Civic Duty

I was so exhausted after getting out of work last night--not only was it the end of a very long week behind the tables, but we went 'old school' last night on our strings. It was the first day of the new 'schedule'--all of the people who changed shifts and days off began last night, so there were a lot of new faces. So what that meant is that a lot of dealers coming from the graveyard shift don't know how to deal several of the carnival games because those tables are always closed when they're at work, so they just stuck them on one game that they knew and kept them there all night long. My string of games was World Poker Tour, Pai Gow, and Bonus Holdem. So while the other dealers each stayed at one of those tables exclusively, I ran relief--meaning that I'd tap one guy out to go on break, and then once he came back 20 minutes later, he'd tap me back out and I'd go to the next table for 20 minutes, and so on, all night long.

It was actually a lot of fun, and I didn't get bogged down with annoying players which can sometimes happen. I just dropped in for 20 minutes per table while their regular dealer took a break, and then when he came back, I punch out again and moved on. As a bonus, it made the night absolutely fly by. Of course, this is all cool from my perspective, but if I were on the other side of the coin and got stuck dealing something like Let It Ride all night, there might have been an 'incident'.

Since it was my 'Friday', I tried to smooth-talk my way into the half-hour early out from the boss, but by the time I got to him, all the extra dealers had already bent his ear and were on their way out the door, so I had to stay until the bitter end.

I stopped by Chilly Palmer's for a quick round with the usual suspects, but was so tired that I begged off before the second round of Jaegerbombs landed in front of me. As I was pulling up into my driveway, I noticed a huge puddle in the middle of the road in front of our house, and I thought that our neighbor had left his sprinklers on again.

No such luck.

I hit the bed hard, barely keeping my eyes open long enough to watch the latest episode of Entourage, but as soon as it ended I immediately fell asleep.

I woke up at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, thinking I had enough time to grab a shower before PTI came on. I went to the bathroom, turned the knob in the shower, and not a drop of water came out. Damn. I checked the sink--same thing. Out to the kitchen, no water there either.

Well, I wasn't too grubby so I just put on some deodorant, hit the mouthwash bottle, and used hand sanitizer to wash my hands and face before getting dressed. I called my roommate and he said he'd look into it, but he was aware of one of our sprinkler heads in the front yard having a bad leak last night.

So I got dressed and headed for the door. First stop was the bank to make another deposit (and can somebody please tell me why the Washington Mutual at Eastern & Tropicana always smells like a dirty diaper?), and after that it was off to find my local polling station.

Yep, today was the Nevada State Primary Election, so I needed to go down and cast a vote or two. I will regrettably admit that I've only voted in one Primary election before (that year Steve Forbes won Arizona huge, although I voted for Lamar Alexander...), so this was actually a new experience for me--lots of judges, justices of the peace, District Attorney, Guv, Lt. Guv, Sheriff, etc. But I had my 'workbook' ballot with me to help me along, and I pulled in just as L.A. Woman was beginning to play on the radio.

The first thing, when I walked in to the gym at the elementary school, was that I was the only one there actually voting--everyone else was working. I also immediately realized that I'd left my wallet with ID and Voter Registration Card back in my truck. I did that panicked pat-down move before turning around and saying I'd be right back. But they said I didn't need any ID to vote, as long as I knew my precint number. For God-knows-what-reason, I just happened to know it. I went to the proper table and they had a copy of my signature on file, so all I had to do was sign on the dotted line next to it. It was a sufficient match, so they gave me my voter identification and receipt.

I don't know how I felt when they handed me this huge piece of yellow cardstock with the word REPUBLICAN printed in black letters for all to see, but I reminded myself that this was a primary, and my ballot would be different then then the one all of the lefties out there were using, anyways. But then I thought if they were going to announce to the world my affiliation, I should've at least been able to wear my t-shirt that says LET'S GO TO THE BLUE STATES AND KICK SOME ASS! But no, clothing of a political nature is a no-no at the voting booth, so I just wore my new How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down? t-shirt instead.

We've got the latest generation of voting machines here in Nevada--you get a little room-key looking piece of plastic to slide into the machine to activate the ballot electronically, and from there it's a touch screen. No more butterflies or hanging chads out here. And then when you're finished, it has a scrolling printout of your ballot that you can use to verify everything. Pretty nifty, and as far as I can tell, it totally eliminates any type of screwups for all but the most incompetent of illiterate voters.

I was done inside of three minutes, got my I Voted! sticker put on my shirt and was back out the door and in the truck before Jim Morrison got his mojo risin'.

After doing my civic duty, I figured it was time to go stimulate the economy a little, so I drove down Maryland Pkwy to the Barnes & Noble. They had 2007 calendars for sale already, and I picked up an Islands calendar including August-December of 2006. I also found a cool old book called Folklore & the Sea which should provide hours of entertainment, given that it's thicker than a red-clay fireplace brick, and a sailing magazine or two.

I also popped into the sporting goods store next door, shopping for a decent pair of Bolle sunglasses, since I broke two different pair of sunglasses while Angy was here (and no, even though her sister the Boy Scout packed an eyeglass repair kit in her luggage, it was of no use). Unfortunately, I was unable to find a suitable pair, so I'm down to the cheapass ugly pair I got free from that gift shop next to the Peppermill several months ago when the salesclerk felt so bad about bending me over with the price of his AA batteries that he tossed in the spectacles, gratis.

After the shopping was done, I made my way over to Metro Pizza for a late lunch/early dinner and to take advantage of the two-fer Tuesday draft beer special. Always a good meal.

After that, I came back home, hoping that the water issues would be resolved. They were not. Hopefully they will be by tomorrow, or I'm going to have to call on one of my womenfolk to let me use the shower at their place. If that's not possible, just keep an eye on the news for the Metro cops pulling a fat naked lathered-up guy out of the pond in front of the Bellagio.

Y'all know where to send bail money.

Mikey