Total immersion day: library, Lutherans, liberals

No scenic pictures today; I was too busy. I made some last-minute changes to my presentation slides, then headed to the library fro my brown bag talk. It was very well attended -- twenty or so people, including a local reporter covering the event. It pays to be a big fish in a small pond. The after talk discussion was pretty amazing; I learned all kinds of things about high school dress codes in this part of country, including that girls were first permitted to wear pants to North Platte High School in 1971. That will save me lots of microfilm time.

I crawled back to my motel -- this cold is still whipping my butt -- and took a short nap, then medicated myself up and headed to the harvest dinner at the Lutheran Church. Jackpot! The dinner was great, and I ended up sitting with a "connector". She's one of those people who could scan a room and pick out the two or three people who could identify the kids in my choir picture. One of those kids, Jimmy Nisley, was also there, and was able to name half a dozen of them.

From the Lutheran dinner, I headed to Wild Bill's Wings and Bowling for the monthly meeting of the Lincoln County Democrats. What a stalwart group! They live surrounded by friends, family, and neighbors who abuse them and steal their Hillary/Kaine signs. (One elderly woman has lost seven in the last few weeks.) They spent a good part of the meeting hearing from a woman who was explaining the Affordable Care Act issues, providing solid information and talking points to counter the hair-on-fire "reporting" going on. They are determined to "go high when they go low", and they have to fight an ongoing battle for equal time in the local media. The chair agreed to attend a political forum at a local church and found himself alone in a very hostile crowd, but he delivered his message and hoped he opened a few minds, at least to the possibility of political differences without hate. Like I said, a stalwart group. I'll be spending election night with them at Wild Bill's.