April 2001

(Click on the thumbnail pictures to expand them)

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. 

Margaret Mitchell, novelist (1900-1949)

Monday       April 1, 2001

I got all the clocks moved ahead except one... the one over my computer, I woke up showered , made coffee, downloaded e-mail looked at the clock, saw by my trusty clock that I had plenty of time, answered some e-mail, downloaded a cool program called "Stripmail" that cleans up emails, and downloaded it... looked at my clock and ambled out to my truck to go to the Cowboy Poetry & Music Festival I looked at my watch and it said 08:45 not 07:45 like it should have... I stood there like I had seen the sun rise in the West... then it dawned on me what I had done...I was going to be late...

Somehow I beat the first bus, I even had a ten minute wait... I got off on a wrong foot (aside from the time change stupidity), I drove into the parking lot and the attendant shooed me over to the parking for the general public... a petty thing but aside from a not having to pay admittance and a  T-shirt preferential parking is the only perk we get for a 9 hour commitment. I actually parked closer to the bus stop when I talked to the attendant and mentioned that the T-Shirt I was wearing was my ticket... he said with a smirk, like I was trying to pull some pathetic scam "You can buy those T-shirts anywhere, everyone is wearing one." I just said "Fine, thanks for your insight." It is interesting how one insignificant incident can taint your attitude toward toward the world. I stayed peeved till I got my coffee cup refilled, that even pissed me off, I paid a dollar for a refill of "Cowboy Coffee" (read scalding hot, very strong, with chicory added) he only gave me 3/4 of a cup. In the morning, coffee is like oxygen to me... as I was walking away muttering to myself like the grumpy old fart I was and I bumped into Mary Johnson... (Picture is of her and her husband, I forgot his name... damn it) I hadn't seen her in years, she was a pal of mine when I worked for the phone company... I sat and talked to her and her husband for a few minutes and before I knew it my mood changed . 

I got to my post and the first group was excellent and so was the next, there was a cowboy poet who was really funny then there was a singer from Canada named Eli Barsi, She really pulled them in... she was there with her husband who sang back-up occasionally and played base, her daughter who was about 10 sold CD's and cassette tapes... she was a very professional singer, she is currently number 26 on the country charts in Canada... I talked to them quite a bit, they are a nice family. The next singer was not very good, I told a fella I had been talking to; "What she lacks in talent she makes up for in volume."

Like yesterday, I spent a lot of time watching people. The celebrity impersonators are neat but I was really interested in the re-enactors. I talked to a few, they were all really nice folks and they were all willing to talk about their attire, not many folks I know can talk for 20 minutes about their shirt but these folks can tell you when, where, how, why, the significance and the name of the tailor who made it... and boots and spurs and pants and hat and scarf... some of them are serious and some are just silly, I saw one fella who had so much stuff hanging off his body that he could hardly move without something falling off or getting caught on a doorknob... he was a one man traveling accessory exhibit. 

The "Dancehall Girls" were impressive, some were so outrageously dressed I had to laugh... I noticed five girls decked out in Floozy Finery at the gate as I was leaving,  they were having a ball and really into their personas teasing and taunting the old guys, making fun of anyone who tried to take their picture and loving every minute...

The "Duke", Cisco & Pancho, Hoppy and Gabby, Roy & the Floozy's

There were folks there dressed up like 1880's towns folk too, 

There are Cowboy festivals all over the country, I understand that there is even a big one in Connecticut, I really had a good time, I hope I can do it again next year... I want to see some of the big production shows though, Sons of the San Joaquin were there, they are incredible, Baxter Black was there and he is a very funny guy, I heard a CD of a band called David Wilkie & Cowboy Celtic, boy, are they ever good... I like Country Music but I don't like it enough to know who's who though. 

(New word for "Dink")

"A man is pertinacious when he defends his folly and trusts too greatly in his own wit."

Monday      April 2, 2001  

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor when it descends to earth, is only a stone. 

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet

(1819-1892)

I hope we aren't going to have any (major) trouble with the Cadillac, Christy says it is making a strange bubbling noise... I finally heard it tonight... I think it is just low on coolant but I will take it in... a faulty radiator can be a pain. I expect to have some trouble but... I hope not too much.

Christy had an IPP to go to at 0730 this morning, I got the kids ready and off to school, I waited for her to get back and then I took off to Devereux to get "B", Christian kept me company. "B" was eager to get out of there, I can't blame him... it is a little bit surreal there... the ride home was uneventful, the whole day was uneventful... is that a good thing or a bad thing... I am going to bed... too tired to think of something witty to say...

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

Tuesday April 3, 2001  

Today was a mess, I took the new-old car in to get the radiator checked, they couldn't do it today, I noticed the radiator cap would not tighten up and that it was a cheap-o. I went to the parts store and bought the proper one... it seemed to fix the problem but I think I will get the radiator flushed anyway. I fixed the gas access door so it would stay shut. I had the tires rotated back, the front tires were wearing oddly, the Dave the tire guy said they were under inflated by 10 pounds, all four of them

"B"'s first day home he slept till noon, shot a BB through the window in front of my PC, hit Cindy in the head with a rock. That's my boy... damn, this is going to be a long week. I will probably end up taking him back Saturday morning while Christy is in church.

I was testing out AltaVista's newly designed search engine... I put in my name and it came back with a Pete Daggett who had written an e-mail to the TODAY newspaper in 1988. He was commenting on the Republican Lynch Mob after Clinton. (Edit 1/23/2002; I had a Hyperlink here but the page is gone) It amazed me that he and I had pretty much the same views... I would have but a bit more emphasis on the Media feeding frenzy but essentially I think he's right... it is a bit eerie though that two guys have the same name and the same views...I wrote him an E-mail... I hope he still has the same address... 

LIFE AND DEATH

Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

- Italian proverb-

Wednesday April 4, 2001

More of the hectic grind today...Mike got in trouble at school again... Mike has a hard time controlling what comes out of his mouth... he smarted off to the speech teacher and annoyed a girl... I have to find a way to get through to him... he is just not a very nice person sometimes. I don't remember what happened today... all seems like a blur... SSDD.

Got another e-mail... sort of cute, It started with "California ranks 48th in the nation in power consumed per person....." it went on about how unfair the rest of the country is being about our power problems...This article is a little spiteful and it is reacting to the symptoms not the cause, but I certainly appreciate the point they are trying to make, the rest of the country has been pointing fingers and calling names since this started. They can't clean up their own house so calling attention to our troubles just provides them with an opportunity to focus attention off their own corrupt local government.

It appears that all the big money boys and their bought and paid for politicians are getting a payback from their big money cronies... deregulation at it's worst... our society isn't civilized enough to be deregulated... the fat cats running the power companies will destroy the economy to make a buck... short sighted SOB's... business has no conscience.

The decisions that brought about this manufactured "energy crisis" were made on the republican watch here in California. Same in Michigan, New York, Louisiana and Florida (probably more but these are the only places where I have seen that the problem has been made public) all have power problems now. All in the name of getting Big Government out of the way of Big Business... well they are getting their wish... the economy is going to hell in a hand-basket, the rich are getting richer and the poor... hell nobody gives a damn about the poor, the rich are getting richer and that's all that matters....

The politicians are scheming, buying our good will with a penny-ante tax cut that won't even be noticed by 80 percent of the population. They will spend a month or two patting each other on the back and telling their constituents what hero's they are while they pocket millions for their re-election coffers.

When I think of all the things they could have done, like lower gasoline taxes, abolish State Taxes, lower interest rates, legislate against the usury rates charged by credit card companies, allow us to deduct more from our taxable income, initiate a "flat tax"... there is a ton of stuff they could do to do some real good...but no... the Federal tax surplus will disappear just like the California surplus has disappeared. Our current tap-dancing Democratic Governor is afraid to take a stand, our little Banty Rooster President is socking it to us for not voting for him, he won't be happy until we've depleted the treasury and bankrupted ...besides, he wants to get California to lower it's standards so that his buddies the Power Producers can increase their profit margin. This whole business is about corporate greed, lowering standards, economical control, and political maneuvering. It has absolutely nothing to do with electricity.

But that's just my no account humble opinion... it don't mean nothin', I have no control over it so I try not to think about it.

Thursday April 5, 2001

Autumn had her "Field Trip" today, she went to IMAX to see "The Dolphins" It took a bit of thinking to get everybody where they were supposed to be on time... Christy had to take Cindy and Calie to school I took Mike Monica and Autumn... I lost sleep about this for some reason... I worry about Autumn, she gets frightened easily... and bored easily... and irritated easily... none of these traits are conducive to tranquil movie going... she also falls asleep... Jan Sisco is with her and Jan takes very good care of Autumn... There was really nothing to be concerned about... but I was anyway... no seat belts on those damn busses either...

Christy took her car to the Cleve's Radiator in Palmdale, "B" and I met her and Christian there and we went out to breakfast... the car was done when we got back and she went to the DMV to get it registered and bought a new radio for it, they put the radio in in about 20 minutes... it would have taken me 2 hours...

I have been thinking about the plane and it's crew on the island in the South China Sea... I received  three e-mails urging me to send a letter to the Chinese Embassy... something about this whole affair is very fishy…

I think everyone on the planet knows that the lumbering U.S. Navy EP-3 electronic surveillance warplane did not cause the accident… (Surveillance is sort of misleading… it is a sophisticated Spy Plane… like an electronics vacuum cleaner, designed to gather military, political and civilian intelligence). The Chinese pilot was probably told to aggressively harass our plane and he just got too close... an accident... it was at least unintentional. Our government knows the accident was not the fault of the US Pilot and so does theirs… for some reason the people in charge on the American side want to minimize that aspect of this situation… I think it would be wise to back off and let the pro’s handle it. This is a very delicate situation and it needs to be handled diplomatically… The more we press and demonstrate the more politically advantageous it will be to use the Pilot and crew as pawns… (on both sides). There are people in Congress who are more than capable of using this situation to push for abolishing trade relations with China… It’s Captain Bucher and the Pueblo, the F. G. Powers and his U2… all over again, only on a much larger scale. I just hope the kids on that plane knew what they were getting into and that they were all volunteers… they are now at the mercy of politicians and diplomats… God help them.

If we are going to continue spying on foreign countries then it is reasonable to expect that those foreign countries are not going to like it. (any more than we would) What China has done, intentionally or not, is to expose the card up our sleeve. The rest of the world is now going to want to know where else we have these planes operating… These planes and ships gather electronic transmissions indiscriminately… the conspiracy nuts and the lunatic fringe are going to want to know, does the DEA use those planes here in America, FBI? CIA? Are we flying them over the Middle East...Greece and Turkey, Russia… France… Canada… Mexico? … a huge can of worms… I am just a fat old retired telephone man, I don’t know anything but what is in the papers, and this scares the stuff'n out of me, imagine what is going through the heads of the people who know what’s really going on.

Friday April 6, 2001

Christy had a class from 1300 till 1600... she is taking it because the lady in charge of seeing that she gets work suggested that it would be a good idea... she could teach the course...

We have Cassie and Christopher here for a sleep-over... two more kids make hardly any difference. Cindy and Cassie worked very hard to make this sleepover possible... Cindy has deemed Cassie to be her guest but Calie is monopolizing Cassie... Cindy seems to be oblivious... I hope so

I took "B" to Wal-Mart and bought him a bile to take back to Devereux. Mike taught him to ride a bike earlier this week... "B" seems pretty proud of it... I hope he gets a chance to ride it up there... "B" is still an odd kid, he has an unusual sense of right and wrong... he can be a real sweet kid one minute and an obnoxious pest the next. I am still  not sure what motivates him.. He wants to be liked but he doesn't know how to be likable, he wants to be included but he wants to refocus the group when he is let in, the wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it and is a real poop when he doesn't get his way.

I don't know why I am bothering with this... it is a sort of chronicle I guess... superficial in some respects and very personal in others... I wanted to write an honest journal of everything that happens to me and I wanted to write down my honest feelings and not hold anything back but that's impossible. I can't tell the truth... not here anyway, aside from the fact I'm not good enough the truth is an elusive thing... The truth is not a definite thing, it changes with the moment. My truth isn't necessarily your truth... what is right for me isn't necessarily right for you. Fords Chevy's, Republican Democrat, Liberal Conservative... 

A guy sold me a truck with a faulty transmission, he knew it was faulty when he sold it to me, I took the truck for a test drive and to a mechanic and didn't find the trouble and in his mind since he gave me an opportunity to find the problem that absolved him of any obligation to tell me about it... it's the legal, the law says so... 

I can't eavesdrop on your telephone conversations but the government can... is it right because it's legal...

Why is it ok for people to hold up Bill Clinton to humiliation and ridicule but blasphemy to speak ill of the Bush kid...

We have a Spy Plane sitting on the ground in China with 23 people and why is it we are expecting the Chinese people to let that slide... "So solly, hope none of your sophisticated electronic intelligence gathering devices were damaged when your plane sliced through our plane" Was it a Chinese spy plane sitting on Catalina Island the very least we would expect is an apology... what am I missing here. The last time I thought about spying it was a bad thing... just because "everybody does it" doesn't make it legal, it doesn't make it condonable. We can get all emotional about the 23 people and the fact that we were 12 miles and 2 feet outside what we have deemed to be their international airspace (they claim 200 miles) is semantics... we were spying on them and we got caught and they have a plane and twenty six people to prove it. 

Arsenic in the water... I didn't know that there was a "permissible" amount of arsenic in anything except rat poison... why would anyone not want to lower the level of arsenic? Too expensive... gonna cut into somebody's profit margin?

Saturday April 7, 2001

Christy had a class today from 0830 till 1300, I watched Ricky Carmichael embarrass the rest of the field in a motocross race. 

I took Carol's kids home and drove "B" back to Devereux... long haul... it rained here pretty hard... but it let up about half way there. We stopped for lunch at McD's if someone had told me I would be spending $26 regularly at McD's on a regular basis... I would have laughed at them...

The coast was spectacular... big storm clouds in a bright blue sky, I could see all the Channel Islands... it's a rare sight, they are usually hidden in the mist. "B" seemed a little depressed when I dropped him off... he is such a hard kid to relate to. He has a lot of superficial emotions and sometimes he comes off like a bas Soap Opera but under it all he is just a confused little kid...

It is very cold ... it even snowed here ... just flurries but still... it's April in Southern California...

Autumn had a seizure this about 1600 this afternoon... it involved the left side of her body... She seems to be fine now, just a little weak.

Charlotte is back online... she was off for about a month... I missed her, she doesn't laugh at my rants, Charlotte is a distant cousin that I met doing genealogy... currently in Kansas.

Sunday April 8, 2001

It was very cold again today... 

Autumn had another seizure last night, that's two in a day, we missed a Phenobarbital dose yesterday morning, Christy thought I gave it to her and I thought Christy did... damn it...

I watched Ricky Carmichael again... on ABC this time... ABC does a terrible job of presenting the race... I much prefer ESPN2... the main announcer on ESPN2 is really lame but the color guy is cool, he's the same fella they use on ABC... Gary Bailey... ex-motocrosser... All you need to do to spot the wanna-be sports on TV... the announcers all sound like they are announcing Professional Wrestling. Everything is just too sensational and never- been- seen- before- spectacular. They have such odd inflections in their speech... like Saturday Morning Action Cartoon voices... 

Tiger Woods is just about the most amazing athlete I have ever seen on a golf course... They compare him to Jack Nicklaus but Tiger is better I think... he's not nearly as temperamental and I don't remember Jack being able to come back after he bogied a couple holes... Jack would take the lead and keep it, he wasn't a come from behind guy... 

I will embellish this later... too tired now...