MORNING
This afternoon a customer picks up his computer and walks out the door. Moments later he is back inside gasping that his car is gone. He’d left it running. We all dashed into the street as he spots a guy getting out of his car. The customer flags down a police car. You see the result in this photo. It was not a broad-daylight repo. See if you can decipher the incident. (That is unclear, what I'm saying is this looked to me like when they repossess a car in Florida, with the police standing by. Then I'm asking if you can guess what happened here.)
Notice how the car is backwards. It seems that while it was parked here (in front of our shop), it slipped into reverse gear and made it across all four busy lanes of traffic to flatten a stop sign and crash (lightly) into the parked car alongside the building on the other side of the street. The other driver, who was inside the parked car, hopped in and took it out of gear. I say the customer was lucky it was only a fender-bender.Today was too hot, a Florida broiler. I bought a half-gallon of butter pecan ice cream and it is home in front of the fans for me. Wallace has suggested a trip to Key West. At least there might be some ocean breezes but I don’t know about the eleven hours return trip. But who knows when we’ll get another chance?
NOON
After the recent top rating of Costa Rica, I spent an hour on-line to sound out the prices. These countries have two tiers, one for the Yankees trying to sell to each other, and one for the perfectly good local places that you can’t find unless you live there. As usual, nobody is going to show you the ropes. They had to pay, so you have to pay, you know, the middle-class mentality. You cannot trust the classifieds. I see the prices are virtually identical to similar size houses and yards in Colorado. No bargains available from afar. Also, some of the properties are pretty remote from either cities or beaches, the two things you need for food and enjoyment in a tropical setting.
A complete check of the listings shows nobody is in the market for renting a room around here. Or they want a studio for the same price as a room. I lived in a studio first year in town and my biggest dislike is the landlord/lady can and does watch everybody who comes and goes. Or that weird Coba who wanted me to pay half the electric when my space was only 1/6th of the total. She maintained my computer was chewing up the kilowatts. Last I heard, she lost everything on buying the $430K place next door and holding on to it a month too long. It doesn’t surprise me, I mean look how little she know about computers.
To be more clear, nobody decent wants to rent a room. There are ads for two “party girls” who want to “share” a two bedroom penthouse for $400 rent, you know, a place that usually goes for twice that. They include pictures to indicate how they intend to make up the rest. Sorry, gals, for this place we want cash money.
Theresa from the boonies says she may be selling the condo on Cleveland. Isn’t there some government program that helps out in this situation, so you don’t get a bad credit rating? I mean, they are paying single mothers to go back to school, aren’t they? I’m afraid to tell her how rarely I go past the place any more. So I sent her an email of things I never heard in North Carolina, like, “I’ll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.”
NIGHT
Some medical style trivia. Several new bandaids on the market will contain silver, which inhibits bacterial growth. No, you can’t just tape a dime over the cut. It is long known that cuts covered by bandages leave less of a scar. I suspect it may be the longer healing time than any property of the covering.
There is a documentary on America’s marijuana industry as focused on Mendocino County in California. The drug was decriminalized, causing entire grow operations that rival British Columbia. Complete subdivisions of houses with “mom and pop” exteriors processing millions of dollars in finished product. The laws have been stiffened but the police chief estimates 60% of the population is involved. This is what happens when you design an economy that does not let the average person get ahead. Just what were they expecting to happen?
Over 20% of the states have loosened possession to the point where a readily available doctor’s certificate allows pot-heads to carry 160 joints. I guess we know what happened to you-know-who. Like the position I took when I was 17, prohibition is the minding of other people’s business, it creates “criminals” of ordinary folk, and it can never be made to work. I’m not for the dope or underage sex or booze, but I am against the use of state tax money to cast the first stone. Most people I know who try to impose their morality upon their neighbors are the ones who I can personally testify never “got any”. You know who you are.
The other truism is that the police catch only the small fry. Particularly well-funded individuals get away for years, and when caught do very small jail terms without having to reveal where they hid the money. Hell, most people I know would do the nine years for $50 million. Interestingly, there is a university in California that teaches students to grow marijuana. All I can tell you is most anyone under 60 from the west coast already knows how. From my time at the phone company, where some co-workers owned four houses, I can tell you it must be incredibly easy to harvest. Time-consuming, but still easy.
And remember how I told you it was impossible to do a decent intro to J.J. Cale’s “The Breeze” using just a bass guitar? I lied. Then I gave another listen to Pancho and Lefty. If it has a message or a catchy tune, I can’t find them. It’s like listening to old Hendrix. The song was so boring I re-read two chapters on ASP programming to liven things up.
ADDENDUM
Later. And the police wonder why nobody respects them. The car incident was clearly an accident. They gave the guy a ticket for "leaving his car unattended" (did you even know that was a crime?) and a $500 fine for property damage for knocking down the stop sign. There was no bad intention, but he still gets the screws from the cops.
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