food for thought – Page 5 – The Boring Old Man

Don’t be Fooled…

I write this as an American that was raised with firearms, taught to respect firearms, and also to respect “the Law”.

We have been enduring an onslaught of talking heads and politicos telling us we have a GUN problem in the USA. Anyone espousing such nonsense is either a complete moron or they are a liar. My money is on the second one, but it’s entirely possible some of these people could be both…

Firearms, and more specifically the dreaded semi-automatic firearm have been around a hell of a lot longer than “mass shootings” have. And more importantly, they do not shoot themselves.

When Cain killed Abel, God blamed Cain, not the rock. For my entire adult life, all you ever hear about is how evil the “rock” is…

There are a lot of “reasons” why somebody might go off the rails and kill someone, too many to list. Some even justified, in my opinion. But a gun is simply a tool, it isn’t the reason somebody does what they do. If somebody REALLY wants to kill someone, they’ll find a way to do it, regardless of the access to a firearm.

And if you happen to be the poor bastard on the receiving end? You’d better hope you’ve got more than 911 on your cellphone for help, or your ticket is gonna get punched.

There are only two reasons the political class gets involved in gun control – neither of them being care for their constituents – money and control.

On the money side, pols that “take a stand”, either for OR against, can count on “donations” to their election campaigns from the various gun organizations for toeing the line. If you want to get “endorsed” by anti-gun orgs for example, you better not say ANYTHING about the responsibility of the criminal or mental health – ALL your ire must be directed at the gun. “Guns are bad, mmm’kay?”

As for the control side of things? Does that REALLY need to be spelled out? Every despot over the last 100 years disarmed their populace before visiting unspeakable horrors ON said populace. China. Russia. Cambodia. Cuba. Germany. The list goes on, you get the idea. I’m curious to see what happens to Australia and New Zealand over the next decade or two… Judging by the gratuitous strong-arm tactics employed by the cops during the Plague, I’d guess the general population is basically under complete “iron fist” control down under, which is bad news for the citizens.

Seriously, think about how bad things are right now, half way through 2022. Think back to the unbelievable restrictions /they/ put their people under during the Plague. And that’s what /they/ did knowing we have more weapons than PEOPLE in this country…just imagine what they might try to roll out on us if we were unarmed?

If, and that’s a BIG if, the politicos tried everything at their disposal and we still had a problem with violence, then maybe, just maybe it might be time to see if there are in fact some “common sense” solutions around the guns themselves but we are a looooong way from that. That isn’t the place to start, making the law abiding sitting ducks for the lawless. All you ever hear about “justice reform” involves leniency for repeat offenders, and all you hear about mental health care on a National level is…zip, nada, ziltch.

I believe anyone charged with a felony crime committed with a firearm should have 20 years added to their sentence and no “gimmes” for juvenile offenders. Make the penalties that much harsher. If they can add on “hate crime” penalties, why NOT? Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows a loaded gun could go off in someone’s hands, especially in a heat-of-the-moment situation. Why not consider every brandishing of a firearm in the commission of a crime, attempted murder? If you actually kill someone in the commission of a crime – I say you should get the death penalty. No 20 years of appeals, no legalese nonsense, you just get your lights turned off, forever. Maybe 90 days for a post-trial review, to make sure no glaring mistakes were made. Felons caught with a firearm? 20 years, hard labor. If that firearm happens to be stolen? 20 years AND your thumbs removed… When getting caught up in “the system” is seen as a right of passage and not a deterrent, clearly things aren’t working and you’ll never have a civil society, much less a safe one.

As for the whole mental health angle? That’s a whole different ball of wax, but yes I’d wager that ALL mass shooting events were due to seriously disturbed INDIVIDUALS, that may have been stopped with the proper mental health affirming intervention. Duh. But since that didn’t happen, and likely never will because our government is far too corrupt to help its citizens, we get whackos going off instead of simply being put to sleep for the benefit of society. Yes, I know, very non-PC there. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; we as a society are doing ourselves an unforgivable disservice by allowing so many mentally deficient people to run rampant over our country. Hell, some of ’em even get elected to office!

And now, in this day and age, knowing what we do about these sub-human wretches that do these things, I also believe any “news” outlet that publishes photos of these killers should be fined substantially at the very least, and publishers jailed if they make a habit of it. Same for social media. No more “press darlings” made from psycho/socio-pathic cretins, please and thank you.

In short, crazy people are gonna do crazy stuff, guns or no guns. How many maniacs have gone on knife attacks in the last decade or so, racking up double digits of victims? How about the bombers? Or the twisted sacks of excrement that drove vehicles into crowds to rack up a nice, high body count? Or the dealers cutting their product with Fentanyl, killing untold thousands? There are myriad ways to take someone’s life, guns are just one. The flip side of course, is that a gun is the BEST self defense tool you can own. And with all the ways someone else can try to ruin your day and/or end your life, I think being a responsible gun owner is the smart way to go for strictly defensive purposes. “If it saves one life”, right?!?!

Compassion and empathy are very valuable traits, but when your compassion leads to actually endangering your society on behalf of the criminal element, it’s past time to reassess. If there is a truly “revolving door” in prison and recidivism is really as bad as they say it is, that’s your low hanging fruit right there. Put a hard stop to that, and watch violent crime decrease. How many times do they let a dog bite before it’s deemed a dangerous animal and euthanized? We should follow the same guidelines for “career criminals”. We need to face up to the reality that some people are just no damn good, and deal with them as the problem they truly are, not some sociological experiment.

I’m no scientist or social worker, but I’d guess that IF criminals are locked up, or buried, the chance of them committing violence against an innocent victim are pretty slim…regardless of how many guns are in the hands of responsible citizens.

Of course, this is just my 2 cents on the subject…

Thanks for stopping by!

A Bird in the Hand…

It has been said by many who know me, and I will admit it’s true, that I am predisposed toward paranoia. Well, that makes me sound like a whackadoo, so let’s just say I’m drawn to pessimism.

I’ve never had a day so bad that it couldn’t get worse.

I guess it all started as a young Boy Scout and my introduction to their motto “Be Prepared”. I took that to heart at a very young age (12, I think??) and it has stayed with me these last 4 decades or so.

After the panic of Y2K (what a nothingburger that turned out to be!) I was seriously lulled into believing that we were beyond catastrophe. Sure, we’d have earthquakes and hurricanes from time to time, but “end of the world” stuff? Pfft… That was crazy-talk.

Part of it, for me personally, was the final nail in the coffin of my religious upbringing and beliefs. I had been so indoctrinated with Penecostal “End Times” rhetoric growing up, that part of me still believed the the Millineum was going to be Game Over for humanity. When NOTHING happened, the weight of the duplicity I’d carried my whole life finally fell away and I felt like life was good and I had nothing to worry about.

Then we had the events of 9/11. Then we invaded Iraq for no good reason. Then al Quaeda. Anthrax scares. George “Dubya” Bush at the wheel was enough to give you nightmares, throw in Cheney and Rumsfield and Holy moly, the Rapture seemed like a WAY better option, but alas! No Jeebus was coming back to save us from those lunatics.

On top of all the swell news of the day, there was also the fallout of the “dot com bubble” bursting and causing untold havoc in our country. I too was a victim of that bubble bursting…lost my job, lost 70% of the value of my investments and had to cash out what was left to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads because jobs were non-existent. But I digress…

So in my life so far I’d gone from lower middle-class as a kid, to “working poor” as a young adult, to borderline destitute when I hit my early 30’s, with a wife and child I was also responsible for.

At some point, the dust settled and I was able to see clearly for the first time in a long time, and I realized the ONLY person that would look out for me and mine, was myself.

There was no “luck” coming my way. Thinking “everything will work out OK” was nonsense. Believing in the Government was beyond fairy tales. No, it was time to make some serious changes and get my family in a better position.

All of this is taking the long way ’round to explain WHY I firmly believe in personal preparedness and why I came to believe in its importance.

Well my friends, at the risk of sounding like a crazy person, some sort of Chicken Little, screaming the sky is falling, I have a feeling, a deep unshakable feeling, that we’re in for a rough ride over the next two or three years.

I’m not speaking about politics (a pox on ALL their houses!), or even a resurgence of the Plague. My biggest concern (that has been keeping me up at night, literally) is the food supply.

I believe everyone, and I do mean everyone, should have – at MINIMUM – 3 days of food in their home. I don’t care if you need a cookbook to boil water, you NEED to have food in your home.

But all that aside, just consider the following:

1. US farmers were paid to plow crops under last year.

2. A significant portion of the world’s wheat supply comes from Ukraine. I suspect this is going to be an issue come harvest time.

3. A significant amount of the world’s fertilizer comes from Russia. Do you think they will want to sell it to the US? Will the .gov even ALLOW farmers to buy it, if they could?

4. Crop yields in the US are expected to be lower this year.

5. Numerous food plants in the US have sustained damage in the last year, closing them down or at the very least diminishing their output. This one is very suspicious. More food plant fires in the last year than in the previous 10 years, combined?

6. Pressure from the .gov to divert grain (corn) to ethanol, to lessen the fuel problems we’re currently experiencing.

7. Millions of livestock fowl have been culled this year, supposedly to deal with yet another “bird flu” epidemic.

8. The clarion calls are already ringing out with news of another Covid surge fast approaching. How many more food plants will we see closed down due to the Plague?

9. The cost of diesel has skyrocketed to unseen levels. “But what does this have to do with food?” you may ask? Well, the tractors that plow, seed and harvest crops all run on diesel. The trucks and trains that get the crops to the processing facilities run on diesel. The same, or similar, trucks and trains burning diesel then deliver the processed goods to distributors who load even more diesel trucks and trains to get those processed goods to your local retailers. Do you really think the farmers, the truckers, the rail lines, the distributors…are all going to simply give away any small chance of a profit by NOT charging more along each and every step of the process to cover THEIR expenses? Not bloody likely. Oh, and just in case that isn’t bad enough, a lot of places use diesel to run generators when the power is out to keep the food from spoiling. Lest anyone tell you otherwise, the cost of diesel fuel is DIRECTLY RELATED to everything you eat that you didn’t grow, hunt or harvest yourself. Period.

10. Weather is wreaking havoc on crops this year. We had flooding that caused problems with planting in the US, then cold snaps/freezes that damaged crops in the ground. I read recently that California strawberry farmers lost 80% of the first crop this year due to a “late freeze”. Eighty percent!?!?! Of course, better we lose strawberries than grains in the big scheme of things, but grains are in serious trouble too, world-wide.

None of these things are fringe ideas or “conspiracy theories”, you can find stories on all this stuff all over mainstream media. And frankly, that what freaks me out. If there were only stories about these things on the crackpot websites, or it was only one “personality” talking about it I might be able to dismiss it, but these things are no secret.

Preparedness has many facets- water, food, medicine, shelter, self-defense… but for right now, it’s all about food people.

If you have nothing in your house, get something.

If you have a little, get a little more.

If I had the space, I would happily store 2 year’s worth of food, but in our tiny apartment we can only do so much. But seriously, anything you can do to put yourself and your family in a better position with food, do it. Now.

Once the harvest season is upon us (just a few short months away!) and the reality of the situation becomes more clear, expect prices to soar and availability to dwindle. Then things will start to get nasty. You do not want to be brawling at your local grocery store over the last bag of noodles!

In all honesty, I hope I’m completely, utterly wrong about all this. I would love nothing more than to have y’all back here in a year, making fun of me over my crappy, outlandish predictions. But look it this way, if nothing happens and all the crops turn out great, Russia, Ukraine and NATO all hold hands and sing Kumbayah, and several million gallons of diesel suddenly appear out of nowhere, you’ve still gotta eat, right? You might as well “buy when the market is low” and try to stay a little ahead of inflation. When people are getting “cart-jacked” in grocery store parking lots or standing in line for hours for a government handout, you’ll be glad you did!

That’s just my 2 cents on the subject. Take it or leave it, we’re all adults here. I’m not trying to tell anyone how to live or what to believe.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Penny Saved…

I freely admit that I’m one of those old fashioned folks that much prefers to use cash rather than debit or credit cards.

The positive aspects of this are that I have a better idea of how much I’m spending, when it is literally -not just figuratively – coming out of my pocket AND it leaves less of a “paper trail”. My fellow “tin foil hat” brigade will know what I mean…

The negative side of these transactions is that I always have coins in my pockets.

A few years back I decided to turn lemons into lemonade and started saving the coins in a couple jars at the end of each day. Since we’re apartment dwellers, we always need quarters for laundry, so they have their own separate tin. When the jars were full I’d take them to the coin kiosk at the local grocery store and trade them in. Usually I’d walk out with $40-50, nothing to sneeze at.

Well, yesterday was the first “cash out” since pre-Plague. My jar of nickels and dimes had filled up, so I tossed ’em in a little wood box I had and kept going. Then I had to dump into another tin I had, then the jar was nearly full again! Along the way I started a second jar for pennies too…

I dumped all the “silver” into one plastic bag, then all the “copper” into another bag. I weighed the two before heading out and to my surprise, the silver coins weighed in at 17.2 lbs. and the copper coins added another 2.3 lbs. Nearly 20 pounds of coins! Now you see why I don’t like to carry them around in my pockets!

The kiosk takes a cut off the top for the service, I don’t recall off hand what it is, I think is was 12% or something, whatever. I’d rather pay that than buy coin wraps and spend the time sorting, counting and rolling them up myself, THEN taking said rolls to the bank to deposit, but I digress…

Now, granted this was the longest stretch of collecting – by a long shot – due to the Plague, but I walked out the store with $190 in “folding money”, with a little collection of coins to throw back in the jars for the next run!

Of course, in reality I just lost a little money with this exchange. But psychologically it feels like I just got a bunch of money for doing nothing but feeding the coins into a machine. Bottom line, I never would have spent the coins as they were, but by flipping them into cash I got the Mrs. and I a nice pizza for dinner last night and threw the rest of it into the emergency “cash on hand” pile.

You DO have an emergency CASH ON HAND collection, don’t you? If not, why not?

If you don’t (and you really, really should!!!), this is a painless way to do it! And did I mention you REALLY should have emergency CASH on hand?

Just my 2 cents…

Thanks for stopping by!

And it’s only Wednesday…

I had a nice weekend and came in Monday morning feeling recharged and “ready for battle”. By the end of the day I felt like I’d been pummeled, but I went home and played my new bass for a while to calm the nerves and went to bed in good spirits ready to have a good Tuesday.

Tuesday came along and was busy as all get out, but around 3pm I’d just finished a grueling, nearly 3 hour meeting on a big project I’ve been working on for months. I sat back and thought to myself, “alright, that was some progress, I’m finally getting somewhere!”

Less than 10 minutes later, one of my most solid and dependable employees comes in and gives me his resignation.

I’ve been short 2 employees for nearly a year now – it started back in June of ’21. Now I’ll be down 3. We still have to have 6am -10pm coverage, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and the remainder of the team is getting burned out and certainly less willing to “pick up the slack”, now that we’re 11 months in to a “temporary” situation. I can’t blame ’em.

Last night talking with the Mrs., I said “just once, I’d like to have a day when NOTHING goes wrong. I don’t need anything good to happen, just nothing bad.”

Well, today ISN’T that day. I’d just pulled in, hadn’t even turned off my car, much less exited it, and I’ve got the big cheese of the place yelling at me about an incident that had just happened.

It took 1000% of my willpower to stop myself from putting the car back in “drive” and leaving. Forever.

Thankfully I happen to have a couple hours booked in the rehearsal studio tonight AND a good friend/very talented musician is joining me for some noisemaking. Sometimes it is the little things in life that help get you through the s#!+ storms.

Hope y’all have a good day out there. If you’ve got dark clouds hanging over you, like I do, find something, anything to bring you a little joy. Self care is necessary, especially these days.

Thanks for stopping by!

Can anybody make sense of this?

Here in CRAZYfornia new regulations went into effect as of January ’22, requiring that all “compostable” materials be separated into a 3rd “waste stream” for collection to reduce methane gas, a so-called “super pollutant”. According to “Science”, “organic material dumped into traditional land fills decomposes and creates methane”.

Ok, I’m no scientist, but as I understand it organic material decomposes. Period. This decomposition process creates methane gas. Period. So, how does separation of the organics from say, old furniture and building materials make it less toxic?

And if this methane is gas is so toxic, and I’m assuming it is, wouldn’t concentration of all this organic material into one place make for a toxic zone? At best a hazardous workplace, right? If my leftover food scraps are decomposing right next to my neighbors’ discarded blender in a landfill, does that make the food scraps produce MORE methane than it would anyway? Seriously, I don’t know and I’d LOVE to have someone explain it to me.

On top of this quandary, I cannot help but wonder how is it that sending out THREE SEPARATE COLLECTION TRUCKS instead of one is beneficial to the environment? Isn’t burning 3x the amount of diesel fuel just as bad as mixing our organic waste with non-orgznic waste? And on top of all the extra trucks on the road, we have oh, so helpful city employees that come by the facility every six weeks to “audit” our trash and insure we’re following regulations. More fuel burned in the name of environmental safeguarding? And lastly, we had to bring in dozens of additional waste receptacles (at a cost of several thousand dollars!) AND we have to use “color coded” can liners for the different waste streams. So yeah, how much “energy” went into producing all the extra bins and having them shipped out by truck? How does a “translucent green” or “tranlucent blue” trash bag help our ecology? Inquiring minds want to know… How much extra will we have to spend to comply with the color coding nonsense, day in and day out? What do we do about the real work that now doesn’t get done because we have to shift our limited resources to extra waste pickups daily?

I started dealing with this stuff back in November of ’21, so roughly 6 months I’ve spent trying to get our facility “compliant” and dealing with the city. It’s preposterous. If it were for a good cause, I’d have no problem with it, but honestly I cannot see the benefits of all this extra expenditure of time, resources and energy.

Now, before your undergarments get all in a twist, I am not anti-conservation. Don’t go all Greta on me! I was into recycling way, way before it was “a thing”. All the way back in the mid-70’s my Boy Scout troop was doing monthly “paper drives”, going door-to-door throughout the entire neighborhood collecting old newspapers to recycle. Back then I was also always collecting aluminum cans and glass bottles for a little extra walking around money. I had a nice little side hustle in the 80’s recycling giant toner cartridges from commercial grade printers, and later when printers got way smaller and toner cartridges way cheaper, I filled the cash gap recycling old CRT monitors and computers. When we had a house, we always had our own compost pile in the backyard for use in the garden. Nowadays we even use glass straws and waxed cloth wraps instead of plastic ziplock bags for lunches and whatnot. Basically what I’m saying is while not exactly a “tree hugger”, I’m definitely a “friend” of Mother Nature. (Oh, is it still OK to say that? I’d hate to presume Mother Nature’s gender! /sarcasm off)

But this latest “green initiative” doesn’t pass the smell test. All I can figure, and believe me I’ve spent a LOT of time thinking about this, is that it is nothing more than the .gov “creating jobs”. They put the “green” tag on anything these days and if you question it or deny it’s value, suddenly you’re nothing more than a mouth breathing eco-terrorist.

This is what happens when people with no experience in anything get to make up rules and regulations for the rest of us that they themselves don’t have to follow. Or pay for.

Don’t get me wrong, I think as a society we’d be far better off if everyone composted AT HOME and used said compost to bring life back to our horribly damaged soils and grow at least some of their own food. But that isn’t what’s happening. We’re burning precious fuel to collect this stuff, charging the citizens and companies MORE for the privilege of complying with their mandatory services and in the end I don’t believe for a nanosecond that this will accomplish anything of value. Except of course, filling the coffers of politician’s election campaigns and the pockets of the grifting labor unions that salivate over these new regs that promise more revenue to their organizations.

I hope I’m completely and horribly wrong about all this…but I have yet to have it explained to me in a way that leads me to believe it’s anything but feel-good nonsense being shoved down our throats AND (above all else) a considerable cash grab disguised as “doing the right thing for our planet”.

This of course is just my 2 cents on the subject. I welcome any and all discussion on this topic, anyone that can make it – in a language we all understand – make sense.

Thanks for reading!

The evidence of our existence.

Ok, the title might give you the wrong impression. This isn’t about biblical lore, or archeology, or aliens. This about what “we” leave behind, once we’ve shuffled off this mortal coil.

I’ll be perfectly honest and admit right up front that I stole that headline from a book I started last night. I may have fudged the wording, but it was the idea that it sparked that got me writing. In fact, when I read the sentence, it was like getting hit upside the head! This is the “cause” I’ve been looking for and working towards for years, I just didn’t know it until this unknown (to me) author put it so succinctly.

One of the greatest curses of mankind, is the knowledge that life is temporary. Well, it might not seem a curse to some, but I think for many – and I include myself in that group – it is.

I’ve always had a keen interest in “leaving my mark” on the world. I don’t mean that in terms of being “famous”, which holds no appeal for me, but in terms of making a lasting contribution. Being able to breathe my last breath, knowing I left the place just a little better than how I found it. Or if not better, just different, in a nondestructive way.

I don’t really know why I feel compelled to leave something behind for posterity, nor why it feels important to me, but I do and it does. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I think I’m special or particularly noteworthy, it just feels comforting for some reason to think that when my days are done there will be something left behind. As the title says, some evidence of my existence. Selfish? Perhaps.

I know in some little ways I HAVE made a difference on a personal level, to some individuals. Finding that “needle in a haystack” employee and putting them on a career path that was truly life changing for them. Helping out friends that were going through some serious problems and seeing them through to the other side. Teaching music to kids, being an “understanding” adult when their own parents either couldn’t or wouldn’t. Helping strangers broken down on the side of the road. Giving food -directly- to hungry people. These are all things that I’ve done and feel good about if I stop to think about them, but none of that will leave a lasting mark.

Back in the mid-80’s my father was the General Contractor on the first hotel built in Campbell, CA. I was in high school at the time, and frankly couldn’t understand why anyone would want to invest money in building a hotel in Campbell (shows what I know, now there are half a dozen!), but nonetheless even I felt a sense of pride in my meager connection to this project. The hotel still stands today, and every time I drive by it, I still feel proud of Pops. Before that, his father was a Contractor building skyscrapers in the Dallas boom days of the 1970s, which he got into after several decades building military installations around the country. I’ve got long lines of builders and craftsmen on both sides of the family, so maybe this pull in me is just part of my DNA. But now I’ve been around long enough to realize NOTHING lasts forever. Back when I worked in “the Trades”, I worked on and built some beautiful stuff for homes, offices, retail establishments… but over the following decades, those homes have been sold and remodeled, office buildings and shopping centers torn down and rebuilt fresh…as I revisit some places I’ve worked, it’s kind if heartbreaking to discover that part of my history has been erased. In a weird coincidence, I spent about a year building cabinets and fixtures for a large residential facility being built at the time. Some 15 years later I would go to work as the Facilities Director for that same facility, and oversee an 18 month “master plan renovation” that entailed tearing out and replacing about 90% of the things I’d built 15 years prior. That one stung a little more than usual.

I’m sure the artists that created all those magnificent bronze statues never could have imagined 2020 and their destruction either…

Aside from the relics of my days as a tradesman, I’ve recorded an album-that never saw the light of day- and started-but never completed- two screenplays and a novel. All of those efforts were things I thought would be my legacy, and yet they were never wrapped up because I was trying to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, or even simply keeping my head screwed on straight. Survival today ALWAYS takes priority over plans for tomorrow.

And now, here I am on the downhill slope of life. If I’m lucky (which has never been the case for me. Ever.) I’ve got another 30 years. A far more realistic timeline, based on family history, reckless youth and a history of “bad habits” is maybe 15 years. That isn’t a lot of time to secure a long lasting legacy, especially when I don’t even know what it is… I guess I better figure that out quick, time is ticking!

Anyhow, I’m not really sure where I was going with this. More “thinking out loud” on my part I guess. Maybe I’ve got it backwards…maybe it isn’t setting out to leave a mark that actually accomplishes doing so, maybe it’s just being true to yourself and doing what you are compelled by your very soul to do. Maybe it’s just following your inner guide that sets you apart and leaves that mark on the world. All we know is that we don’t know what we don’t know, ya know? What I can say is that if you’re on your path and it feels right TO YOU, don’t let anybody dissuade you from following that path to the end. The world is full of people ready, willing and able to tell you “you’re doing it wrong”, but you’re the only one that knows what’s right for you.

Just my two cents and something to think about.

Thanks for reading!

Frugal, not cheap.

I’m a firm believer in the old adage “you get what you pay for”. Now, this isn’t ALWAYS true, but in my experience, it is the case more often than not.

Since I grew up “lower middle class” and spent the bulk of my adulthood in the ranks of the “working poor”, I’ve always been cognizant of every dollar that leaves my wallet. But at the same time, somehow I ended up with expensive taste and a predisposition toward high end goods. And by “high end” I do not mean “designer labels” or “luxury”, I am far more impressed with quality of materials, construction and yes, design. Esthetics matter, to me at least.

I learned at a young age that my meager dollars went a lot further by buying everything I could used. Pretty much everything of value I had as a kid and young adult, was “pre-owned”. (I still laugh at that term, sometime in the 90’s, the genuis marketing folks decided “pre-owned” didn’t have the same preconceptions as “used”. Semantics. Silliness. But I digress… ) All my bikes and sports gear and musical instruments were used before I got them. My first few cars were hand-me-downs or used. And you know what? All of that stuff worked just as well as it would have if I’d paid double and bought new. The thing is, if new were my only option, I would have had to simply do without.

I also spent time, as a young adult, living on my own starting at 19, shopping the discount stores, flea markets and other such “cheap” routes. This is the time in my life where I learned the difference between inexpensive and “cheap”. No matter how good it looks at first, no matter what kind of great deal you scored, “cheap” is not worth the cost, no matter how little it is.

For example, I used to buy socks at the flea market. There was a vendor there that sold new socks at something like $20 for a dozen pair. Screaming deal, right? On the face of it, sure. But by the 3rd wash, they had elastic popping and were getting thin. Within a few months they would be unbearable. It was like wearing sandpaper in your shoes, really terribly uncomfortable. And when you work on your feet 8-10 hours a day, uncomfortable feet turn into painful feet, which is positively miserable.

Another example is sunglasses. I used to buy whatever cheap sunglasses I saw that I liked and inevitably they would either get a scratched lens or the frame would break. I have absurdly sensitive eyes and wear sunglasses virtually year round, whenever I’m outside. I’m practically blind without them in daylight. So as a consequence I was buying maybe half a dozen pairs of sunglasses a year.

Now those two examples are both things that have plentiful options in every conceivable price range but are also things that I use every. single. day.

When online shopping became a thing, I found some inexpensive wool socks that cost a little over double the amount of the flea market socks, and it’s like the light bulb above my head burst into light! Yes, I paid double but they lasted a year – 4X the longevity of the cheap socks. And the remained pretty comfortable that whole time, which literally improved my quality of life, spending so much time on my feet.

Too many people just look at the price tag. Others only care about what other people will think. Me? I ask, how long will it last, how comfortable will it be and do I like the way it looks? Let’s face it, no matter how good the deal and how good the product – if you think it’s ugly, you aren’t going to wear it, so every penny you did spend is wasted.

With things going completely sideways here in the US, and inflation slapping you in the face at every turn, it’s more important than ever to start getting frugal, if you aren’t already.

Clothing, tools, cookware, shoes and such are things that have nearly unlimited options in price-range, but the markets are flooded with cheap garbage. Be wary of anything that appears to be too good a deal, chances are there is a reason why something is being sold at a deep discount.

And while it does appear to be true that “they don’t make ’em like they used to”, quality is still out there, you just need to wade through a lot more garbage before you find it.

And I know it’s now trendy to shop for clothes at Goodwill and Salvation Army stores (hipster nonsense), but there are still good deals to be found there on things like books and CDs, housewares and things of that nature. Is it overpriced versus a few decades ago? Absolutely it is, but its still a better deal than off Amazon or from your typical retail outlet.

With the cost of living shooting for the stars and wages stagnating at best, every dollar saved is a good thing.

Be smart. Consider more than the price tag. Your wallet will thank you later!

Thanks for reading!

You never forget your first…

Lately I’ve been getting some traction in the quest to play with a band again, so I’ve been digging up a lot of “oldies” to listen to and prepare for auditions and such. These trips down memory lane brought up lots of recollections of past bands and gigs, and then out of the blue a song came on the radio that I hadn’t heard in a very long time… ( yes, I do still listen to the radio from time to time!)

This song was the VERY FIRST song I ever learned to play on a drumset!

Now, I was only 5 years old when this album was released, and while I started learning drum rudiments at 7, I didn’t get my first kit until I was maybe 10. So this tune was already a “classic” when I was figuring it out.

For the life of me, I could not learn the bass drum part and then by chance one afternoon I was hanging out with a friend of mine – Mike B. – at his house and he had a much older brother that was a drummer (with an amazing Ludwig kit, that put my jalopy kit to shame!). The brother was cool enough to let me sit down at his kit and he spent about half an hour teaching me that drum part.

After that day, everything just kinda clicked and I was off to the races. 4 years later I was starting my first band. Nearly 4 years after that, and a few bands later, I played my first gig at a nightclub I wasn’t even old enough to legally be in.

Forty-plus years later, hundreds of songs later,I STILL remember the first song I learned like it was yesterday.

It was pure serendipity. That afternoon in the finished attic space on Shady Lane in San Jose at that shiny Ludwig kit changed my life. Mike’s brother, who was close to twice my age, (and I’d never met before!) gave me a gift I could never repay.

It just goes to show, you never know what that small moment of kindness you show someone will lead to. I could never repay Mike’s brother, but I hope in my own ways I’ve paid it foreword, helping others along their path.

Just something to think about…

Thanks for reading!

What is wrong with these people?

Once upon a time, America was a truly special, unique place and Americans (for the most part) were as bold and forward thinking as they were generous and caring.

Sure, there were some ugly things in the past in this country, nobody with two brain cells to rub together is debating that fact. But that was in NO WAY unique to the USA. The world for the bulk of history has been a cruel, brutal place. That goes for the US, as much as it does for every other country and continent for all of recorded history. We were not special in that regard, not even slightly.

No, what made it special was that you could speak your mind without fear of persecution. You could go to whatever Church your soul guided you to, or not go at all. We had unalienable rights and were FREE to pursue YOUR happiness. Basically, the Government was restricted from pushing you around. This is individual freedom.

All of this is great stuff, right? Makes sense from a human perspective, that we should be able to live our lives AS WE SEE FIT, so long as we’re not infringing on others. Simple. Effective.

Then, of course, as always happens with mere humans “holding power”, they can’t help themselves but to try to attain even MORE power. This again, plagues all of recorded history, worldwide. It’s no surprise, it is to be expected.

What IS surprising, to me at least, is how the population today seems to be not only OK with what is essentially a hostile takeover of our country by government and their cronies in business, they seem to be celebrating it and chastising anyone that doesn’t want to get with their program

It’s bad enough when the Hollyweirdos and the sportsball morons weigh in on things they know nothing about, but now everyone with a smartphone and a twitter account thinks they know what is better for me than I do.

Their opinions are also good for compost piles.

What happened to our bold, proud populace to turn them into nanny-state cheerleaders? Why don’t they understand that any power to compell ME to do something against my will/wishes/conscience, can ALSO be used against THEM to compell actions they themselves are against? Those that would abuse their power generally aren’t too picky about who they wield it against.

These are certainly not new concepts, and there have been a lot of words spilled on the topic over the last few years (which is probably why it’s on my mind now) but I have yet to see any reasoning that makes sense.

There is a lot of blather about this being the result of the public ed. system. I don’t buy that. It MAY have contributed to it, especially at Universities in the last decade, but a lot of the lemmings out there went through their schooling back when schools actually taught and weren’t the so-called “indoctrination centers” they are considered by many to be these day.

While I find social media kinda gross, I don’t think that’s the cause of it either. Yes, it has certainly exacerbated some problems, but there is a certain equilibrium within social media. While I don’t engage in the “big names” like FB and IG and Twitter, I do occasionally comment on YouTube and on other blogs, so I’d consider that “social media” too. And I’ve both learned AND laughed from those outlets, so I cannot condemn social media as a whole. Though generally speaking I do believe it does more harm than good.

Is it that we’ve gone from being “the great melting pot” of society to self-segregating along racial/political lines? It seems everyone is fighting for /their/ interests, which coincidentally also happen to be the “only path to justice”, so you know, they are fighting only for altruistic, selfless goals…it’s everybody ELSE that’s wrong!

In my humble opinion, I believe a combination of factors brought us here. First, fear. And it’s a biggie. Fear of the unknown. Fear of disease/death. Fear of the Police. Fear of the thugs “protesting” by burning city blocks to the ground. Fear of your business closing or your job disappearing. Fear of a government that has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that they do not care about their constituents, and in some cases look at their populace as the enemy. And this is all on top of the usual fears most people deal with on the day-to-day, like paying the rent/mortgage, buying groceries and keeping the house warm, in this era of crazy inflation, etc.

Second, I believe a lot of people are experiencing a profound sense of hopelessness/helplessness. And no, they AREN’T the same thing. These feelings come from fear. See above.

And third, we are completely oversaturated with “data” and “content”, but everything we see and hear has gone through some sort of spin cycle to make sure the “right narrative” is being pushed. Therefore, most of us feel like we’re being lied to, all day, every day. That insecure feeling of not knowing what’s going on helps cement that hopeless/helpless feeling.

This may sound like full on tin-foil hat, looney speak but I think that fear and hopelessness is what our “leaders” are counting on. If We the People aren’t afraid of some “threat” or there isn’t a “crisis” to be concerned with, then of what use is the Gov’t?

To be perfectly honest, I think a lot of our “problems” come from the fact that things in the US have been too good, too easy, for too long. We’ve gone soft. Way too soft. I don’t mean that as an insult, truly. I’m in the same boat. We’re too focused on how many likes we get on a post, or getting our hands on the latest iPhone. Worried that /our/ team/contestant/politician won’t win. Worries about our own personal “optics”… But nobody really seems to be concerned with getting along, being neighborly or being responsible and preparing for hard times.

We’re long overdue for a big Sping Cleaning. We need to find purpose in ourselves beyond consuming. And if we’re to survive as a nation, it’s time to start pushing back and reminding the powers-that-be that WE put them there to represent US. If they aren’t up to the job, we’ll find someone who is.

And as an aside, and I haven’t the slightest idea how this can happen, but I believe a good start is to remove full-time job status from Congress. I think is should be run like the National Guard – one weekend a month, with a month-long session every summer. If those people had to work for a living like the rest of us, we’d be in a better condition. Part B of this idea is that all members of congress are paid the median salary of their district, period. If nothing else it would give them incentive to raise the standards of living for the people they represent, not just their donors. But here I go again, off on a tangent…

In conclusion, I guess what I’m saying is it’s time to change perspective on Government. They are NOT our saviors, they are OUR EMPLOYEES. Clearly they are working overtime to get you to forget that all important fact.

Take care of yourself and those important to you, and remember that when you need them most, the Government will leave you hanging, if not make things worse for you. They are not your friends; you are nothing more than a taxable asset (and hopefully a vote) to them. That is all they see you as. The number one goal of Government is CONTROL. Over you, your finances, your health, your future well-being. That is not their job. Remember that with freedom comes responsibility, but at least when free you can determine your own course.

I realize this was me just thinking “out loud”, I wish I actually had solutions to the crazy mess we find ourselves living in. Nonetheless, thanks for reading!

Some truth, if you want it.

This essay was directed at at very particular and precise target, but this one quote, IMHO, is nearly universal to the “western” civilization.

“Our lack of self worth and submission to idolatry and ideologues is the real danger. We have always been our own greatest downfall.”

https://roycewhite.substack.com/p/an-open-letter-to-the-black-bourgeoisie?s=r

I don’t think there is anything wrong with having heroes or “idolizing” someone that excels in an area that interests you. That being said, since the advent of reality television and social media, those being put on a pedestal these days are questionable at best. What we’re NOT seeing is the “best of the best” being celebrated. Instead, it’s the loudmouth, the braggart, the sleaze-merchant that is held in high esteem by “the public”. But why? That is the question that confounds me.

Why are so many people spending so much time watching other people play video games or “unboxing” stuff? So much so that those “content creators” are amongst the highest paid on YouTube! Now, granted, I’ve never really been a video game guy, even when they were first a thing back in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. After a few minutes I lost interest. But WATCHING someone else play? That’s as bad as watching paint dry. And yet some dude managed to earn millions of dollars by filming himself playing video games for other’s entertainment. Go figure… And don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against those people that found a way to earn a living with no talent or worthwhile skills. More power to ’em. I’d rather a person earn a living like that, than say as a charlatan preacher fleecing their flock or leeching off The State.

What I really can’t wrap my head around is the appeal of this social garbage. When all you bring to the table is the ability to buy a bunch of stuff… what is there to look up to?

Everybody can use some inspiration. Myself included. But what do say, the Kardashians, inspire? Aside from “being rich”? None of them seem to be terribly happy or well-adjusted people. None of them can maintain a relationship. Other than pictures of themselves, they don’t produce anything worthwhile. And yet, they’ve become a household name and amassed tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars because… I’m sorry, I don’t know how to finish that sentence. I cannot answer the “because”, because it makes no damn sense.

Again, nothing against them exactly, I just don’t understand the appeal.

We, as a people, need to start holding up those of worth. Stop supporting the lowest common denominator, and search out the true innovators, the new thinkers, the DIY entertainers that are doing it all without the corporate machine shoving them down our throats.

They ARE out there. Artists, musicians, writers, Podcasters, builders, chefs, etc. Normal, passionate people that are out there doing their thing, because they can’t NOT do it. Regular folk, following their calling. Not for fame and fortune, but because it is a part of their very soul. Seek these people out, and kick the reality TV and the Billboard charts to the curb. Those people, and I use the term loosely, don’t care one iota about you or your life, why should you care about theirs? So you have something to talk about with your co-workers tomorrow?

I fear I’ve kinda got off track here… My point is, there are a lot of great people doing new, innovative, exciting things with their lives and that is what I wish for everybody. Sadly, a lot of folks are led around “by the nose”, never thinking for themselves or attempting to accomplish anything in their lives. That way leads to misery.

Everybody’s got their “something” (H/T to Nikka Costa for that line!). Everybody has their own dreams and aspirations. I just hope for you, that those dreams go beyond “being rich” or “being famous”… Those two “rewards” take an awful toll, not really worth the price of admission IMHO.

So think about it… What’s YOUR thing? What do YOU want to accomplish, to create? Now, with that “thing” in mind, go out and find yourself someone successful in that arena. THAT is who you should be looking up to, not the celebrity du jour.

And above all, believe in yourself. Nobody, not your parents, not your spouse or your partner, not your friends or colleagues truly KNOW what you’re capable of. I’m a firm believer in the idea that we’re all capable of doing whatever it is we need to do to make our lives better. But talk is cheap, the real value is in doing.

I realize this has almost nothing to do with the original essay that prompted this writing, but in the big scheme of things there are certainly parallels. That’s just the way this tired old brain works…a little acorn of an idea leads to something else entirely. Just something to think about.

Thanks for reading!