I Saw the Sign: Melissa Noriega's Signs Go Up in the Fort Bend County Part of Houston

There is a small corner of Fort Bend County that overlaps with the City of Houston. Awhile back the Fort Bend Democrats volunteered to put up Melissa Noriega's campaign signs in that part of Houston and today they went up. Don borrowed Marsha's pickup truck again and we loaded it with T-posts and Melissa's signs, and drove over there this afternoon.

It was a phenomenal day to be outside slogging through the mud. Don joked with me that on Saturday I dealt with virtual mud and today I encountered the real thing. Houston, after a good rain, has this kaolin clay that turns into a gumbo. With every step you gain another quarter of an inch in height.

Again, as in the '06 campaign, the first sign took the longest amount of time to put up. It has been awhile.

This one we nailed to a pre existing signpost sited right at the exit of a small community known as Quail Glen. An elected official of the Fort Bend County Democratic Party has a residence there so it ought to remind her that there is an election coming up real soon.

Then we found this wire fence right at one of the entrance to the Fort Bend Parkway.

See what I mean about a phenominal day? Oh, by the way, if you've never seen a grassroots effort, take a look at all the grassroots in this area of Houston near the "antenna farm" in neighboring Missouri City.

This one is meant to catch the attention of Melissa's "Sonic" fans.

I worked the phones on November 7th calling this precinct. When we drove past the Briarchase Baptist Church, where I was directing people to go and vote, it all came back to me.

Isn't it nice how they made a "bevel" on this fence? This sign is at a signaled intersection and visible from three directions. I hope this one stays up and no one complains. Melissa's campaign staff tells me that Roy Morales put one of his signs on one of these people's property in the Museum District. The person called and Morales' hired hand had to go and take it down.

Here's another one we planted in the same general area. Notice I'm starting to tire and am now taking photographs from the truck, through glass?

This one we put up as the pile got smaller toward the end of the day. See? The sun's getting low. This is on the road leading to the location of one of the early voting sites.

Oh yeah, we put in a whole bunch more. One memorable one is along a Fort Bend Parkway feeder. We were getting a little punchy and putting up signs facing both directions when it suddenly dawned on us that it was a one-way road.

Another memorable one we placed in a neighborhood with slabs of concrete sidewalks all tilted up from swelling clay. Walking back to the truck, I didn't pick up my right foot high enough and was too tired to catch my fall as I pitched forward right into Don, and then to the ground. No harm done. Don partly broke my fall and now I can have some new cutoff denim jeans.

Yeah, it's hard work, but righteous work.

Work that I hope will, in some small way, help to get the best candidate elected to the At-Large Position 3 seat on the Houston City Council.