Earned it

I stopped into the Obama office at about Mile 2 the other day to see if I could buy a sign, and Dan, the guy who's running the county campaign, said he'd rather give me one if I did some volunteer work.

What they needed most, he said, was some basic feet-on-the-street canvassing to clear up a voter list. ("Crocsplastic" will never replace "shoeleather" as a term of art, but the basic idea never changes.)

So there I was today, quickly briefed and sent out to knock on doors and ask some questions. I was paired off with Bob, a strategic planner from Chicago who'd been laid off and came down to volunteer because he and his wife had bought a house here last year.

We spent four hours going up and down streets on the eastern edge of Casa Marina, gaining data and blisters and having a great time. Turns out we had some friends in common back in Chicago (he actually worked for the Trib at one point while I was there, in info tech management), and he was rapidly inputting data when I limped home to nurse my tired toes.

And hobble across the porch to put the sign up.