SEIZE THE DAY.

We drove to Corpus Christi early enough in the day to find our parking spot and take a cruise downtown and visit an Art Gallery I wanted to see. Jim turned right instead of left and we saw an Eagles Club that wasn’t on Google Earth. We pulled in to say hello and found one of the friendliest guys you’d ever want to meet. And, funny, too.


His name is Larry Mills and we let him entertain us for the rest of the day. He is from Michigan, my home state, but he’s become a Texan since moving here in 1982.


He manages the Eagles Hall, here, and showed us around, though it was closed and we were the only ones in the place. It has a wooden dance floor. As a former square dancer, I nearly drooled.


A great hall, a great guy. We decided to alter our plans a stay a couple more days.
But, since we stayed in, I was remembering two  signs I saw the day we were in the Brownsville museum. Both kind of surprised me.


This one is an old-time Mexican saying since the revolutionary days. With our intrusive policies, it still holds true.


And this one was an excerpt from a priest’s prayer just  before a voyage. Cheerful, bugger wasn’t he? They should have fired him as their priest or burned him at stake, or whatever they did to people in 1596  when he wasn’t doing his job well.


Being on the road as much as we are, we see signs of all types and they kind of amuse or boggle the brain or leave you wondering what they meant. Like this one. From the road you cannot read the small print on the bottom as you can (barely) in this cropped photo I took while driving by.


This is the newspaper delivery guy’s sense of humor. Whoever takes the last paper is greeted with this message. The rack is located in Palm Desert, CA, a well-known vacation spot.


The door is metal and the temperature in Palm Desert gets into triple digits, and yes, the door was hot. You’d think, they’d install a wooden door, now wouldn’t you? We were wintering there and the temperature was in the high seventies.


This drive by photo needs no explanation. I knew immediately the sign maker was talking about Congress. Pathetic, isn’t it?


Another little choice bit of wisdom. Hey, we roadies aren’t waiting in line either. It’s a great lifestyle. Life is short. Come join us. Retire early, hit the road. Enjoy life, not stuff.

DISCOVERIES ALONG THE WAY.

Travel is a varied and unpredictable activity.    Normally, when I return to Murphys, I blog whatever I’m doing on the way home. I stopped in Las Vegas to visit my son and daughter and their families, took pictures and tried to blog from their computers as I’ve done before. Nope! Not this time. I’ve discovered that the new electronics security measures refused me admittance to my own email and blog even though I have the  passwords. This time security wanted the type of internet service I pay for, (POP account)  and the ISP numbers to go with it. Wha?  Is anybody likely to carry around POP account ISP numbers when they travel?  No!  When I was in Thailand, I was able to get my mail, but not from a private computer in Las Vegas?  Annoying.
I arrive home and my home computer claims it doesn’t recognize me. It puts me through the identification process as well, but, at least I didn’t have to provide my ISP Numbers. I believe it is time to buy an Ipad that is lightweight and easy to carry back and forth to the Motor Home.  Maybe.  Don’t yet know how many pictures I can store on it. Gotta find out exactly how it works.
While in Vegas, I,  and my grandsons and daughter-in-law,  attended the Bodies Exhibit. I had seen the ads on a previous visit in 2011 but was never tempted until a woman on the plane told me she took her son and how much they enjoyed it. As many drawings in my science and health books, brochures from doctor’s offices I’ve seen over the years, I was quite amazed by this exhibit. How can you, on a real dissected body, see everything, including the nerves, the veins, the capillaries; the  inside and outside of the intestines?   You see every gland, how every muscle works. I had no idea how small my pituitary glad is, nor how small my appendix is, and so on.  Many surprises about exactly how everything fits in the body cavity. They had bodies showing how artificial shoulder and hip and knee joints  attached to them work. How lungs, kidneys, liver and hearts look with various tumors, and diseases compared to their healthy counterparts. A smokers lung and a brain after a stroke are not pretty nor artful as the amazing healthy body. It was very educational, interesting and surprising.   I’d recommend it especially for families with children.
So, now, I’m reading my mail which includes the John Hopkins Health After 50 Newsletter;  The University of California Wellness Letter, and the Public Citizen’s Health Letter.  All have great information with a particular slant. The two university letters will deal with such things as Can coconut oil treat Alzheimer’s?, Why is liver cancer on the rise?; The Colossal colstrum claims.  What supplements work and which are bogus?  Studies on the The Fast and Feast Diets.
The Public Citizen Health Letter is more political and valuable. You get the real poop from them about what goes on in the medical community.  They give a list in each issue of  drugs and dietary supplements by class that have had recalls and field corrections by brand name and company.   The recalls are often due to the incorrect dosage information indicated on the bottle and the outside carton labeling.  Often it is incorrect expiration dates; adulterated materials or impurities in the tablets, or lack of the significant ingredient in supplements; wrong amount of inert ingredients in a tablet and so on. They also publish recalls on products that prove dangerous to consumers, from chain saws to  baby toys. But, most importantly they give you detailed information about the relationship between the FDA and the drug companies; fraud and scientific studies and laws that weaken consumer protections in the medical field. My most recent letter deals with Medical Devices. It kind of makes you sick to read:  Industry Lobbies to Weaken Medial Device Oversight.  Or, Inadequate FDA Monitoring;  Rising Recalls For Medical Devices. Scientific Fraud On The Rise. Controversy Over Cognitive Behavior Therapy Solutions. Or, how about this little factoid:  In just the third and fourth quarters of  2011, at least 225 lobbyists lobbied members of Congress or executive branch officials on issues related to medical device regulation.  Of course, the industry does not want you to know that some of these devices are unsafe; they injure and even kill patients.  Doctor’s who oppose this approach to regulation have been know to be threatened and slandered.  Hmmm!  Interesting. After reading the honest poop, you need to read those other health newsletters to read stuff like Eat well be well, and A diet that builds brain health,  to counteract the terror after learning our Food and Drug Administration is bought and paid for along with our congress.  Dang I hate it when the news is bad. In this case, ignorance may hurt or kill you.

STREET WISDOM

It doesn’t look like Congress is going to do anything, anytime soon. We are broke, in trouble and struggling. The food banks are overwhelmed. Cities are going broke. Higher education is unaffordable. People on the street are weathering this mess.  They will survive as the song says. And all around me I hear wisdom, wit and a bit of sarcasm that at least brings some levity to the mess.

From the New York Times:   “It’s been such a stunning year,” said Cecile Richards, the organization’s perpetually embattled president. “More than a million new activists joined Planned Parenthood, and our approval rating is at 68 percent. Congress is I think at 9.” (It may be time to stop pointing out that you have a higher approval rating than Congress. Really, everything has a higher approval rating than Congress. Termites. Zombies. Donald Trump.)

“The idea that we have to destroy the environment and kill workers to have a healthy economy must be put to rest. …regulations are actually catalysts of technical innovations and economic development.”  Negah Mouszoon.

“A nuclear disaster is too big a price to pay for our electric bill.”  Ralph Nader

From the Los Angeles Times:  "The health care law is likely to put the brakes on the profit bonanza from biotech drugs.”

“Don’t blame medicare. Fix it.”  Barry Rand, CEO AARP.

“...more tax breaks for the rich is only one of the symptoms of an econimic and political system that is grotesquely failing the average American.”‘ Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)

“Instead of throwing children out of Head Start or cutting back on Community Health Centers, maybe we want to ask Exxon Mobil to actually pay taxes rather than get a refund.” Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)   (GE, Exxon,Citigroup, Boeing and others have paid little or no tax.)

“You need to understand, it isn’t gridlock in Congress, it is roadblock. Gridlock  happens, roadblock is deliberate.”  Congressional candidate Will Moore.

When students at Flagler College in Florida were asked to balance the budget, they had the same options that paralyze Washington. The human consequences of their decisions were very much on their minds as in: “… we don’t want to throw grandma out on the street and deny health care services.”  Hey, these kids are smart. They took the long view, sacrifices should be a shared responsibility. They didn’t cut education, protected the environment and didn’t touch Social Security.  They froze wages for congress; used carbon tax to clean up the environment. They made sizable defense cuts, closed tax loopholes and added or raised taxes including higher gasoline taxes and a new 5% sales tax that will make their Big Macs sky-high.  Across the board, they were evenhanded and sensible.
Don’t you just love it? Our kids are smarter than Congress.

THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT

Yesterday, my congressional candidate brother, Will, visited  Cousin Gary visiting from Southern, CA. Gary had never been to an Occupy Wall Street protest because, as he put it, “I’m not interested in closing ports and businesses where people have jobs. And, I don’t want to lay down in the street.”

He also confessed to not quite understanding what the point is. While vitriolic radio show hosts criticize and condemn the movement as pointless and leaderless, I notice that all National news organizations are covering this movement- because  it has legs.  As one local protester, Rick Mines put it, “Protesting the concentration of wealth and power held by less than 1 percent of the population is an effort to  save capitalism.  Capitalism has to be fair,”  (And I would add regulated.)
You can’t compete when some guy is putting $100 million down to put a  Supreme Court Justice in place, or when 80% of congress regards their major job in governing is to get rich by way of  hand-outs, insider trading, and million dollar jobs when they leave. I take heart because the long term apathy among the general population is finally over. You couldn’t get people to take to the streets. That has changed all over the world as well as  in our highly conservative mountain counties, Tuolumne, Calaveras and Amador.

It was a small band on a cold December evening during the busy Christmas season. Two young students were there. The only other woman said to me, “In our county we are all part of the 99%. We don’t have any concentration of wealthy here. But, it is still important to let people know, its time to take a stand and we desperately need change and jobs and a robust middle class.”

This sign speaks to an issue that may be more important than the government laws that tilt toward the wealthy.  It is a slippery slope to a fascist state when we weaken our first amendment rights.  There are many good things in the NDAA, like protections for whistleblowers. But, we are not to know if sub-par maintenance of our airplanes is a factor in crash. We cannot know who contributed what to the congressional committee people overseeing the granting of government contracts. On any contract,  any savings realized cannot be directed to the National Debt once the money has been set aside and is not used for that project. No clue to where that money WILL go. Suspected terrorists will not have the same rights of trial, detention, and ability to defend themselves as we do now. There are good things in the act, but  many slippery areas. The idea to audit the Defense Department Budget was soundly rejected. Hmmm. It’s on-line. Read it.

TAX VIOLENCE

In Calaveras County we have a record for high turn-out on election day. People take their politics seriously. As far as I know, competitors have treated each other with civility during the thirty-four years I’ve lived here.
Problems do develop and a recall effort against Calaveras County Supervisor Darren Spellman fell short  of the signature requirement on Monday and a verbal spat ensued between Spellman and Bill Crane, a prominent recall supporter. The Elections Clerk, Madalaine Krska,  called the Sherriff’s Department to settle things after it got pretty heated. Spellman claims he was threatened, and Crane claims he walked over and shook Spellmans hand but later called him a liar because  Spellman made derogatory cracks about his wife.
I think of the violent rhetoric we have in the news every day, supposedly mature Senators and Representatives,  and all of their related public spokespersons using character assassination as readily as immature school kids. Bullying, condoning violence, violent rhetoric unworthy of our suspected leaders. Somehow, I thought this was a modern phenomena, but, not so.

Senator Charles Sumner, gave a fiery anti-slavery speech in 1856. He condemned several states for even considering taking the “harlot slavery” as a law in individual states. In fact, those tumultuous years produced enough violence in Kansas, that the state was nearly  divided into two separated states.
Southerner, Preston Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives from South Carolina, was particularly incensed with Sumner’s speech.  Not only had the fiery Sumner ridiculed his home state, but Brooks was the nephew of Andrew Butler, one of Sumner’s targets.
In the mind of Brooks, Sumner had violated some code of honor which should be avenged by fighting a duel. But Brooks felt that Sumner, by attacking Butler when he was home recuperating and not present in the Senate, had shown himself not to be a gentlemen deserving of the honor of dueling. Brooks thus reasoned that the proper response was for Sumner to be beaten, with a whip or a cane.
On  May 22,  Brooks entered the building and walked into the Senate chamber. Sumner sat at his desk, writing letters. He waited until several women present in the Senate gallery left, then he walked up to Sumner’s desk and said: “You have libeled my state and slandered my relations, who is aged and absent. And I feel it to be my duty to punish you.”
With that, Brooks struck the seated Sumner across the head with his heavy cane. Sumner, who was quite tall, could not get to his feet as his legs were trapped under his Senate desk, which was bolted to the floor. Brooks continued raining blows with the cane upon Sumner, who tried to fend them off with his arms. Sumner finally was able to break the desk free with his thighs, and staggered down the aisle of the Senate.
Brooks followed him, breaking the cane over Sumner’s head and continuing to strike him with pieces of the cane. Brooks was later arrested on a charge of assault and quickly released on bail.
Good thing they didn’t solve their problems in those days with a gun like they do now. Sumner was attended by a doctor, who administered stitches to close wounds on his head.
Brooks was soon arrested on a charge of assault, and was quickly released on bail.  He was expelled from the House of Representatives, and in the criminal courts he was fined $300 for assault. He returned to South Carolina, where banquets were held in his honor and more canes were presented to him. The voters returned him to Congress, a hero.
Sounds just like the current news, the worse they get, the more they are revered by somebody.  In case you haven’t noticed, most violence and crime is committed by men. Incarcerated men outnumber women, (I’m guessing)  by at least twenty to one. We women pay an unfair amount of taxes for violence. I think the cure is a violence tax. Tax those violent actions and rhetoric and we could clean up politics or else solve the national debt.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

For years, our government has condemned countries like China and Iran for their clampdown on Internet use.  Right now, Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz and individuals with “suspect” content.  Not good.  No internet company should have the power to censor me or any group they don’t happen to like for whatever reason.  It is far too tempting to censor stuff they personally don’t like that has nothing to do with terrorism or copyright infringement. . We already have copyright laws in place. The FBI monitors for terrorist related content. If a problem exists,  it can be settled in the courts. This broad-based law is over-kill.
Nor should internet companies be expected to police me. Let me give you a taste of the type of censorship we deal with because we blog for the San Francisco Chronicle, one of the most liberal, (supposedly), newspapers in the country.  If I misspell Peninsula, as Penisula, which I did one time, My blog could not be published for using the word Penis. I used the phrase tit-for-tat.  Oh, no! Bad word body part. And, honky tonk. Oops. Honky is a racial slur. And if you mention selling short your fellow-man, or that you saw something for sale that was silly, you are not allowed to advertise and sell in your blog content.  Obviously a broad mechanical censorship of the internet is frought with problems. Nor do I want a two dollar an hour employee from India, who doesn’t understand our culture, or a ten dollar an hour U.S. employee of an internet company to decide if what I say is suspect.
Why should the government  be leaning on corporations to police websites and arbitrarily close them down for “reasons unknown to us”?
To help keep the bill from passing, click on the following link and sign against this horrible bill and let congress know they’ve overstepped on our freedom of speech:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_internet_us_a/?vl 
AVAAZ accepts no corporate or government donations. They are a citizens advocacy group.

HOME ON THE BACK FORTY, DOCTORS AND DRUM CIRCLE

Friends, may I tell you that a blog is a wonderful responsibility. Hey, you gotta be here and posting. The trouble is we ramblers (me a newbie) discovered that the wi fi signal on the laptop isn’t always available as we traipse about the country. At times we are without a cell signal as well.
Here’s the skim: I flew home to Murphys Dec. 7th for a Doctor’s appt. , then a second doctor’s appointment. Attended a fantastic Drum Circle/Christmas Potluck at Jan Stewart’s with neighbor’s Suzy and Karen. See the photos: Caught up by phone with Pam Quyle. In other words, stuffed a lot in the 4 days I was home. I will have shoulder surgery on Feb. 11th, so the Ramblin Man and I will be returning in the cold of winter to take care of me.(I told everybody this ramblin guy was a keeper.)
However, Christmas will be spent away from family as I’m having dental work in Mexico Dec. 16th that will stretch to …?? Who knows? My dentist in Murphys was understandably unhappy that I chose to bypass his expensive treatment for affordable repairs in Mexico. I intend to return home with a new smile.

I flew back to Jamul Dec. 11th. Packed up, and the "Magic Carpet" (Jim's name for his ever movin' motorhome) took us to "The Slabs." Brief history, was once a minor marine base by the name of Camp Dunlap. It was closed in 1946 and sold to a private owner. The building foundations still remain and the place has become known as Slab City, at one time home to 5,000 campers, some drifters, homeless, and retired and vacationing RV-ers. We see a population of about 500 now with tents and million dollar rigs sharing the same neighborhood. It is also home to Leonard Wright, named by Congress as a National Treasure for his painting of Salvation Mountain. I'm having some very unique experiences. Pictures will follow (when I locate my camera cord or buy a new one in Yuma.) There are no services as we normally know them at Slab City, but there is a concert every Saturday night, Church on Sundays, a library, pet cemetery with the admonition CAVA CANI (beware of the dog) written by a typical Slabbite by the singular name of Tom (last name unknown) who wrote The Damn Fool. There is an outdoor natural hot tub and a community pit shower. (The Japanese have nothing on Slabbites.) They have an Ad Hoc Mayor by the name of Linda who has lived here for 20 years. She also publishes the Slab City Newspaper and has a radio station. I'll post again in two days when we reach Yuma where we should have a steadier wi fi signal. For more on Slab City, type it into your search engine and you'll find much information.
Chaio.