BerthaBlog

Elections are coming round in our area. The long-incumbent mayor is stepping down, leaving a number of candidates hopeful that they might actually have a shot at the job now. We’re also voting for members of the city council, and several bond issues.

Friday I went around to one of the early voting locations to put in my two cents.

Usually voting locations forbid campaigning within a certain distance of the site. Apparently that wasn’t the rule here; I had to run a gauntlet of candidates who wanted to introduce themselves, shake my hand, hand me literature. Many of them were running for city council in districts for which I wouldn’t even be voting. I extricated myself as politely as I knew how and finally made it to the voting place. I was asked to turn off my cell phone before entering. On my way out, I tossed all my collected leaflets into the recycling bin set out for that purpose.

I am left wondering two things:

One: Why did they want me to turn my cell phone off? Were they afraid I was going to cheat on the voting test?

Two: Is there a point to campaigning on the very doorstep of the voting site? Hasn’t everyone already decided who they’re voting for by the time they arrive?

So part of the aftercare from the surgery was for me to change the dressings. One was just a simple gauze-and-tape affair. The other is a hole in his lower belly that came open after the surgery; it’s big enough that I could put a marble into it (if I were so inclined). That one involves something called a wet-to-dry pack, where I moisten some gauze with sterile saline solution, pack it into the hole, then cover the hole with dry gauze and tape over the whole thing. Apparently the dry gauze then slowly draws the moisture out of the wet gauze, then when you pull out the now-dry gauze it helps clean out the wound.

As a person who has always been interested in biology, I found it fascinating. The hole doesn’t bleed, it’s just… a hole. In his abdomen.

As a person who is married to the patient, I want the hole to heal up right the fuck now.

Besides, he won’t let me post pictures.