Second Day on the Forward Line: BattiestGrrl Rolls Again!

Today I stalked the chicken scratches of the elusive snowbird before it flies south for the winter. Of course, many retirees are non-migratory in nature, but they're more likely to fly the coop for an entire season than those who still have to work. If you count each and every apartment I buzzed, that's 37 doors, from which I collected 27 signatures. In addition, I picked up a few more signatures at my Emerge classmate Diana Lawrence's party to announce her candidacy for the 56th Assembly District (Michelle Litjens's seat), and then stopped back at the office, where I picked up a few more while everyone else was tallying: a grand total of 36 for the day. That puts me at 83 signatures toward my 1,000 signature goal.

I really like knocking doors, and I was thrilled with the responses I received from the people with whom I talked. The majority of them were not only willing to sign the petition, but they were even eager. (Special thanks to Randy Hopper for giving us the opportunity to gather a strong database of people likely to sign a recall petition.) Many of them were tickled with my mode of transportation, as well: I once more duct-taped my trusty Rollerblades to my ankles and sped along between my well-spaced addresses.

As exhausted as I was yesterday when I got home after just standing while I gathered (or, as the case with North, wished I was gathering) signatures, after four hours zipping around in the cold breeze I felt pretty good. Even though I rolled over a rock which wedged in my skate and caused me to take a digger, I've got nothing more than a slightly bruised elbow, and no skin or clothing was harmed during the making of that dive.

I didn't gather as many signatures as I did yesterday, but I really enjoyed the hunt today. Today was a good people day, and instead of freezing in place waiting for people to come to me, I got to go and seek them out and generate my own heat in the process. When I got back to the office, Volunteer Bob B. wandered in shortly after I did with news of a successful couple of locations that he's discovered and more than 100 signatures collected as a result. I'm planning to complete my list of potential snowbirds tomorrow, but I'm hoping to try out one of his spots on Friday. I'll be in Milwaukee for Emerge training on Saturday and Sunday, so I'll have little time to gather signatures over the weekend. I want to pad my numbers to make up for the lack of signatures I'll get then, but I also ideally would like to reach my goal early and set a new one.