Vote and Run

59 mins.
8 miles

I woke up fairly early this morning after a restless evening (due in no small part to the complete lack of air flow through my nostrils) and was eager to get out the door before a morning of conference calls and other office work. I also planned on allotting most of the afternoon for standing in line at the polls, since I've read so many horror stories the past few days of people waiting hours in line to cast their ballot. In a flash of brilliance, I decided just before heading out the door to grab my ID and take a spin past my polling place to assess the line. If nothing else, I could at least make sure I knew where it was and where to park later in the day.

After meandering around on the Candler Park bike path, I hooked a left on Candler Park Drive near the golf course and headed uphill toward the elementary school that would serve as my polling place for the day. A cursory glance showed no one waiting outside the building, so I decided to stop my watch around 25 minutes and head inside. To my pleasant surprise, the line inside was almost nonexistent as well, so I decided to stick around. The entire experience took fifteen minutes and then I was back outside to complete my run. Now that's multitasking at its finest.


A fellow Democrat in Candler Park shows their support

For the rest of the jaunt I enjoyed the beautiful fall colors and cloudless sky of the November morning, running out and back on the bike path to Inman Park before heading home. The leaves are at their peak right now, all radiant reds and rich yellows, but I find myself almost saddened by it because I know in just a few days they will begin their inevitable fade to brown and then it will be time to segue to winter. I've never really thought of it that way before and I guess it's indicative of the doldrums I've been experiencing for the past week. Reminds me of the Robert Frost poem I had to memorize in ninth grade English class (which I am proud/embarrassed to say I still remember verbatim):

Nature's first green is gold.
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower
But only so an hour
Then leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.