I rolled my eyes when I saw the photo on facebook. There is Primo, speaking at a campaign event. And there are posters the president on the wall. And there is a life-sized cutout of the president standing next to Primo.
Honestly.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Sunday, October 12, 2014
In which I marvel at Sly's ability to sacrifice in support of his principles
Primo: When I was at my mom and dad's, my dad made a huge shopping trip to Wal-Mart.
Me: But I thought your dad hates Wal-Mart.
Primo: He does.
Me: But I thought he thinks Wal-Mart exploits workers and is anti-union and is pretty much evil personified, responsible for the downfall of American society.
Primo: He does.
Me: I mean, he rails against Wal-Mart!
Primo: I know.
Me: So why does he shop there?
Primo: I asked him. He says they have things he can't get elsewhere.
Me: Like they are the only place that carries the drug that keeps him alive?
Primo: No. They have a breakfast cereal that he likes.
Me: But I thought your dad hates Wal-Mart.
Primo: He does.
Me: But I thought he thinks Wal-Mart exploits workers and is anti-union and is pretty much evil personified, responsible for the downfall of American society.
Primo: He does.
Me: I mean, he rails against Wal-Mart!
Primo: I know.
Me: So why does he shop there?
Primo: I asked him. He says they have things he can't get elsewhere.
Me: Like they are the only place that carries the drug that keeps him alive?
Primo: No. They have a breakfast cereal that he likes.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Sunday, October 5, 2014
In which Primo and I discuss Sly's life post Doris
Primo: When I am at my mom and dad's, I need to ask my dad what he wants to do.
Me: What he wants to do?
Primo: If my mom goes first.
Me: I wish your dad would die first. I want your mom to have a few years of peace. She would be so happy in a retirement community where she could have some friends.
Primo: I know. My dad won't take her anywhere. He isolates her.
Me: She is so lonely. I feel sorry for her.
Primo: But he is in a lot better health than she is.
Me: I know.
Primo: My hope is that he will want to move near his sister.
Me: You wouldn't bring him here, would you?
Primo: No! He wouldn't want to be here. He and his sister get along.
Me: Does she know what he's like?
Primo: They talk on the phone. He considers her an intellectual equal.
Me: But does she know what he is like in everyday life?
Primo: Well, he couldn't live in the same house with her. Just near her.
Me: What he wants to do?
Primo: If my mom goes first.
Me: I wish your dad would die first. I want your mom to have a few years of peace. She would be so happy in a retirement community where she could have some friends.
Primo: I know. My dad won't take her anywhere. He isolates her.
Me: She is so lonely. I feel sorry for her.
Primo: But he is in a lot better health than she is.
Me: I know.
Primo: My hope is that he will want to move near his sister.
Me: You wouldn't bring him here, would you?
Primo: No! He wouldn't want to be here. He and his sister get along.
Me: Does she know what he's like?
Primo: They talk on the phone. He considers her an intellectual equal.
Me: But does she know what he is like in everyday life?
Primo: Well, he couldn't live in the same house with her. Just near her.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
In which Primo's social media person quits, again
Primo and I are finally on vacation. Finally. We started on Wednesday with a visit to the Adams County Fair, where the only people at the Party booth were Primo, his campaign manager, and another candidate, a farmer/soapmaker who was told by the state party that if she ran, they would totally totally support her and now she wants to know where the support is because of course the party lied. They do that.
While Primo politicked, I looked at the goats and the horses and the chickens. I love the fair. Primo got all freaky because I was wearing sandals around animals. Primo is a city kid. His grandfather worked in a factory and taught Primo how to shoot pool. My grandfather was a farmer and the other was an auto dealer/mechanic. Neither of those are super clean professions. My grandparents taught me that dirt is OK. Farm dirt is fine. Sure, you don't want to step in manure, but at the fair, the kids are cleaning those stalls all day long. I would rather walk at a fair or in a barn than in a public restroom at a bar. Besides, it's not like I am rolling my half-naked feet in poop. I am walking in the normal way. There is a layer of leather separating my feet from the ground.
Almost nobody came to talk to the candidates, of course. Why would you talk to politicians when you can look at baby goats? Baby goats might be about the cutest farm animals in the world. They are interested in everything and have a ton of personality. Calves and foals are cute, but they are not as smart as goats and not nearly as interesting to watch.
I looked at animals. Primo politicked.
Then we spent the night in a motel, where Primo stayed up almost all night completing the League of Women Voters survey. Remember that one? It has the questions like,
And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
What we didn't realize until Primo started to complete the survey was that there was a limit of 600 characters - not 600 words - for each answer.
How can you mend a broken heart? 600 characters or fewer, please.
Not a good night. Not a lot of sleep.
Then Primo got an email from his social media person, who has been doing a fabulous job on facebook and I suspect, on other social media, but I haven't been following anything else but facebook. She really is great.
However, she does tend toward drama.
She already quit once at the beginning of the campaign because Primo copy-edited one of her facebook posts.
In Primo's defense, she was wrong. She had made a grammar error.
In her defense, Primo handled it badly. He should have sent her an email asking her to correct the post. He shouldn't have done it himself. Either you are delegating or you are not.
There was drama and there were probably tears and it took up an entire Sunday afternoon. I think I wrote about this already. In the end, Primo convinced her not to quit.
She quit again.
She is upset that the campaign manager is also posting on facebook and she wants him to run things through her, which I agree is the proper way to do it. You give people responsibility and authority and then leave them alone. You do not micromanage.
But if you are upset that the campaign manager is micromanaging, you take it up with him. You say, "Dude. Am I or am I not the social media manager? Let us discuss the implications. Let us discuss the roles and responsibilities. If you want to assume the role of social media manager, that is fine, but then I am not necessary. If you have ideas, please discuss them with me. I have an overall strategy that I have developed and we want to present a unified face of the campaign. Please do not post without clearing it with me first."
That is how you do it.
But blessherheart that is not how she does it. She is very non-confrontational. I understand that. It can be really hard for some people to speak directly when they have a problem. But that is a far better solution than quitting.
Primo didn't even try to talk to her. He decided she must mean it if she is doing it for the second time. I think this might just be how she does things. That's an exhausting strategy to deal with - to have to beg someone not to quit - and I won't do it. Primo decided not to do it, either.
He wrote her an email and thanked her for all the great work she has done for the campaign.
Then he got an email from the campaign manager telling Primo that the social media person was on vacation. You would think the campaign manager would have sent an email that SMP had quit, as that indeed was what she had done, but perhaps CM thinks SMP can be talked into not quitting before we get home.
That would be nice. As long as someone else is dealing with the drama, I don't mind it so much.
While Primo politicked, I looked at the goats and the horses and the chickens. I love the fair. Primo got all freaky because I was wearing sandals around animals. Primo is a city kid. His grandfather worked in a factory and taught Primo how to shoot pool. My grandfather was a farmer and the other was an auto dealer/mechanic. Neither of those are super clean professions. My grandparents taught me that dirt is OK. Farm dirt is fine. Sure, you don't want to step in manure, but at the fair, the kids are cleaning those stalls all day long. I would rather walk at a fair or in a barn than in a public restroom at a bar. Besides, it's not like I am rolling my half-naked feet in poop. I am walking in the normal way. There is a layer of leather separating my feet from the ground.
Almost nobody came to talk to the candidates, of course. Why would you talk to politicians when you can look at baby goats? Baby goats might be about the cutest farm animals in the world. They are interested in everything and have a ton of personality. Calves and foals are cute, but they are not as smart as goats and not nearly as interesting to watch.
I looked at animals. Primo politicked.
Then we spent the night in a motel, where Primo stayed up almost all night completing the League of Women Voters survey. Remember that one? It has the questions like,
And how can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop the sun from shining?
What makes the world go round?
How can you mend a this broken man?
How can a loser ever win?
What we didn't realize until Primo started to complete the survey was that there was a limit of 600 characters - not 600 words - for each answer.
How can you mend a broken heart? 600 characters or fewer, please.
Not a good night. Not a lot of sleep.
Then Primo got an email from his social media person, who has been doing a fabulous job on facebook and I suspect, on other social media, but I haven't been following anything else but facebook. She really is great.
However, she does tend toward drama.
She already quit once at the beginning of the campaign because Primo copy-edited one of her facebook posts.
In Primo's defense, she was wrong. She had made a grammar error.
In her defense, Primo handled it badly. He should have sent her an email asking her to correct the post. He shouldn't have done it himself. Either you are delegating or you are not.
There was drama and there were probably tears and it took up an entire Sunday afternoon. I think I wrote about this already. In the end, Primo convinced her not to quit.
She quit again.
She is upset that the campaign manager is also posting on facebook and she wants him to run things through her, which I agree is the proper way to do it. You give people responsibility and authority and then leave them alone. You do not micromanage.
But if you are upset that the campaign manager is micromanaging, you take it up with him. You say, "Dude. Am I or am I not the social media manager? Let us discuss the implications. Let us discuss the roles and responsibilities. If you want to assume the role of social media manager, that is fine, but then I am not necessary. If you have ideas, please discuss them with me. I have an overall strategy that I have developed and we want to present a unified face of the campaign. Please do not post without clearing it with me first."
That is how you do it.
But blessherheart that is not how she does it. She is very non-confrontational. I understand that. It can be really hard for some people to speak directly when they have a problem. But that is a far better solution than quitting.
Primo didn't even try to talk to her. He decided she must mean it if she is doing it for the second time. I think this might just be how she does things. That's an exhausting strategy to deal with - to have to beg someone not to quit - and I won't do it. Primo decided not to do it, either.
He wrote her an email and thanked her for all the great work she has done for the campaign.
Then he got an email from the campaign manager telling Primo that the social media person was on vacation. You would think the campaign manager would have sent an email that SMP had quit, as that indeed was what she had done, but perhaps CM thinks SMP can be talked into not quitting before we get home.
That would be nice. As long as someone else is dealing with the drama, I don't mind it so much.
Monday, September 29, 2014
In which Primo practices the essential political skill of changing the subject to something completely irrelevant
Primo: My parents think I don't spend enough time with them.
Me: How much would be enough?
Primo: I don't know. Maybe two one-week visits a year?
Me: So almost all of your vacation, basically.
Primo: Yes.
Me: They have no idea what it's like to have a job today.
Primo: Well, not a corporate job, for sure.
Me: Your dad never worried about being laid off. He never got emails at midnight about a customer in Europe. He had complete job security. And he had kind of given up on ever being taken seriously as an academic, so he didn't even publish. He just taught freshman comp at a community college.
Primo: He didn't give up. He felt he had been wrongly disregarded.
Me: OK. Whatever. But he had plenty of free time outside of work.
Primo: Yes. We went camping a lot. Hey. It's not a community college.
Me: I've seen the website. It's essentially a community college.
Primo: No, it was more than that.
Me: They have firefighter training. Not that that's not important, but you don't find firefighter training at a tier one school.
Primo: You don't care about firefighters! You are against firefighters!
Me: Man! You are good!
Me: How much would be enough?
Primo: I don't know. Maybe two one-week visits a year?
Me: So almost all of your vacation, basically.
Primo: Yes.
Me: They have no idea what it's like to have a job today.
Primo: Well, not a corporate job, for sure.
Me: Your dad never worried about being laid off. He never got emails at midnight about a customer in Europe. He had complete job security. And he had kind of given up on ever being taken seriously as an academic, so he didn't even publish. He just taught freshman comp at a community college.
Primo: He didn't give up. He felt he had been wrongly disregarded.
Me: OK. Whatever. But he had plenty of free time outside of work.
Primo: Yes. We went camping a lot. Hey. It's not a community college.
Me: I've seen the website. It's essentially a community college.
Primo: No, it was more than that.
Me: They have firefighter training. Not that that's not important, but you don't find firefighter training at a tier one school.
Primo: You don't care about firefighters! You are against firefighters!
Me: Man! You are good!
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Saturday, September 27, 2014
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