Post-Election Stress

Two days after the election, a winner has still not been determined.  So we're watching more television than usual, alternating between MSNBC, CNN, and PBS.  On the so-called "Road to 270" MSNBC has Biden leading Trump 253 electoral votes to 214, PBS has it at 264 to 214.  From time to time we check to see if there has been any change, and I find myself watching one commentator or another going into far more detail about the electorate in Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, than I ever thought possible.

I can't remember watching election results with more anxiety than this year, except perhaps in 2016 when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote and lost the electoral vote.  That's because there is so much at stake this year.  One of the many commentators I heard sometime over the past week said that some 80% of Republicans thought that it would be disastrous if a Democrat won the Presidency, and the same percentage of Democrats thought the same about the other side winning.  That's certainly the way I feel about it. 

I also learned that 70% of Americans were experiencing stress over the election.  How do I deal with stress?  The way any good runner does.  Yesterday, I awoke early and ran six miles as hard as I could, and this morning I awoke early and ran three miles as hard as I could, including a fast ascent up "Monkey Hill" on Hickory Street, the steepest hill we have in Highlands, one that makes Big Bearpen look like an easy climb.  But that wasn't enough.  After lunch I got out the wheelbarrow and tackled that big pile of mulch down the road, completing ten of what I suppose I should call "wheelbarrow intervals" up the Sassafras Gap Road hill.  This is a project I began in early August and that big pile of mulch does not seem to be diminishing in size at all.  Our neighbor's little dog came out and stood on the bank above the road, barked once, and then fell silent and watched curiously this man who was working with such single-minded purpose that he barely noticed her.

It was a cool day, with a light breeze blowing, and after ten loads I realized I had stopped worrying about the election, for just a little while.  Soon I will return to that big map of Pennsylvania and wonder what is taking so long counting those ballots in Alleghany County.