Tag: Why California Sucks

Posted on

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.

Posted on

I do not like this “New Normal”

I went shopping and did some errands on Tuesday.

The Auto Club was helpful and easy to work with. This was a new one for me, I’d been going to the one in Victorville and honestly hated it. I tried one near Rancho Cucamonga and had a much better experience.

I suppose that’s why we always went “down the hill” instead of to the closer towns in the area. It was just a nicer and more civilized experience.

After the Auto Club, I dropped by what used to be a great Best Buy…

This experience was not as nice. The shelves were bare, horribly disorganized, and over all the store was dark and dingy. I was completely ignored by all associates. This was particularly clear when I asked an associate to scan something so I could know what the price was… I was told, “I gotta clean up, I’ll be back in a few minutes,” as he walked off.

Let me be clear, this was not a janitor. This guy had been helping another person literally moments before, he hadn’t even logged out of his computer terminal yet. WOW! What fantastic customer service!

If I hadn’t really needed the item, I’d have bailed. Instead I finished my shopping, picked up a couple more items then went to the cash register.

I had the lady scan the questionable item before we began the transaction. I had a backup selection if the questionable item had been too expensive. It turns out the price was acceptable, so I left the backup selection at the register. They can restock it or simply throw it on some random shelf as it appears they’d done with most of the rest of their inventory.

There were employees wandering around in masks and it was a very unpleasant shopping experience. Best Buy will probably go the way of Frys. The employees are acting just like Fry’s employees acted near the end.

Then I headed over to Ralphs. I was able to find all but two items including a ton of stuff that I hadn’t been able to find at my local Stater Brothers for months.

The aisles were neat, people polite, and they had two doors to get folks into and out of the store easily without a traffic jam. Also I wasn’t being shocked every time I touched a freezer or shelving unit. I spent less at the Ralphs than I do at the Stater Brothers. That was surprising too.

As I was driving home, I was thinking that COVID panic really screwed up a lot of things. My local grocery store is much like the Best Buy. Dark, poorly organized, and with plenty of bare shelves and more than half the staff running around with masks on. It’s like they never recovered from the COVID mentality.

Then I thought about shopping in Florida. The Best Buy in Tampa is well lit, well stocked, and the employees are helpful. The Publix grocery store is like the Ralphs I was just in. I suppose Kroger owned stores in Florida would also be to the same standard although I haven’t, to my knowledge, shopped in a Kroger owned store in Florida.

Now with the Fall season upon us, we’re hearing about COVID again. “Mask Up”, “Get Jabbed”, “Be prepared for lockdowns” Why? COVID is technically endemic. It’s like the flu. Are the “Powers that Be” just trying to squeeze another year out of COVID panic, or are they really concerned? How can we know? They’ve lied so much, and been caught in their lies often enough that I, and apparently a lot of other people don’t trust them.

Is this too part of the “New Normal”? Once trusted organizations within and outside the government sphere are to be nothing more than noise, conflicting information, and lies?

I don’t like it one little bit. The “New Normal” SUCKS!!!

I suspect that nowhere does it suck worse than California and New York. Both will be stupidly compliant with whatever suggestion the government pulls out of its collective ass.

If Sniffy Joe said that we should all wrap our heads with Saran Wrap to ward off COVID while in our homes, and that it was mandatory. You can bet your ass that California and New York would fine anyone who disobeyed. No one would wrap their heads…

Well maybe there are some incredibly stupid people who would suffocate themselves with Saran Wrap, there were people who used aquarium cleaner as a cure for COVID and nearly died. Yeah, the aquarium cleaner has ivermectin in it, but the OTHER chemicals were completely ignored by these rocket scientists! Ya need to read the whole label morons! Honestly, they should have been allowed to Darwin themselves in peace. I digress…

We know the fines would go right into the stupid pile of money California and New York “BURN” everyday providing their respective citizens such lovely services as tattletale hotlines, and drone surveillance of our homes and yards.

The “New Normal” is new to us in the United States. But it’s old hat to folks from the former Soviet Union.

I suppose that’s why I don’t like the “New Normal” it feels a bit like what I imagined living under Soviet rule would have felt like.

Posted on

I’m very conflicted

I was thinking about removing the other half from the voter roles. There’s no conflict there, it should be done for the sake of clarity and also to make sure that some damn mail in ballot (Automatic in Kommifornia) doesn’t end up being used in his name. What’s that old joke? Something about voting Democrat all your life and well beyond? I can’t remember…

But then I got to thinking about it. Why not remove myself from he voter roles too?

I’ve become so disheartened voting in California that I feel it’s pointless. The recent Redistricting has reduced the power of what used to be a fairly conservative voting block in this area to almost nothing.

Our town is now part of Pasadena. The towns to the north have been sliced and divided into the liberal gimme gimme gimme crowd in the large city North of them, The other mountain communities have been folded into the crime ridden Democrat utopias in the valleys.

All this, mind you was done in the interest of “Joining like minded communities, with similar needs.” Uh Huh… sure, gerrymandering the lines the way it was done was about similar needs.

Nope! It was about weakening the voice of a fairly conservative block of voters in the mountain / high desert communities. Who by the way have almost nothing in common with the urban areas they were sliced and diced then distributed into. I can tell you without much doubt the only time Pasadena thinks about the mountains or the people living here is when they want to ski.

Then, the only concern they have for those of us who live here, is when they treat us like “THE HELP” and bitch that their TESLA can’t make it up the icy road. It’s so gratifying to be coming out of the grocery store with a couple of items and be screamed at to “DO YOUR JOB, clear this ice out so I can be on my way…”

But it’s also funny when a working guy who’s walked a mile or two, to the grocery store to get milk for his kids whips out a largish buck knife and punctures the sidewalls of two of the TESLAS’s tires as he walks by, never saying a word.

I’ve actually seen that happen. I thought the Tesla driver was going to have a stroke! I’ve also been screamed at as though I was a servant. I didn’t have a large buck knife at the time. (I do now.) But I lost my shit at the woman screaming at me, demanding that I dig her out.

It should be noted that I didn’t have a shovel so apparently this insane bitch thought I should be on my knees in the snow digging with my hands, instead of going back to my warm home with the goods I’d just purchased in the store.

UHHH NOPE!

I told her to call AAA. She replied they told her the wait was going to be 6 hours. Well, I guess you’ll have to wait 6 hours then… That’s what started the extremely hostile exchange between that bitch and myself. She didn’t seem to understand that 1) I didn’t work for her. 2) The town wasn’t like Disneyland or WestWorld. 3) That speaking to a free man like she was speaking to me less than 2 miles from his home wasn’t likely to get her the desired result because surprise! I wasn’t a slave. 4) I hate with every fiber of my being entitled skanks like her.

I did feel sorry for her son sitting in the back seat. He seemed truly mortified at his mother’s behavior. Every time she started screaming, he slid further down in the seat.

A couple of enterprising young men approached her with shovels, they had a large well equipped 4×4, & really nice tow straps, (the kind that are unlikely to do damage if they slip or break). They offered to get her back on her way for $500.00. These guys directed her to the bank ATM because they wanted cash.

Smart boys.

She really freaked out then. Threatening to give the town a bad review on yelp. The young men, several other locals, and myself all had a good laugh over that one. Fuck Yelp!

She refused, and the young men left to go “Help” the next unprepared moron.

It should be pointed out, this particular moronic woman and he child were not in any danger whatsoever. They could retire to the grocery store, or any of the restaurants within easy walking distance.

I digress…

In any case, I don’t much see the point of voting in California anymore. I honestly don’t see the point in voting in national elections anymore. The evil machine in Washington DC will NEVER release its parasitic hold on the levers of power.

The never ending impeachment / indictment/ sabotage / corruption / and double standards we’ve see over the past 16 years in our Government is plenty of evidence.

The United States of America is dead. May it rest in peace. The great experiment ran its course and the conclusion is humans were born to be dominated. When given freedom and justice they squander it, preferring instead to be ruled over by emperors, kings, dictators, or whatever else.

The bottom line is humanity desires to be slaves to anything, just as long as they don’t have to be responsible for themselves.

This country died and nobody noticed. I wonder how similar the USA’s death was to the Roman Empire’s? Did Rome just one day cease to be relevant? Did the Roman emperor just one day realize he controlled nothing?

With all the migrants, the divisiveness, and dysfunction, whatever rises to replace the USA will probably look a lot like the governments the migrants were trying to escape. It’s not the migrants fault per se, they’re coming here and bringing what they know and are familiar with. The fact that these migrants are from virtually every country on the planet means that all those voices will demand things be done “their way” and then it’s just a matter of time before the country gets sliced and diced up so that it looks more like Europe or the Middle East.

There was a time when I actually thought voting mattered. There was a time when I believed that my voice counted. I was stupid and terribly naive.

I do hope someone keeps a copy of The Constitution. I fear however that we’ll have an orgy of book and document burning that would be the envy of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

Yeah, I think I’ll remove myself from voter registration. At least until I move somewhere that my voice might have a chance of being heard, and my vote counted. Neither of those things will happen while I’m in Kommifornia.