...When Rights are Essential...When Wrong is evil...

shore sculpture at Morro Bay

     the pause

   A breather and a contemplation. Tucked into our complex lives is the need for moments to just look, appreciate and breath deeply. Some of you regular readers are facing health issues and please know our thoughts are with you.
    Our thoughts are also with others and we get into that below.

          But first, have you seen the hair cut sported by an artichoke that goes to seed?  We've enjoyed several "farmed" in Lana's raised growing bed. She decided to let the last one go to seed, to see what it looks like. Kinda of punk eh?

right is essential

     When I hear someone start off about media bias I can't help but think about people I know. There was Al Schultz the editor of my boyhood hometown paper. Al was a neighbor, his kids were my friends and he and his wife were friends with my parents. He worked at night putting out a morning paper so he wasn't always there when other dads were playing catch or grilling out. Even as a kid I knew he was smart, well read, knew history and was traveled. But we could all tell it was hard work and it took its toll. It was hard on the family when he broke a story about abuse in the jail.

      I think about the cast of characters that populated the smoky din of the Times City room when I was lucky to enter that special world as a stringer and copy boy while in high school. Men and women racing deadlines, clacking at typewriters, while line-o-type machines cast hot lead columns and huge presses rolled and rumbled on the floors below.

     Or my college buddies Toby and Dave who covered the police beat for the city paper in my college town while I did the same thing for a radio station. Or the friends who spent hours working to publish the college newspaper.

      I think about guys like Joe Gelarden, Bill Anderson, Tom Keating, Dick Cady, Harley Bierce, Mac Trusnick, Paul Bird, Bob Bell, Mike Tarpey, Ed Zeigner, Wendell Phillippi, Bob Mooney, Pat Traub, Lyle and David Manweiller, Robin Miller, Zach Duncan, Gerry Lafollette, RK Schull, Howard Smulevitz ink stained retches from the Star or News who were friends but competitors covering government, crime and the people of a major city.

     I think of broken plans, cancelled vacations, ruined days off, interrupted dinners, when called out to a plane crash, train derailment, hazardous material spill, homicide, fire, prison riot, the finding of a drowned child, a late night school board meeting, a run over legislative hearing, a citizens group meeting, meeting a source, pouring over documents, reading science reports.

     I think about Bruce Taylor, Will Murphy, Fred Heckman, Bob Hoover, Bob Campbell, Ben Strout, Steve Starnes, Anne Ryder, Teresa Wells, John Stanley, Kevin Finch, Stacy Conrad, Leslie Olsen, Mary McDermott, David Macanally, Rich Van Wyk, John Whalen, Bill Ditton, Steve Sweitzer, Marlee Gintner, Karen Grau, Pat Costello, Randal Stanley, Pam Vaught, Marilyn Schultz, Neal Moore and many others who saw the work as more than just a job. 

     I think of Bob Collins sitting at the bar at the press club a brilliant writer destroying his body. I remember Jep Cadou, Carolyn Pickering, Hortense Meyers, Ed Stattman. I think of the late night drinks of people who devoted their lives to information while missing family or ruining marriages. 

    In fact there are thousands of scenes I can conjure from lifting a body from a burning plane, to waiting for cops to identify a victim, or waiting in statuary hall for a senator or congressman to appear or sitting through long hearings and trials or riding with cops or embedding with military, or talking with people for hours on end to understand their point of view, or hearing parents weep about the abuse of a child, or rage in anger at how a bank foreclosed on a home and on and on. It takes something of yourself to listen,to wait, to care, to study, to ponder, to dig, to research so that you can tell other citizens.

     None of that is fake news. Never was. Never will be. It is looking for facts, truth, looking at life in its better and worse hues. None of the people who do that work are enemies of the people. 

     I think about the young staff of my local paper here on the Central California Coast. They remind me of myself and some of the names above. Many of you have never heard of those people. They are not New York or Washington luminaries-they were local journalists, like thousands of others across the nation. They are not enemies of the people. Nor are the people who labor to report the daily news and who endeavor to make sense of our crazy world.

    We have never been perfect. We make mistakes and we admit them. 24 Hour television in the deregulated age has added entirely too much bloviating, opinion, and entertainment with the bottom line being, getting viewers, but still the work-a-day reporters, the real journalists, the newsmen and women are not enemies of the people. We could do with less schmooze and more news, less celebrity and more substance, but our habits and ways of getting information continue to change.

     Trust me, please! This nation is much better off with a tough, adversarial, questioning, probing, and yes even a pain in the ass media and press corp than without. We are a much healthier nation with critics on all sides, and challenges of any president than without that tension. Probably every president has had their issues with the press and that is as it should be. That has been our history.

   A free press, a robust and even imperfect media serves this nation better than any President in our history. 

    Donald Trump has gone too far.

bullies

     Donald Trump is trying to silence critics. Remember he is the same man who used to call tabloids and talk shows pretending to be his press agent. He is more than a liar. He is a danger to our 200 some years of tradition. He is a cancer on what is left of our integrity and he is a toxin to what is left of our civility. And I suspect even if he were bright enough to understand, he wouldn't care because he is so self immersed. 

     Think about this. Who would you trust-a man who spent his life in service to his nation, doing hard and unthinkable tasks, devoted to the principles of a democratic republic, honoring civilian control and respecting security and military leaders or a real estate hustler, known liar, sexual predator and braggart, who will not even read position papers or intelligence briefings and who publicly condemns his own intelligence community? It is the tactic of a strongman or dictator.

     John Brennan battled against our enemies. Donald Trump meets with them in secret, gives them security secrets and functions as their stooge. In the Mano y Mano match up here, it is certainly not Brennan who should have his security clearance pulled.  Read the warning signs. 

      Trump is treasonous. He is the enemy of the people.  

evil

     I hope the Catholic church will pursue with all dispatch the prosecution of those priests who have engaged in such hellish behavior in Pennsylvania. Some of those accused are now in positions of influence and power and even in the College of Cardinals. 

       Their betrayal of their faith, and their evil behavior should again rock the denomination to its core. The offenses are awful, but that some of the men involved are still in leadership positions, and that an organized cover up still exists is horrendous enough for a full papal retribution.

after all that, a sweet parting

This is a creation of friend and painter Pat Wilmott

it was every bit as delicious as beautiful

    See you down the trail.

        

      

Heroic

photo by SLOSTRINGER

extraordinary

    17 Helicopters continue to fly into harms way as they battle the Chimney fire that has now grown to 37 thousand acres. They are part of a small army at war with an unpredictable fire.

photo by EPN564

     The shot above is part of the staging area in Paso Robles for the Cal Fire army. 

     3,983 firefighters are on duty. They are equipped with 326 engines, 107 total crews, 7 air tanker planes, 62 water tenders and 46 dozers. Coordination and communication itself is an extraordinary task. Firefighters from around California answer the call. 
     The logistics of attacking wildfire are vexing-whom to put where and in what role. There is a meteorologist on duty, for example, as the fire creates its own weather. The air temperature along the borders of the fire will range from 70 to 90 degrees and the humidity wildly fluctuates as well. The heat of the burning scrub, trees and grasslands mix with different microclimates and the fire behaves erratically. 

     Signs, social media posts, conversations and letters to editors by central coast residents praise the firefighters and offer prayers and other encouragement. These men and women do long and extended hours of dangerous hard work and many of them have been moved from other fires. Some go weeks without being home or seeing family.

     The statistic sighted are according the AM Cal Fire incident report. As of this morning 1,830 structures are threatened in the Lake Nacimiento to Lake San Antonio area.

     

      As the fire has tracked north in the last several hours the threat to Hearst Castle has lessened. But crews remain deployed on the Castle grounds and all tourist activity has been stopped.

      As seen below a Kern County Unit assess the situation at the Castle. 

    As long as winds permit the 7 air tankers continue to route over the central coast and drop retardant. Coordinating their flights and those of the 17 helicopters is also a challenge.

 photo by Joe Johnston San Luis Obispo Tribune

 photo Captain Lucas Spelman Cal Fire

photo Captain Lucas Superman Cal Fire

    There is a frightening edge to a large fire that grows so rapidly. The graphic below prepared by Joe Tarica of the San Luis Obispo Tribune shows how it has grown day by day.

        As noted previously, we watch and wait. We also admire those thousands on the front line.

      We also appreciate the work of journalists and free lancer SLOSTRINGER for their efforts to keep us informed.

      See you down the trail.

"ASHAMED AND SORRY" UPDATING THE POST--CLEARING YOUR HEAD & GETTING IT SAID-- WITH A SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT

RESNICKS "ASHAMED AND SORRY"
Make restitution in Paso Wine Region

    The Tribune reporter Lindsey Holden reports Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of Justin Vineyards say "they were asleep at the wheel" when their company cut thousands of oak trees, denuded a large hill side and began work on an illegal holding pond that would have sucked 6 million gallons of water, frightening nearby neighbors and farmers worried about their wells. Holden quotes them as saying they are "ashamed and sorry."

     The good news is they plan to give the 380 acre parcel to a local nonprofit group and say they are looking for conservation opportunities. They promise to plant 5 thousand new oaks.  

      As we have noted previously neighbors and other growers were worried by the Resnick actions. Since our original posts the LA Times and the San Luis Obispo Tribune and other media have given the growing story a lot of attention. Major restaurants have dropped Justin Wine from their menus and boycotts of the Resnick products Fiji Water, Pom Wonderful and Justin wine have begun. All of these products are produced by Wonderful Company. 

      The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors issued stop work orders and is investigating potential violations.  

       Holden reports Wonderful reported income of $3.8 billion 

  in 2014.  Since the Resnick purchase of the prestigious Justin label from Justin Baldwin they've experienced staff turnover, loss of a premier winemaker, have increased production levels and begun a mass marketing campaign.

Long time fans have dropped membership in the wine club and complained about the drop in quality of the product. The Justin operation is "corporate" while the majority of Paso Robles appellation winemakers are smaller, independent, boutique, mom and pop and artisan.

Fresh

Moonstone Beach, Cambria Ca     

    It is always a good place to clear your head. Politics, discord, warm temperatures and whatever disappear in the breeze and lullaby of the surf.

the intersection 

 the solo walker

 the mystery of where rocks land-why here?

 closer looks

 the world awaits

In a Council Chamber not far away

   The once revered Justin Winery took a verbal beating before the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors investigating land use irregularities and tree cutting on Justin property.

    Lindsey Holden of the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports dozens of farmers, residents and environmentalists decried practises by the winery owned by Stewart Resnick and his Wonderful Company.

     The county is considering penalties for trying to build a water storage pond and grading violations that neighbors say threaten their wells.

      Supervisor Bruce Gibson is quoted as saying "it is the most appalling demonstration of corporate greed I've seen in a very long time."

       Holden reports Chairwoman Lynn Compton told of how growers talk about how they grew up respecting the land and caring for it  "And then you have some out of town corporation....and they really come in and spoil it for everyone."

      As we posted previously, when Justin Baldwin owned the winery his product was highly regarded. Since sale to the Resnick group the wine appears to be just another commodity in a business that sells Fiji Water, Pom Wonderful and other products. Several fine dining establishments have dropped Justin and many former fans talk about a cheapening of the product. The ethos of Justin seems entirely out of place and character in the Paso Robles appellation which is gaining reputation for quality and a friendly and accessible counterpoint to Napa, a corporate wine region. 

      The Board of Supervisors is considering new Oak protection ordinances for that rural area, similar to those in place elsewhere.

The Gun Fight

    It appears the next battle ground for gun control, safety and regulation will be in state legislatures. The Supreme Court has permitted state regulation, consistent with their rulings on the Second Amendment. Further the US Congress is impotent and under the control of the NRA and their fellow gun industry lobbyists.  

    The state level fight worked for previous social issues, including marriage. In addition former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg vows to fight the NRA perversion of Congress. He's probably got deeper pockets and is a lot tougher than LaPierre.

    Interesting times we inhabit eh?

    Remember to take a walk once in a while.

    See you down the trail.

CONUNDRUMS:PROTECTING FREEDOM-QUAKES AND NUKE PLANTS-PELICAN BRIEFS-BRIDGES AND STREEP

A SCIENTIST'S WARNING

     The former senior resident inspector at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant believes the plant should be shut down until it can prove that it can withstand an earthquake along the newly discovered Shoreline fault. The plant is  90 minutes down the coast from the scenes below.

     California Senator Barbara Boxer plans hearings to examine the earthquake risks at Diablo Canyon. The AP reports Boxer says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is failing to do its job to protect public safety.  The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports the NRC says it "does not have a  timeline" for its response to the inspector's criticism.

SPIES HELP

    News organizations report intelligence officers are close to identifying the masked jihadist seen speaking in a video of the beheading of American Journalist James Foley.

     Sophisticated analytical technology has driven the search. In an irony of life the super sleuthing and spy systems, invasive as they are, are tools needed in a world of terror.

      Protecting freedoms and lives in the shadow world is tricky going. It takes a continuous attention to the thin and often permeable line of balance. What may be needed in espionage and intelligence may not look so good in the light of day. A sense of history, judgement and wise oversight is mandatory

      THE GIVER CODICIL

       In 1993 my daughter Katherine read The Giver, the newly published Lois Lowry book about a seeming utopia. The book gained attention then as the utopia of the overview was revealed to be a dystopian state where people were medicated daily to eliminate emotions and where others were killed though the euphemism was "released to "Elsewhere."

       Back then Jeff Bridges was so taken by the story he turned it into a home movie staring his father Lloyd. Now Bridges himself stars as the wizened Giver, the holder of wisdom and history, in the Philip Noyce directed film.  

       I watched the film with my daughter and we discussed how 21 years later the idea of finding a balance where negative emotions and behavior could be controlled for the greater good is still a vexing question. "Nanny state" laws and regulations, preemptive policing, an increasingly medicated populace, an almost ubiquitous surveillance, algorithmic data capture and analysis, political influence of financial interests and etc eerily echo the Lowry premise as well as Orwell's more profound 1984. 

      The Giver transfers beautifully to film, populated by good acting.  Meryl Streep is haunting as a ruling elder. Katie Holmes turns in a solid though limited role as a mother. Newcomers Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush and Cameron Monaghan are all excellent.  Monaghan has already earned acclaim as one of the sons in the dysfunctional family drama Shameless.

     Though published as a young adult novel, the 2014 spin of The Giver makes for an entertaining sci-fi posing challenging questions about balance and how much is too far? Not unlike how far do democracies go to protect liberty?  How invasive do we become before we violate what we set out to protect?

      CLARITY

      There is nothing good in the IS. Islamic State is a dangerous menace to a modern world. Disturbingly they are tenacious, manipulative, effective and should be broken and then destroyed. Eliminating an evil like IS will raise hard questions for the world's modern nations, especially democracies.

MORNING BREAK 

  And taking his or her place amongst the pelicans, cormorants and gulls is a heron.

FINDING COZY

   Our cats sleep around.  They'll find a spot, settle in and then in a couple of days, maybe a week,  they move on.  It never ceases to amaze us where they find a bed.  Joy rests here on a box of oil paints tucked at the back of a work desk in Lana's studio.

   See you down the trail.

WHO IS RACIST? WHAT'S WITH THE SUSPENSION? and SEEN ALONG THE TRAIL

SLIDING BACKWARDS

     An agonizing disappointment to boomers is the new crop of racism that seems to be the spearhead of a wave of bigotry and narrow mindedness in the US.

     We spent the early and mid 60's fighting to end segregation, American apartheid and blatant discrimination. The entire culture was swept up in the drama and federal legislation moved to excise intolerance and set up an even playing field, imperfect and flawed though some of the legacy efforts have been. Feminism followed in that wake, connecting with efforts of earlier generations of suffrage campaigners to even the score for women. Still it seems as though it has been for naught.

      New studies and reports find a complex mix of racist attitudes in American today. Some of the young, the reports say, don't know or have not been taught what discriminatory or prejudicial behavior is.  "Post racial" is a term that is used.

      Then there is a poster child of our new dilemma, the matter of NIGGER. Some of you maybe offended seeing it here. Back in our youth it was a phrase never used in civil or polite conversation. Today its use is a map of how confused we seem to have become. Is it OK for African Americans to use the term, but not for anyone else? Though people of color divide on this. Is it wrong for a Caucasian to criticize its use or even to use the word? Depends on who you ask, doesn't it?  

       Remember the early argument about weather Black's could be racist?  Some who suggested that a person of color could also be a racist were themselves called racist. Today most agree that a person of any color or ethnicity can also be guilty of being racist, ethnocentric or bigoted in other ways.

        LGBT people have probably garnered more media attention for their struggles for equality in the last few years, though old fashioned racism has not disappeared. Classism stalks modern western life even as women still fight to overcome, the barrier being their birthright.

        From where I stand on this planet there is plenty of evidence of narrow mindedness, discrimination, fear, prejudice and hatred. The targets are men and women of all color, all ethnic origin, all gender identity or sexual preference. And so too are the perpetrators.

       It is easy to paint the broad stroke villain as being white men-Anglos/Normans/Saxons and in America in particular there is a sad history of invasion, genocide, land theft, broken treaties done by our government run mostly by white men. However there are many other guilty of such insensitivity and crimes around the globe with different casts of color, ethnicity, heritage and land of birth. We know that Africans too were partners in the horrible sin of slave trading. Patriarchy is written into the history of cultures north, south, east and west. American white men are in fact easy targets for criticism, but then if that is all who you see as offenders, you suffer tunnel vision and are not looking on a large enough scale of history and geography.  

      One of the most economic and employment vulnerable

today are legions of men, 50 plus, who were dislocated by the Great Recession and who are still out of work, unemployable or underemployed. Who in today's political climate are likely to carry their banner? Perhaps I should go cautiously here, less some of the dunderheads in our legislative branch of government who fail on intelligence about or understanding and sensitivity to half of the human specie, just might pick up that standard.  

     Our ability to find a commonweal, a set of normative values, a framework of equality, a true open-mindedness is honorable and necessary work for this democratic republic. It will be challenging, painful and will demand our better angels. To continue as we are with confusion, ignorance, rampant narrow-mindedness and condoned bigotry will lead only to apocalyptic political and cultural landscapes.

SEEN ALONG THE TRAIL

      On a recent hike I saw a couple of young California Striped Racers crossing the trail, enjoying the sun.

     The area was the scene of a recent "controlled burn."

     The sky was a palate of contrails.

HATS OFF TO THE SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE

   The paper editorialized today that William Randolph Hearst would have approved of Lady Gaga's recent adventure at his famous Castle, now a state park.  Nick Franco, the highly respected local State Park Supervisor has been suspended, for mysterious reasons, since approving of Gaga's use of the Hearst Castle for a production shoot.  

    Lady G paid some $300 thousand for the use, left additional funds to underwrite a water use study, did a promotional piece and a public service message about water conservation. The Hearst Corporation approved "loaning water" and the entire undertaking. Governor Jerry Brown wrote approvingly to Lady Gaga.

    The paper hints that perhaps some bureaucrat's nose may have been out of joint. Maybe or she is angry they missed their moment of closeness to her Lady G.

     Tsk, tsk, tsk.  Stay tuned.

    See you down the trail.  

WAS IT THE MUSHROOMS & A PRO MOVES ON

DIDN'T WANT TO READ THAT

     I was sorry to read that Bob Cuddy a reporter and occasional columnist at the San Luis Obispo Tribune is retiring.

       It was obvious to me from the first time I read his work that he'd been around the block and was a solid journalist. Over the six years we've been on the central coast I've appreciated his skill, balance and good reporting.  His columns offered insight, good sense and posed questions when they needed pushing.  

      In the column announcing his retirement he quoted a John Steinbeck character who questioned if he had contributed to the Great Ledger. Cuddy questioned if all of his years in journalism mattered.  I think they did.

     Journalism is a tough job where you make few friends but can anger many simply by trying to get the facts.  From my view of his last six years, he did a great job. At a time when there are fewer experienced journalists who care enough to ask such an introspective question, the departure of an old pro like Cuddy is a loss.  His work had worth indeed.

                      RIP TO ANOTHER PRO

     Pulitzer winner Anthony Lewis died at his home in Cambridge Mass. at 85.  The former New York Times columnist was must reading for young reporters of a certain age in the late 60's.  He redefined legal reporting and court coverage.  Reading his column Abroad at Home or Home Abroad, depending on his location at the time of composition, was enormously helpful to those who cared about journalism, the judicial system and democracy.
                                       

WAS IT THE MUSHROOMS?

A DAY AT THE BEACH
A moment of relief for those of you still afflicted by winter.

   See you down the trail.

THE LEADER DISCONNECT

WRENCHING IN SHORT SIGHTEDNESS

      Far more lucid, expert and impassioned analysts and players have critiqued the failure of American government and the political process that feeds it.  But for my two cents worth it appears most political animals lack imagination and creativity, or they certainly don't evince it.

      Energy policy is case in point.  I've heard every President back to Nixon proclaim that we need a new energy policy that leads to independence.  How much older are you since then?

      California doesn't hold the patent on original, and there are plenty of old school political issues here as well, but activists have begun building a fresh approach to a new energy future.  I like the idea because it is simpatico to something I've advocated.  I'd like to see neighbors form small energy cooperatives, and jointly fund the placement of solar and or wind energy technology in the neighborhood to feed our individual needs and then to dial excess energy back into the grid, for which the neighbors association would get cash, credit or some compensation.  

      SLO Clean Energy, which you can learn more about at this site proposes to work on a similar model, using communities in an aggregation. Of course this moves on the power of the current power companies-Big Business and Big Political Contributors-two of the greatest evils in our political life.  

      Eliminate big money influence and you are on the way to making giant strides of improvement in government and politics.  In this case of "power to the people," that is exactly what could happen.  

      Radical?  Not really. It is simply a method to put leveraging influence or control to those of us who pay taxes and live without the perks and influence of those whom we elect and the fat cats who lather up politics, legislation and government with money for favors.  

     I'm hopeful emerging generations will find imaginative and creative solutions to old problems that even the once idealistic boomers have failed to fix. Neighborhood or community energy alliances could be a start.  They are doable.

THE YOUNG SAVAGES

     New, fresh and cutting edge in California art is front and center in Paso Robles.

      Through the end of March the YOUNG SAVAGES show will hang at the Studios on the Park on the square in Paso Robles.

     Full disclosure here, YOUNG SAVAGES is curated by my daughter's friend, Neal Breton. I think Neal has done a great job in building an energetic and exciting show. Here's how it was reported in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

 Studios in the park is a great art space to begin with. The

work of the Savages adds even more life and spirit.

   Several art patrons have made it a good show for a few of the Young Savages.  Skulk, the piece below, done by Neal,

is one of the pieces that has been purchased thus far.

A LITTLE FRESH COLOR

This is for those of you where spring comes later than it does here on the west coast.  This is what will come your way, eventually.

    See you down the trail.

DO YOU JUST STORM THE OFFICE? & AFTERNOON MELLOW

HOW ABOUT AN OLD FASHIONED PUNCH IN THE NOSE?

    For those of you who riddle life's frustrations with the  old chestnut "WWJD-what would Jesus do?" or who seek a Taoist path of "going with the flow," my questions are out of your comfort zone.  

      But growing up on the south-side of Muncie Indiana taught a direct course of action gets results. My ire is simply one of a chorus who legitimately ask are there any thinking people who manage or supervise in CalTrans? (For readers outside California, CalTrans is the agency responsible for highway planning, construction and maintenance)

      Since last year a 25 mile stretch of iconic Highway 1 north of Cambria to the Monterey County line has been the object of puzzlement, frustration, controversy and anger. It's been the cause of broken bones and windshields. We can attest to the windshield issue. Bicyclists have been injured.

      Caltrans resurfaced the road and they blew it. Man, did they ever?!

      Apparently because it was cheaper, they used a larger than normal crushed rock in what they call a chip and seal repaving.  The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports the rock they used was twice the size of normal.  

       Twice the size?!  Hello CalTrans?  Anybody with a measurable brain wave in there? Did the Caltrans District 5 Director Tim Gubbins personally look at, approve or maybe even think about the implication of that?  Did anyone called a supervisor ever take their brain to work during the long repaving project?

       You probably know the Pacific Coast Highway is one of the most visited, scenic and bicycled roads in the world. Since the idiot job was first done, bicycle riders, clubs, organizations, federations and race planners have all tried to reason with Caltrans over how they have practically ruined a highway.  Caltrans, to whom we give hundreds of millions of tax dollars so they can maintain our highway has put on one of the best shuck and jive, obfuscate, divert attention bureaucratic bull shit Stepin Fetchit fests in history.  Sorry, I apologize to Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry)  and his fans. Though controversial his laziest man in the world character made him a millionaire. Unlike Caltrans, Perry had talent. Caltrans is foot dragging because they are real fools.

       What are they doing about it?  Studies, they say they will do.  Analysis and comparisons, they say they will do.

      How about dragging your public dollar paid fannies out to the road where you can walk it, drive and bicycle it?  I suspect the rough ride might even jigger on a synapse or two in your apparently dimwitted and certainly intelligence starved cranial cavity, which I hesitate calling a brain, because so far there has been no evidence of such higher  function.  Other than to collect your salaries that we paid while you have tried to ruin a highway and evinced nothing but arrogance since, that is.

     Well, the battle is being stepped up.  A Chamber of Commerce, hotel and motel owners, travelers and visitors bureaus, antique car owners and their associations, even organizers of the public service Best Buddies bike ride are chiming in.  Business owners say they are in jeopardy of loosing seasonal income.

     County government representatives and state assembly men are getting involved.  As one county supervisor who has been on this for months told the Tribune, Caltrans response has been "frustrating?"  Frustrating?  How about like something from cold war era Russian government.

     So, back to riddling questions. How to get through to these dunderheads?  Reason seems to be a skill set they are not capable of.  Back on South Ebright Street, back in the cinder alley, we found that a few rounds of bare knuckle logic could work wonders as a motivational device and behavior modification.

      But, let me take a few deep breaths, look at the rolling green mountains and cobalt blue sky and trust that enough citizens, groups and local government officials can, figuratively, draw a little blood from Caltrans and get them to repair their mess.

AFTERNOON MELLOW

    See you down the trail.