My wife, as I have written here, identifies as conservative. This is an endless stream of entertainment for the village when our late-night rollicking discussions are heard through open windows.
Yesterday, she introduced me to the first Kossack I ever met before. Details below the orange unrolled round hay bale.
My wife and I own one of three Smart cars in the whole of the Nebraska Panhandle. The nearest dealership for maintenance is in Denver, over two hundred thirty miles away.
A few days ago, the airbag failure indicator popped on. As we could be hit in our little car by anything from a deer to a massive cultivator or hay rake, making sure the airbag system works is important.
So we arranged to go to the dealership in Denver (ack my cat Felix Strangelet Randomkitty is jealous of my computer keyboard because Felix hasn't seen me in a few days and insists I stop typing and pet him safmpqow34i hjnaeb;ls kbnf)
Ah yes, where was I? Denver. The dealership determined the failed part (the control board) and noted it was still under warranty, so no charge to replace it. Moreover, they had the part in stock. (Too bad they didn't pay mileage, though they will pick up and deliver from any town in Colorado — the nearest is Peetz, about seventy-five miles away from our home).
After our car was released with a clean bill of health, my wife insisted we travel down to Colorado Springs, home of several interesting things, including the Focus on the Family (I passed on that), the Air Force Academy (interesting, but I passed on that too), and Garden of the Gods city park.
If you have never been to that park before, it is absolutely stunning, and absolutely free. It is well worth the visit.
She'd also arranged to visit with a long-time friend at his home. She had not seen him since she'd lived in Colorado Springs working for Digital Equipment Corporation (before I met her) Daily Kos member Thanatokephaloides (or Greek Deadhead for short).
Thanato is the first member of Daily Kos I have ever met (or at least I knew I met), and I have been lurking these halls for several years now (though I recently joined up).
After dispensing with introductions, my wife and he had a lot of catching up to do. Eventually though, being the sort of people we all are, the talk inexorably circled in to politics.
For the first time in years I had a tag-teammate for discussions with my wife. She is quite capable of holding her own though, so ganging up on her didn't seem -too- unfair. . . .
Thanato also discussed problems associated with finding other Kossacks in Colorado Springs. He says he has been looking for two or more years. His mother was once a major player in the local Democratic Party, but Colorado Springs has slowly slid toward conservatism due to the influence of Rev. Dobson's organisation. As of yet, though both Daily Kos and Colorado Springs (population nearly half a million) are very large, he only knows of himself and his mother (or 0.0004% of the city).
I suggested he move to Broadwater, where currently the percentage of Kossacks is much higher (1 in 128, or 0.78%) — he seemed non-plussed by the prospect of endless tumbleweeds and cattle, dirt streets and dial telephones, no television nor cultural outlets however.
So after only a few weeks as a member on Daily Kos, living sixty miles beyond Nowhere (as a restaurant sign in Sidney proclaims that city is located as you enter Sidney), I've met my first Kossack, introduced by a conservative. Who'd've thought?
Additional: Coming home tonight, we stopped for dinner in Sidney. When we came out of the restaurant, there must have been fifteen people surrounding our car pointing and laughing, or puzzling out the bumper stickers and license plate. They stopped laughing when I mentioned I had filled up the car in Colorado Springs, and only needed four gallons of gasoline in Sidney.