Let Your Voice Be Heard

I am publishing today's post a little bit early, so I can share my thoughts with you prior to the polls closing this evening.  No worries, this is not a post in which I share my political beliefs/leanings...in fact, I am going to be absolutely elated when the President of the United States is sworn into office in January.  Political campaigning is something I really don't have the stomach for.

But this is a very important day...

...for today we choose our presidential electors (Electoral College) who will officially elect the President and Vice President of the United States.  I can't begin to explain the Electoral College in it's entirety, I still am not sure I understand all the details, but here are a couple links that you might be interested in...How The Electoral College Works and Electoral College (United States) .  To the best of my understanding, and in my simple terms, the Electoral College was established to ensure a nationwide system of fairness.  Back in 1787, there was concern that a presidential election process that would be determined by a majority popular vote would give too much power to those areas with lots of people, because it could be inferred (at that time, because the country was so vast and verbal/hand delivered written correspondence were the means of communication) that people living in a highly populated area would have more familiarity/knowledge about a presidential candidate and low density areas would not know enough to vote effectively.  And so the Electoral College was born (an alternate consideration was let Congress vote on the President...could you imaging that?!) and here we are, with 538 Electors who represent us (click on one of the links above if you want to get more details about how our (we the people) votes determine which Electors will be voting for our State) with a minimum of 270 Electoral votes required to win the election.  Personally, I am happy each time a constitutional amendment is introduced to try to change this process, which forces some discussion, because it seems to me that after 225 years, it may no longer be the most effective process to ensure a nationwide system of fairness.  

BUT, it is the system we have.  And in order to be able to contribute to the decision of who is going to lead our country for the next 4 years, please exercise your right to let your voice be heard, and to cast your vote!

OK, thanks, I feel better.  And yes, I VOTED:)

Now for some really good stuff....we woke to snow this morning.  It didn't stay on the ground long, but it sure looked pretty as it fell!

This is the view looking from our deck up to the mountains east of us.  You can see them dusted with snow.

And this is from the road leading up the mountain...you can see our cabin in the bottom left corner, and in the upper right you can see the snow dusted area (a lot of snow got to the ground there because that is where they have been logging, so there is more space between the trees now).  This photo makes it look far away, but it actually is just up the mountain behind us (ENE).

Being able to see these views is one of the reasons I love being here and living my Log Cabin Life...every day there is something that has always been there but I just haven't seen it!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f', see you tomorrow,
Lise