August 4, 2018
This is the first Summer (in 34-of-them) that I haven\’t been taking courses; teaching classes; tutoring; seeing clients; schlepping my sons to soccer tourneys all-over-Southern California; or, engaging in a hectic traveling schedule. So, even though I am working on my Fall syllabi (only one new prep, thank goodness) — I can grab my surfboard and head to the beach whenever I want (always preferring a 3-4 foot wave).
This is a remarkable new state of existence for me: a very strange place to be: beholden to no one (except the damned matrix [that Thoreau disavowed]). But unlike Thoreau — I still pay the bills to keep my family out of debtor\’s prison — because I know there is a price for California Sunshine (even though we are burning again).
My garden is a mess — probably because I employ the worst gardener on-the-planet. But I must also shoulder some of the blame — as I have expected Cennobio to work miracles with very little input from me. After 10 years of failed schemes I have awoken to the realization that being a home owner requires daily maintenance (and allotta water).
So, with more-and-more friends and confidantes giving me the zen-like advice to just \”let It go\” — I\’m letting It go…like the Serenity Prayer suggests:
God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.
I\’ve been trying to take down Trump for-over-2-years — to no avail. I\’m done with him! It\’s time to look no further than my own backyard — which the County wants to tax me some more on. \”They\” have now proposed a storm water runoff tax (say !@#$% what?!). And because I live in a hillside home — I\’m sure that I will be taxed up the Wazoo for the effluent that pours off during a rain into the awaiting storm water drains (which DWP cleaned the other morning during our heat wave and drought…at 5:30am?!).
George the Printer tells me that he wanted to install a rain barrel catchment system but the quote was for $16,000. How can gutters, piping and plastic barrels cost $16,000?!
I\’m also betting that in our new social climate I won\’t even get to vote on this rain water run-off tax! It will be imposed on me — like the gas tax that Jerry Brown and our State Senators slapped on US a while back. This is feeling like another page out-of-the-taxation without representation handbook!
But boy, has that gas tax come back to bite California Democrats in the butt! Just like the idiotic bullet train (and the storm water runoff tax [hopefully]) will. I\’m no Republican — but I\’m voting with them on repealing that gas tax…
Jerry! Is your legacy going to be to hang US with the albatross that is the bullet train?! You\’ve done plenty of good for the State over-the-years — but now you seem to be going into reverse. Think of how many fires will be started by a welder\’s spark — a welder working on the bullet train!
It\’s pretty obvious that bullet train project should be stopped because it will only bankrupt US. Costs are already climbing above previous estimates (Duh!). The Bullet Train Monies would be better spent on fire prevention and water retention!
Jerry, If you persist with this bullet train thang — it will only speed through a burned-out husk that was once California. Heed your own advice on global warming!
So, there it is: I feel badly for the animals on the endangered list — and the caribou in the Alaskan wilderness — but like Dorothy, I will confine myself to my own backyard — and that backyard happens to be California!