#foodforthought – Page 2 – The Boring Old Man

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things…

As a lifelong Californian I am no stranger to living amongst the homeless. For a number of years I lived in both Downtown San Jose and East San Jose, both areas habitually populated by the down and out, going back to the early 1980’s. Quite possibly longer, but that is when I personally became aware of it…

When I lived downtown I had a 10 block walk to work. Every day I was accosted by transients asking for money. Every. Single. Day. It was exhausting. I was poor, very poor, at the time. Like 5 people in a 2 bedroom apartment poor, no insurance – health or otherwise – poor. I looked at these folks as in desperate need and tried not to have my heart hardened towards them. I took to carrying food in my pack and when I was asked for money, I would say no and then offer them whatever food I was carrying – maybe a granola bar or a little bag of chips or whatever…simple grab and munch stuff. More often than not the offer of food was refused. That told me a lot about these people. It was an eye opener to say the least.

Fast forward 35 years or so, and the problem is 100x times worse. San Jose has shanty towns (aka “encampments”) all over the place now. Events they used to have, like the annual Music in the Park events, went down the tubes because they were becoming overrun by the derelict mob. San Francisco, a mere hour north of San Jose is infinitely worse. It is a sad state of affairs State-wide.

Year after year we’re told we need to spend MORE money to combat homelessness, despite having spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the last 20 years on the problem and the problem getting bigger and more pronounced everywhere you go in “The Golden State”.

As if the whole situation weren’t enough to make your blood boil, then you come across stories like this…

https://news.yahoo.com/sacramento-county-clears-way-200-215626445.html

Our glorious “leaders” devise this super-genius plan to spend EIGHTEEN MILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS to supply between 175 and 200 “tiny homes” for the homeless as “transitional” housing.

$18,000,000 ÷ 200 = $90,000

If you click the link and see the pics, you’ll note that these “tiny homes” are essentially garden sheds that cost between $2-3k each at your local Home Depot or Lowes… Add some insulation and an AC unit, you might spend 5 grand. So where does the other $85k per unit go?

Most of the $17.7 million grant will go to operations and administration: Up to $14.6 million is slated for First Step Communities, which will operate the site, and $842,000 will go to county administrative services. The county is also paying WellSpace $2.2 million for a three-year lease of the lot.

I’m sorry, but this is simply disgraceful. They’d be better off putting $85k in a trust for each of the 200 people and pay a single trust administrator to dole it out responsibly. That could get a person into actual housing. Get them into a treatment center. Allow them to find a job… But no, instead we’ll spend millions to “help” and NOTHING will change for the better. In fact, I’d bet hard money that within 3 years our homeless population will be double what it is now, we’ll be “on the hook” for ever more taxes and our quality of life will be further degraded. For starters.

The most current estimate I could find puts the Californian homeless population at just under 172,000. Extrapolate the math above – 172,000 x $90,000 each for “help” and you’ve got a price tag of 15.48 BILLION DOLLARS. Putting it into a different perspective, that $18 million “investment” in Sacramento will impact less than 0.12% of our CURRENT homeless population in the state.

I expect there are going to be a lot of people getting big paychecks over this, and subsequently more than a few politicians getting some really juicy donations to their reelection coffers, but for the taxpayers, we’ll just keep getting the shaft and the homeless will get more lip service and empty promises.

This is a hopeless situation given the current crop of bureaucrats. Don’t get your hopes up for clean streets and safe neighborhoods. So long as the grift carries on like this, things are only going to get worse. After all, our “ruling class” has a ton of money to make off our collective misery!

We’re gonna need a lot of tar and feathers, folks!

Sorry for the crabby rant, but thanks for stopping by!

Gosh, what a surprise…

So Guvner Gruesome has repeatedly said that he is NOT running for prez. Since anyone that knows anything about him knows he’s a pathological liar, his constant denials have put many of us on edge. And now this in today’s news:

“President Biden told a group of world leaders that California Gov. Gavin Newsom “could have the job I’m looking for” if he wanted, amid a low approval rating and discontent within his own party.

“I want to talk about Governor Newsom. I want to thank him. He’s been one hell of a governor, man,” Biden said Wednesday during a welcome reception for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders in San Francisco. “Matter of fact, he could be anything he wants. He could have the job I’m looking for.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-reveals-who-thinks-have-job-running-for-2024-shadow-campaign-rumors-swirl

I think old slow Joe got his sentence jumbled up again – it should have been ” Life’s been hell with him as governor, man”

Good grief. Let me just say, as a life-long Californian and former Democrat, as bad as Joe has been, and let’s face it, NOTHING has been getting better since his (s)election, Gruesome would be 100x WORSE.

He is the epitome of the entitled, self righteous, “connected” class. He DOES. NOT. CARE. ABOUT. YOU. OR. OUR. COUNTRY. His concerns are money, power, and control for him and his cronies. PERIOD. He and his ilk are a cancer on this country.

You’ve been warned. Don’t fall for his greasy grift. He lies, lies about lying and lies some more. Unless you’re a donor of course, then I’m sure he’s a swell guy…

My apologies for ranting. I simply loathe this guy and I seriously fear for our country with him at the helm.

It is my most sincere wish that the rest of the country sees through his tired shtick and sends him packing. Seriously, for the love of all that is holy, do NOT let this tyrant anywhere near the Oval Office.

Our nation is in horrible shape, and headed down a very dangerous path. We are divided as a people more now than any time in our history and we need someone that can mend fences and bring some brightness back to our lands. A ham-fisted charlatan with illusions of grandeur is absolutely the last thing we need.

Ok, I’m going to take a walk now and try to get the old blood pressure to recede…

Thanks for stopping by!

Preaching to the Choir?

It is personally shocking that we’re already in September. They say time moves faster as you age, and I can attest to that!

Nonetheless, September happens to be “National Preparedness Month”, so here I am again to implore any and all readers to embrace preparedness and set aside a little time this month to work on your personal and/or family plan.

I know ” prepping” and “preppers” get a bad rap, and if you only look at the fringe elements I can see why. But honestly, it’s just a little common sense, mixed with a touch of planning ahead. It doesn’t have to be anything off the wall crazy, it doesn’t need to become your lifestyle, but there is really no downside. Think of it as an insurance policy or a savings account. Worst case scenario, you save a little money buying food you were going to eat anyway because you bought it before inflation devalued our dollars just that much more. Best case scenario, it could in fact save your life. Or at least make post-disaster a little more bearable while you put your life back together.

Let’s face it, in an emergency the LAST people you want to rely on is The Government. Nobody is going to care about you and your family as much as you are. So do something about it while you can. Even a little something is better than nothing.

I’m not going to go into all the details of what you should do – there are countless other resources for that. But for this month, just worry about the basics: food, water, shelter, first aid/medical needs, hygiene…and don’t forget to include your pets in the planning. They rely on you too!

If the whole pandemic thing taught us anything (aside from the fact that you can’t believe anything the media or the government says!) it’s that disruption can happen quickly and once something is no longer available, that’s it. It doesn’t matter how much you need it or want it or how much you’d be willing to pay. If it’s not there, you’re outta luck. That something may come back, it may not. Maybe in a month, maybe in a year. Maybe never.

There is already a lot of chatter about new “variants”, mask mandates and lockdowns. The war is eastern Europe is not going well for anyone and the house of cards in D.C. seems to be on the verge of tipping. China is having financial problems, and “activists” are turning into arsonists to show us how bad climate change is… Not to mention the usual suspects of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and all the other stuff Mother Nature does from time to time to remind us who’s boss.

Look, I know. This stuff isn’t fun. It isn’t sexy or exciting. In fact if you think about it too much, it can give you anxiety and stress you out. The “what if’s” you discover when you start going down that rabbit hole can shake you to your core – ask me how I know. People that do emergency stuff for a living look at people two ways in an disaster situation, you are either an asset or a liability. If you are squared away to take care of you and yours for a week with no outside input, that puts you in the asset column.

That’s a good place to start- put back enough that you can get by without assistance for a week…enough food and water to survive, a way to charge your phone or laptop, some basic first aid stuff and meds if you require them. A way to see and cook if there is a power outage. Simple stuff.

I feel by now if you’re seeing this message and you’re not already doing at least a little something, you’re never going to. That the people that understand are already doing it and I don’t need to keep harping on the subject. That I’m preaching to the choir. That’s OK. I gave up trying to convert people to this way of thinking a number of years ago. Prepare or don’t, makes no difference to me. After all, the emergency response people will need liabilities to deal with, lest they get bored!

But seriously, I look at self reliance in an emergency as a civic minded thing too. If more of us looked after ourselves and our neighbors, there would be even less need for Uncle Sugar and all his beauracracies.

Take care of yourselves out there!

Thanks for stopping by!

It gets to you after a while..

Unearthing Treasure…

Lately I’ve been on a bit of a trip down Memory Lane musically, rediscovering a lot of music from my youth. The stuff I was into before I discovered college radio and got weird in the early 80’s. The staples of FM rock radio, what would be deemed “classic rock” these days.

My very first album as a kid was Aerosmith’s “Toys in the Attic”, followed up by Cheap Trick, Boston, Foreigner, Styx and the like and for the past few weeks I’ve been digging back into those oldies but goodies.

In the course of doing this I got to thinking about how amazing it is these days that you can hear a new song or read about a new band and within minutes (seconds?!?!) have their entire catalog of work at your fingertips. It is phenomenal when you stop to think about it.

For any youngsters out there reading this, you may not know, but up until 25 years ago music acquisition was a LOT different!

Every mall had one, or one just like it!

Up through the 1980s, pretty much the only way to hear new music was either on the radio or weekly TV shows like American Bandstand or Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, maybe Saturday Night Live. MTV was around, but not everyone had it (nor cable TV!) and they were terribly guilty of HEAVY ROTATION, so it was like the same 8 -10 songs on repeat, for weeks on end. Radio was not quite as bad but new music was slow to break and you might only hear a song you were interested in once a week, if that. From time to time you’d hear a song that grabbed you, but have no idea who it was or what it was called unless the DJ happened to come on and announce the song, which was hit or miss. I probably heard “Walk on the Wild Side” 20 times before I ever heard the name Lou Reed. Which reminds me of another thing about the “old days”…

Every once in a while you’d hear a song that just knocked you out, and you’d save up your money and head down to the record store in hopes they’d have the record. If you were lucky, they would have it and you’d plunk down your hard earned cash and rush home to the turntable to listen to the album. If you weren’t so lucky, you might have to hit 2 or 3 different shops to find it. (No small feat when you’re a kid on a bicycle and the shops are miles away from each other!) Then you’d make the horrible discovery that while the ONE song was great, the rest of the album was trash. THAT was a heartbreaker! Especially if there were two records you wanted, but could only afford one! If you picked the dud it might be a couple weeks before you could scratch together enough coin for the other one.

Between the ages of 10 and say, 23 or so I surely spent in excess of a thousand hours in record stores, pouring through the stacks, trying to whittle it down to which few records I could actually purchase at any given time. And unless you’d already heard the entire record through a friend, every single time it was a crap shoot! Sometimes you get burned – like with that Lou Reed album I mentioned, sometimes you strike solid gold, say London Calling by the Clash.

Now, thanks to the wonders of technology, you can overhear a snippet of a tune, whip out the Shazam app and know what the song is and who’s doing it within about 10 seconds, click a link to Spotify and have their entire catalog right there. Then head over to YouTube and see every video they’ve ever done. Then hit Wikipedia and learn all the details and history of the artist. Nothing could be easier. It really is like having the entire world of music at your fingertips, practically for free!

Now of course, all this awesomeness is a double edged sword. For one thing, it has basically destroyed the music industry. Ironic but true. Unfettered access and free music everywhere has made it so musicians can’t actually make any money with record sales. Well, a few still do I suppose, but most bands these days make more money from t-shirt sales than records. It still costs money to make a record – studio time, engineers and producers, art work and pressing costs for physical product all get paid up front before a band sees a penny. And of course the musicians still need a roof over their heads and a meal every now and again, but I digress.

I might also add that frankly it takes a bit of the mystery out if it all, which was also part of the fun.

But what really inspired me to write all this in the first place was the discovery aspect. While hearing new bands or songs that turn you on is fantastic, recently I’ve been doing that with OLD stuff and that never would have happened without access to all this technology. Even a dinosaur such as myself that still listens to terrestrial radio from time to time will only hear so much “classic rock” – basically every hit song from 1964 to 1990 on an endless loop. There are no more “deep cuts” picked out by DJs, no full side plays like they used to do on Sunday nights (for the kids – late Sunday nights my local station would play Side A of an album straight through, do a commercial break and a station ID, then play Side B of the record all the way through),there is no discovery. Lately, I’ll read an article about somebody Im interested in and they’ll mention an influential musician they grew up with and I’ll go head down that rabbit hole. Or maybe someone will mention someone I’ve heard of, but have never heard. It’s been really cool to learn of new music, even if it’s 30-40 years old. If I’ve never heard it, it’s good as new to me! Just in the last few month I’ve “discovered” half a dozen artists that have been making records nearly my entire life that I’d never laid ears on, it’s been spectacular!

I’ve been lamenting these last few years on the sad state of music and how you must wade through mountains of garbage to find a gem these days, but recognizing that there is a boatload of as yet unheard music waiting for me has been invigorating! Not that I’ll ever stop looking for new, new stuff (honestly there have been a few “new” artists that have given me some hope for the future of music – looking at you Magic City Hippies, Qveen Herby, DesRocs, KFlay and others!) but discovering something 20, 30, 40 years old that resonates with your soul? That is treasure my friends. Go out and find some for yourself!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wait…what?!?

DISCLAIMER: In no uncertain terms do I want this blog to be associated with “politics”, and it is a subject that I try really hard to avoid writing about, but I saw a story earlier that at first, made me laugh. Then I realized it WASN’T a story from the Babylon Bee, these people were serious. So then I laughed again, but decided it needed further examination.

From the article in question: “NBC News presidential historian and author Michael Beschloss on Sunday warned a second Donald Trump administration would be a “presidential dictatorship.”

Now, before I go any further let me state for the record that I am NOT a Trump supporter. I did not vote for him either time he was on the ballot. I find him crass and boorish and ill-mannered and probably a great many more negative adjectives could be added if I were too spend the time thinking them up. The only thing I truly appreciated about his first run, was that he represented a poke in the eye to “the establishment”, which was sorely needed and long overdue. I was disappointed in my fellow American citizens when they elected him, thinking it was all a joke to them as “nobody that is serious would ever vote for this charlatan”! Nevertheless, I chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and see what he did once he was in the Big Chair.

That was the eye opening era for me. Not because of what HE did, but because of what every other politician, pundit, and media outlet did. The relentless coverage of every word that came out of his mouth or out of his Twitter feed. The incessant bashing of him at every turn before he’d had a chance to do ANYTHING, meaningful or otherwise. I developed not “trump derangement syndrome” but Trump fatigue because of the non-stop reporting (and twisting and spinning) of every. single. thing. It was exhausting. And most of it, as we now know was utter nonsense. And outright lies.

I looked at Trump as though he were in a “Lame Duck Session” from day one. I never expected much from him, as he was stymied from every which way, he surrounded himself with some unscrupulous people, he relied too heavily on his inexperienced family for advice and he pissed off a lot of people already in “The Club”. What he said he wanted to do was pretty bland for the most part – strengthen the middle class, blah, blah, blah – but I had grown accustomed to politicians telling us what we wanted to hear and then actually delivering none of it once the votes were cast. But frankly I couldn’t understand why on Earth he was SOOO hated and reviled. I was shocked when he decided to run again. Why would anyone bring that level of hatred and bile upon themselves? Then when Biden was selected as the nominee? I figured Trump was a shoe-in, which frankly I didn’t see how he could be any worse than Biden. I’m STILL stunned that he got the Dem nomination.

Anyhow. As a person with eyes and more than two brain cells to rub together, I have seen the “Biden pResidency” run (away) from one disaster to another at a breakneck pace and have seen the unelected beauracracy turn into something straight outta Orwell. What I haven’t seen, and believe me I’ve been looking, is anything, and I do mean ANYTHING that has improved since Trump left office. From where I’m sitting – and I say this as a registered independent and non-fan of DJT – EVERYTHING HAS GOTTEN PROGRESSIVELY WORSE since January ’21. Out of the frying pan and into the…septic tank?!?

We’ve got political prisoners sitting in jail for over 2 years without proper charges being filed. We’ve got an historic border problem that is a disaster on so many levels its maddening, we’ve got distrust for our highest levels of law enforcement (and for good reason!!), and untold corruption from the holder of the highest office in the land, if not the world. And I’m just talking about the “cash and prizes” part of the corruption. Then there is the use of the Dept. of “Justice” to go after his leading political rival.

And this folks, is just the tip of the iceberg! If we all know this stuff already – and we do – imagine how much other shady stuff has been, or still is, going on that we DON’T know about?

I guess what I’m saying is, and I hate to be the one to break it to you, Mr. Beschloss, noted presidential historian, WE ALREADY HAVE A PRESIDENTIAL DICTATORSHIP. Two and a half years, and running. And it’s getting worse. I don’t know who’s pulling Joe’s strings, but clearly they don’t have America’s best interests in mind. Poor ol’ Joe just hasn’t got any mind left, he’s just become the face of American Communism, a role he will continue to perform – and make no mistake, it IS a performance – until the egregious crimes are too many to sweep under the rug and he’s replaced by another useful idiot.

No, Trump won’t be ushering in a presidential dictatorship, if anything he’d be continuing one. Not that “they” will ever let that happen!

God help us all… Who’d have ever thought Trump’s time in office would be looked at as ” the good old days”?!?!

Thanks for stopping by!

In Memorium: Uncle Jack

Yesterday the Mrs. and I attended a “Celebration of Life” gathering in memory if my dearly departed Uncle Jack.

My Uncle Jack was a really special guy, the life of the party and a friend to everyone he met. He married my father’s sister when I was but a small kid and I’d say of all the extended family I’ve got, we spent the more time with them than with any other relations, on both sides of the family. I always, ALWAYS looked forward to a visit with Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary.

Yesterday my Aunt asked folks to share stories and such of Jack, but I found myself a little too emotional to speak. Although he passed some time ago, I suppose yesterday was the first time it felt real and I really started to process his loss. Anyhow, I thought I’d share one particular memory of him here, for posterity. And maybe eventually, I’ll let people in my family know about this blog and share it with them.

This is a story- one of many I’m sure- that captures just what a special guy Uncle Jack was…

So, many decades ago, I must’ve been maybe 10 or 11 at the most, Aunt Mary and Uncle Jack invited me to go on a camping trip with them and some other family friends. I was so young, I don’t remember any of the details insofar as what lake we were at and exactly how long we were there, but what I can remember – clear as day, as though it happened last week and not 45ish years ago – was Uncle Jack taking me out to learn how to water-ski. Now, I was NOT an athletic kid by any stretch of the imagination, I was NOT a good swimmer and I’d never been on a boat, much less been dragged behind one attempting to stand up on a pair of skis. As you might imagine, things did not go well for me. But Uncle Jack was beyond patient, and kept encouraging me to keep trying. Well, I did. For a while. But I simply couldn’t get the hang of it and the excersize ended in frustration and embarrassment for me. I felt humiliation, though I didn’t even know that word back then. They hauled me back into the boat after I gave up, exhausted, bruised and beaten. All I wanted to do at that point was go home.

Now, this being the 1970’s, the usual adult response to this would have been to mock the kid for being a “pussy” or make fun of their failure to “toughen the kid up”. Not Jack.

Instead of making fun and letting me wallow in misery, he threw me in the driver’s seat and taught me how to drive the freakin’ boat! The next thing you know, I’d forgotten all about my humiliation and I’m having the time of my life pulling other folks around on skis, feeling like king of the world driving around this hot-rodded, kick ass ski boat.

The rest of the trip went without another skiing attempt for me, but I drove that boat every day and had the time of my life on that trip.

That’s how it was with Uncle Jack. He loved life and wanted everyone around to love it too. He was a very special man and I’ll never forget him.

Godspeed Uncle Jack. I’ll see you on the other side, and we’ll take another long overdue boat ride!

Cleaning out the pipes…

Today I started a 10-day “cleanse” as recommended by my Accupuncturist/Nutritionist. Probably long overdue.

Some time ago (sometime between 1-2 years), the Mrs. and I did a 21-day cleanse and it turned out to be one if the most miserable experiences of my life. BUT! Despite the misery, it did help me kick some bad habits (like too much coffee, carbs and sugars), I shed maybe 9-10 pounds, and when all was said and done I DID actually feel better.

But old habits die hard, as they say… The coffee intake kept creeping up, pizzas and pastas and potatoes and breads and all the foods that make life worth living became more of the norm instead of a treat. Sodas started showing their ugly heads again. And don’t get me started on the Holiday Season – basically all self-control went out the window from about a week before Halloween until a week after New Year ’23.

But it’s catching up with me, and then some. My gym routine is non-existent at the moment and my “diet” has been whatever sounds good at the time. Not a big deal when you’re 17 and on the swim team, in the marching band and riding a skateboard a few miles per day. Now? At 55? Spending most of my day at a desk and commuting 2hrs. per day in a car? Not so much. Turns out, too much of a “good” thing is NOT so great for us geezers-in-training.

Not feeling like I’ve hit “rock bottom” or anything, but haven’t been feeling, or doing great this year. And the mediocre health is bleeding over into everything else in my life, which is a big red flag signaling that a change in in order.

No time like the present I suppose. Things are in a bit of a lull. No upcoming shows this month, no auditions, no extraordinary projects and no road trips until the end of July. So now is as good a time as any to lean into the misery.

So wish me luck. I’m kinda dreading the next 10 days, but also hoping this is just the kick in the pants I need to get me back on the right track. There are still waves that need to be surfed, trails to be hiked and drums to be played… I need to get back in “fighting” shape if I’m to enjoy any of that!

Thanks for stopping by!

Could be nothing…could be ugly.

Now I TRY to not get to wound up over “conspiracies”, but with social media lighting up over this, it kinda got me thinking they might be on to something…

Feel free to jump to your own conclusions. All I know is that things are not going well for our “leadership” at the moment, and we’re on the cusp of election season. Just sayin’…

Water, food, shelter, medicine and a means of self defense. If you panic now, you’ll beat the rush.

Thanks for stopping by. Now go do something to prepare yourself for our uncertain future!

Monday Memes

I really should stop watching the “news” and following current events… These things never put me in a good mood or relieve stress. The more I learn, the more I understand the phrase “Ignorance is Bliss”.