Election Day

In my dream last night, I was looking through the living room window out into a cold wet morning, and saw two people who I thought were the Silvey brothers. I didn’t know them all that well in college, but well enough to say hello and to find out what they’ve been up too. When I opened the door to the singlewide to say hello and get the paper they were gone, but crowded up on my front porch was a pressing group of other friends. There stood Craig and Shelly who had brought a friend named Less for a tour our house, and right behind them some other friends, Grace and Tom, who had just managed to show up at the same time, and who had, for some reason, brought a grown up version of Sweetie’s niece. We all chatted for a minute on the cold porch shaking hands and giving out hugs, and then I invited everyone in for breakfast.

I’ve convinced myself this morning that this dream is all about the election, but I have no idea why I think that. If any of you have any insights as to what it all means, leave it in the guestbook. Free CD mix goes out to the best answer.

Yesterday I also went car shopping, in the hopes of finally buying the new van we’ve been in need of but have been putting off buying. It didn’t go all that well.

I’m not very good at that kind of thing -- that buying cars from salesmen under fluorescent lights in a big room, kind of thing. I have trust issues. Somehow, in some weird twisted way, buying a car feels like voting. Where do you put your trust? Whom do you believe?

For my part I did my research, weighed what I felt was a fair price against what I thought they should ask and went in to hash it all out but somehow didn’t make it out of there with a new car. If I were to guess I’d say the problem lies with the way they want to do business versus the way I want to do business. At its heart it feels like Republican against Democrat, where for the salesman/Republican the end justifies the means, and for the buyer/Democrat the fair deal is king.

For the Republican/Car salesman it’s all about profit. There are few ethics to consider when rules of fairness don’t really apply. For the Democrat/Buyer we expect facts and a level playing field to make our choices. I expect you to make a profit, let’s put it all on the table and come to an agreement as to what that might be.

I think it’s no surprise to find that on the eve of the most polarized election in this countries history, the buyer and the seller out on South Tacoma Way could find no middle ground for compromise.

So in the end I came away without a car, and since that was the point of the whole exercise I came away feeling like I failed. The fact that what I wanted was reasonable in the end really didn’t matter. In the end, I got to leave with my principles and the still obvious need for new transportation.

Is it possible to be both right and a failure? I guess so…That’s what today feels like anyway. Like my intact convictions and some pocket change could buy me a cup of coffee.

But that being said, I have a really good feeling about today’s election.

In music news, if you speak German or have a good web translator you can read a nice review of The Prairie Dogs CD Brand New Heart at this site. Though my German is still good enough to slug through it, I wouldn’t say it’s good enough to attempt a translation, so I won’t.

Speaking of music, Dave Stollier and I will be playing this Thursday night at the Swiss Tavern. We go on at 10 and play for a half hour.

I hope to see some friends come out so we can toast in the next four years of happy car buying experience, or in the case of an ugly election twist, curse the four more years where car salesmen make the rules, and we’re forced to drink week coffee under fluorescent lighting on rainy Tacoma mornings.