Okay, that’s better, the evacuation warnings have been lifted.

Cloud clouds blue sky.Thanks to a lot of firemen who’ve worked their asses off to get the Bridge fire under control, the evacuation warning has ben cancelled for Wrightwood.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the west end of town took a hit. I’m not sure yet how many homes were damaged or destroyed.

It’s easy to say it could have been worse. That’s a true statement, but for those folks who lost their homes, it is worse. Much Worse.

I know, I’ve been through it. You feel disconnected. Your place in the world is gone, and you’re faced with a million tiny decisions all of which feel like you’re making the wrong choice. Loved ones look to you for strength and guidance. It’s easy to forget that this is one of those burdens that is best shared and that together you’ll all get through it.

There are some things that you’ll never fully get over. To this day, a roaring smoky fire in a fireplace can freak me out. That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever get past. But a lot of the other stuff is eventually left by the side of the road you travel.

There was brief rain yesterday that helped was some of the smoky smell out of the air. We could have done with a lot more gentle rain, but I’m not going to complain. For me it’s the sound of rain the roof thats soothing.

Yesterday, I felt pretty crappy most of the day so I appreciated the sound for as long as it lasted. I’m feeling better this morning, which is a good thing because I’ve got chores to do.

The sky is clear and blue this morning. It’s going to be a good day & now I’m off to walk the dog.

A couple of days ago Governor Newsom signed some free speech bills

These two bills are not the end of the First Amendment. But if they’re allowed to stand, they could begin the erosion of the First Amendment.

I believe these two bills will have a chilling effect on political memes within California and I’m not sure how these will play out in situations where the host servers are not located in California.

The problem I see is that if California is allowed to prosecute memes regardless of where the creator lives, then defacto censorship is likely to extend across the entire nation. I honestly wonder about the longevity of this blog.

I’ve expressed some pretty strong opinions about our political candidates and even created one or two memes that are very unflattering to several presidents, vice presidents, and governors.

Will I be arrested? Will I have my First Amendment rights stripped from me? I’m a little guy, I can’t afford to mount a legal defense against the deep pockets of the State of California.

So until I understand the ramifications of the new laws, I think I’ll not be posting anything of a political nature.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

Due to uncertainty, and fear of unfair prosecution, I’m self censoring. This is exactly what these laws seek to do.

I’ll be reading these laws very carefully and looking at the details of what precisely they’ll prohibit. After I understand the law I’ll return to making political comments. I’m willing to bet there will be other people that just stop talking.

I happen to believe that if people aren’t allowed to speak… okay, bitch, and complain. Then like the boiler with a broken pressure relief valve, the pressure will just build until until what would have been unflattering speech will become something far worse.

The first read of these bills looks like they’re targeting memes, and videos that appear to have the subject political figure saying something they didn’t say. A.K.A. disinformation.

The “Very Fine People Hoax” for example is the one that pops to mind instantly. Biden and Harris have both kept that hoax alive even though it’s been throughly debunked, and disproven. The news media cut the video of Trump in such a way that it appears he said Nazis were very fine people. He didn’t. A shit ton of people still believe he said it.

Mark Twain said, “No amount of evidence will ever convince an Idiot.”

Turns out if the TV says it, It’s gotta be true.

Under these new laws, would California seek to prosecute Joe Biden or Kamala Harris?

Who decides what is dis-information anyway? The Nazi Party had quite a division to make this determination and sent authorities to arrest those believed guilty of creating or spreading dis-information.

Is this the America we want to live in? Do we want to have a Nazi-esq group of jack booted enforcers kicking down doors because some of us forwarded a picture of a dog looking up at the camera with a concerned face., and a caption, “I know we’re visiting family in Springfield, don’t let me out of your sight,” because it was funny.

It doesn’t matter if Haitians are literally eating cats & dogs or if it’s meant as a slur. The humor is visual, and conveyed by the dog’s expression. We as a people, used to be able to see humor without being so sensitive that it traumatized us.

I loved the Washington Post fact check on Trump when he said, “we had hamburgers piled a mile high.” They said, “at 2 inches high, 700 hamburgers wouldn’t be a mile high”

Duh! Really? You don’t say. It was an exaggeration. A figure of speech, no-one in their right mind actually thought Trump had stacked hamburgers 1 mile high.

We used to not have a problem with these sorts of exaggerations either. We as a people used to recognize that our leaders were human. We used to give them a pass on some silliness. We became concerned if the leader repeated the error. Then we’d ask, “Excuse me? What did you say, and what did you actually mean by what you said?” When we asked that question, we expected an answer, plain & simple. We didn’t want or expect a bunch of BS language that said nothing and never provided an answer.

This was back in the day when Americans had a sense of humor.

When was the last time you saw a good comedy routine?

I loved Netflix for their standup comedy. When there were fewer and fewer actually funny programs, I stopped watching Netflix, then I cancelled the subscription.

I digress, well, maybe not. As cancel culture became prevalent, comedians began self censoring. That might have been why the stand-up routines seemed so flat, or stale. If you can’t say what you want without someone being offended and harming your career then you start censoring yourself too.

I’m not sure I like this dark road we’re apparently on.

I don’t appreciate political parties supporting censorship because I look to the history of not only the Nazi party, but other dictators, kings, and potentates.

This is something I believe should concern us all.

it’s a super nice day in Orange County.

I’m enjoying the cool overcast from an on-shore flow. Sitting out on the porch with Jesse napping is very pleasant. Knowing the most anything I might want to go get, is literally a few minutes away could really spoil me.

I’ll admit it, I like being in civilization. 

Don’t get me wrong, I liked living in the mountains. I liked my life and my other half and there was joy in our home. There were rough times to be sure, but any issues were offset by having silence, room, and a safe home. Those perks outweighed the inconvenience of having to drive a minimum of 30 minutes or more to get to a shopping center for stuff like clothes or a Costco. There were times when It felt like I needed a sherpa and we were planning an expedition to deepest Africa.

When I was working off the hill, stopping by one of those places, or as Jerry & I often did, meeting at a mall or whatever to take care of necessary shopping on our way home from our respective jobs, wasn’t a problem. We’d have a date night, have dinner, do our shopping and head home after most of the traffic was past.

Now that I’m alone and not working off the hill, being on the mountain is a bit more of a problem. I have little reason to leave and less reason to want to deal with nightmarish traffic getting to and from the various shopping centers.

Staying here in Orange County, with friends. I’m reminded of the advantage of being closer to a real city. In this case, an interconnected web of sprawling cities where the shelves are full and not every item is locked up behind plexiglass.

Over the past couple of days I’ve been struck by the difference in rite aid here versus home. Grocery stores, four within blocks of each other versus home where there’s only 1 or 2 within 20 miles.

Yesterday for example, was interesting. I dropped the dog off for a grooming appointment, drove 1/2 mile to a car wash, drove back to the plaza where I’d left the dog. Noticed there was a SportClips, got my hair cut, walked through a Trader Joes (hadn’t done that for years), compared prices at a Smart & Final, then got a message that the dog was ready.

Out where I live, that would have been an all day affair, possibly 2 days. The local SportClips closed during COVID. The groomer is 45 minutes away. The grocery stores and pharmacy are 20 to 30 minutes. There are 3 grocery stores within 35 miles, 4 if you include the Super Target and Walmart.

It’s funny. Before I settled down with Jerry, I was an Orange County boy. I knew my way around and  literally could lay my hands on just about anything I needed, anytime of the day and night.

Living in Escondido for the time I did, I was still out of the main urban areas of San Diego and honestly, I was glad of it.

This fire may have given me some direction. (Provided it doesn’t just burn everything down.)

I begin to remember what I liked about living here in OC and can directly contrast that with mountain life.

I know that I have too much stuff.

Being evacuated, I’m traveling uncomfortably light. The house on the other hand is uncomfortably heavy. There should be some nice balance in the middle.

Likewise much as I appreciate the convenience of OC, I don’t want to deal with the dense urban environment, the excessive noise and not enough open spaces.

This isn’t a criticism, it’s simply observing that moving back into a dense urban environment probably wouldn’t be the best thing for me personally. 

I think I need to search for a happy medium between the absolute rural out in the sticks places, and easy access to the niceties of modern life.