Right now, the two frontrunners in the U.S. presidential election are debating each other, the debate broadcast through various mass media outlets.

I listened for a few minutes and heard the same things they’ve been saying to and about each other all over again all over again.

So, I wandered into the study and decided to blog about my day, instead, which is more interesting to me right now, stoking my ego, not a presidential candidate’s.

Earlier today, I finished sewing the fiber optic light components onto my “Captain America, the ‘late Elvis years'” outfit for an upcoming costume party while I watched the home refinishing crew working on the house next door and the chipmunk/squirrel/wren wildlife digging through the leaves that have fallen onto our driveway.

Later, my mother called to say she’d found our family history book dating back to the beginning of the American Revolutionary War and will pass it on to me, leaving me as both inheritor and carrier for our future family members.

Later still, my wife and I drove on out into the countryside, stopping at a community center to greet our friends, the Cox family (no, not this one),who told us about their days working as tenant/cropshare cotton pickers, moving from rented house to rented house where crop work was needed, long before the high-tech days hit Huntsville and provided them office desk jobs.

Going to the community center was like walking back into the lives of my wife’s and my hometown.

Local politics, loosely tied to national issues but focused on specific problems that can easily be addressed without a legislative stalemate — prioritising road construction projects, sympathetically addressing the legal education needs of citizens going through the probate process, shaking hands with everyone in your district rather than swooping in for photo ops using canned speeches and preapproved Q&A sessions.

Tonight, the community center hosted three candidates for local political office (quotes below taken from their political handouts) while providing free dinner — southern pork BBQ, baked beans, potato chips, soda and tea:

• Patty Demos, an attorney, Republican candidate for probate judge — ” a mother committed to community and family; active member of high school booster clubs; active in Open Gait, a therapeutic horseback riding program for special needs children; active in Leadership Huntsville/Madison County, Class 24; past board member of FOCAL, Foster Children’s Alliance of Madison County; former lead member of National Children’s Advocacy Center Child Abuse Multidisciplinary Team; married 20 years to Joe Demos, a Huntsville State Farm Insurance agent, raising four sons: TJ, Payton, Mickey and Ryan, who attend Huntsville public schools”

• Tim McNeese, Republican candidate for Madison County Commissioner District 1 — “Buckhorn High School Advisory Board member since 2008; Buckhorn High School Quarterback Club Board member, serving as President and Vice President from 2008-2009; East Madison County Recreation Association Board member, serving as Vice President and Equipment/Facilities Manager; coach of several soccer, baseball, and basketball teams at East Madison County Recreation Association for over 10 years; married to the former Micheal Johnson for over 24 years, with two sons, Taylor a sophomore at the University of Alabama and Garrett a 7th grader at Buckhorn Middle School; worked in financial industry for over 20 years, currently mortgage loan officer with RBC Bank”

• Eddie Sisk, Republican candidate for Madison County Commissiioner District 3 — “Eddie graduated from Paint Rock Valley High School in 1976, and after working in the construction field for several years, he began his public service career with the City of Huntsville in 1980.  Eddie served as a supervisor in the Public Works Department where we oversaw various drainage and road projects.  In 1991, Eddie left the City of Huntsville to pursue his lifelong dream of being an entrepreneur.  He became the full-time owner/operator of Valley Trophies and Engraving, a business he had begun several years earlier, and grew it into a successful business.  He sold [it] in 2011 after 22 years.  Eddie is married to Felicia Ogle Sisk and has two step-children, Matthew and Bryan.  Currently, Eddie’s ambition is to return to public service and apply the business and public service experience he has gained over the years to make Madison County District 3 a better place to live for current and future generations.”

I really want to write a scifi short story but first, a mention of the phrase “dark social,” the aspects of computer technology-assisted social connectivity that we don’t talk about as much as we used to, which may explain American ideology, or might not.

My wife says she can’t tell if either presidential candidate won tonight’s debate.  As for me, I was turned off by their angry debate style and left the room, but you know that already, because I have bigger fish to fry.

Speaking of which, only 13,716 days to go!