I saw it yesterday, on a roadside in Florida: a makeshift table, loaded with homegrown plants. How could I resist? No one was home, so I left my payment on the doorstep and drove off with several leafy backseat passengers. They weren’t much for conversation, but they patiently waited in the car while I knocked on doors all afternoon, volunteering to help get out the vote in a battleground state for Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change.

I’m home tonight, working in the studio. I’ll cross the state line again tomorrow, to help out on election day. Last week I voted absentee, and it was my good fortune to be in that three-hour-long line behind a softspoken 89-year-old African American woman. She spent the long wait in happy anticipation of the moment she would fill in that little oval next to Sen. Obama’s name on her ballot.

“I never thought I would see this happen in my lifetime,” she said.

It’s been a long, long campaign and all signs point to long, long lines at polling places. Take a book, take some music, take a beverage — but take the time to vote. Please. It’s never been more important.

The lovely and creative Casa de Charlotte della Luna has provided a list of Election Day Survival Resources.  Helpful tips for that elusive creature, the undecided voter, can be found at The Daily Green.

Need some motivation? Want to smile? Watch this.

Now… go vote!

Once a cartoonist, always a cartoonist

Back in my newspaper days, I had the occasional task of creating editorial cartoons. Once in a while, though I try to resist the impulse, I just can’t help poking a little fun at a public figure or two. It happened again this weekend… I went to bed Friday night with the rhetoric of the presidential debate rattling around in my head, and awoke from a sound sleep at 2am with a sudden revelation. I crawled out of bed, picked up a Sharpie, and…

But, wait. This is not a political blog (except to the extent that organic gardening, art and sustainability occasionally cross over into that category).  So, here’s what I’ll do: this little cartooning tale is continued at one of my very favorite blogs, written in one of my very favorite cities. If you’re in the mood for some political silliness, here’s the link for New Orleans blog Casa de Charlotte della luna.