This backflow preventer is on E Street in downtown Davis. I was starting a new little sketchbook, a pocket sized Moleskine. I like having a smaller book to carry around. It’s been a while since I’ve drawn one of these, though I still draw a hydrant every now and then, rarely in Davis since I’ve kinda sketched them all before. This one looks different depending on the angle. I could draw it from the side, it looks different. Boring conversation anyway. So, there’s going to be a General Election in the UK on July 4th? That was a shock announcement, Rishi Soon-to-be-gone getting soaked outside Number 10, but the first thing I thought is why have it on a national holiday? Wow, I’ve been living out here too long. May we live in interesting times alright. Still I do love a General Election. I like the elections in America, which seem to last years with campaign ads and endless rallies, it’s usually just a few weeks of fun in Britain, and then you wait up late watching Paxman or Dimbleby on Newsnight and the Swingometer with Peter Snow, quickly cutting to the returns on stage at Dunny on the Wold, with the Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party (yes I just rewatched that episode of Blackadder, as an attempt to explain the British political system to my son; turns out satirical silliness is not quite as bizarre as current reality), and the results come in that night, and the next morning oof! the PM is booted out of Downing Street, see you later, no waiting a couple of months for them to pack up all their state secrets. And then we give it a couple of years and the PM is ousted and replaced by someone else in the party with no General Election, and then someone else has a go for a laugh, at least that’s how it’s been for the past decade. And don’t get started on the House of Lords. Fun times. When I was a teenager I’d make a chart in the fortnight up to the election showing the opinion polls for each day as they move up and down, and then on election night I’d fill in the seats as they were announced, until I would get bored and say sod it, because it was a Thursday and I had to get up for school next day because GCSEs. I am glad it’s on July 4 this time because now I can stay up late here (we’re eight hours behind so it’s not that late) and miss all the fireworks because I need to see who has won Oldham West and Royton or somewhere. Can’t wait.