Tag: General

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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.

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I never would’ve thought…

The resin bed in the water softener could break down. But it can and then god only knows what you’re drinking if you drink the tap water.

The reverse osmosis unit had been off-line for about four or five days. I didn’t think about it too much because I thought the water softener itself was still working properly. Uh huh… Sometimes if I didn’t have bad luck I’d have no luck at all.

As it turns out I was wrong. The resin bed in the water softening system had deteriorated which actually explains why I felt like absolute shit for two or three days.

I was drinking the tapwater, thinking it might just have a little more salt than usual. It turns out it may have had something else too.

This probably explains why Jesse was a little loose in the rear end. I suspect both of us were trying real hard to throw off whatever else was included in the tapwater that we were drinking.

Saturday or Sunday I switched over to bottled water, not because I had any great insight, but because the tapwater came out looking murky at one point, then it was brown, later it was just cloudy. Let’s put it this way it looked like Detroit.

I thought the problem was the water company itself, and was all prepared to give them a piece of my mind on Tuesday after the Labor Day Holiday. Because the only time things seem to break anymore is over a holiday weekend!

Then I noticed that the hose water was clear. Meaning the problem had to be inside the house. I tried to bypass the water softener and found that the bypass valves were seized. So bottled water it was, I just hope Jesse didn’t acquire a taste for arrowhead.

The repair guy showed up as promised, when promised. He was prepared and went right to work.

He got the RO unit working again, then went down to the Water Softener itself. The bad news was the resin bed was shot to hell and was polluting the water more than helping. The good news was the system has a lifetime warranty so there was no additional charge to clean out the old resin and replace it.

An hour or two later and the system is once again operating.

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You know, you just can’t win.

MayaWiley 1200x1200.Yesterday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” civil rights attorney Maya Wiley said there was a direct line from some folks referring to Kamala Harris as a DEI hire to Project 2025.

I have to point out that Biden said I’m going to choose a black female for my Vice President.

He didn’t say, I’m going to choose the best person to be my Vice President. He made it about race and gender right from the start. In my book that’s pretty much the definition of a DEI hire.

Project 2025 (I have not read it entirely) appears to be a plan for the next president, (granted it’s skewed conservative and more likely than not, toward Trump and his base,) however it’s a plan for any President to use in their first 180 days in office.

The plan was put together by conservatives in an attempt to help chart a course correction for the country. Any President is welcome to use it. Just because the plan was written by conservatives doesn’t mean that it’s been delivered from the 7th circle of hell direct from Satans hand.

Notice I said a plan. Not a manifesto, not tablets from a mountain, not etched in stone, not the edicts of an emperor enforced under penalty of death. It’s a plan. Plans change, adapt, and are abandoned often once the plan meets reality. (Joe Biden’s 2nd term & Reelection campaign ring a bell?)

Ms Wiley claims that Project 2025 is going to dismantle all the civil rights laws.

I find that claim to be dubious. Although someone like her would say the same thing about my belief that special protection laws should be stricken from the books.

I believe if we lived under the premise that all Citizens are created equal, then by extension all laws apply equally to all Citizens, negating any necessity for special protections.

The law gets a whole lot simpler to obey and enforce if it’s consistent and has none or very few exceptions.

A thief is a thief subject to a penalty for theft regardless of skin color, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. For example: If you steal, and are caught you get 4 years in prison for each $1000 in value.

Simple, enforceable, and easily understood.

When I talk about exceptions I mean to penalties. I believe a Judge should have the ability to sentence a 14 year old first time offender to community service rather than prison or other  incarceration.

In other words I believe there should be the possibility for humanity and mercy not a totally mechanistic justice system. Which is why I believe Judges must be wise, know the law, and incorruptible. At the same time, laws should be few in number and easy to understand.

I digress.

I don’t know what Ms Wiley is talking about, as I said, I haven’t gotten that far into the document.

It’s available, you can download it. The writers of Project 2025 aren’t trying to hide it or be sneaky.

What I find interesting is this.

If there wasn’t a plan of some kind the left would be beating the right over the head about not having a plan. 

Because there is a plan, the left is pulling out all the stops to label the plan as something evil and some of the left is equating Project 2025 to Mein Kampf.

Thus far I haven’t seen evidence to corroborate this equivalence but I’ll keep looking.

Here is a link to The Heritage Foundation, authors of Project 2025

Here is a link to the Project 2025 document entitled Mandate for Leadership The Conservative Promise

Read it for yourself.

Here are links to Democracy Forward’s rebuttal to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership

Democracy Forward’s document is called The People’s Guide to Project 2025

Read that for yourself too.

Don’t believe the hyperbole from the talking heads… Or ME! I’m not the brightest bulb in the pack either. 

I beg you to read & research for yourself. Because these days it’s getting really hard to figure out what is true and who is telling the truth.

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Ugghh! I don’t want to do anything!

Between the poor air quality from the fires, the blazing heat, poor sleep, and my general crankiness I’m not motivated to do a dang thing!

The dog and I have been taking early morning walks because it’s cool even though the air quality is terrible. So at least his walk has been completed.

It’s the other stuff, the people stuff that I’m unmotivated to deal with.

I should go to the pharmacy, the grocery store, and the post office. But it’s 90° at 10:00 am and you can almost watch the mercury rising like the old Loony Tunes cartoons.

I’m thinking I’m going to say the heck with it for today. I got about 3 hours of sleep last night and all I want to do is lay on the couch and nap.

I don’t want to get in the habit of blowing off the day because I’m afraid I’ll be mistaken for Joe Biden. (Couldn’t resist…)

I’ve had a walk with the dog, a pot of coffee, breakfast, and I am literally nodding off while typing this.

Maybe I’ll wait until after dark to make the pharmacy and grocery store run. That way I can leave the pup outside without too much worry since the temps will be dropping, and I’m not walking around in a blast furnace.

This is from a guy who likes the heat, and has considered moving to Palm Springs. I think in this case it’s the altitude, coupled with smoky air that’s taking the wind out of my sails.

Sleeping is tough because I’ll have the house open and not smell smoke, when I go to bed and there’s a nice breeze, then the wind shifts a little and I wake up with my sinuses wadded up feeling like I’m suffocating.

That isn’t a happy way to wake up, because I’m panicked and it takes a while for me to drop off again. Running the A/C 24 hours a day might be my only option for the next few days.

Why don’t I do that all the time? Because normally we get these nice evening breezes that are really pleasant. Even if they’re a little warm some times of the year it’s easy to sleep.

Honestly, I don’t really like A/C, especially if you have to have it running all the time just to survive. I feel like it isolates you from the world.

That’s one of the things I like so much about living here. The house can be open at least during the day, most of the year. Even in Winter it’s not uncommon for the outside temps to be around 60°F so you can leave the sliders cracked open a bit for the fresh, albeit cool air. If it’s a sunny day, having the shades up, allows the sun to warm the house so the furnace is idle until nightfall.

It’s only in the deepest Winter that the house is closed all the time. Think maybe 2 to 2.5 months. It’s a nice way to live.

There are places in the Midwest and on the East Coast where the same kind of living is possible. Maybe there will be a few more bugs, but that’s what screens are for.

Yep, it’s nap time…

Getting harder to hold thoughts in my head…

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I’m going to have to visit one of these!

E86decc8ed22352241aff2f896bf5cb8 1200 80.I caught this article;

 Grocery Stores Selling Ammunition Out of Vending Machines in Alabama and Oklahoma

I decided that I’m going to have to make a point of stopping next time I’m through the area.

I play a video game called Borderlands. In the game there are vending machines from which you can buy Ammo or weapons.

I never thought I’d see anything like it in real life. Yet, here we are. The contrast between California’s restrictive background checks to buy ammunition versus going to a vending machine in Alabama or Oklahoma is mind boggling.

I get excited walking into a Bass Pro outside California, where I’m able to comparison shop brands and prices. Then pick up several boxes of Ammo off the shelf put them in a cart and make my purchase without anyone batting an eye. 

The thought of a vending machine is damn near orgasmic.

I thought perhaps it was some kind of parody article but it’s the real deal.

Along the same lines, I saw a picture of a store someplace that I’d also like to visit. From the picture it looked like you could buy a carton of Marlboro Reds, a doughnut, cup of coffee, a Sixpack, rifle, and ammo at the same time.

I’d probably have to take a private moment just inside the front door.

Even as a kid in the Deep South you had to go to the gun store for guns and ammo, the liquor store for booze, and the grocery store for other things. When I got to California and found that you could buy booze at just about anyplace, even some pharmacies, and it didn’t matter if it was Sunday or not I thought it was truly progressive.

Walking into a store where literally everything could be purchased at once would blow my mind. Although there was a time when Sears Catalogues would sell you everything under the sun.

Being out of California and not being able to buy liquor in the grocery store is weird but I’ll take that over the regulations and taxes extant in California.

I’m not saying California is terrible and other places are perfect. It’s not that binary. I think it’s more a matter of choosing an acceptable level of taxes and regulations versus services rendered by the state for those fees and taxes, versus personal choice about restrictions or limitations on your personal freedoms.

Kind of like an HOA. Sure, you may love the house. But do you really want to deal with the HOA fining you because your grass is 1 millimeter too low, or the grease spot left on the street in front of your home by the garbage truck on a Tuesday, you didn’t get to cleaning up until Saturday? Do you want to be fined because you parked your boat in your drive way for one day packing up for a family trip?

Some HOAs are out of control and because you signed on, when you bought your beautiful house you’ve got to put up with it. 

Traditionally I have hated HOAs with passion and vigor, recently I’ve revised my opinion of HOAs due to my neighborhood. I still hate HOAs but I’ll admit they might be useful.

In contemplating moving, I have opened my search criteria to include HOAs whose fees are reasonable and for whom their responsibilities are limited to common areas. This slight change has opened up neighborhoods that I would previously have passed up even if the housing prices were bargain basement.

So for those of you who think I’m never learning or changing here’s an example.

All that being said, I wonder what other freedoms Oklahoma and Alabama have that I might not have in California. I wonder what their tax structures and employment is like. 

I’ve been looking at places that are kind to retirees. Places that have low or no taxes, who don’t regulate or tax the hell out of everything, and last but not least someplace where my car registration doesn’t cost $600 a freaking year.

(Ya know, my car is a 2019. The registration was right at $600 when I got it, and it’s still about $600 although the vehicle itself isn’t worth what it was when I got it. California charges registration fees based on value not weight. Makes sense if you think about it. Why charge a fee that assumes the individual should pay for their portion of wear & tear on the public roads. California can take more charging based on value of nice cars, and still not maintain the roads. I say that as someone whose been here a long time and remember smooth gleaming ribbons of freeways in good repair, instead of what we have today where a kidney belt might be advised.)

I’d also like lower medical insurance costs.  I’ve had no, none, zero, nada, major medical issues and am in good health. I’m not obese (okay, I could lose a few pounds) so I’d really like to know why medical insurance costs 1.5 X my mortgage payment.

That’s before even using it. I know the Doctors have to maintain their country club memberships, pay for their yachts, make alimony payments on their previous 2 wives, pay for their whore/mistress on the side and keep their current wife in diamonds and furs but come on. 

If you force people to choose between a roof and health insurance I’m betting most choose a roof over their heads.

I don’t think ammo vending machines are a good enough reason to move to a particular state. I do think a state having ammo vending machines is reason enough to look at other aspects of the state to see if it’s a place I might be happy and can afford to live in.

At the very least, Ammo tourism might be fun. I’d love to have a picture of me buying rounds from one of these things.