Metaphorically Speaking, I Suck

It sometimes worries me that I don't offer elegant descriptive narrative full of poetic metaphors, similes, and whatever else falls in that realm of prose. Somehow describing my life as, "Like spring on a summer's day", just doesn't resonate with anyone.

I'd use phrases such as, "it's like taking a bath...in the nude". But I couldn't live with myself.

I remember way back in early post flower power years when the big thing was herbal shampoos and such. They had this young woman on an ad, being all woodsy in her woodsy hippy chick garb, saying, "I like the idea of nature, and all". I couldn't live with myself if I wrote that, either. She was cute, too.

The IDEA of nature? WTF? But, that is how it is seen. There is nature, and there is humanity; mutually exclusive sets. You can't possibly reason with that sort of thinking. It is to attempt to ride with Hells Angels, on a Suzuki 450, while reciting and explaining the Constitution, and pointing out why violating the rights of others is an affront to freedom.

See what I mean? That one hit the nail on the head. (<--a metaphor and cliche all in one, if I'm not mistaken. If I am please gently correct me)

I'm still trying to find out what the "bridge" in the "cross the bridge into the 21st century" represents. From the measures those people wanted to push, and are pushing, I'd think "herd you with bulldozers into the compound from which no one escapes" would have been more fitting.

What kind of fools need to be led from this day to the next day? Doesn't matter what you call it, a day is just a day whether it occurs at a point in time which coincides with 2100 years since the point at which they want to count or not. If you live through the night, you wake up and you are there. Just like yesterday and the day before.

But don't mind me, I'm but a lone wolf howling at the moon, hoping against hope** to get lucky before night's end.

**Does that phrase, "hoping against hope" make anyone else cringe like it does me? Friggin Dan Rather used to say that a lot. Those were the times when he most got on my nerves. He was a tick that this old hound couldn't get rid of. Much like the damned army of raccoons who make mischief here on Ballistic Mountain.

It is as if the night sky is falling and my only hope is to stand erect, head held high, as a towering lighthouse, piercing the heavy darkness as it weighs down upon me, finding home within its mysterious and stormy depths.

In A Vacuum

That's OK 'cause you'll be sorry.

I miss the critic's misguided insights dammit. Maybe I complain too much.

Every once in awhile I realize how spoiled I must be-=-living in the spectacular western USA in an area where you can survive with only a fan and a space heater. The mountains and the ocean are close enough to go and come back in one day. The west, in general is just a different animal.

Despite the fact that too many people in CA are absolutely nuts, and would regulate whether you leave the toilet seat down or not if they could, something about "out west" has a different feel about it. As different as this is from Colorado, it still has a kindred aspect to it. No question, I find parts of Colorado to be beyond amazing. But, it does a body good to know the ocean is nearby.

Too bad it isn't the Atlantic. The east coast beach swimming conditions are far better but CA has many many miles of really good beach. If only this climate change thing would make the gulf stream run over here and swap the Atlantic and Pacific. And send these crazy monarchists and fans of totalitarianism back east as well. Leave the good looking wimmins here as long as they aren't trying to outlaw eating fish or bears or something.

You have to license your stupid dog every year here. Just like your car, they send you a bill to renew. I'm sure someone who loves regulation will explain why that is for the greater good, but I am not one who buys it. Even if the dog is not stupid you pay. Most of the time these supposed protections for the community are worse than the problem they claim to address.

Seems that little outburst of mine at the neighborhood craft fair/bake off/musical event made an interesting impression on some people. I suppose that is good.

At least more people now wave as they drive up or down the hill past me in their reckless abandon way. And from G2's wife who is all into ballistic mountain gossip, I understand I am a topic of discussion in some circles. I feel so important. I'm almost famous on Ballistic Mountain. Our group, Copper Creek is the celebrity band of Gaskill Peak.

You Can't Have It Both Ways

It is a well known fact that if you disagree with, or do not support the administration of, Barack Obama, you are a racist.

Now the same people who pronounced the above immutable law of nature have decided that if you are, or support, Herman Cain, you are a racist.

The first law of Obama politics seems to assume that you are a racist in that you could only disagree with him if you are anti-Black, or anti-African-American, or anti-African---you choose. I still stand fast in my opposition to hyphenating nationalities or continents.

Since Herman Cain is black, I am not sure how his racism, and that of those who like him, is defined. We can only assume that Al Sharpton and others who make their living off of racial conflict are the arbiters of who and what is racist, and who is properly "Black enough". Of course, Herman Cain isn't because he is a capitalist and he is not a democrat.

Everyone knows that if you aren't a democrat, you cannot possibly be Black. (even though the first free Black members of congress were Republican, and the KKK used to be a very active part of the Democratic party---last of which was maybe Robert Byrd who was eulogized not long ago by democrats in Washington after he finally died and quit running for office)

Until people quit suckering for the politics of race and condition of birth, the Plantation will continue to grow, people will continue to be blinded to their own humanity, opportunity, and chance to enjoy life. The autonomy of the individual will continue to be eroded unless this philosophically unsound way of thinking is seen for what it is; a way to make money for a few, and a way to perpetuate hate and misery for many.

I don't care if it is the Congressional Black Caucus, the KKK, La Raza, or the Black Panthers--all such groups are purely motivated by a few who want to feel powerful and stand above those they lead by instilling the victim mentality, and treating ethnicity, gender and any other condition of birth as some sort of character value. Race, gender, none of that is a character value, idiots!! It is not relevant to the word "rights". Reason and logic, right and wrong, do not know color, so repent your crimes and shut up, Al, Jesse, KKK, Nazis, iota of a Black Panther.

It is not relevant to individual freedom, to anything that has to do ensuring maximum individual autonomy in a civil society. That is what government is for--protect the rights of the people, starting with the individual. That is why it is supposed to have limits and if our judges and politicians had ever read and adhered to the Constitution instead of raping the spirit and meaning to accomplish their own elitist ends, maybe I wouldn't be discussing this.

That would please some people. I think it would please me.

If someone told me I wasn't white enough because of my philosophy of how my country ought be governed, I'd have to laugh at them. Why does no one laugh when people debate whether Herman Cain is black enough? Why didn't they do something of the kind when all those self appointed gauges of blackness were questioning if Obama was black enough?

I cannot believe people don't speak up en masse to shout down so-called black leaders, hispanic leaders, and while they are at it, so-called business leaders and labor leaders. It is conditioning and Herman is right, most of us have been brainwashed, even though he did not say that exactly since he was focussing on questions about one "community". Most of us are brainwashed in a Pavlovian kind of way. Or bought off real cheap. How many decent union members turn a blind eye to the mob connections and gangster tactics? And they call Wall Street greedy?

At least the KKK gets laughed out of town quite often. It is time to do the same to all these other racists, Hispanic supremacists, and Black supremacists. That is what they are. Racist charlatans conning people, at worst, and serious racial chauvinists who believe their race is better and should rule others at best.

Although, I'm not sure which of those two choices is better or worse. I let it stand. At least in the second case they actually believe something. In the first case they are just fueling weaknesses in human nature and cashing in, knowing they are unjust and crooked.

It is hard for people not to latch on to the victim mentality--it eliminates the need to undergo that uncomfortable process known as introspection; self examination. The victim mentality not only causes people to suspend normal values and respect for others, it causes them to let go of reasoning to a dangerous degree.

Child Review: Offspring of Bureaucrats in High Positions

OK. Mr. Morebucks, who owns the place where I do various jobs, is very well connected politically, clearly because he is very well set financially. He's one of the back seat drivers of things governmental, and believe me, things governmental are guided more by those you don't see, riding in the back seat, than those in front waving and honking the horn.

I think that was some sort of metaphorish statement, but probably is full of flaws any English major would note and find disquieting.

Whatever it was, I stand by by it.

So, people in high places sometimes vacation at Mr Morebucks SoCal resort home. He is rarely there; maybe three weeks out of the year divided among two or three visits. He hires a full time house manager to handle the bills, hire people like me and make sure his rowdy friends have whatever they want when they descend on the place. Most of his friends are in one way or another connected to politics or government, either nationally or in the land of dead voters. That reference allows the astute who remember what put Kennedy and others over the top to narrow it down to a city. Others will just have to assume it is irrelevant.

OK, a guy who is high enough up that government agents accompany the family on vacation came to stay with his hot wife and bratty kids. The kids broke the electric wooden gate in the first fifteen minutes. Somehow they managed to force the operating arm of the thing to pull out from its mount which meant two lag bolts were ripped out of the wood. Not the best lag bolt installation to begin with, but this took effort and persistence.

I did not find out how it happened until today. The maid saw them arrive. I was called to go fix it that day. I was able to do a temporary repair, then the next day the gang was to be gone all day so I returned and did my usual excellent work installing a permanent fix. I had to pick up some things based on the previous day's observations. That is how such things work--fiddle and fit. You have to go see what the problem is then hope you can find the right thing to fix it. This one worked out.

Today I went back to do the usual putting things away and covering things up that I do when the guests hit the road...or in most cases, the private jet.

Those kids must have a thing about doors on hinges. They managed to destroy the hinges on a cabinet door. It is a pretty good sized cabinet which houses some sound equipment. It is all operated by remote and there is no reason to even be in there. Finding the same type hinge is going to be a trick. What I did was trade out the top hinge for the bottom one of a smaller door with the same hardware. The cabinet has three different types of hinges for various reasons.

The door has to close or a light stays on; like a refrigerator door, except this one is de-energized by a button the door has to press against when closed. I barely got it to work, but it is not noticeably screwed up unless you are a cabinet nazi. In that case you'd notice that it is not perfect.

The thing is, the parents watched as their kids set out to mess up the big wooden driveway doors/gate, and did absolutely nothing. Judging from the spoiled and entitled behavior of guests at this place; they break things, leave trash laying around, etc. and never say to the "help", oh we busted this or that. They just go on their merry way and maybe complain about something like, "We couldn't get the windows in the hall to open". Of course those would be the only windows that do not open because they are panes of glass mounted in the wall and not intended to open.

Seriously these people are mentally deficient. But, they are in high places and buds with the President. Far be it from me to draw any conclusions from that.

Their kids are destructive little brats, and the parents do not take responsibility for their actions, or for guiding the kids away from abusing that which is not theirs.

Late era baby boomers. Really, when a baby boomer has decent kids or is a human being of character, it is always an exciting event, so what do I expect? I honestly think my generation is mostly dimwits and devoid of common courtesy and understanding of the rights of others. Many of them have spawned even more vile beings than themselves.

I know it sounds like I am being harsh, but I've found it is not only I who have experienced maybe one out of twenty self declared friends who would lift a finger when it mattered to you, and one out of fifty who would do so if it in any way was an inconvenience. It is the nature of our peers.

My only worry now is that the actuator which moves the wooden gate is so well fastened that they might destroy it next time if they go about things the same way. It is not a lightweight piece of hardware. The thing is substantial. We'll see. I charged about triple because it was an emergency call and I was on my way home. The house manager was all about paying me a premium for my prompt attention to the situation. For that I am grateful.

I should remain grateful for the work but, I have to say, I am getting a little bored and feel like I am stagnating. Time to create what has not been created. What would that be? Maybe a start would be an organized domicile.

So, from my limited experience, I have to give bureaucrats' kids two thumbs down. One star out of five. A 1, on a scale of 1 to 10---10 being best.

Who Knew?

I had no idea that, for some reason, certain comments were stashed in a place waiting for me to approve them. Blogger calls that moderation. Since I rarely do anything in moderation, I had no idea that thing was there.

Too bad there were only three comments and on posts I forgot I wrote. The up side is that I often don't recall entries as recent as a few days back. Especially when I'm in one those periods where I post lots of entries in a short time.

Of course all the comments were very positive, noting that I am an unsung genius and a man far ahead of his time, and that my genius is only exceeded by my courage and good character.

I'll have to check the moderation bucket more often.

Kin

They say my great grandfather, or maybe it was great great grandfather had a bit of the wanderlust in him. He was a rancher, farmer, and a bit of an adventurer. His main base was in the Kansas territory and upper Oklahoma.

I believe he was one of them in the second land rush in Oklahoma. I get a few of the facts confused. The part I know is correct is that he rode his horse out west, maybe checked out the gold rush as far as California.

Of course he carried a six gun side arm. When he returned to the family in Oklahoma, he had some notches on his gun. I'm thinking gramps may have been a tough hombre. Right or wrong, that makes me feel a little better about my particular gene pool.

Blues Things

I was thinking and wondering, "Why do I not tend to enjoy sharing stories from my past?". I think it is because it makes me sad or brings on remorse and regret. That is the curse of the underachiever, the one who let the one that got away get away, and the one who turned his back on many glaring opportunities which most people wouldn't believe anyway.

When I look back, sometimes I can find an interesting event or story, but behind it is always a sadness that kicks me like a mule. That part may not be relayed all the time, but it causes me to be very resistant to writing about what I've done, and quite happy to write about what I think or to write little flights of fancy which are largely daydream fragments.

Often, the present is without a lot of guilt, remorse or other pain so I might discuss it a little bit. The trouble is it is often without anything else either. Sort of an empty thing. I guess I gravitated toward nothingness because I didn't have the heart to attempt much anything else. Whether socially or otherwise, I don't think I felt up to getting that part of me torn up any more. Not that the heartbreaks haven't been mostly my own fault in one way or another. But, even though it was my fault, it was not my desire and I didn't seem to have the ability not to do whatever that led to it.

Now, in some cases, it was purely my lack of comprehension of some things which was the culprit. Some of that is just how I am wired or how I was schooled, or both. I can't fault myself for the innocence that ignorance carries.

Even so, I have come to realize why I am where I am. What I do not know is what I intend to do about it, or if I can continue like this indefinitely. But, as relative as time is in my world, indefinitely could be a very short time and quite doable.

I do not like the fact that I am not particularly proud of how things have worked out over all. I am proud of a few times when I stood on principle or stood up for people even when they thought I was nuts to do so. The worst thing ever is to cause innocent people pain. Those instances minimized that so I am glad and don't consider they really cost me anything.

It sure does make me want to run sometimes, and just keep going. That's why I liked the aimless roadtrips. I liked the first one best because I did not know where I'd wind up, or even if I'd live to the end of it. The last one was good, but I knew where I was going and that I'd return home. Home is good, but it was obvious I'd find myself still there and that is not that exciting. I could do worse I suppose. It's just that I need so damned much work before being minimally acceptable to myself. Good thing I am willing to put things off and out of mind for long periods of time.

Occupy Descanso!

Ever one to explore ways in which I can stand in solidarinosc with whomever is standing elsewhere, for whatever reason, I decided to initiate the Occupy Descanso effort. It might have gone better.

It seemed only logical to set up camp at Perkins store, as close to the ATM as I could get. That's pretty much the banking presense in Descanso--the ATM. I had my "this is what democracy looks like" sign neatly painted, and carried a bullhorn. I did all the right things.

I repeated everything the facilitator said and wiggled my fingers to show approval of ideas. First order of business was what to sleep on, and where to sleep. They wouldn't let us sleep in the store, and drunks from the adjacent pizza pub kept tripping over us when we tried to set up camp on the front sidewalk.

We then waved our "we are the 99%" sign only to be ridiculed by passers by. They called us "99% crazy!". Undaunted, the facilitator asked for consensus on whether we should throw our trash in their capitalist trash can or if we should burn it to cook bread.

No consensus was reached so we just left it where it was. Soon it got dark and the place was kind of spooky. When the facilitator put forth the proposition that someone, I think the sheriff, brought up, that we go home, I wiggled my fingers in the affirmative.

We'll be back tomorrow in force. Hopefully there will be more occupiers than just me next time. It is not easy facilitating demonstrating and seeking consensus all by myself. Especially the consensus part.

Auto Parts Store Review

Somehow NAPA has the image of knowing what they are doing and being the house of real car parts.

Wrong. Not just in Alpine, but I've noticed this in some other towns, NAPA has arrogant people, who appear to be hoping you will give them reason to start a fistfight, behind the counter sneering as if to say, I know more than you do about your car. But they do not know jack about anything.

They suck. NAPA in Alpine can't even get the simplest part right. You look it up; '08 subaru forester non turbo. You note the part number. You go get it. You wipe that sneer off of your face. High school ended many years ago for you and it looked stupid then, too.

[a note to those who may not know this: California has probably more rednecks than all the Southern states combined, but not more than AZ, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Nevada combined]

I will stop short of indicting the entire NAPA company, but not very short. It has been over ten years since I found a transaction at a NAPA store satisfactory in the long run.

NAPA in Alpine sure sucks. It's like walking into a seriously unfriendly redneck bar out in the sticks. Suddenly your mind starts playing Dueling Banjos.

Auto Zone, and O'Reilly are far better, provide better service, better price and their stuff lasts longer. NAPA somehow went downhill. Judging from some of the employees, I think they may be a front for union goons to cool their heels between vandalism gigs.

It is an outrage that NAPA is Alpine's only parts place. From now on I will just go to the O'Reilly store in Poway. Like most Poway businesses, those people are competent and go out of their way to get you what you need. They don't screw it up.

Can't Figure The Weather

Here I thought I'd returned from m trip to weeks and weeks of 90 and 100 degree days. As it turns out there weren't that many really hot days and then the just disappeared. Our hot times, as best I understand, fall a little more toward fall than they do in other places like Memphis or Ponca City.

This year, it is all different. We've been having nights in the 40's and days that hardly reach 70. Of course that varies greatly just a few miles away in any direction. The coast is always nice and perfect. The desert is hot during the day, fairly cool at night.

I've even seen lots of clouds and some rain this past week. I was expecting to go a month without seeing a cloud in the sky. This certainly was no record breaking summer here. I shouldn't complain. It's just that I was still in the mood for a little bit of hot weather. I'd become acclimated to it on my trip, although some of that was way too hot.

Really, I'm confused about other things, and weather is a good subject for expressing that confusion without delving into the more substantive matters. And it is still all true, what I've said.