states by a landslide, and McCain won by a respectable margin, if less than impressive for an all-but-declared nominee.

The only thing the raging ice storm changed was the number of accidents on the Beltway, some no doubt caused by people rushing home to make the polls before they closed at 8pm. I fortunately don't have a Beltway commute, but I do have what would normally be a 15-20 minute commute from work to my polling station, which was slightly delayed by the thick, unscrapable sheet of ice I found on my windshield as I left work eight minutes late due to a communications/media-related activity tangentially related to none other than John Kerry, Keith Olbermann, and Chris Matthews (ah, we meet again, John Kerry. It was raining the night I voted for you, too, only, since it was November, it wasn't freezing in thick sheets on my windshield.)

It was still too thick to attack with my trusty scraper, as you can see, at 7:30 pm. I was bored, so I took these photos while waiting for it to melt.

I made it to the polling station at 8:04 pm, but, thanks to that County Circuit Court judge who extended Maryland's voting hours until 9:30 due to inclement weather, I was given a provisional ballot. Of course, the provisional ballots won't be counted until next Tuesday. But, looking at the numbers, that doesn't really matter much, anyway. At least I did my civic duty. But I have nothing on the polling station volunteers who told me they'd arrived at 6:30 that morning, and, now, thanks to the well-meaning judge, they'd be there another hour and a half longer. They were looking pretty tired -- but still friendly -- good souls.

Oh, yeah, and I voted for Hillary, in case anyone was wondering :) No big surprise, I'm sure.

Not that she was around to cherish her hard-won votes or rue her losses here; she's already in Texas. And over the next couple months, que sera, sera. I've done my part for now, and I have to admit I'm looking forward to the next phase of this thing. Bring it on, John "10,000 years in Iraq" McCain...