Pigeon Forge and Primaries in Life as it goes

The trip to Pigeon Forge with the HS friends went surprisingly well. There was some grumbling about the economy which I left alone, and some discussion about husbands and whacky family members.
One of the girls, B, has four kids. Her eldest, we will call Dan (44), is married to Emma (42-ish) and they live in Texas with their two kids, Cara (19) and Max (12).
Dan does not permit Emma to work outside the home and she homeschools the kids. Cara has graduated, but Max is in about 7th grade. Emma is also a bit of a dunderhead, so that means the homeschooling not only suffers from ideological inputs from Dan and their community, but that it means that Emma does some of Max’s assignments just to get them done. This of course, is a reflection of her lack of foresight because when/if Max launches, he will be at a disadvantage. The talk of college was curtailed for Cara, and it is likely to be the same for Max.
The enforcement of gender roles in the family is very strict. For instance, Cara does many of the chores often associated with the female in the house, and Max does essentially nothing. Everyone in the family carries weapons. Knives all the time, and they are licensed to carry, which they do, when leaving the home. Dan wants to buy a larger plot of land and essentially create a compound. I told B that I see Koresh-like things going on here, and she agrees.
It will be interesting to watch that situation as time goes on.
Here in WV, I managed to be roped into being a poll worker again. I had changed my party affiliation to Independent, figuring that would give me the coward’s way out since Republicans are in abundance and Democrats are not. I figured they would find another Dem for my spot. The date for the training approached, and I received no notification in the mail and figured I was home free. Then one Friday as I prepared to leave to go make chocolates at my friend’s house, my phone rang. It was the County Clerk. Not his secretary, but the County Clerk himself. He asked me if I could remember how to be a Democrat (tongue in cheek) and could I be a poll clerk for my own precinct. I could not be that much of a jerk and agreed.
The primary was Tuesday of this week. Good grief we have some stupid people in this county. the only good thing I could see is that the nutty woman that worked with our team for the 2024 election ran again for school board and lost. Thank goodness because that crank and her husband have the ethics of bacteria. Recall that she is the one that got a school building awarded to her while on the BOE, and then when it was broken into, she inflated the damage estimate which was defrauding insurance. What a crook. Her husband ran unopposed to be a member of the Republican State Executive Committee for his local district (two positions are available: male and female - weird but whatever) but I don’t think it pays much. He is just looking for influence. Either way, she at least is gone, but he may surface at some point. Local politics here is crooked as can be.
I am pretty sure I am not going to be caught up in the midterms since the lady I replaced should be able to work again.
While I was there, though, I was informed by another poll worker that the Covid shot gave her long covid. Yeah, you read that right. And, get this, it supposedly “wiped out” her immune system so she had to get all of her childhood shots again. I looked at her like she was out of her mind. If her immune system was “wiped out” then vaccinations would not be helpful, and if the Covid vaccine gave her long covid then why in the hell was she getting more shots? Seriously, get your bullshit straight before trying to spray the room with it.
I changed the subject. I just can’t with these people.