March is the season of waiting for it not to be March anymore. It should have a recursive name like GNU which stands for GNU is not Unix. It could be MAR and stand for March is not ApRil Returned, March is not JazzFest, March is too cold to kayak. It's beautiful with fresh snow and blue waves on the open water. It is a time between seasons. Maybe that is why town meetings happen in March.

In trying to classify the political thinking of voters in town, I come up with these overlapping groups.
1. The Nostalgic. Town should be like it was when I was a child, kind of dirty and haphazard.
2. The Conspiracy-Oriented. All change must be the result of a conspiracy by a secret cabal.
3. The Libertarian. No rules, no permits, no planning.
4. The Pay and Don't Play. Just pay the taxes but don't vote or attend meetings.
5. The Attentive. Attends meetings, votes.
6. The Engaged. Volunteers for committees, active observer of town decisions.
7. The Formerly Engaged. They just got tired of it all.
8. The Perpetually Angry. Hates government, does nothing to change it.

In living a long time, I have seen how fast widespread adoption of a new technology can happen. The first smart phone, the iPhone, was sold on June 29, 2007. Now almost everyone has one. I've seen how fast new technologies get better and cheaper. You can now get a good PC for $300. So when this Bloomberg article says that the 2020's will be decade for the mass adoption of electric vehicles, I believe it. And if the 20's will be a crisis time for vendors of oil and gas, you might want to rethink your investments in fossil fuels and you might want to take it into consideration in municipal planning.

We spent a long time this sunny weekend sitting on the landing and watching the ice move around and finally go out of the lake. The wind blew it in one direction on Saturday and the other direction on Sunday. Once it starts moving around like that, it's over pretty soon.

Our town meeting and election of a selectman is coming up at the end of the month. Both candidates are republicans, but just to show how little that means at town level, one of the most liberal people in town (me) is working on behalf one of them. I sent out some emails yesterday in support of eighty year old Charlie Schaefer for selectman in Unity. It's a classic case of looking at what a person does rather than what they say. Charlie is thinking of voting for Trump, but his resume has things in it like founding member of the food pantry, a long stint on the UBR board, boy scout troup leader. The other person running is my most excellent mechanic Tony, also a good guy, but I'm not confident that he believes in comprehensive planning. He might also be too easily influenced by the other political party in town, the Negatroids.

Maine will probably go with Bernie today, but I am going to vote for Hillary. I like Bernie's agenda for change, but I think Hillary has a better chance of getting elected and implementing his agenda. I am comfortable with either of them. This whole election season has been a terrifying reality show that it's hard to look away from. Fascists and theocrats and the scary people who support them. If ever there was a televised example of the banality of evil, it was Trump's rambling infomercial of a press conference after winning Mississippi.

In Maine the republicans caucus by county. Very dull. The democrats fight it out town by town. I stole this cool wide-angle, probably composite, shot from David Manson's Facebook page. Record attendance of 101 people. 82 for Sanders, 15 for Hillary and a few uncommitted. John Piotti ran it. A lot of Unity College students were registering to vote here. There was a lot of energy in the room, like a celebration of democracy. One of the best parts was for a couple of hours being blatently partisan. In so many meetings in town we are super respectful of people who think and vote differently, but today we could just be yay us. I could have voted either way really, but I went with Hillary. Some folks were surprised by that I guess, since when I was in the hallway with the Hillary people choosing our one delegate, someone in the big room selecting the Bernie delegates nominated me. Governing is about compromise, about making deals to get things done. I think she's the deal maker. I hope he is a contender right to the convention because his ideas are pushing her to be more progressive. His agenda, her implementation of it. That's what I'd like to see. I'm glad I got to caucus one more time because the state will probably go back to a primary for the next presidential election. A caucus is super fun in a small town like ours, but it was mayhem and long lines in the larger towns and cities.