The headlines are calling me. I can’t avoid the news even if I try. And of course all of the news is about the economy. Mr.Bush’s economy. As much as he and his pal’s want someone else to blame, he has to face this little problem all alone.
Fuel prices are back on a downward slide, for now. But I don’t think anyone believes that they will be down for long. The oil companies aren’t going to be opening any new fields unless the market is ripe. Why bother with offshore drilling unless there is plenty of money to be made? Especially when there aren’t any proven oil fields in existence offshore. Wait long enough and the price will rise to $200 a barrel and then offshore exploration will be attractive. But in the meantime, the public will be distracted by tales of the vast but imaginary pools of oil that are ready to be tapped.
I read where T.BoonePickens has decided to invest in wind farms. Big money. The world’s richest wildcat oil driller doesn’t see any more oil in our future. When it comes to politics, Mr.Pickens is an idiot, but he does know oil.
On a personal level I know we are using less gasoline and a whole lot less diesel. And the news stories tell us that consumption is down. But wouldn’t it be nice to see just how much less? Maybe a daily consumption graph could be posted for all to see? Or…maybe there already is one and I just haven’t found it. I must look.
And why it won't. Because the author refuses to believe that all students are different and must be taught in different ways. What a bozo. (And he's an 'educator'.)
For myself, I could never understand why I needed to know what 'X' was. There was no reward as it was taught. But that was me... and Mr. Bernardi. A good teacher would have found a way to present the reward for knowledge.
Scary! I use my journal to write about my life experiences and opinions and then post severely edited pieces of it here, on my blog. I use MS Word and it’s generally pretty reliable, but not this morning. When I opened this year’s journal, I found a blank one page document! Where did it go and why? Luckily, I made a copy on Sunday and stored it on a jump drive and so recovery was fairly easy. But why did it happen? I’ll probably never know…but backup will happen every day from now on.
It’s first light and I can see the sky! It’s a very deep blue with not a hint of smoke. Scattered gray clouds are on the horizon and they will turn white in a few more minutes. I think I'll go outside and breathe deeply!
My, how things change! Prices that is. I was wandering through my reconstructed journal this morning and read that I was complaining about the price of diesel fuel because it was up to $3.75 a gallon. That was in March. Current pricing? I saw a $5.10 price over the weekend. And the price of diesel affects what? Just about everything. Think about it…the grain that feeds the chicken is shipped via truck and then the processed chicken is shipped via truck. All of which makes chicken breasts cost $5 a pound. Remember when chicken was the cheap meat? I think I saw flank steak for $2.90 a pound just the other day. It’s all about economy of scale. Cows are bigger than chickens.
An amazing story. She must not have paid attention during her high school classes on personal finance. Oh? You mean they don't have any finance classes?
Back in the old days, when I was a student at Mira Costa High School and worked after school at Bill's Liquor Store, I was a delivery boy, working for minimum wage and tips and there were no 'stars' of any kind.
Yes, I’m still thinking about the economy and our culture change this morning. I’m an elder; I have to. I’ll never get another raise no matter how hard I try, so our income is what it is. Unless I can sell something? Or win the lottery!
That thought reminded me of the movie we watched last night; Owning Mahowny with MinnieDriver and Philip Seymour Hoffman. A great movie. Hoffman grabbed the starring role immediately and made him believable. So believable that I actually had to leave the room a few times because I couldn’t stand to watch him doing what he was doing to his life, his movie ‘life’.
OK, back to reality. I’m not going to win the lottery. But it’s a nice thought. In the meantime, we have to shop carefully. So I made note of the prices as we shopped at Food Maxx yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a normal shopping day, though we did buy some staples. Eggs were $1.56 a dozen. We looked at the chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, and the Foster Farms brand were $4.99 a pound! The store brand was only $3.19 a pound. We bought neither. We’ll wait for a sale and put some away in the freezer. And since we were going to be making a dessert to share tonight, we had to buy some ice cream sandwiches as they are a vital ingredient in the dish. They were only $3.44 a dozen. Laurae had bought a couple of those same sandwiches during our visit to Prattville over the weekend and had paid $2.00 each!
Going to the store also meant gasoline needed to be purchased and that was $4.45 a gallon for the cheap stuff. It’s gone down in price recently. But the price seems to have affected the way most people (locally) are driving these days. We really do see a change; speeding is out and slow is in. Not a scientific study. We travel the same 15 mile route from the Planet Orland to Chico a couple of times a week and that’s the route where we have noticed the change in driving habits. I can imagine that the speeds in the major cities have remained the same due to that herd mentality when you put a million people together.
Odd; I was just thinking the other day that I should start making a record of what we're paying at the store for the basics. I have my Palm and I could just make notes as we cruise the aisles.
Despite the irritation of high prices on just about everything, I’ve found it to be fascinating (in a perverse way) to watch our culture change. For instance, our local car dealer, Northstate Motors, always displayed a long line of pickups and SUV’s in front of their dealership. And each one had the hood up, which gave me the impression that they were all ‘hungry’, each one with its ‘mouth’ wide open. Now, when you drive by, the lineup of trucks has been reduced by half and economy cars are currently front and center. The same thing is happening in parking lots. When we were driving our VW we were always irritated by the fact that no matter where we parked, someone with an SUV would park next to us and make it that much more difficult to back out of the parking space. Not now.
The day is dawning and I have no idea as to whether or not the air is fit to breathe. It’s still too dark. But I do have an internet connection so I do know that there are quite a few people out and about, all breathing of course. Perhaps it is safe to do so myself.
Most irritating. It’s one of those symptoms of aging; I keep missing the small words as I type and I have to re-read everything I write. It’s the to and the a and the andthat are most frequently missed. I ‘say’ the words in my mind as I type them and then, when I look down, they are gone! Stranger still is the fact that most of the time, MS Word thinks the sentence is just fine without them.
Since we received our obscene power bill, I have upped the fan speed on the overhead fans in an effort to make it seem cooler. We already have the thermostat set to 85° for our daytime/nighttime temperature with a few hours’ morning and night at 78° to cool things off. I think it all adds up to 18 hours at 85° and 6 hours at 78°. Luckily for us, we’re able to afford it. But what about those elders that can’t? I know, I know…it’s their own darned fault. If they had paid attention in school, 50 years ago, they could have made wise choices in their retirement plans.
While we were up in PlumasCounty during the past few days, we went shopping at the local Holiday Market in Chester. I should mention that it’s the only market in town. So if you want to do your bit for the community and shop locally, this is it. Personally, I found the prices outrageous, even for a resort town. (I use the CPI to determine what is or isn’t outrageous and Cheetos in Chester are $4.90 a bag!) Because, if you happen to live in this town, you’re stuck! And let’s say you’re over 65 and living in this town; I don’t know how you could do that for very long unless you had planned very carefully for your retirement. Very carefully. The nearest town with minimally competitive pricing is Susanville and it’s 45 miles away. Let’s see, if you get 15 miles per gallon, which would be 6 gallons for a round trip at close to $5 per gallon. Let’s round it off to $30. You would have to save that much money by making the drive. It’s not going to happen.
To clarify; the CPI I use is the Cheetos Price Index and the more familiar CPI is this one, the Consumer Price Index. I think they are equally valid.
We’re home after a safe drive down Highway 36. We could have taken 32 but CalTrans was reporting that there were two stops for pilot cars on that route. And we saw enough burned forest on Wednesday; certainly didn’t need to see it again.
And the smoke continues to hang in. We’re all tired of the raspy throat and coughing that comes with the gray skies. Now it’s time to get the cat from the vet’s office and all will be back to normal; except for the power bill from PG&E. Did I mention that? Well, I’m not going to, except to say it’s robbery!
Also, I've included the posts from Thursday and Friday mornings.
Here we are, still trapped in the smoke. Thursday turned out to be even smokier than the day before because the fire fighters had closed the highway right behind us and then had set a large backfire. That smoke began arriving here a few hours after our own arrival. The highway is still closed but we have heard rumors that it will open again today. There is an alternate route for us if Highway 32 remains closed and considering the damage we would see, it might be more pleasant for us to take the other road.
One road or the other, we will be leaving for home today. And with very few photos. We have all remarked about the fact that no one seems inclined to pick up their cameras. With gray as a backdrop, photo inspiration is lacking.
Since I found out that I can arrange the posting hours on my blog to suit my vision of how they should appear, I would bet that I can do the same with the days of the week. I will give it a try.
It’s 5 and time to look outside and see what kind of day we’ll have. It’s already cooler this morning; does that mean that a wind has brought in some cold air and chased out the smoke? OK, there is definitely a cool breeze and a change in the air quality. I can see much further today. With a little more breeze I might be able to seeMt. Lassen again.
And once again, apropos of absolutely nothing at all…I was admiring the new ‘wake board’ that my son-in-law had purchased and my eye was caught by the striking ‘Made in UAE’ logo on the board. Yes, the United Arab Emirates. Who would have thought? What else do they manufacture?
More mental meanderings; I was browsing through an old National Geographic magazine, the one that featured great stories and photos of China. From the cover to the back page, it was all about China. And sure enough, on the very back page, was a Wal*Mart ad. How appropriate.
There was a time when I bought into the idea that manufacturing was not all that important and what was important were the ideas that created ‘innovation’ as a product. Brain power would trump muscle power every time or so I thought. It turns out that I was wrong; what is important is the proper mix of the two; product development and manufacturing. Sure, there are some things that we shouldn’t worry about; plastic cutlery would be an example. Let someone else manufacture that. But there are plenty of other items that we have simply given up on and sent them away to be manufactured. Wake boards? And until we, as consumers, start demanding quality over price, it will remain the same.
If you look at the economies of Japan and Germany, you will see a healthy blend of R&D and manufacturing. No, their economies are not perfect, but they are healthier because of that blending. Irony; both Germany and Japan have some of their cars built here…because it’s cheaper.
I don’t know if we could ever go back to a manufacturing based economy. We would have to abandon the Wal*Mart and Target stores. We would have to look at labels and reject labels from other countries. I don’t think it’s going to happen. Those who wrap themselves in the American flag are usually the first ones in the door at a Wal*Mart sale.
Jeekers! Scary figures. There are 129 million housing units in America and 18.6 million of them are empty. No one home. The home owner vacancy rate has reached its highest level since 1956, the year they began measuring. And in a sign of the times; in Atlanta, some speculators were paying ‘homeless’ folks to stay in the homes to give them a livelier look while they tried to sell the houses. Nothing turns off a prospective buyer like the appearance of a ghost town.
More scary figures; I was reading an article on increasing violence in England and Wales and the included chart showed America tied for second place with the Netherlands (4.2 per 100 population) for attacks or threats. England’s 5.75 kept them safely in first place. But it was the fact that America had no rivals at all in the figures for homicides per 100,000 of population that looks so bad. We were approximately at 5.7 per…the next closest was Finland at 2.8. The lowest figures came from Norway at a little under 1. The safest place (overall) to be? Italy.
We’re here; Prattville on the south shore of LakeAlmanor, formerly known as Big Meadow before they flooded the place to create a vacation spot for the wealthy folks in the Bay area. The water in the lake is really just an illusion, as it belongs to PG&E and can be disposed of by them at any time. But in the meantime, it’s a delight!
It was a depressing ride on Highway 32, the DeerCreekCanyon route. What was once one of the most charming landscapes in Northern California was reduced to ashes and blackened trees. The roadway itself was scarred by the bulldozers that had been dragging trees and brush out of the fire to be piled up along the side of the road. It was hard to take it all in; a 2 to 3 mile stretch of the canyon that had been the most luxurious in ferns and dogwood beneath tall cedars was scorched and ruined. I guess I’m repeating myself. But it was very sad, especially when you think of how long it will take to replace what was lost. Generations. And then there is winter to think about and the steep hillsides of that canyon that are now absent any water holding ability.
Once we arrived, it became apparent that the smoke had followed us up the hill from Chico. And during the afternoon, our view across the lake became more and more restricted. MountLassen disappeared. Then Chester. Finally, all we could see was a wall of gray that rose up to about 5,000 feet above us. Socked in, we closed the doors and windows.
It’s 5 in the morning and I, being the first one up, have opened the windows and door once again and started the fans, hoping to draw in some cool morning air. I stood outside on the deck and I smelled the incense cedar and not a lot of smoke. A good sign? Or could it be that I’ve been smelling smoke for so long that I no longer recognize it? And looking straight up, I did see a few stars, but nowhere near as many as you should see at this hour.
5:30 and now the sky is gray tinged with coral as the sun over Nevada begins to rise behind DyerMountain. The breeze is erratic, moving over all the points of the compass and that doesn’t promise a lot of relief for us.
As I mentioned before, there is no internet access here and so I have idea as to what is happening in the world. I brought along my scanner and it has been silent for the past hour that I have been awake. What’s with that? I would have heard something at home, even if it was just a ‘barking dog’ complaint.
Apparently I’m not the only one that would like internet access and there is a plan to have it installed here sometime during the summer. It wasn’t that long ago that spending money for internet access at a vacation home was considered frivolous. Now it’s at the same level as light and heat. Gotta have it!
I’m still hoping to get in some quality painting time while I’m here, but the sky is so gray; I’m not sure that I will be inspired. I’ve been painting with Karlee and Kyle, but it’s not quite the same thing, though I certainly enjoy watching them be creative. I get a lot of requests to draw something for them, but I just give them a rough sketch and tell them to use their imaginations to fill in the details while I give them tips. At their age, realism is what they are looking for in the final product and my statement that their trees don’t have to look like real trees is met with a blank look. ‘What? Are you crazy, grandpa?’ Maybe I can get them hooked on surrealism. I must try.
Personality types and art. Wow! What a loaded subject that is. Everyone ‘likes what they like’ and most cannot be moved from their fixed position on it. And to hear some people discuss art, you would think they were discussing religion or politics. They get all up in arms over it. I guess it’s simply human nature that makes us want to rigidly classify and clarify our environment. This is real and that isn’t. But isn’t art a feeling? Something that touches our soul? Art is that bridge between what is real and what is not. How do you put that in a rigidly defined box? Maybe that’s why I enjoy Primitive and Folk art. The creators of that kind of art were close to their subject, it was personal, right down to their cores.
Speaking of art, Karlee has just joined me. She’s the only other one that’s up at this hour and she has grabbed the sketch pad and the watercolor pencils and is sitting here at the table, engrossed in the ‘art’ she was working on last night before it got too dark to see. I have a feeling that Karlee will be one that can see and express ‘what isn’t there’ in her art. She has always had a desire to be creative.
And I was just thinking about how dangerous it is for us to reveal ourselves in our art. We really open ourselves to criticism when we allow others to see what we have created. It’s really a baring of our souls and it’s filled with danger. Artists need to be brave.
It’s our getaway day. We’re off to LakeAlmanor and Prattville this morning after one quick stop at the vet’s office to deposit the kitty. I haven’t looked at the CalTrans site yet, but we heard that Highway 32 was open once more. If so, I imagine we’ll see some of the fire damage on our way up the hill. (some demographics for Prattville...scary!)
There is no internet access at the cabin. If the world, as we know it, ends while we are sitting on the deck and admiring the view, we’ll be clueless and will continue to smile and chat without worry.
But, wait…I wonder if our Clearwire connection would work if I were to pack up the modem and take it with us? Nope. I just checked for coverage and there is none, so if the world does end, it‘s going to do it without our being notified. But I’ll still take my jump drive along with the laptop and I can continue writing for another day.
Hmmm? 3 days – make that 2.5 days, without any financial news? Sounds like bliss. You know, like ‘ignorance is…’
Did I mention the weather yesterday? I should have; bright blue skies with some small puffy white clouds. A nice breeze blowing. One could almost forget that we’re surrounded by active fires. I don’t know where the smoke went but I wasn’t sad to see it gone for a day. And the firemen were on the move as well, lots of trucks on the highways and it looked like they were heading home.
We’re going up to LakeAlmanor tomorrow to spend a few days among the pines and that’s going to be a treat. Should I take my watercolors? Oh, sure; why not? But I have to make sure I have plenty of blue and green. Some burnt umber. And a little bit of white in case there is a cloud or two. And I think I’ll bring Yupo ‘paper’ instead of the usual paper and that will make the colors even more vivid than nature intended. When it comes to art, I’m not a realist. In fact, some would say that when it comes to life, I’m not a realist. But that’s another story/debate altogether.
This will be the first road trip in our new car and so I’m going to be interested in the comfort level. And the performance on our way up the mountain. Since it’s a hybrid, I’m not expecting a lot of power but I’m hoping it’s sufficient for the steeper sections.
OK, I’m awake now. It’s time to look at the news and the blogs.
And the first blog I read has something to fire me up. Time Goes By has a posting on the New Yorker magazine cover that generated so much heat yesterday. RonniBennett condemned the cover just as I would. But I was surprised to read some comments from those who would defend it. Huh? If that cover is satire, then Fox News is satire. Now Fox News may be a joke, but it can never be accused of being satirical. That would require intelligence.
Thanks to Wally I can now post to my blog in some sort of logical progression. He pointed out that I can simply adjust the posting time and order is restored. Ask and ye shall receive.
The New Yorker magazine story brings back some memories. No, not memories of other tasteless cover art, but I do remember all of the times I visited my Auntie Jay’s house and I would immediately head for her stack of New Yorker magazines. So while the grownups chattered, I was in a different world altogether. A fascinating world. And during the years since then, I’ve always looked forward to finding a copy in my dentist’s waiting room. I bought the magazine a few times while traveling, but as I grew older, I found the magazine to be more about New York and less relevant to this occasional reader. Not enough value unless there was an article by Seymour Hersh in it. I haven’t picked it up inyears now. If I want to make a statement, I would have to give up Wired; another Conde Nast publication. That would be hard to do...
Still lots of hot air blowing about concerning the New Yorker magazine cover. Who knew it (satire) could be such a dangerous subject? Touchy, aren’t we? My own take is that politics are always fair game for satire. Especially presidents; sitting or former, dead or alive. What’s not appropriate is religion or ethnicity. Hey, it’s how I feel. (Being from Texas is not ethnic specific and is always fair game.) And I noticed that a lot of the defenders of satire brought up the subject of Mad Magazine, as if that explained it all. Now I happen to be an early fan of Mad Magazine, back when it was ‘tiny’. Back in the days of WillElder and HarveyKurtzman. Now that was satire! And when Mad changed formats and publisher/owners it became simply juvenile. As was the New Yorker.
I wonder if the Bud drinkers realize that they speak (Horrors!) French in Belgium?
I can't poke too much fun at Bud drinkers...I are one. O'Doul's Amber is the one of the best NA beers around. The regular O'Doul's is like the rest of their products, 'water, spoiled'.
Obama is being criticized for not going earlier...but wait. No matter who goes and when, they will only see what someone else wants them to see. It's not as if they can drop into the local Hertz dealer, get a car and go see what's up. Remember McCain's visit to the marketplace in Baghdad? Surrounded by troops, helicopters and wearing a flak jacket... then declaring Iraq to be a nice place to visit? What do you think he learned? As far as I'm concerned, they can do just as well by staying home. That way they can avoid the propaganda machine 'on the ground'.
OK, I’m waking up. My mind has become engaged with my fingers. Not that I can type any better, but I can now type with some purpose in mind. And apropos of nothing at all; I really wish Blogger would arrange the posts differently. The first post of the day would remain at the top, right under the day and date and the others would fill in below – until midnight. Or, is there some place in the settings where I can do that and I just haven’t spotted it? I must look.
Or, I could just keep writing and never posting until late in the day. One day and one post. Nah! Blogger is free and so I can’t complain too much.
What will I write about today? It’s my journal, my blog; I can write about anything I want. I just need a little prompting this morning and usually the headline news stories do that for me. Not today. Been there, done that.
After reading most of the typical or mainstream news sources, my usual reaction to the stories has become, “I knew that” or “I could have told you that”. And the most common, “Duh! What did you expect?”
News we expect to hear. Sad. No wonder so many of the newspapers are having a hard time retaining an audience. Or; and this is important – maybe we, the news consuming public, have changed and that’s why the stories are short and boring? Of course; that is it!
Wrong again. Bad journalism has been with us ever since the profession began. There never were any better years. And the public’s demand for bad journalism has never wavered. ‘Short and sweet.’ ‘Don’t want to read a book! That’s why I bought a newspaper.’ And the same applies to broadcast media. We get what we asked for. Always have and always will. Sigh.
Can you imagine life without the internet? I would have to cut out part of my brain to live without it. The part that requires an information feed, data. And in my vision of the future, the internet only becomes better, with data terminals available anywhere and all free. I only hope I can live long enough to see it.
