Did I actually write about the election yesterday? And today, I'm already sick of it! Negative campaign ads have popped up on TV and in my mailbox, and this is only the primary. The general election is nine months away. Besides, this is an off-year election, which means that we're just getting started down the long road to the next presidential race. The voices! Make them stop!

All of this is happening in the shadow of Enron, and the money Enron has poured into various contests over the years, and the apparent impossibility of taking big money out of politics. Surely this isn't how it's supposed to be.

Even the local district attorney's race, as I mentioned a while back, is tainted by flying accusations that don't stick. They don't stick, but they smear and smudge and stain and sully. Do I really want to spend time over the next month trying to figure out if the incumbent DA is responsible for a prosecutor who may or may not have coached a witness, not to tell an outright lie but to make the truth sound as bad for the defendant as possible? This definitely isn't how it's supposed to be.

Both a court trial and an election should be conducted with the public good in mind. Truth should prevail, and anyone who blurs the truth should be shunned. The problem with that philosophy is that it's too high a standard and impossible to enforce. Only golfers are allowed to police themselves; the rest of us need a referee. Elections these days are a free-for-all, and it's discouraging to have to wade into the middle of a mud-slinging contest and try to find a clean soul.

Not that I won't keep trying. That's not what I'm saying. I just wish it was the way it's supposed to be, and I'm taking a step away from all of it for now.

To fix the furnace, they had to put two new access doors in the loft wall. The landlord promised to add insulation behind them. I'll believe that when I see it, having had previous experience with his promises.

The work conflict I alluded to came to a head today. I guess it did, anyway. I don't really know what happened, but two people quit our work crew. One of them was the fellow I was trying to get an insurance form for on Monday. I asked Tim if that was the reason he quit, and he guessed maybe that was part of it.

Knowing Tim, he'd probably given the guy plenty of other reasons to walk off in a huff (or a snit) over the last six months. Nobody stays much longer with Tim than that anyway. Tim made the guy a promise that I couldn't keep, and now he's gone. Maybe he should check with me before promising something on my behalf.

"It's not really our fault, is it?" Tim asked me. I took that as a good sign, that he didn't blame me (at least not completely).

"No, Tim, it's not our fault."