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today was super tuesday, i walked down to the nearby elementary school to go cast my vote in the late morning. i passed by victor who was working on his van, he decided to come with me to vote, even though he seemed oblivious to the fact that today was the primary. with the escalation of the coronavirus panic, i was curious if anything had changed. it as business as usual, except there was a bottle of purell set up outside. i got my democratic ballot (i register as independent, which in MA means you can choose which ballot you want) and went in one of the booths. so with pete out of the race, i was going with biden. i had my doubts about him, but with his big south carolina win and seemingly a bunch of former democratic presidential candidates throw their support to him, he was the clear choice. after i finished, i saw victor still hadn't voted yet. apparently it's been a while, and they needed to check his id to verify his credentials. i decided to wait for him to finish, but it took longer than anticipated, and it felt a little awkward just standing there. finally he got his ballot and cast his vote. he told me he wasn't able to get a democratic ballot because a while back he'd forgotten he registered as a libertarian, so he ended up with a libertarian ballot, not even knowing who the candidates were.

i made oatmeal for lunch. afterwards i started my rice and bean recipe in the slow cooker. it seemed too easy - just dump all the ingredients into the pot - i was curious what the final result would taste like. a can of diced tomatoes, can of chicken broth, can of blackeye peas, can of mexican red salsa, cup of frozen corn, and a pound of chicken gizzards and hearts. this would all slowcook for the rest of the afternoon, with the rice being added in the final half hour.

with temperature in the upper 50's, i biked to my parents place in the early afternoon to refill the bird feeder, which i could see was near empty again. along the way i hit up a few more pokestops and captured a handful of new pokemons. that's one of the perks from taking a pokemon hiatus: many more generations of critters i've never seen before, it's like a brand new game now.

i left belmont by 1:45pm.

while coming back, i heard somebody call my name on linnaean street. i turned around to see a man walking but i didn't recognize him until a bit later: it was bruce! i've seen jack walking around the neighborhood all the time, it was my first time seeing bruce. i decided to walk back my bike with him as we chatted. like me, he also noticed some early season flowers, including crocuses and periwinkles. he also saw honeybees on the crocuses. being today was super tuesday, we naturally talked about the election. i learned he voted for warren, because he wanted a progressive candidate, but couldn't stand sanders. he said as a boy of 10 he met biden while he was running for the senate, and more recently just last year he saw biden at a funeral. it was a little surreal, talking about which candidates we like or dislike, all the while walking by elizabeth warren's house. a car was parked in the driveway, a young woman was sitting inside face buried in a phone, looked like an aide.

it's march already: paul finally took down the dried up christmas wreathes from our doors. i've never been a fan, and every winter they hang it on my door without asking. not wanting to seem like a grinch i never complain, but it actually blocks all the sunlight from getting into my foyer, making a dark winter seeming even darker. this year they put up a small wreath so it didn't block as much light, but i'd prefer not to have one up at all.

around 5:30pm i added the rice to my slow cooker. kevin came home by 5:45pm. he did a load of laundry then took a shower. my rice and beans were ready to eat by 6pm. i scooped a bowl and garnished it with some cilantro and some fresh ground pepper. it was okay, a little mild, could use a stronger flavor. the chicken gizzards was a weird choice, it gave the dish a raw taste; better to have used a neutral choice of meat, like chicken breasts. now i have a whole pot of leftovers i can eat for the rest of the week.

when evening came around and polls started closing, the results began to come in. biden won in massachusetts, with sanders in second, and warren at third. the fact that warren wasn't able to win her home state will probably be the end of her campaign. out of the 14 states voting today, biden won 10 of them. sanders managed to capture california, colorado, utah, and vermont (his home state). california was the big prize, it allowed sanders to continue his campaign, though hiden was that far off, 34% to 27.2% respectively. bloomberg wasn't able to win any states, and his campaign is mostly likely over given the math.