Two weeks to go, and I am about to lose my damn mind.

Not only am I refreshing the 538 latest poll tabulation and their model showing the likelihood that Biden will win.

Not only am I checking the 538 lean of every new poll to see if it really is good or bad news.

Not only am I consulting a nationwide tabulation of the mail-in and early vote, broken down by state.

Not only did I read up on what "margin of error" really means.

I fell off the cliff the other day when I subscribed to a blog run by a former Dem Florida strategist whose sole purpose is to analyze the early vote in Florida in painstaking detail.

I'm not getting a whole lot done.

Help me. Please help me. I am not well.

Cindy -- who almost had a mini-stroke when Trump's odds of winning went from 12% to 13% for a brief moment before falling back to 12%

No help here. I’m trying not to pay any attention and just want it to be over.

Cindy, I’m right there with you. I try not to follow the polls but I can’t stop.

Donate. Vote.

It’s about all I can do.

What Steve says...

I do have a VOTE flag flying on my house..if that helps.

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
What Steve says...

I do have a VOTE flag flying on my house..if that helps.

That's a great idea (only where can I get one?)

I live in a hornets' nest of Trump supporters. One (kind of mysterious) rental house right next door is full of red-necky looking men who never smile. And there's more of a history. No, it's not something that could be smoothed over by a BeeLady charm like bringing them a tray of warm chocolate chip cookies...

My neighbor across the street* has a nearly billboard sized TRUMP/PENCE poster facing my house, and the right-next-door unapproachables began to fly a really large American Flag about a month ago*. *(At least we're friends. I think. )

I'd love to put up a BIDEN/HARRIS sign but I really feel it would put me at risk. That VOTE sign would hit the spot, indicating activism without being partisan.

Is it more of a GOP thing to fly the flag, especially now? (At least it isn't Confederate!)

PS Do any of you have a flag flying by your house? Just curious.

As for Cindy's obsession, I certainly share it with one difference.

I kind of flip between polls/campaign developments and COVID news.

This is especially since PA is getting hit much harder, and (horrifyingly) MY county is single-handedly changing the stats. Those colored NYT bars indicating level of infection, show the topmost PA counties. Centre County (mine) shows Centre County as a scalding bright red right now. In contrast to the rest of the state.

quote:

Over the past week, there have been an average of 1,474 cases per day, [in Centre County] an increase of 47 percent from the average two weeks earlier. .

We (adults) KNEW it. The Penn State students returned and are (among other things) throwing frat parties. If only they could all be quarantined!

quote:

Originally posted by Amanda:

quote:

Originally posted by BeeLady:
What Steve says...

I do have a VOTE flag flying on my house..if that helps.

That's a great idea (only where can I get one?)

I live in a hornets' nest of Trump supporters. One (kind of mysterious) rental house right next door is full of red-necky looking men who never smile. And there's more of a history. No, it's not something that could be smoothed over by a BeeLady charm like bringing them a tray of warm chocolate chip cookies...

My neighbor across the street* has a nearly billboard sized TRUMP/PENCE poster facing my house, and the right-next-door unapproachables began to fly a really large American Flag about a month ago*. *(At least we're friends. I think. )

I'd love to put up a BIDEN/HARRIS sign but I really feel it would put me at risk. That VOTE sign would hit the spot, indicating activism without being partisan.

Surely, you mean partisan without being activist.

No help here.

Florida in 2000 upset me (especially since it's my native state).

Ohio in the year Kerry "lost" the same.

Trump in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Florida's governor race last time around. Georgia's governor's race last time around.

I don't care about polls. I don't see why I should when they were so egregiously wrong predicting a Hillary Clinton win with such certainty.

My state of mind cannot be good for my health.
Monday we are driving to Tucson so Bob can see doctors.
In Tucson, men dressed like policemen are directing traffic for weekend Trump parades without repercussions. The uniforms lack only the upper arm patches worn by the police.
That is on top of trying to ignore election anxiety.
Will be restarting meditation practice today if I can.

Expect the worst. Hope for not the worst.

It's really all one can do.

Oh, and turn off the TV, and tune out of all media, social or otherwise. We all care about the outcome of course, but put that mental energy into something other than worry. Play your piano, tennis, listen to music, make a lot of love, dive into a long neglected project around the house, or whatever else gets your endorphins pumping.

What is going to happen is already in motion and making yourself sick over what might be, is not healthy.

So tune it out. Drown it out if needed.

I am expecting a Trump win. It is not my preference by any stretch of the imagination. I am just expecting the worst, and hoping for not the worst.

Having hibiscus with ginger tea and watching the Vuelta de Espana(the major Spanish bicycle race). Much better
Long live spandex

Quirt follows them for me.

I say "Yay!" when he says that they're going well, and "Oh, no!" when they're not, but I'm actually a simmering cauldron of uncertainty with no hope of consolation until the White House is free of Individual-1.

But conversation about the polls passes the time until then.

I am the personality type that takes comfort in information. I want to see my test results, hear the straight prognosis, “give it to me straight, doc.”

That leads to an insatiable thirst for more and more information in an attempt to ease my stress, but of course that just leads to more stress.

I wonder if I can find a good statistical, county by county analysis of turnout models for Pennsylvania . . .

I'm actually the information type, too.

I just have an engineer's distrust of our ability to make accurate projections based on really noisy data like poll numbers. I know that there's a whole industry of very smart people who know a lot about statistics, and they're interpreting them as best they can, but we saw four years ago how catastrophically those models can fail.

This isn't to say that they're not worth following and fretting over. Quirt follows them. We both fret. But I have a tendency toward anxiety and it's better for my mental health to listen to the latest polls and say, "They're looking good, so take a deep breath, but you can't be sure about anything until it's all over."

And none of this takes into account the horrific possibility of I-1 and his followers refusing to accept the election results. It's a good thing I don't enjoy alcohol very much, or I'd spend the next two weeks drunk.