July 2003, Week 4

Monday  July 21 , 2003

An old man sleeps with his conscience at night
Young kids sleep with their dreams
While the mentally ill sit perfectly still
And live through life's in-betweens

The Late John Garfield Blues
John Prine

We (Calie, Christian & "B") left here at approximately 0120... It is a real complicated route to the campground, there is no one road connecting Interstate 5 with Hwy 1, I sort of surrendered reason and common sense to Mapquest and it worked. I got there about 0730... This camp is quite a place, I have never been there before.

This picture doesn't convey the whole impact, this place is huge, the building on the left separates the campground in half, the tents in the foreground are impressive enough, campers are below them and behind the tents in the background are more campers... awesome. I would have a hard time spending a week there, I had a hard time spending an hour there. I have a hard time with that sort of thing, to my mind, it's an encampment not a campground. But this sort of thing makes Christy happy so that's OK.

Autumn gave me big hugs and kisses, she actually seemed excited to see me, it's a good feeling to know you are loved. I wish I could have taken her home with me...

I got home at 14:30... pretty good... 719 miles in 13 hours... I took old Hwy 101 home, too hot for the 5 (107 in Bakersfield) and the Camino Real (Hwy 1) is too slow... since I left Mike at Donny's I felt I should hurry?

I slept a few hours this afternoon and I actually feel pretty good, no worse for wear.

Yahoo Weekly Picks posted a site called Documented Life... I got lost in it for about an hour... maybe more. What a cool personal homage... I am tempted to rip off his Midlife Will and Testament .  He even quoted John Prine, I had to go to the John Prine Shrine to refresh my memory... I really like John Prine...

Tuesday  July 22 , 2003

"I believe that a thought has just gotten caught
In a place where words can't surround it
It concerns the years past and the shadows they cast
And my path as I walk around it."

Third of July

John Prine

I must go to Kaiser for Mike's medication, he's out. I called to cancel "B" and Mikes appointments with the counselor, and I called Probation... They didn't have Mikes Medicine, they didn't even show it was requested, I told them he was out of it and they said they'd call Doane.

"B" and I went to see Charley's Angels... boy it was bad... there was a Motorcycle sequence that I was looking forward to. It was so jazzed up with special effects it was bordering on surreal, the guys doing the stunts are professional racers, what they can do on motorcycles is bordering on art, to take what they can do in real life and turn it into an unbelievable cartoon is just lame. It was saying "Listen folks, this movie is so bad the only prayer we have is to turn it into a Roadrunner cartoon... it was a total waste of time and money... what they missed, and what made the original series so popular was the fact that the girls played it straight, the TV show wasn't a Special Effects Tit's and Ass Orgy with no plot.

I went back to Kaiser to see about the medication and they said the Doane wrote out but they didn't know if it was in Valencia or Lancaster and it was too late to call. 

Wednesday  July 23 , 2003

"If ignorance is bliss, this lesson would appear to be a deliberate attempt on your part to deprive me of happiness, the pursuit of which is my unalienable right according to the Declaration of Independence. I therefore assert my patriotic privilege not to know this material.

I'll be out in the playground"

Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes

I called Kaiser and after three calls I found out that the prescription was in Lancaster. "B" and I went in and picked it up and took it to the pharmacy... so tedious. We got back in time to go to Don Cuco's to wait for Randy, "B"'s Social Worker at 1230... he called at 1245 and said he would be a little late, he was just leaving the Valley... 30 minute drive, I said we'd wait... he finally got there at 1400. We talked for a few minutes and he left... I never did eat, that's OK it's better than cleaning the house.

I heard a fella on the radio say that publishing the fact that soldiers are still being killed was a Conspiracy of the Liberal Media . Out of one side of his mouth he says that it's "demoralizing for the war effort" and out the other he says "It's war, of course they are being killed, that's to be expected." it's insignificant.  I think he honestly felt that the American Public did not have the right to know that soldiers are still being shot at, wounded and killed. As though  telling the truth was being unpatriotic, disloyal to undermining all the good things President Bush is doing over there. I don't understand... We are supposed to know what our government is doing, we elected the slimy SOB's soldiers are killing and being killed in our name and we have the right to know what is really going on. We are being kept in the dark and fed filtered, homogenized bullshit by the government, Bush won't answer questions, he won't be interviewed unless he is in complete control, all his appearances are staged and scripted... this is really starting to piss me off.

A man can fail many times, but he isn't a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.

John Burroughs

Does this concern you?... I think it should...

An interesting piece in the LAT looks at how some FBI agents--especially those in high-cost cities like San Francisco and New York--are struggling to make ends meet. Some agents have gone into major debt, while one FBI family in Portland, Ore., qualified for food stamps. As a result, the agency is bleeding new and veteran agents, who can't afford to work for the FBI anymore. Agents argue that base pay for new agents--about $50,000 a year in cities like Los Angeles and D.C.--should be restructured.

Some of the people the FBI is supposed to be investigating are pulling in $50k a day...

Thursday  July 24 , 2003

The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it seems to me the deepest root of all evil that is in the world.

Max Born

We hear on the "Liberal Press" that 44 soldiers have been killed since Bush declared that the war was over, that's it. They occasionally mention that 158 have been killed in the war... They haven't mentioned the suicides, they haven't mentioned the "accidents", they haven't mentioned the "Friendly Fire". The only thing you heart in the Conservative Media is that the Liberal Media is misleading the public... They condemn anyone and everyone who expresses views that differ from theirs. So do I, I guess, well, I don't think I condemn so much as I try to rebut. No one is really interested in "Truth" (what ever that is) or instruction, everyone feels that they are in the right and their detractors are wrong. We believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts presented by folks from an opposing viewpoint. We can always find ways to discredit facts, "they are irrelevant", "doctored", "half truths", "expounded by people we don't respect"... whatever... you can't win, you can't change minds that are already made up. I am as bad as the people I argue with in that regard... I hate to just give up but I can't fight them any more. You tell a fella; "I believe that George Bush's war was unnecessary and that an untold number of Iraqi's have been killed and 235 Americans have died solely because Bush was unwilling to wait for a diplomatic solution." and you get the response "Yeah? Well your an asshole and I ought to kick your ass." It's hard to continue a discussion like that. An enormous amount of people believe that Saddam had Nuclear Weapons, that there are hidden stockpiles of Nerve gas, There are Mobile CBW labs that he is responsible for the atrocity at the World Trade Center. ..on and on... Bush and his sycophants have convinced a lot of folks that this war was justified... but he hasn't convinced me.

I saw the pictures... since when does America do that? We railed at Somalia, and Iraq for showing pictures of dead soldiers... why sink to their level. It's inflammatory and provocative, nothing good will come of this and the damn Media is sucking it up, showing the pictures every 10 minutes and wringing their finger in feigned dismay... loving the ratings... I hope this doesn't set a precedent, are they going to start showing mangled bodies at car wrecks now? It was wrong... 300 soldiers with TOWS rockets, tanks, helicopter gunships slaughtered three men and a boy with AK47's an pistols... and now the world thinks we're gloating about it... shit!

Friday  July 25 , 2003

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, 55 B.C.

I got up, turned on my PC and an alarm came up telling me I had 45 minutes to get to Kaiser for the intake interview with the surgeon who is going to fix the umbilical hernia I have been living with for 3 years... hell of a way to start the day. I got there at 0830, I had been called yesterday and told the time, at 0900 the nurse came out to tell me my appointment was for 0900 but that didn't matter because the Dr. was "tied up in traffic" (BS. There is no traffic going north on the AV Freeway in the morning) and would be about 45 minutes late... I will make an appointment for the surgery in September...

I promised the boys that if they cleaned I would take them to the movies (I wanted to see Seabiscuit). They cleaned so we went to the early show. Seabiscuit was sold out... the kids went to see Spy Kids and I went to see Bad Boys II it wasn't as good as it could have been but it was a lot better than I expected... too much obligatory cussing but... now a days... if you can't handle cussing I guess you don't go to the movies... I will try to see Seabiscuit later in the week... The reviewers are having a hard time finding things wrong with it... worst I heard was that there wasn't enough character development, that is usually an indicator that the movie was pretty good... One guy said he was disappointed in the horse that played Seabiscuit... (there were 10 of them actually) Reviewers have an obligation to find something wrong with every movie, that's why they call them Critic's... My brother in law says the book was terrific but he doesn't want to see it because he read that a reviewer said that they left a lot out of the movie... Oh well... It's best not to have expectations when you go to the movies... almost every time I do I am disappointed. I am anxious to see it... there is a Western coming out in August called Open Range, I want to see that one too. I am sure that the critic's will tear it up just because Kevin Costner is in it. They hate everything he does, wonder why... I think his movies are fun to watch. Any movie that can take my mind and let it wallow around in the dark for a few hours is a good movie, if it gives me an excuse to laugh or wonder or cry it was a very good movie as far as I am concerned.

Saturday  July 26 , 2003

"B" got into the Ritalin again... this time I caught him red-handed before he could take any , he's got a real problem, he just can't help himself... Ritalin is not addictive, I don't really understand what the compulsion is. He is addicted to the act of stealing it, the 

It's 1500, we are getting a pretty good soaking from a thunder storm... really impressive... it is now 1630 and it is still going strong... this is not Southern California July weather... I bought some used chest of drawers a while back, they are made of solid oak, they are sitting out back in the rain and there is nothing I can do about it, I hope they will be OK...

Christy will be home tomorrow and the house isn't as spiffy as I would like it, I wanted to get it cleaned up but I don't think I will make it... I just haven't taken the time... We have stuff for nine people in this shoebox so there comes a point where when you pick something up that there is just no place to put it... exasperating... very.

I want to watch Lance Armstrong tomorrow... winning that race 5 times is pretty fantastic... tomorrow he most likely be racing in the rain, part of the course will be on cobblestones... a whole lot of folks want to see him lose

Sunday  July 27 , 2003

I missed my appointment at Kaiser with Dr. Kodel... forgot all about it and overslept... I called and got it rescheduled to 1410 this afternoon. "B" and I are trying to clean but with "B", if I'm not there to keep him moving he loses focus...

Christy got home with the kids at about 1730, I'm glad they are home, I missed them... the noise level has elevated about 100% but that's OK. Autumn demanded that I put on a Barney tape, she stood in front of the TV and squealed with unrestrained glee for about 20 minutes... I guess she was having some serious withdrawals...

I responded to another e-mail today, I posted it at the bottom of my e-mail page. I also found an neat article on "In God We Trust" and posted it...