Author: wwducat

About: Writer, Technology guy, Photographer, Possibly EX-Software QA Engineer, Worker Bee. Interests: SCUBA, Working out, Friends, New Views, New Vistas, Photography
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Just about when I think California isn’t that bad…

California slaps me in the face.

I guess that’s better than my Brother punching me out and waking up in a deprogramming camp somewhere in a flyover state. Don’t laugh, I wouldn’t put it past him.

My brother is absolutely convinced that California is the worst state in the union. This is coming from a guy who has lived in New York, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis, MN. I think he looks at California as a contaminant to the rest of the United States.

I’ve lived here so long a lot of the insanity here seems “normal”. When I’m out of California for a while I find myself thinking how strange this place is.

Then there are days like Wednesday…

I had my car in for service. I had a loaner and as usual I returned the loaner with a full tank of gas (even though they gave it to me with less than 1/4 of a tank) Hey, They Loaned me a brand new car. I treat it like when a friend loans you their car. Custom was, that you return your friends car clean, and full of gas.

All was well. The issue with my car could not be reproduced so It’s a waiting game until the failure becomes a bit more obvious if it’s really a problem at all. It’s one of those things that is a weird sound. But it might be nothing at all.

Nonetheless I got two new tires and an alignment. The two old tires were showing their belts in a couple of spots. It was time! Especially since we’re coming up on winter and wet roads.

I went out to my car and opened the door.

WTF?!?!?!

Someone had been using my iPhone cables that were stored in the center console. I wouldn’t have minded except that it was obvious the person had also been playing their music through the car’s sound system. This was easy to determine because the cable was connected to the USB AUX IN (inside the console), and the entertainment system said “NO USB SOURCE”

But it didn’t stop there, both seats, Passenger and Driver’s were covered in greasy dirt.

Okay…

Time to go bring this to someone’s attention.

I tell the supervisor that we have a problem, as I’m heading into the parts department to purchase a package of leather cleaner wipes. $5 no big deal and I’ll use them next time I hit the car wash.

As I’m wiping the Driver’s seat I discover two deep gouges in the leather. Not quite cuts, but deep narrow gouges. Probably caused by a tool in someone’s back pocket or a clip of some kind attached to someone’s belt.

Now I’m seriously annoyed and I march back to the supervisor’s desk to bring this to his attention.

On the plus side, if the car hadn’t been dirty when I got it back I might not have noticed the gouges.

I was nice, but I told the dealership this kind of thing is beyond unacceptable.

They agreed!

Next time, I’m pulling all the cables out of the console. Oh, and there will be a next time because they’ve told me they will repair the damage to my seats.

I needed a drink. So I called a close friend and we went to lunch.

That was nice, and I was much happier getting back on the road. I really do like my car better than the loaners.

It’s 2:30 as I pull out of the restaurant parking lot. I make it to the 261 out of Orange County by 2:40 and the toll road is pretty clear.

I should have made it home in about 90 minutes. NOPE!

2.5 hours later I’m in the line to get off at my exit. I’ve been creeping up the hill for the past 20 minutes. And as I approach the exit, assholes start cutting in from the left. Why? Simple, because they are dicks! All the rest of us had been waiting patiently. Cutting in from the left like that is just jumping the line. These assholes know they can do it because no-one wants an accident and that’s the only way you can stop an asshole from cutting the line at an exit.

Them cutting the line like that by the way just makes the problem at the exit worse because now there’s more turbulence and more danger.

After the 10th motherfucker (This one diving directly in front of me,) I lost my shit and started laying on the horn.

For those of you living outside of California, that is supposed to be the height of rudeness when driving.

But wait it gets worse…

There’s road work near the exit. They’re putting lights in, (about fucking time!) Actually we did fine without lights since 1992 when I moved up here. There was only a stop sign. It was a 4 way stop and people OBEYED the law.

Now we’re getting lights. They’ve made one lane left turn only. The other lane is right turn only or straight through. The lights at the freeway exit are operational. The left turn lane turns into a single lane and YET, people insist on making left turns from both lanes then causing accidents when they run out of lane, and into concrete barriers.

I’ve watched an 18 wheeler make the turn illegally from the right turn only lane and damn near decapitate a motorcyclist in the process.

Again…

It’s about obeying the LAW. But apparently people in California have decided that the law applies to everyone else not them.

Kind of like the Biden clan. Or a lot of the Democrats in congress.

The thing is, 200 miles outside California, driving changes. Get past the Las Vegas strip and people even in NV are halfway decent drivers. Arizona, on the I-40 people get super courteous. Phoenix and Tucson are a lot more like California was 20 years ago. Don’t worry, they’ll both get as shitty as California traffic is because the Californians are bailing to Phoenix and Tucson.

There are also a lot of illegals driving there too and the mix of these drivers and those who learned to drive in the United States tend to breed a lot of shitty traffic and / or a lot of accidents.

All of this is to say that by the time I manage to get home, these days, I’m really wound up. It’s also why I don’t really like leaving the mountain. Driving has become such a chore. Either you’re expecting someone to barrel into you from 1 (or more) of 3 directions. Or you’ll drop from 75 MPH to 0MPH for absolutely no reason.

Well, there is a reason, some moron ahead of you is tapping on their brakes in time with a RAP song and the uncertainty and randomness of the flashing tail lights is causing everyone to tap their breaks too because they think there’s something happening on the freeway.

All it takes is one idiot in the fast lane farting around and the whole freeway turns into a fucked up traffic jam.

Anyway, after I got home, I had time to take the pup for his walk. It was a short one because I don’t like walking him in the dark.

We have bears, mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes. Generally, they’re all happy to avoid a human and his dog in the daytime. But at night, things change. These critters conclude they might have an advantage and things can go south from there.

I’d hate to be responsible for one of these beautiful creatures being put down, because I did something really stupid and looked like I was walking a tasty treat, or worse yet… That I was a tasty meal. Either event would result in one of these creatures being hunted and killed.

That would be tragic.

I need to schedule a spa day for the dog. I’ve got my haircut scheduled. I’d like a massage maybe I’ll schedule that in the upcoming week or so.

I’ll keep tossing stuff out of the house through the winter. The goal is to have the place in shape enough to put it on the market the first day of spring.

As I started this post. Just about when I think staying in California would be okay… The reality of California slaps me in the face. One of those realities is traffic getting consistently worse.

Another reality is $425 registration fees for a vehicle. And let’s face it, jobs are problematic. Both of my 2 oldest friends. Guys I met when I first moved to California, we started working at Toys R Us in our teens, have retired in the past year.

Why? Because they were being chronically fucked with by managers who couldn’t manage their way out of a wet paper bag.

I retired because no-one claiming they’re hiring will return a fucking phone call.

Note, none of us have reached “Retirement” age. We’re taking our Social Security early.

We’d all like to work…

But we’re apparently the wrong sex, wrong color, and the wrong age.

So we’ve all decided to take our football and go home.

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Dec 7

Perhaps today we should all take a break from the bullshit and remember the people who died during the bombing of Perl Harbor in 1941.

The bombing marked our entrance into World War II. Until the bombs fell, America was divided about going to fight another war.

After the bombs fell, America was pissed off enough to engage in what was essentially a two front war and 4 years later America was still pissed off enough to drop two atomic bombs on Japan.

Today, I’m putting politics aside and just remembering the people who died. 

It’s been 82 years since Pearl Harbor. Let’s pause and realize that as bad as World War II was, World War III would be exponentially worse. 

Today, it might be a good idea to pause and reflect then see what can be done, or should be done to turn us away from World War III.

Compared to the bombs the Russians and the US have today, the bombs the US dropped on Japan are firecrackers.

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Well There’s your problem!!!

Watching Harvard President Claudine Gay testifying before congress was one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen in a while.

Gay is a political scientist and should have been a politician. It’s rare that I see someone so unbelievable slimy, obviously duplicitous, and plain revolting. Listening to this vile cunt answering (with non answers) produced a visceral reaction that left me disappointed when a bolt of lightning from on high, didn’t fry her scummy ass.

Nothing pisses me off more in these hearings than hearing someone refuse to answer a yes or no question, with some long assed bullshit bunch of words.

Fuck! I’d bet if I asked this Harvard diversity hire if she was in fact black, she wouldn’t just answer the question.

Elise Stefanik wasn’t having any of this bullshit either. We all know nothing will be done though.

The other Presidents of higher educational campuses were no better.

I’m not sure that any of our Universities can be saved.

It’s absolutely obvious that these places are not about education.

Harvard, Yale, UPenn, and MIT no longer produce well rounded, educated lawyers, economists, or scientists.

Since God chose not to strike these people dead, I can only assume Hell’s admissions line is full.

I caught another clip showing the UPenn and MIT presidents responding with slimy weasel words instead of just answering directly.

God I miss plain speech!

I think speaking plainly is a lot more healthy than sliming your way around an uncomfortable subject. It’s like just grabbing ahold of a nasty splinter in your foot and yanking it out so you’re done with it, versus someone playing with the splinter because they “Don’t want to hurt you”. In the first case you get on with your day and by sundown you’ve forgotten you had a splinter. In the second case the splinter is still in your foot only now it’s starting to get infected.

Safe spaces, hate speech rules or laws, and intimidating folks into silence do not help us, or serve the greater good. There are people who will always hate each other. Better that it’s out in the open because then the hated know when and where to carry a gun.

If Harvard, Yale, UPenn, & MIT are anti-Semitic then fine. Tell all your Jewish students, refund them their current semesters fees, and housing and let them call it DONE. Then they can move on to a school that is not anti-semitic, finish getting their degrees, and get on with their lives.

 

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So does this mean….

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson May15 23 AP 640x480That reparations are off the table?

While Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago was blaming white extremists for some of the problems in Chicago he said one thing that really stuck out from all the usual diatribe.

“It is abysmal and it is an affront to everything that is good about this country for the extremism in this country to use people as political tools to settle political scores for something that happened over 400 years ago. They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country,” – Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago.

Is he suggesting that we should stop trying to settle scores for something that happened 400 years ago?

If so, does he mean all scores? Since reparations have been paid at least once, (40 acres and a mule) I’d take Brandon Johnson at his word and say, “Okay, The black community needs to stop asking for more reparations and those evil white extremists will stop doing whatever you’re accusing them of.”

Let’s face it, the majority of this whole white supremacy/ white extremist narrative is nothing more than a reuse of “The Monster in the closet/ Boogieman” designed to terrify black folks into voting for the Democrats. It’s a lot like the Hamas children’s shows extolling the evil of the Jews and teaching little Palestinian Children that killing Jews is a good thing.

In fact you could take one of those Hamas children shows and replace the word “Jew” with the word “White” and not have to reshoot a single frame of the show. A lot of black folks would eat that shit right up and be burning and looting inside a week. Especially if you made sure that everyone knew the show was from Palestine. (After all if it’s from Palestine it has to be “good and right” doesn’t it?)

Chicago is a shit show and has been a shit show for a very long time. I have an acquaintance who talks about driving into Chicago for a Thanksgiving gathering in the late 1970’s and getting shot in the leg, sitting inside the car after filling his tank with gas. No warning, no altercation, he just happened to be a white guy passing through South Chicago. The family was selling their home due to the rising crime and this was to be the last Thanksgiving in Illinois. The round was a .22 and had to be surgically removed. The police of course never found the shooter, and couldn’t even say if he was a target or if the round ricocheted from a gun fight happening half a block away.

The issue isn’t White Supremacy or extremists. The issue is one of law and order. If someone breaks the law and gets arrested, it doesn’t matter what the color of their skin is, or their financial circumstances, or in fact anything except that they broke the law. They should pay the price! End of discussion.

The only variation I’d offer is for children. Sometimes a kid gets caught up in something that escalates so fast they’re in the middle of a storm. I’d suggest we go back to the time when a judge could show lenience in the case of a first time offender. The judge could sentence the youthful offender to supervised public service. 

Paint buildings in the park. Pick up trash. Have the kid do something useful and make it clear that if they wanted a part time job it’s available depending on their grades, their parents permission, and how hard they work. Try to instill a sense of pride in the community.

Oh yes, that can’t work right now because there are too many people with completely different views of pride in their communities and simply too many people committing crimes.

Johnson doesn’t want to say it out loud. 

Chicago is the mess it is due to poor public policies, lack of law enforcement, lenient courts, and being a sanctuary city. Lightfoot didn’t help matters and he does have a mess to clean up, but Lightfoot is not solely to blame for that mess. Johnson needs to blame half a century of poor Democratic leadership. People who wouldn’t learn from their mistakes and who simply kept doubling down instead of discarding failed ideas.

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December 1st ????

This year has flown by!

Pretty soon it’s going to be snowy again.

I guess it’s not really surprising. Time seems to slip by faster as we get older. (At least I’ve noticed it more.) I’ve had a lot on my mind and been working through a bunch more emotional stuff. With those kinds of distractions it was easy for the time to slip  away.

On the plus side of things, Over the past week or so, I’ve been feeling lighter,  while I’m still unsure about a lot of things I don’t feel as weighted down or crushed as I have for the past year.

This isn’t just because we’re in the “Festive Season”. I haven’t even decided if I’m going to do the tree thing this year or not. It’s just me and the dog and Santa isn’t likely to come down my chimney.

I think there’s been enough time pass that there’s distance between Jerry’s passing and right here, right now. I miss him but it’s not the sharp dagger that it was. 

I make no guarantees about how I’ll feel mid January. But this first year of holidays and seasons changing has been hard. Two more to go and I’ll have survived them all. 

I’m not trying to rush the season, but I feel like making it to mid January is a milestone and somehow after that, I’ll be less burdened or sad. I have no proof that will be the case but it “Feels” that way.

It’s time to bust out the Die Hard Franchise, and Lethal Weapon just because they’re Christmassy I know Bruce Willis would disagree but Die Hard has been such a tradition for years I can’t resist.

It’s getting easier for me to toss things in the trash. It sounds stupid but after spending years worrying if I was throwing something of the other half’s away that was important. I was having a tough time getting over the habit. Nothing of his is important to him anymore, the only important any of it has is that which I assign to it.

I’m noticed I’m happier because the house looks less cluttered. There’s still a long way to go but it’s better and improves my general outlook on life too. 

I’m moving in the direction that I want to go. Whether I keep this place, or pack everything up and move, I’ll still need to be free of tons of useless stuff. Long range, my plan is to clear enough of the garage out that I can move my stuff from a storage facility up here. That will save me some cash monthly, and allow me to sort, sell, or trash stuff I don’t want or need.

If I’m going to move, I want the moving truck to be as small as possible.