I voted this morning

cattitude and I went to Arlington Town Hall this morning and voted. It was quick and easy, with no line: they have set up at least a dozen stations for filling out ballots.

Part of why it was so quick and easy is that the only relevant things on my ballot were president and four ballot measures: my Congresswoman, state representatives, and county sheriff are all running unopposed for reelection. (The sheriff did have a primary challenger.) On the way out, I got an "I Voted" sticker for my jacket.

I voted for Clinton, and no on ballot measures 1-3 (adding a casino, expanding charter schools, and conditions for keeping hens, pigs, and veal calves) and yes on 4 (legalizing marijuana). Three was the only difficult decision; I decided that eggs as a cheap and easy protein source for people on limited budgets was a higher priority for me than the animals. I buy cage-free eggs, and I'm willing to pay extra for that; I'm not prepared to make everyone do so, when for some people it might mean only being able to afford half as many eggs.

Marijuana legalization was an "of course," both because I'm generally in favor of legalizing drugs and because I moved here from Washington, and saw how legal marijuana works there.

Small-scale mission accomplished

After voting this morning, I went grocery shopping. On the way home, I was talking idly with the woman sitting next to me on the bus. As she was getting up, she thought she had dropped something, and it looked a little like something had fallen, but didn't sound like it, and she didn't see anything missing.

When I got home and put my groceries away, I found her CharlieCard/The RIDE (paratransit) ID card in one of the bags. The cards have the holder's name and photo, and no other information.

I googled a bit, using her name and "Arlington," and came up with three possible phone numbers. One of those got me a man who said it was a wrong number, but that the name sounded vaguely familiar; I may not be the first person to try reaching her there. (When we lived in New York, every few months I got a call from someone looking for bus information.) The other two got me voicemail, and I left messages.

The woman's sister called me after about an hour, thanked me enthusiastically for taking the trouble, and asked how I had gotten her number. I explained how I found her number, and said that I would want someone to do the same for me, and she said that she would call her sister and tell her to expect to hear from me.

I heard from the card-holder at about 6:00, and arranged to meet her at the nearest bus stop, because I really didn't want to go up to Arlington Heights. She was slightly flustered, and when I asked if she could get there pointed out that I had her Charliecard; it took a little back-and-forth to get past that to yes, she had enough cash for the bus fare. She took the bus down here, I handed the card over, and she thanked me and headed for the bus stop in the other direction.

I am pleased this worked out. (The MBTA's suggestion, when I emailed their lost-and-found address, was to give them the name and number on the card so they could deactivate it. This seemed suboptimal, to put it mildly.)