PASSWORD PRISON

I’m ranting today. Not about politics. I have not been blogging regularly and suddenly, I’m asked to sign in with my password that I haven’t used in years and I can’t remember.  But, to get a new password for my blogspot blog, I must have them send it to me on my g-mail address, which password I also can’t seem to find on my 8 pages of passwords. Crossed out and changed,  I have no idea which one is current.

Google bought blogger and everything has to be Google. Google is trying to take over the world and I try to avoid all things Google.

My frustration is the rant. I hate a zillion passwords. We are told not to use the same one for everything. But a new password for everything is not working. Every time you have a snag you change your password.  In a hurry. And Google bought blogger. Grrr! In the interest of my sanity I have to laugh at my self-made password prison. Maybe I can find a quote that addresses passwords?  Hmm. Unlikely.

But there are a lot of them about fools.

“The world is full of fools and; and he who would not wish to see one, should break his mirror.”   Boileau

“There is a foolish corner even in the brain of a sage.”  Aristotle

As for prison:  “We are all prisoners, but some of us are in cells…” Kahlil Gibran

GOOD SAM AKA TERRIBLE SAM.

I’m glad I live in a small town, like the song says. I get good customer service, people are gracious and nice.  Yesterday, I drove my truck to Angels Camp,  nine miles from my house. My major errand to have the truck washed and get my hair cut.  Then, my truck had the outrageous temerity to stop and refuse to start. The temp was 97  but in a hot asphalt parking lot, you can up that several degrees. I called my roadside emergency service and explained that I needed a tow to Nash’s Chevron, just 1/2 mile up the road. I told the dispatcher, who asked what state I was in, that the  nearest tow service was Sam Berry in Douglas Flat, which is seven miles away. I was told rather crisply that he was “out of district”.  “Calaveras County only has two tow services and he is closest.” I explained to her.
She then told me they don’t have a contract with him and if they use him I would have to pay the tow. Three hours later, while they dinked around trying to find some tow service from  other counties, Tuolumne, Amador and Stanislaus,  Sam Berry picked me up and towed  me the half mile to Nash’s Chevron. What that tells me is they are quite willing to take your money, but not willing to contract with someone in my entire county and not willing to pay the freight without the contract until they had NO other alternative cost wise. Oh, yeah, the dispatcher apologized for the long wait.   Our insurance covers the motor home and all vehicles, and is good until 2013. I won’t be renewing after that hot, frustrating episode. The business people in the center offered me a cool air-conditioned place to sit; coffee, to drive me somewhere, and to make phone calls for me. Like I say, I’m glad I live in a small town.
After my partner’s rant on horrible customer service, I had to add this one.  The other great part of living in my rural area is my wonderful neighbors and my morning walk:

This squirrel has attacked a cone half his body size.

He spotted me. You can see the detritus of chewed cone remnants on the ground. He has obviously gathered them and brought them to his dining room, because the tree is not a pine.

He decided I might be a threat and sprinted up the oak about five feet and flashed his tail in warning!  I left him to his breakfast and went on my merry way. Kind of puts Good Sam in perspective.  Life is good.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

There's a lot of bull going around and that other stuff piled high and deep that goes with it. I'm finding an election year is a real turn-off. I just don't want to hear anymore crap, nor any more pleas for money. Our election process and the money in elections is way out of control, especially when government isn't working up to their own promises and laws aren't enforced. Don't you wish we could fire them all and start over with a fair and level playing field?

My current gripe is costly government failures regarding the ghastly oil spill in the gulf.   I'm mad as hell that Interior Secretary Salazar failed to require the necessary and in place environmental reviews before issuing permits for drilling. I''m mad that permits are still being issued and it takes a citizen's group to sue Salazar and Minerals Management Serivice to stop drilling projects already exempted from environmental review. How dare they?

Then, during the clean-up, BP used previously failed methods to attack the spill. They used toxic dispersants that they, nor the Environmental Protection Agency, have never tested for how much harm they can do to humans, our food chain and ocean plants and animals. They had NO plan for how to handle a spill. They spent NO money on new technology for cleaning up a spill since the last, similar disastrous spill. They spent a lot of money on how to drill deeper and cheaper and get more oil out of the ground. Then, BP immediately challenged Obama's deep-water oil-drilling moratorium. They've burned endangered sea turtles alive in a messy clean-up effort. Because conservation partners and fishermen promised a lawsuit, BP agreed  to ensure sea turtle rescue before lighting the fires.

Interior Secretary Salazaar refused to turn over documentation of his interactions with the oil industry lobbyists since becoming secretary of the Interior. He should be fired forthwith and made to pony up.

Various states we traveled through, have very serious consequences for endangering others.
Hit A Worker
$10,000 Fine
Lose Your License


 Maybe BP should lose their license to drill along with their fine.
  

Speeding Maximum Fine $1,000
Reckless Driving
Eight Years

We don't tolerate reckless driving.  Maybe BP executives should go to jail for reckless endangerment of lives. How about  20 years without possibility of parole?

 BP, I read is going to be levied a 19 Billion dollar fine. At the very least, along with the fine, there should be   a stipulation, double for second offense. Then maybe they would engineer some safety procedures that work. And, all of the executives at BP should have to do 30 days in jail, just for a little taste of what its like. Give them a little second thought allowance for when they make their next decision placing money over people safety. And then a minimum of 1000 hours each, public service in the area they destroyed. Could be a life changing experience.

 Sigh....if I ruled the world...

ATCHAFALAYA SWAMP-NATIONAL TREASURE

Some things are national treasures, and the protected Atchafalaya Basin, a cypress swamp, bayou and part of the Mississippi and Red River water sheds, is one of those treasures. Thankful that the bald and tupelo cypress, (totally cut, not ONE was saved,) will some day rise again as the prehistoric giants of...whoa! Wait a minute. Jim and I took a ride with the only Basinkeeper on the Atchafalaya, Dean Wilson. He used to be a professional crawfisherman and he actually lives there and sees the swamp everyday. Our national treasure is in trouble. The Corp of Engineers has two people watching the area, and the State of Louisiana hired one person to oversee the swamp. "I never see them unless I call and complain about infractions," he told us.

In recent years, logging companies moved in and began cutting young cypress, grinding it up and selling it for mulch to two major chains, WalMart and Home Depot.  They were reported to the state, and issued cease and desist orders, and they would. Temporarily. The laws had no teeth in them. No power to fine them and make non-compliance hurt.
 "Filing suit would net a small "settlement", and they'd start up operations again."
The Basinkeepers Organization attacked WalMart and Home Depot. WalMart took cypress mulch off their shelves locally. Home Depot ignored them. Big Corporations care for profits above National Treasures, so, wherever you shop, don't buy Cypress Mulch. (The companies also clear cut cypress on private lands even though it is a protected species.) 

We asked Dean, "How do you find your way around this swamp without "road" signs?

Big oil and the logging companies left a damaging legacy of "roads" into the swamps. Deep channels that allowed invasive species in,  that drowned native species, affected the nesting and migratory birds feeding grounds. The state subsidized levees giving the companies access which allowed hard woods in that can't withstand hurricanes.  The Corp changed the course of the river and silt-building to provide more dry land for farming and houses. Oil companies were supposed to return the land to the condition in which they found it. The state didn't enforce those contracts and the oil companies simply ignored them.  Yes, but this was all years ago before we were wise to the folly of...Wait! "Dean, why is the alligator grass on this side of the channel big and clumpy and on the other side its dry and barely living?

"The oil pipe lines are located under the dead grass. The oil companies don't want stuff to grow over their lines  and they come though with planes and spray herbicides from above."
We actually didn't go on this boat ride to castigate corporate practices and weak state laws.  We were shocked at what we learned by asking  questions. That current enlightenment is so crassly ignored, and that  such damaging practices are allowed to continue, took us by surprise.

I get on a rant  but I want to say Dean's tour was educational but a lot of fun. His dog, Chucka could smell a nutria, detect a squirrel in a tree, or a bird before Dean could ever spot it. Spring is unseasonably cold and late but the cypress are greening quite heavily now and the smell of flowers was in the air.  The real treat was getting to see how the crawfishermen work their traps.

 
The traps are tied to a tree, baited with fish or meal, and checked periodically for crawfish. There was little to be had. Above, the bait is alone in the trap. The fishermen nail brightly colored ribbons to the trees with their traps to identify them  from each other.

The boat is flat bottomed. Dean had to push several floaters, like the one above, out of the way. Once the boat got hung up on a floater. Dean joked, "My customers have to paddle.!" The boat can glide over some obstructions, but not all.

This is an old growth cypress, estimated to be 1500 to 2000 years old. They cut them all except hollow cypress that have no wood value, such as this one. This is the only swamp with several of these hollow trees that give some idea of what the swamp looked like at one time. Cypress seeds stay in the mud and wait for a cyclical dry period to take root, grow, and make it to just above the incoming water level to survive. In other words, the condition has to be just right and that is the only reason young trees have reestablished the swamp and are growing. Hopefully, they can be protected forever.

Dean told us new laws on the books this year allow for heavy fines that should discourage illegal logging  in the Atchafalaya.

GOODBYE WASHINGTON

We left the State of Washington, zipped through Portland, two nights in Rogue River, where I have property but no signal. Then, we lost 2nd and 3rd gear on the motor home and spent a hot day having the transmission governor replaced in Yreka, CA. A signal in Yreka and no time to blog. Finally made it to Redding by 9:00 a.m.
Dipping back, I found much to admire in Washington:
My impression is that Washington really encourages and respects their Indian populations.
Roads, for the most part, are well taken care of. Traffic engineers around Seattle came to the game late and had little space to work with, so, I make concessions for the congestion there.
On gas pumps you are likely to see a sign that reads: CUSTOMERS WITH DISABILITIES HONK HORN ONCE TO HAVE PUMP REMOTELY ACTIVATED. HONK TWICE AND AN ATTENDANT WILL ASSIST YOU WITH PUMPING.
They have WiFi in their rest areas along I-5.
I never saw anyone drunk. People don't seem to drink as much here. (It may be because you can't buy booze anywhere but the state store, or because we didn't spend much time in cities.
The trees, the climate, the clean fresh air, lakes, rivers, and recreational opportunities. Bountiful nature.
Washingtonians know how to make good beer, good burgers, and they are friendly.
There is sales tax, which is smart, because your tourist industry is helping to pay for your roads, parks and museums, but no income tax.
Parks and museums are well kept and clean and seem to glisten with people pride
I like that Tacoma Power built a toad tunnel to help Western toads, (a species at risk,) navigate through a boat launch area.
What's not to like? Well, I'm getting to that.
When you are RVing you are defined as a camper and shuffled off to parks and camp sites that are rural in nature, away from big city recycling centers. With a couple million RV's on the road, that is a lot of reusable's going down the tubes.
Some parks recycle beverage bottles and aluminum cans. Most aren't recycling at all.
One park that recycled last year, was not recycling this year. When I asked, I found out that the county turned over all waste management to a private company. The park now pays double for garbage pickup and would have had to pay another for recyclables. They canceled.
Some counties charge a hefty fee to dump a load of recycle or garbage. So, here we are with our couple grocery bags of mixed recyclables and we'd have to pay a $13 fee the same as a guy with a whole trailer load of garbage?
Elsewhere we were able to walk in our recyclables to a remote location, but no convenient places around town like gas stations, parks, visitor centers and places where travelers gather.
In counties where the fees are high, cans and litter are everywhere. Dead cars, trash burning, piles of rubbish in yards and so on, uglifying the area and corrupting the air.
Okay, this may be a short sited view, but if the state mandates that counties reduce their landfill, they will sure as hell get a serious recycling program going. A lot can be done to encourage recycling: Good signage, punish litterbugs, enforce eyesore laws, ban garbage burning. And, recycling helps PAY the way.
Rant over and out.
Here are a couple pictures of Portland's famous Rose Garden, which also has a zoo, train, playgrounds, amphitheater, historic reservoir, a Holocaust Memorial and wonderful grounds for taking the family on an outing.

TELEVISION ANTENNAS AND BUGGY WHIPS

This antenna is slated to go the way of the buggy whip and I, for one, lament its passing. When commercial and government interests join hands to keep signals from delivering freely through the air and stop them in a box or cable before they reach the receiver, I'm not convinced its in my best interest.
In Calaveras County we were promised that cable would be competitive and keep prices low. I've seen cable prices go up, up and up with the same cable company delivering cheaper prices in Oakland, for instance, with more choices, than in my community. The cable companies have bought into satellite networks making competition pretty nil.
How does this affect us when we travel? In Spain, can I get CNN? Or is it controlled? No more American television in Italy unless U.S. interests place what they want seen there? Hmmm! Its a sorry fact of life that most U.S. Citizens no longer trust their government.
What about Public Television, the most revered broadcasting program available according to surveys. Will we have to pay a premium to see PBS down the line?
The companies that make antennas apparently don't have a strong enough lobby to complain about the government shutting down THEIR businesses.
Maybe what we need to do more than anything else, is protect radio signals with all our might before they enclose them in a cable box and feed us what they want us to hear as well. I particularly dislike the Communications Commission attitude toward the people's right to the airwaves. After all, our airwaves, like free speech, water, and oxygen should not be sold to the highest bidder. Other countries have control of their channels and they dedicate one or more as an election channel so elections are not so expensive. Our government could do the same but doesn't. And, God knows, we need cheaper electioneering. I guess this is a rant.