May12, 2009

May 12, 2009 ; B.C. Election Day ; Kaleden
　
Today was a long, hard day of working for the B.C. Provincial Election at the voting station in Kaleden, a bit south of Penticton. We had to leave home at 6:30 A.M. to be at work in Kaleden by 7:30. WAAAAAYYYYY too early for us ! We finished work in Kaleden about 9:30 P.M. and were home by 10:30. But the money earned for one long day of work ( and an afternoon of training for each of us ) was well worth it.
　
I worked as an information officer. I met and greeted incoming voters at the door. I checked their "where to vote" cards, and verified that their names and addresses were correct on the cards. I verified that they had the necessary identification to allow them to vote, a new requirement in the voting process. I directed them to the appropriate voting station set up within the community hall where we were located. You wouldn't think that doing such an innocuous "meet and greet" function would expose me to the "asshole" side of people, but it certainly did ! After 14 years in retail, I shouldn't have been surprised. Joanne worked at one of the voting stations as a voting clerk, doing some kind of bureaucratic documents checking and records keeping.
　
The day ended on a bit of a sour note. While driving home there was a "thump" on the passenger side of the truck. I instantly and reflexively looked in the passenger's side mirror. There was a vehicle behind us whose headlights illuminated behind and around us. All I saw in the mirror was a "puff" of something. I couldn't tell whether it was feathers or fur. I pulled over, let the vehicle behind pass me, then turned around to go back to see what I had hit, if anything. ( sigh ) I found a beautiful ... but dead ... owl ! It had flown into the side of the truck. I removed it from the side of the road and put it in the forest. DARN ... this is the second spring that I have killed wildlife that is not all that common. Last spring ( or maybe it was two years ago ? ) I killed a baby osprey. Why would an owl swoop at the side of a black truck in the dark ? ! ? Had it spotted something in my headlight beams ? A reflection off the side of the truck ?
　
Tomorrow ( now today, Wednesday ) morning I did some research on the Internet on owls in B.C.. Now I feel really crummy ! The nearest I could come to identifying the owl that I hit ( or rather, hit me ! ) was a Flammulated Owl, a rare species. DARN, DARN, DARN ! ! ! About twenty years ago research found that there were only about 25 to 30 pairs of this owl here in the Southern Interior of B.C., their northernmost summer habitat. They winter in Southern Mexico and Guatemala. I surely hope I didn't kill some poor little rare bird that travelled as far south this winter as we did, then returned just to get shmucked by a big black truck ! DARN, DARN, DARN ! ! !
　
DSK