I Know People that Commute from the Central Valley of California to the Bay Area. That's Insane but That's Where the Jobs Are and That's Where Affordable Homes Are. Let's End the Madness!
Write to Governor Newsom:
https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/
Simply STOP COLLECTING Gas Taxes in California. The State has a Budget Surplus so we don't Need Gas Taxes... We ALREADY Have Enough Money. Continuing to Collect Gas Taxes is Compulsive Hoarding of Money Syndrome... a Mental Health Obsession! STOP COLLECTING!
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Let's Cut Driving in Half... It's the Burning of Fossil Fuel That is Causing Climate Change. Cars, Trucks, Vans, Buses and Jet Airplanes. Ask Yourself: Is It Absolutely Required that I Drive?
Can You Find Happiness Without Destroying Life on Earth?
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/08/09/earth-edge-climate-crisis-must-be-treated-outbreak-world-war
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On a different Subject!
SE Said: People who aren't affected by the spring time change must be the kind of people who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat, any time, anywhere. Just close their eyes and drop off to sleep. But those of us who are strongly affected by the time change are usually people who can't sleep unless we're actually TIRED. I've always wished I was one of those people who can just shut my eyes and go to sleep any time, anywhere. It must be nice to be able to sleep so easily. But for me, getting enough sleep is a constant struggle. It's not that I don't like extra daylight at the end of the day, but it comes at the expense of precious sleep. It's already 6:15, but it's so LIGHT outside. I should be thinking about dinner, and after that I've got to think about winding down and getting to bed at around 10. But with all this extra daylight, I won't feel tired until probably 11 or 12. Then 6am becomes 5am, and tomorrow is the day it's really going to hit me. I wish we could do this in April like we used to until 2007. I've never understood why they moved it to March. It's too early for this.
I Replied: I didn't notice it at all this year... I generally wake up about 3 AM after going to sleep at 8 PM... But all those numbers are approximate... Random! I do watch Jeopardy! from 7 to 7:30 and My Care Giver makes me a snack after that... anyway... This morning I woke up and Read the time on my Computer... and just accepted that it was accurate... and went out to the Dining Room Table at 4 AM because they won't serve me coffee before then... The care givers like to sleep at night and they won't get out of bed before 4... That Day Shift Lady was late because the time change caught her unaware... she was flustered... and my housemate didn't show up for breakfast until an hour late because he wears a watch... and the watch was an hour off today... I don't own a watch... When I retired I was NO LONGER a Slave to Time. No Alarm Clock Either.
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GRATEFUL DEAD: The motif of a cycle of folk tales which begin with the hero coming upon a group of people ill-treating or refusing to bury the corpse of a man who had died without paying his debts. He gives his last penny, either to pay the man’s debts or to give him a decent burial. Within a few hours he meets with a travelling companion who aids him in some impossible task, gets him a fortune or saves his life. The story ends with the companion disclosing himself as the man whose corpse the hero had befriended.(the Funk and Wagnalls New Practical Standard Dictionary, Britannica World Language Edition.).
https://www.dead.net/features/blog/literary-underground-grateful-dead-dictionary-dead
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| Jerry Garcia in a Sixties Era Tie Dye T-Shirt |
In the photo below Janis Joplin is wearing a Classic Sixties RIT Tie Dye. We Used Rubber Bands to Gather the Fabric into a cone shape and then Boiled the entire garment WITH SALT in a Pot on the Stove... Then we rinsed the garment WHILE STILL TIED in the sink with running water to get rid of excess dye... We Bought the RIT at the Grocery Store... That Entire Rainbow Spiral Look Came Much Later...
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| a Shirt Gathered together using Rubber Bands |
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and then a Fellow Wrote About Los Gatos, CA.
Where we grew Up in the 1950s & 1960s
In the 50’s and 60’s, Los Gatos was the quintessential little town, framed by mountains, bigger towns and cities and dotted with orchards and little industries, a model town that, except for location could have been almost any town in the nation at the time. People living their post war lives and doing what needed to be done, raising families, working and giving thanks for the peaceful times.
Television was replacing the radio, so for the first time we could see what life was like outside our little town… Big city life was now in our living room with Lucy and Ethel, Ralph Kramden and Alice, (Alice who did not get there herself, but did have many opportunities to go to the moon) Life was good. America by and large was great. I must have won life’s lottery, getting to grow up in Los Gatos at a time when it was small, personal and well, Just wonderful.
Small towns… every time I get to a small town I am drawn back to those days of my youth and taken to some location that except in time could have been my little town. Recently having the occasion to wander into Sonora Lumber (in Sonora CA)… .parking out back and entering an old wooden building with a tin roof in which were rows of wooden shelves lined with hardware, tools, nails and all the things needed to mend, bend and build something. Immediately I was transported to Sterling Lumber Company (University Ave across from the university Ave school aka old town)… almost tripping on the knots in the wood floor that raised because they were harder than the surrounding softer wood, that had been worn off by the shuffle of work boots that moved over the floor for decades. Looking further the “better” lumber and moldings are in racks either standing up or pushed into long deep bins that keep the material straight and out of the sun, there is a walkway for the second tier and a rolling ladder to access some of the uppermost bins. The task of loading these bins is time consuming and virtually a lost art with the cost of labor and short supply of help these days. The help nowadays wear jeans and tee shirts missing was the lumber aprons the men would wear that protected them and their clothing the aprons were long and had pouches that held tape measures and lumber crayons (keel) and the blue work shirt with two snap down pockets. The current patrons mostly have trucks that while old, function with make shift lumber racks and such to haul away their days working materials, unlike Sterling lumber/Templeman’s hardware…
Trucks were somewhat scarce in the 50s , a truck was a work truck and not a weekend cruiser/camper/ toy hauler like we know now. Nope, if you had a truck you were working, or hauling*. If you didn’t have a truck or could borrow one you would take a long piece off sisal twine** and lash that plywood to the top of the old Chrysler and head out. Probably all the old guys worked together on some project or two as they all seemed to know each other… Walt Pearce and Jack Vodden worked at Sterling and I recall my dad working with Tom Sims, Walt (?) Lochner, Pete Buchner, and the Wallace’s who had a cabinet shop up by Saint Clairs retreat, and had a sideline making cabinets and props for magicians. To many names to remember.
Unlike the current building supply big box stores, I ordered my 6 bags of sand, and the clerk wrote it out on a tag and the yard guy loaded it for me and said thanks before heading off to the next person waiting for something… Small Town, big people, big hearts and occasionally if we open our senses we can slip back into our youth and get that sense of what we had.
* Sisal twine….This stuff was pretty strong, and you would triple or quadruple the strands to form a rope like. The oily smell is unique, and the sisal would give you a splinter if you slide it through your hands. It was always interesting (scary too) to go up Highway 17 and see a long bunch of wood wrapped to the top of a car. The plastic stuff that replaced is just not as good.
** Uncle Chuck (Adams), had some kind of old pickup and once a week or so on the way home (just below Call of the Wild) he would load the back full with $100 worth of groceries, today that $100 bucks of food wouldn’t fill the passenger seat. Or it might be full of firewood, or something to burn in the big old fireplaces in the log cabin.
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and I wrote:
I grew bean sprouts in High School. Buy Mung Beans at the health food store... put 'em in a mason jar... cover the opening in the jar with a nylon stocking... hold the nylon in place with a rubber band... swish water on them every day... The beans sprout and when they get long enough, put 'em on a sandwich... There was a health food store on Main Street, Los Gatos Right across from the Town Hall/Library... a Classmates parents owned it... In the Summit Bicycles Currently location... https://goo.gl/maps/6a5MSSowLknxKU3MA
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This is an Excellent Photo... I always wondered if the Fourth Guy from the Left in the Back Row was Photoshopped in... He Doesn't Look Like all the Other People... Maybe he had a Friend who worked at The Photo Laboratory in the White House and they were Playing a Joke... Note that the Light on His Face is Much Brighter Than The Other Five Standing Men or the Lady...
Unsolved Mystery!
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Obama, Joe and Hillary witnessing
a Murder they Hired. |
I Posted on FaceBorg:
The murder of Osama bin Laden was especially Strange. NO BODY. NO PHOTOS OF BODY. Did the Carlyle Group simply arrange for him to Vanish? "You get to Live but You Must Shut UP and Never be seen again." Perhaps a Nice Indonesian Island? Just You and Your Harem?
and then JB Replied:
I doubt the entire Navy Seal team 6 would go along with that, esp under Obama, they immediately acknowledged it would probably lead to his re-election, the majority of them were against an Obama 2nd term.
and I Replied:
Plausible Deniability. I believe Osama is Dead. They just made a Mistake is Having No Photos, No Body... they were so focused on Actually Killing Him that No One Thought of the Blowback... No one Ever thinks of the Blowback... It's just Like the "No Photographs of an Airplane at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001" - They Could have easily released a film... the FBI Confiscated SO MANY Films but... OOPS...
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Sure... People Say That Climate Change will only Kill Off Four Billion Humans and Then The World Will Heal BUT... Why Not Take Action Now and Prevent Disaster?
I Personally DO NOT Own a Car... I Travel by LYFT about Twice a Year... As a Retired Person, I walk around the Neighborhood Every Day BUT... All That Mad Rushing Around Traveling All Over the Place FOR AMUSEMENT is in My Past... Yes... I Used to Drive All Over the USA in order to Dance at Grateful Dead Concerts... WELL... We Can't Do That Anymore...
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My Little White Truck with a
Red, White and Blue Heart painting. |
"Round TUIT" Keychain for sale...
"Someday I'm Going to get Around To It.
OH! Today's The Day..."
All My Royalties from my Zazzle Store are Donated to A Worthy Charity. Helping a Retired Lady Living on Social Security Make Ends Meet. The Rent on Her Trailer Space Just Increased... For No Reason... Greedy Landlords... https://www.gofundme.com/f/cxfg3f-1000
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| Ecology - a Concept not grasped by Monster Truck Guy |
People Say That... They Have to Drive to Work Every Day... However, SOME Jobs can be done at home... SOME Businesses Could Relocate the Office to an Abandoned Shopping Mall Near Homes... SOME People Could Ride the BUS to Work... It's Possible... People get Laid Off from Work Quite Often These Days and... at that time... It would be excellent to select a new job with a Drastically Shorter Commute... If You Drive an Hour To Get to Work 5 Days a Week a HUGE PORTION of Your Precious LIFE is Wasted... Never to be Lived Again... I Rode the Bus in Eureka, CA and Slept during the Morning Commute... and Chatted With Women on the Way Home... THAT'S Living!
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| rake vs gas powered leaf blower MEME by gvan42 |
Solar Powered Street Lights Would Save a LOT of Electricity Currently Being Generated in Coal, Natural Gas and Atomic Power Plants (Polluting the World) and Distributed Using WIRES. That's WASTEFUL and DANGEROUS... POWER LINES CAUSE FOREST FIRES.
Nothing NEW Needs to Be Invented... We Ought to Simply Replace the Millions of Old Style Street Lights... With Solar Cells and LED Lamps... The Concept of Generating Power in One Central Location and Distributing it to the User is Quite Wasteful... Some Electricity JUST VANISHES over the Long Distance... and DANGEROUS because the Wires Start Forest Fires... PG&E Power Company Just Burned the Entire Town Of Paradise, CA... and It Caused the Company to Go Bankrupt. Distributing Power From a Central Generator is an Obsolete Idea. What if Every House had Solar Panels on the Roof That Provided Enough Electricity to UNPLUG FROM THE GRID...
Please Let Your Elected Officials Know That WE Have Had Enough of the Madness!
I remember when I could not afford a Car I was able to get to work on the Bus ...and... Drinking and Driving is Not Only Illegal But Actually Dangerous While Drinking and Riding the Bus is FUN...
On Halloween, I Brought My Guitar and Sang for the Party Goers on the San Jose Light Rail...
More Importantly, I Rode from Almaden to the Public Library and Used the Free Computers there to Build a Website in the Late 1990s. Tripod and Yahoo Geocities... I didn't know what I was doing but the Other Patrons were Happy to Help. My Content is Still Online 23 Years Later! http://www.oocities.org/gregvan/
My Favorite Photograph... Taken Just Before I put the Camera in my Pocket, Joined Hands With the People and Chanted OM... Remember: It's More Important to LIVE LIFE than Document Life...
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Rainbow Gathering California July 4th Chanting OM
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CONVERT HUMAN FAT INTO ELECTRICITY With an Exercise Bicycle Power Generator. ZERO POLLUTION. Simply Use the Bicycle to Drive an Automobile Alternator with a Belt... Store Electricity in a Car Battery...
Hundreds of Thousands of exercise Bicycles
ALREADY EXIST and they Create ZERO Electricity...
Let's All Email PELOTON and ask them to
Build USEFUL Power Generator Bicycles!
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| Bicycle power generator. HSU CCAT |
What if we installed electric power generators on every exercise bicycle nationwide... We could replace coal burning power plants and help reverse global warming/climate change. These bicycles let a person spin an automobile alternator using pedal power. Built by CCAT at Humboldt State University
On Faceborg I Read:
I must admit I was seriously blown away with our community roll out of the vaccine programme, being from the older generation it reminded me of what community spirit can do collectively when we honour ourselves and each other without prejudices, I see the same human spirit from many different countries standing up to Putin and his fellow gangsters, I hope to live long enough to see a statue of President Zelenskyy in Parliament Square one day hopefully next to Winston Churchill who he quoted during his address to Parliament, the first foreign leader to Address the house of commons to a rapturous applause
, law of attraction at its finest hour ! 
LINKS TO MORE BLOG POSTS!
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.jpg "Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote)")
.jpg "Peace Sign Pie Chart")
.jpg "Military Death Chart USA")