When I'm in other people's space, I keep my hands and my opinions to myself -- at least with respect to their stuff and where they keep it. Otherwise, I'd be like your wildfire friend.

As many predicted, the federal election changed nothing for most of us, although members of the Conservative and Green parties are probably shaping up for internal strife over programs and leadership. Yawn.

The business with the serially numbered ballots is apparently limited to municipal elections, because the federal process is much simpler and far more secure. The District Returning Officer opened the ballot box (good thing I had a knife) in front of me (my position is officially called "recorder") and the third member of the team, the "observer". Then the DRO started pulling out ballots. He unfolded each one, said the selected candidate's name out loud (important) and showed it to me. I also said the candidate's name out loud and marked the tally sheet accordingly. The observer took each ballot and put it on the stack with all the others for that candidate. The voter's name is never connected to the ballot at all. I believe Canadian federal elections have been done this way since before the Great War.

The hard part comes after the actual counting. The number of ballots cast in the poll has to match the number of ballots issued to the District Returning Office, and to the number of electors who voted. When the polls close, the poll clerk is supposed to report the number of electors crossed off the voters' list and the number who voted by Registration Certificate, but -- alas -- those data were not provided to us, probably because ours was an Advance Poll. So we had to go through the entire list of electors in Poll 607 (Milverton) and count up those who were struck off on arrival, but of course we were still short those who used Registration Certificates because they were not on the list. By the time we gave up, it was about half-past one in the morning and we were quite exhausted. Checking out with the Area Returning Officer took till two, and it must have been nearly three when I finally hit the sack.

Tuesday was a wash; I was almost too tired to think. I barely tolerated the Zoom session about the choir's Annual General Meeting on Friday, checking out early before I yelled at one exec member to talk into her damn microphone and get to the fucking point. The rest of the day was spent in a half-doze.

Aquafit this morning, and I weighed myself. I have lost seven pounds since last Monday -- all bloat, I'm sure. But my jeans already fit better, I'm drinking more water, and my nutrient balance has improved (more lean protein, in particular) thanks to the tracking application. So that's all good.

It's raining stair-rods in Stratford today, and likely to keep on like that for the rest of the week. So I won't be indulging in long-range walks for a few days.