Thursday Sept 6 Primo is whiny and I am not supportive‏

Primo has been spending six hours a day doing doors. "Doing doors" means going to each potential voter on his list - those who have voted in at least two of the last three general elections and who are not extreme Polka Dots (because they will vote for him anyhow) or extreme Stripes (because they will never vote for him) - and knocking on the door with the intention of asking the person to consider voting for him.

Sometimes, he has long conversations with them. One hopes it is long conversations with the people who will actually vote for him instead of long conversations with the people who would never vote for him, because a long conversation with someone who won't vote for you is a big fat waste of time. I got caught in one Monday evening - 15 minutes with a guy who said he probably wouldn't vote for Primo but gave me just enough hope. I should have cut that conversation short at the beginning. I was a fool.

So he is doing doors for six hours. This is after a few hours in the morning of calling people to ask for money. When he gets home from doors, he works on the surveys that various interest groups have sent him. I doubt these surveys will ever see the light of day. I hope they yield some money.

He has been going to bed well after midnight. Four a.m. the other day.

He is exhausted. And whiny. He told me he didn't think he could do this because he doesn't have a volunteer coordinator. I had already told him I would act as his volunteer coordinator, so I didn't have a lot of patience for his complaint.

Then he complained that he doesn't know when we'll be able to get the furnace repaired. Even though I have already said I would work from home the day that the workman is supposed to come.

Then he complained that the car is having problems starting, which is has had for the past month, and about which I have suggested that he call the mechanic and make an appointment so he and I can drop the car off to be repaired. He has a backup car. He would not be without transportation. But he'll be in trouble if the car won't start at all when he is ten miles from home.

I am not patient with whiners. Solve the problem is what I say.

I am thinking this is the part of the story where the hero has to go underground - where he has to experience failure and then overcome it with inner strength that he did not know he had.