Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Benjamin Franklin is credited with that saying in his publication “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”
Most weeknights I find myself following Franklin’s proverb, as it’s rare for me to still be up at 10 p.m. My days tend to start around 4:30 a.m., which means my yawning really kicks in by 9 p.m. most nights.
Tonight, however, will be an exception. I’ll be drinking a Coke — maybe two — with a bowl of buttery and salty popcorn nearby as the polls around Indiana and the United States close and results start to come in.
Our living room TV will provide one source of information while I’ll be using my MacBook Air and iPhone to follow other news outlets as the night goes on.
Jen wasn’t on board with my idea of taking the TV off the wall in our bedroom to move it to the living room so I could have two going at the same time. She’s already told me her plan is to be in the bedroom watching a Hallmark Christmas movie while I’m in full news fanatic mode tonight.
I’ll be as glued to the TV and the news as sports fans are when they walk into a pub and see a plethora of monitors on the wall on football Sundays or during the first couple weeks of March Madness.
On the state level, the race between Democrat Jennifer McCormick, Republican Mike Braun and Libertarian Donald Rainwater to be Indiana’s next governor is one that I’ll be watching with great interest. This race appears to be much closer than most predicted even a couple of months ago.
And it goes without saying that the second race I’ll be watching into the wee hours of Wednesday morning is between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Both are locked in a razor-thin contest.
Several other local, state and national contests have my attention as well but not as much as the race for our nation’s next president and for Indiana’s next governor.
My wife and I tried to vote early a couple of times last week but the long lines deterred us. It’s encouraging to see so many people around the country showing up at the polls to vote in this year’s election — one in which much is at stake. I’m not too disappointed, however, that we didn’t get to vote early this year. While it has been convenient some years to go to one of the vote-early centers, I’d rather vote on Election Day.
There’s just something special about casting your ballot on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November — especially when you show up just before 6 a.m. and hear the poll worker declare aloud that the polls are now open.
A few of our friends have sons and daughters who are 18 this year and will be able to vote for the first time. It has been fun to see their enthusiasm and civic engagement these past few weeks, as it reminded me of how excited I was the first time I could vote in a presidential election.
I turned 18 in 1998 and cast my first vote for president in 2000 in the contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. I haven’t missed a general election since then.
Deciding who to cast my ballot for today was an easy task for me; I hope the majority of Hoosiers and Americans have done enough of their own research like I have to make today’s decision at the polls just as easy and well-informed.
It’s going to be an exciting night of news albeit a long one. Too bad we couldn’t “fall back” on election night to take advantage of that extra hour of sleep that I know I’ll probably need Wednesday morning.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
