The Storm

So the storm was everything the National Weather Service claimed it would be.

Wind, rain/sleet, and snow. Lots of snow. About 16 inches at my elevation.

The front deck 1/29/2021

It’s not all that unusual to get snows like this here. What is unusual is that we’ve had essentially 3 back to back over the course of a few days.

The street. which was clear down to the pavement on 1/28/2021 and is buried again on 1/29/2021

The problem with our street is that it’s not county maintained. Meaning the residents have to clear it ourselves.

So we all pull out shovels, snow blowers, and one of the neighbors has an ATV with a snow blade on the front. Unfortunately, in the last snow he broke a shear pin and is waiting for the replacement which is on it’s way from MN via the USPS. He’s thinking that he won’t get it until spring.

The snow mound that is my front yard.

So after a full day of working, resting, & working again I can see most of the driveway again. One of the neighbors is at the far end of the street running his snow blower. What usually happens is all the neighbors fire up their snow blowers at the same time and the begin a carefully choreographed series of passes on the street.

That doesn’t begin until driveways are cleared otherwise we end up losing track of the driveways and have to do more work to find ’em and clear ’em. Something you don’t find out until you’ve regularly used a snow blower is, after you’ve blown the snow with a snow blower, it tends to compress into ice. So if you bury someones driveway sometimes the only solution is a pick and standard shovel instead of the traditional snow shovel.

One other really nice thing is that if one of the neighbors is away, and there’s a snow storm those of us who are home clear their driveway so they have a place to park when they get back. It’s not something any of us have talked about or agreed upon. It’s just a nice unwritten rule of kindness.

The other rule is that if the storm was really bad and your driveway isn’t cleared yet, you park in one of the neighbors drives until we get to yours. That rule is also unwritten and one of the nice things about our street.

We also have a common bag of various sized snowblower shear pins, unfortunately, none of us had anything big enough for the neighbors ATV snow blade. Dang IT!!!!

A shot of the house after clearing the road

In the picture above, the dark streaks are where the new guy on the block ingested some of the dirt from my yard. Ooops! No matter, the yard will be fine, but his snow blower was very unhappy for a couple of minutes. This picture isn’t super pretty but it gives a good reference of ground level and the relative depth of the snow.

Fortunately, we haven’t had to contend with snowplayers today. They have a bad habit of turning onto our road then freaking out when the realize 2 important things. 1) It’s a dead end. 2) It’s very narrow and there isn’t anyplace to turn around unless there happens to be an open driveway.

Usually they end up having to back down out onto the wider county maintained road. Which is also full of snowplayers trying to get up that road to its dead end, or it’s full of those who have found out that there is no way through and turned around.

This is why we don’t like snowplayers up in the neighborhoods. There are lots of little roads that dead end. Lots of these people come up here thinking the whole town is a snow/ski area, and they refuse to read signs that are clearly posted saying that a road is a dead end, or following the larger and equally clear signs that point to the designated play areas, and ski resorts.

They get tired of crawling along on the main, and well maintained road and tend to turn onto the first side road they see. Then the police get involved and start running them out of the neighborhoods, writing tickets, and towing vehicles.

Us locals, stop with a smile and present our drivers licenses (to prove our address and get waved on through police checkpoints). Sometimes we’ll provide thermos refills for the officer on duty. Especially if we notice an officer who hasn’t had a break in many hours working in the cold.

I’m afraid that tomorrow (Saturday) will bring a ton of rude, giddy, idiots, which will make all of the neighbors weekends a pain in the ass. We tend to take turns shooing the idiots off our lawns, out of the streets, and out of the reforestation project(s).

Then we spend Monday and Tuesday picking up all the trash. Broken plastic sleds, paper, dirty diapers, gloves, shoes, face masks, and the amazing detritus of human beings.

I am amused by the irony as well. These are the same people who would scream at the top of their lungs against pulling out of the Paris climate accords, but think nothing of trashing a pristine mountain town.

After all, they don’t have to actually clean up the mess. They don’t have to call the forestry service to help sick wildlife. They don’t have to worry about anything do they? It’s someone else’s problem when they drive back down the mountain.

Following are some pictures that illustrate the point really well.

A local creek about 10 miles from home. This picture was taken 15 year ago before the road to the creek was paved.
The same area about 4 years ago.
There is a creek under these uprooted trees. People were climbing the trees and then using their weight to pull them over. Seems the people wanted a bridge so they could cross a creek that has at best 10 inches of water in it during the Summer.
Filthy Humans!

If I sound harsh about people. It’s because I see the kind of wanton destruction and disregard all too many people have for the “Natural” surroundings that I live in and appreciate.

Ironically, lots of these people come to these wilder places to, “Get away from the city,” Unfortunately, they bring all their bad habits with them and just expect it to be magically cleaned up every night.

Before anyone talks to me about Climate change, the Green New Deal, Carbon taxes, or my gas powered car. They better have a simple appreciation of what’s happening every day in their local wilderness.

Cause if they don’t… I’m going to eat them for lunch!

Sorry, I digressed…

I’m not a traditional tree hugging Eco-Warrior. I’m just a guy who likes nature and gets really mad about the hypocrisy of people who are willing to pay stupid taxes and force everyone else to do the same, terrorizing us with dire warnings about Climate Change.

Too many of these people have never in their lives spent a day carrying a big trash bag through a forest picking up other people’s trash. Or tending a trampled sapling, or scrubbing graffiti off of rocks, or looking after an animal that ingested something left behind by a thoughtless person.

I do all of these things, and for the record, I’m not part of any organization. There’s no-one taking pictures. The big garbage bag ends up in my trash or recycling bin which ever is appropriate. I do this because I believe it’s the right thing to do, and should be done for no other reason. I’m the human walking in the forest seeing all the mess. Rather than tut-tut about it, I’ve got two hands, and a backpack with at least one trash bag inside.

Leave no trace. Leave a place better than you found it. That way the next person on the trail can appreciate the beauty and hopefully they’re operating on the same philosophy.

I’m a big believer that until you tend to the local issues you can’t really address the global ones. I also believe that if everyone simply tended to their own local issues, the world would be a lot prettier and healthier.

After all anyone can write a check, or click “Like” and feel smug about it. Put some skin in the game if you’re really serious.

Just my two cents. What I’ve said may not be right. It may not be right for you in particular. But It’s right for me and given that I do have skin in the game I’m not going to apologize if what I’ve said offends anyone.

It’s been 10 days or so since Parler was taken down…

I’m sad to see it go, but I was able to go cold turkey from social media.

I know the good folks at Parler are working hard to get the site back up, but I’m questioning if I’ll return to any social media.

I maintain Linkedin only for job stuff and don’t interact on the site too much. I’ve never been comfortable with HR departments searching for social history, and Linkedin just makes it easy for them to judge you based on an arbitrary set of nebulous criteria.

I’ve been enjoying my HAM radio much more than social media anyway. There was a gentleman the other day who described HAM as the original social media and I think he’s right. The focus is much more local (although with radio sometimes you can get astounding distances, depending on conditions in the upper atmosphere.)

I’ve been catching up on local events in my immediate area. Figure about 100 miles or so. There are ways to get much farther reliably due to a network of specialized radio systems placed on mountains throughout the country or countries across the planet.

These systems are not funded by government, they’re generally free to use, and are funded by the good will of HAM operators and HAM clubs. Sure, using them is a little more difficult than clicking “Tweet” on your phone, but it does provide a bit of a barrier to the riff raff.

Since Parler was taken down, I switched on my radio and discovered there’s a mountain lion wandering through the town I live in.

Social media on a global scale wouldn’t have necessarily warned me about that. The lion has been seen in multiple locations and appears to be looking for food. The general warning is to make sure that you keep an eye on dogs, cats, and children, even in a fenced yard.

That’s good to know! Especially since Jesse and I sometimes take early morning walks and we’re generally on trails in the forest.

Were I in most any state but California, it would be appropriate for me to be armed while out on a walk in rough areas. Most of those other states would look at being armed as a prudent precaution. But California is so damn twitchy about guns, they’ve made it so that you can’t defend yourself against apex predators, (Human or Animal).

In my local area, there are bears, bobcats, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and as stated, mountain lions. Any one of which could attack if it perceived you and your dog as a threat. This is particularly so if you were to come around a boulder or through a stand of trees and surprise them.

California would prefer to clean up the bloody mess and airlift your body out, rather than allow you to have a fighting chance. Many Californias would shake their heads and tut, tut, your foolishness in being out of the oh so safe, city.

Many of them would say you got what you deserved for being in the wilderness in the first place. That’s one of the weirdest things about living here. Lots of Californias ask, “why would someone have been out in the forest?” I ask, “Wasn’t the person armed and prepared?”

Californians live under the constant threat of sudden destruction from an Earthquake, or a fire, but they are astounded that anyone would want to live where hurricanes or tornados may occur. I actually prefer hurricanes or tornados because you can see them coming and get the hell out of the way. Earthquakes provide no such warning. Fires, you can avoid if you know where they are.

I guess it’s just preference.

Oddly, social media rarely provides any real time useful data about disasters. It’s almost always after the fact. I’ve always assumed that was because of internet outages.

That is why I took the time to get the HAM license, and with recent events, I’m considering taking my license to the next level. This would open my ability to communicate on a wider range of frequencies legally.

Note I said legally. I could talk on those frequencies now, but I’m a law abiding citizen and believe in obeying rules which have a logical purpose and provide a clear benefit. Radio rules typically fall into that category.

There are a lot of other rules that I disagree with because they don’t seem to have a basis in common sense, logic, or science, and simultaneously don’t provide a clear benefit.

Parler was uncensored. Twitter and Facebook are very censored and not in a consistent way. Parler was/is about protecting the First Amendment. Twitter and Facebook say they are proponents of the First Amendment but demonstrably are not.

Parler was taken away from all of us by people that don’t believe in free speech and had the will and capacity to effectively silence a large percentage of Americans. If some people choosing to use Parler were offended by what they read or saw, they had the option to never go back to the Parler site.

But these people, who choose to be perpetually offended couldn’t abide differing opinions. They demand conformity of thought. I suspect that in time they’ll demand conformity of race too, since everything in their world revolves around racial identity politics.

On the radio there is no race. Only the content of your words. If you’re not good at putting your thoughts into words there’s no-one that will stop you from saying something but you might find yourself talking to dead air. Other people listening may simply find another channel, you know, old school… Don’t like what you’re hearing turn it off…

More people need to learn that.

Our house has been remarkably quiet over the past 3 weeks. We both tired of the news, we got tired of Hollywood celebrities shooting their mouths off in hateful tirades about Trump and frankly it’s made it so that watching their movies aren’t that enjoyable. Even music is only turned on when we want to listen to something particular. It’s tougher to relax or suspend disbelief so you can just enjoy the music or movie.

We’re hoping that in time as we distance from this season of chaos we’ll be able to enjoy these things once again.

In the mean time, from the radio chatter I’m hearing, we’re not alone. It appears that streaming movies and music over the fiber network here has dropped off significantly in our local area. But the Library is seeing a slight uptick in usage.

Something else I’d never have known from just social media. But it was on my HAM Radio this morning.

I’ve been listening to a bunch of local HAMS who get together every morning over their first or second cup of coffee.

They just get on the radio, and chat about local stuff. The weather, someone older who needs a little help with a project, the community center asking for books to lend, issues with snowplayers, and when the next community meeting is. The day after a community meeting, someone will summarize what was covered for those that couldn’t attend. It’s nice and somehow comforting.

Perhaps it’s time for us all to act more locally, and stop paying attention to the collective idiots who have found voice in social media. Maybe we should be more concerned about the people in our local area who are trying to do the right thing, and could use actual hands to do work that makes our community better?

It costs you nothing to comment on troubles in another state. But when you comment about something locally, there’s a certain expectation that you’re willing to put your money, or sweat equity, where your mouth is.

I suppose that too is old school…

And now I know the answer …

Growing up, my Father had a lot of history books on the shelves of the family room. Those books were lost in a fire in TN many years later. But I remember the bookshelves being full.

A lot of these books dealt with the history of WWI and WWII. There were some that provided historical analysis of the rise of the NAZI party.

As a child, no books in my Father’s or Mother’s home were forbidden for me to read. Obviously, there were a few books that I was strongly discouraged from reading because of content.

Even then, those books weren’t forbidden but my parents explained, rightfully so, that the subject matter was beyond my experience and that I probably wouldn’t enjoy or understand the book.

As I grew older the number of “discouraged” books dwindled in number. Dad would find me reading something from his library sometimes and ask in a friendly way, “What’re you reading sport?” I’d tell him or show him the cover and he’d almost always respond, “Good for you, if you run into something you don’t understand come get me,” then he’d go on about whatever task he was heading to do.

My curiosity led to our discussing the rise of the NAZI party and the conditions that existed in Germany after WWI that possibly led to WWII and Hitler.

These discussions happened 45 to 50 years ago. So I don’t remember the full context, what I do remember is my Dad listening, guiding, and challenging my logic on certain points.

I remember him grabbing the encyclopedia volume(s) that contained more information and helping me read and comprehend the information they contained. By no means was this a scholarly dissection of world politics but it formed some of my core beliefs about right and wrong, good and evil, and general morality.

I also remember thinking that America was a pretty great place. Dad talked about the rights we as a people had, the duties we had to each other, and those we had to our nation.

Dad was also very clearly pointed out that we delayed entry into WWII in part because we were weary of war. He thought it was unclear if we would have entered the war until much later, had it not been for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Dad said that Japan’s attack was the effect of our interfering with their ability to obtain raw materials for their war effort in China. His opinion, if I recall correctly, was that we were right in attempting to cool Japan’s war efforts but that we should have seen that our interference would illicit a response. I vaguely recall him saying something like Japan was so far away that perhaps the politicians felt Japan posed little threat.

I provide all this as a backdrop so that you can understand why an article caught my attention and sent cold chills down my spine.

The article (I’m looking for the original source,) Was a snippet of an interview with a 80 something German who had immigrated to America after the defeat of the NAZIs. Apparently he was commenting on ANTIFA here in the US. (I really want to read the whole interview.)

The quote was, “We never thought it could happen in Germany either, these people must be stopped by whatever means necessary.

I’ve caught similar interviews from survivors of Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Dachau. These survivors were Jews, but this is the first time I’ve seen something from a German who was not in a camp, and not a Jew.

Then I remembered reading about the rise of the NAZIs, and talking with my Dad about it. There were similar comments in those books and some of the interviews expressed a confusion on the part of average Germans as to how Germany, and by extension themselves, had come to be involved in death camps. I remember that a lot of the first person accounts were very conflicted. It was as if their pride in their country had been subverted into a rabid nationalism and that state run media and censorship had a large part in adding fuel to the fire.

One aspect was that it became dangerous to yourself or your family if you asked questions or expressed dissenting opinions. Because of that overarching threat, human nature was to comply.

Many of the people were hoping that the problem would just go away and tended to their jobs hoping that the disruption wouldn’t be too severe. A lot of average Germans held no animosity toward Jewish people at all. But Jewish people, and people who were different were painted by the propaganda machines of The Third Reich as enemies of the state.

After years of hearing the propaganda, folks were left questioning their values and would in fact snitch on their neighbors sometimes out of a misplaced sense of nationalism. At other times to curry favor with the local NAZI officials for better food or medicine.

The disturbing thing was that generally, folks believed they were doing the right thing. It was only in hindsight that it became clear their loyalties and national pride had been co-opted, perverted, and ultimately betrayed by their leaders.

The chill that ran down my spine was noticing the similarity between then in Germany, and now in the United States.

Here in the US right now, we have several “Enemies”.

The Police, The President, The Republicans, The Democrats, COVID. All are to varying degrees painted as the enemy. While at the same time Nationalism coupled with a pervasive sense of fear, or unfairness, is increasing.

To listen to the left, Trump is trying to subvert the electoral process, The right says the Democrats are stealing the election. Yet both sides would tell you they absolutely believe they are trying to protect this country.

Maybe both are.

Both parties are coming at this with different information and both sides are having that information re-enforced by the news media and their own personal beliefs. I strongly suspect that the “Truth” is not something that either side has a full grasp of. I also suspect that is by design.

At the level of the ground forces both groups only know what they’ve been told, or what they choose to believe.

The puppet masters at the top are the ones who have the full story and are pulling the strings. It’s the oldest story in the world, (besides prostitution,) divide and conquer.

While I personally believe that the election was monkeyed with on many levels. I’m hoping for a Trump win but that may not be the case. As I’ve stated what concerns me more as a citizen of this country is that the election itself may be corrupt. If that is true, then it’s become completely pointless to have elections at all. If there’s no point to elections then we already have a socialist state where dictators for life will become commonplace.

It is entirely possible that if Biden / Harris are declared the winners, that I will die before another Republican gets into office. Look at Obama. I voted for him for his first term. I bought the hype and thought, “If he delivers on any of his promises the country will come out ahead.” By his second campaign I was firmly in the anyone but Obama camp and was disappointed that he won a second term. I personally was concerned by his pen and phone call stance to bypass naysayers in congress. Of course there were those on the far right that said he was corrupt. I chose to reserve judgement.

As Obama yielded office to Trump I thought, “I hope this guy does a better job than Obama and thank God it’s not Hillary.” Naively, I thought that would be the end of it for at least four years. I was laughably wrong about that the past four years have been a shit show of epic proportions. Not because of what Trump did or didn’t do, but because of the unparalleled venom, obfuscation, and outright demonstrable lies that have become canon told about him and his administration.

Had congress spent less time pursuing red herring after red herring to impeach the man and simply worked within the framework of the constitution and law with him. I believe that the country would be far better off than it was in the Obama years.

I mean look at it. Congress spent four years trying to come up with evidence to support impeachment. When they finally did, their four years of conflict fell apart within a week.

That on it’s face says they didn’t have anything. It was all smoke and theater, a distraction, something to polarize the parties and the people.

Trump is a New York businessman. He doesn’t have to be nice, he by definition is arrogant and bombastic. He’s prone to hyperbole, so the fuck what? He’s made and lost more money than I’ve made in my whole life several times over, and still he’s comfortable enough to donate his entire presidential salary for four years to various charities.

When was the last time any other politician made that choice?