They were starting to have me worried. I thought that somewhere, some Kerry operative had kidnapped my absentee ballot and was reducing it to ashes, thus depriving me of an opportunity to deny his (or her...let's be PC about this) candidate (who apparently served in Vietnam...interesting, does anyone know more about this?) his chance to be my Commander in Chief. Fortunately, it was just late. All the Texas absentee ballots came in a big bolus yesterday afternoon.

So, I found a quiet nook, and filled it out. At one point, my boss came in and asked what I was doing. I shielded my ballot (it is supposed to be secret, you know...), and told him, "Exercising my right to vote, sir."

He said, "You're hiding your ballot? Like any of us around here don't know how you're voting!"

I deliberately didn't mark the straight Republican bubble (even though that's how I voted), so I could solemnly and deliberately darken the oval next to George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.

Upon completion of this most important part, I duly filled in all the rest of the "R" flavored bubbles, folded it gently, slipped it inside the security envelope, sealed it, and slid that envelope into the main, outer envelope. I then hid it securely so none of my coworkers would come in and take it. While they wouldn't steal it, they wouldn't think twice about messing with my mind by hiding it for a while...

This morning, I took it straight to the Post Office, and handed it to the Postal Clerk rather than dumping it unceremoniously into the box. While it might not get special handling on its way back to Texas, it could at least get it here.

Do your part...Vote.