Saving gas money.

Free Caltran fares, free emergency cars or shuttles, even bonuses. They certainly seem to be giving incentives to forego the daily highway grind and encourage public transportation. On some level I commend the effort and personally I am going to try it once or twice a week. But I also feel like in some ways its too little too late. The oil companies have already won. I'll try it out for a few days, but really, I don't think I can give up my car and I know few people who could.

If Mike Brown were being truly honest.

Yesterday, Mike Brown testified before the Republiskunk half of a congressional comittee about FEMA and its recent failures. He did his best to deflect responsibility by calling the state of Lousiana and the city of New Orleans disfunctional. He then lied under oath about the request for aid from the governor of Lousiana. He did reveal one interesting fact. He is still on the FEMA payroll as "an advisor" reviewing what FEMA did wrong and what it could have done better. It seems to be a nice Republiskunk tactic to review yourself instead of delving into the truth.

What if he actually did do some actual self realization.

FEMA's greatest weakness was hiring a political crony with more skills in raising money and votes than any actual experience in emergency management. His background was in Arabian horses and he could not rely on the number two or number three official at FEMA either because they were equally unqualified. This lack of qualification and experience resulted directly in the tragic loss of an American city and the destruction of thousands of lives. This position is too important to be left in the hand of idiots.

The Game I missed.

On Saturday night we decided to catch the game at Petco Park. In theory the Padres are a contender in a pennant race and it's a new park so we decided that it would be a fun thing to do while we were down in San Diego.

It's a really nice park. They have a park beyond center field where the kids can play baseball or soccer. They have a small beach pit in right field where you can bring a beach chair and put your feet in the sand. They have an old brick building in left field that serves as the foul pole, a tribute to yesteryear, and a restaurant where they can gouge the fans. It's one of the new facilities where reaching your seat is like climbing Mount Shasta but there really isn't a bad view in the whole park.

There is a small corner by the brick building where you can stand on field level, yell at the left fielder and watch the game for a while. It was really neat because as we were standing there someone hit a home run right over our heads. We were having a good time. The wife said she'd like to see a Grand Slam sometime. Her friend and I explained to her that Grand Slams were pretty rare and that might be a bit to ask for.

Now to the real story about my trip to the ballpark. It was a 5-0 game with the Nationals easily ahead. The Padres had only scraped together 3 hits all night. After the 8th inning, the Wife said, "Let's go." In my lifetime, I can't remember ever leaving a ballgame early. Yes, I've left after the 3rd quarter of a Niners game, but I'm not a real fan of the Niners anyway. There just seems to be something indecent about leaving early. It's like leaving before the final act of a play or the last scene of a movie.

Every true fan watches the end of the game thinking, okay, there's only one out left, but my team might still come back. I believe.

But the wife isn't a real baseball fan, and the game wasn't moving. Somehow, I let her talk me into leaving early. We watched 3 more outs and left in the middle of the 9th. It looked like the game was over and the Padres were toast.

It turns out that the Padres came back to tie the game on a Grand Slam in the 9th. Then they went on to win the game in the bottom of the 12th on a 3 run homer. We missed all of it.

My wife now knows that if she ever goes to another baseball game with me, she is staying until the very last out, even if the score is 20-1, it's raining and we're past midnight. She'll just have to stay and watch.

Tossing Pills

Somehow I ended up at the Solano Street Fair yesterday up in Berkeley. And I found myself in the company of a six year old that seemed facinated by the idea of a dunk tank. I through it $5 so that he could get about 3 feet from a target and sink some one. After he was done, he came back and in his best little trashtaling voice said, "That was too easy."

Well, since it took him one shot and I still had two balls, it was my turn and no I didn't stand just 3 feet away. The young lady sitting in the dunk tank made a few derrogatory remarks about the Giants, as I was wearing a jersey of that team. I responded, "Go Giants!" Where she then began a litany on the superiority of the local A's.

Maybe it's her words that spurred my throwing, but I proceeded to throw a perfect strike and shut her up. Well not actually shut her up just sink her. About a half hour after I dunked her and her turn was done, she came up to congratulate me on the best toss she's seen that day.

Note to self: Try the Thai place on Solano some day. If that Pad Thai at the Street fair was any indication, it should be a good dining experience.

Getting back to the Big Apple.

New York is a swirl of energy. It can be the most exciting place in the world, but despite all the people, it can also be the lonliest. I feel fortunate that I have some people there I can call friends, so it's not that lonly. Also, it's a great place to visit, but I don't have to live there. This is from my trip there on the last four days of August. I just haven't had the chance to get to this yet.

We landed in New York on a muggy Sunday. We had some great Chinese food in flushing and then ventured down to Manhattan. We walked around all day covering parts of Central Park, the Time Warner Plaza, Rockofeller Center, NBC studios and a bunch of shopping places on 5th Avenue. We had dinner at a pizza place near Times Square. I don't know how much walking we actually did, but it felt like miles.

On Monday, we took the subway downtown to the Ground Zeron, Statute of Liberty, Ellis Island. South Street Seaport, and Wall Street. We went to SOHO where we watched some guys play selfish street basketball. We got cupcakes from the place in Sex & the City and ended up eating at a nice sushi place around there. If we were less tired and hungry we could have eaten at all kind of places. There's just so much to see there.

On Tuesday, we went to South Street Seaport early and picked up some tickets to the Producers, a Broadway musical. We then did something a little different. We drove up to the suburb where I grew up. With my friend and wife it tow, we visited my old middle school, my old high school and the house where I lived when I was a teenager.

The house looks pretty much the same. It was painted a lighter shaded than it was in my days, but it still had its own unmistakable barn-like appearence. Though there was one strange difference. In my days, the house had been 10 Red Oak Lane. For some reason, the street had been renumbered in reverse order. Now, my house was 53 Red Oak Lane. Wacky. We had some Dunkin Donuts and headed back to the city just in time for the show which I thought was fun, lighthearted, but nothing that wowed me.

On Wednesday, we had a complicated schedule. We had a flight leaving NY at 1pm, but we thought it might be nicer to leave a few hours earlier and get back sooner. We had a bunch of stop overs. We hit LaGuadia, O'Hare, Phoenix and SF. In each airport we caught a standby flight after spending less than half an hour at the airport. It was a miracle that we hit all these planes and they all had just enough seat for us to get on. I wouldn't recommend it, but it worked for us.

Just taking notes of all this so I won't forget it.

Three Thoughts on Katrina

1. Columbia Christians for Life claims that God's purpose in Katrina was the destruction of five abortion clinics in New Orleans. Radical Rabbis in Isreal were claiming that Katrina was God's punishment for Jews being removed from Gaza. Are these people serious? I can go along with humankind bearing some responsibility because of the greenhouse effect we are letting polute our world, but to claim that we are morally responsible for nature through some human fault or shortcoming is a bit much. What happens from here, how we respond, that is our responsiblity, but this is poppycock of the worst sort and unfortunately gives all religons a black eye.

2. Brownie has to go. It's pretty apparent that political connections were more important that anything else in staffing FEMA. The three top officials together have NO disaster management experience but plenty of Republican fund raising experience. This is a disgrace and Bush and Brownie need to accept responsiblity.

3. The Federal Government has just decided to kick in $50 billion to rebuild and repair the Gulf Coast. Divided by 500,000 displaced evacuees that comes out to $100,000 per person. So far a small percentage of folks have gotten $2000 cards. True, there are a lot of repairs that need to be done, but I'm figuring that Bush's friends end up pocketing 80 percent of the total.

It's all just pretty, sick, isn't it?

GUEST BLOG #1

Derrick is making me do this guest blog. He's been bugging me for months! I've never blogged before. It seems so different from something I'd normally do. Sharing my thoughts, opinions and experiences so that my friends, family and strangers can read. Being that I'm a pretty private person I don't know that I can comfortably do that.

Though I think if I were to start a blog, I would probably do one without sending the link to any family or friends. I wouldn't mind as much venting to complete strangers who don't know me, strangers who could never know me "in real life".

Saying that though, I really do enjoy reading blogs from friends and family, especially the ones I don't always talk to. It makes me feel close to them.

Most of you probably know this already. But the author of this short blurb is the character in Derrick's blog whom he sometimes refers to as "the wife".

Why Fishing?

Yesterday I rose at 5 am and slightly before sunrise at 6:30 we were already at the lake with our hooks in the water trying to catch trout. Hemmingway and his Old Man By the Sea and Melville with his Moby Dick have already explained the search for truth and God through the challenges of sea creatures before. Sitting in the chilly morning wind, my thoughts didn't turn to such deep reasons for fishing. I just wanted to catch a fish to prove that I could do it. That even though I was a 21st century dude with no need to hunt or fish in this modern society, that if it really came down to it, I would have enough basic skill to provide for some food for myself. Suffice it to say, that six hours of futility prove that I would suffer a prolonged hungry death. But I will try again, and one day instead of coming home with another story of futility I will have a fish to chomp down on.

Today, I drove 300 miles. It was a round trip venture to Sacramento for some barbeque. At least I can drive and eat food that once had parents when it is presented to me.

Katrina

My recent travel has caused me to be in a bit of a news bubble. In the back of my mind I knew that a hurricane was about to strike the Gulf Coast, but there are hurricanes every year and people suffer and they rebuild. It really wasn't until the last day or so that the magintude of this has really struck me. This storm has reduced New Orleans to an uninhabitable swamp. Most likely, the city will never recover.

And on a more human level, nothing seems to be working. Where the people of this country banded together after 9/11 and attempted to help each other out. In New Orleans it's been chaos with armed gangs taking over, people dying in the streets, trash everywhere and even women getting raped. And the response has been slow. For some people it's been a week without food or water. Horrible.

I see only small rays of hope. My coworker has taken the day off to volunteer. Her friend works at Home Depot and they are preparing supplies and care packages to send out there. They will probably do more good than FEMA.

Two more thoughts on this tragedy. 1. That FEMA dude is wacky. He blames the people who "chose" to stay for their own situation. I'm sure many who stayed were elderly or poor, or had other reasons that they could not hop in an SUV and relocate on a days notice. 2. If we can't take care of New Orleans, how can we ever hope to take care of Iraq? That's how everyone outside the White House is going to see it.

Labor Day and the Chicago part of my trip

I like the idea of labor day. A day just to reflect on the labor movement and work and the improvements in working conditions and where we still have to go. Personally, I would be for an increase in the minimum wage. For me this year, it will be a day of rest. We've been much too busy the last few weeks.

Now to summarized recent trip (Chicago part):

After flying half way across the country to Chicago my wife spent her entire time there no further than five minutes away from O'Hare . Our hotel was across the street from the airport and so was her class in low vision. I on the other hand got to hang with some friends. Friday night we arrived in town late enough to miss dinner, but not late enough to be West Coast sleepy. Killer and his wife, Heather, drove forty minutes from their home out to the "godforsaken, mob infested, suburb" to have a drink and chat. They wouldn't be able to hang the next day because they were attending a wedding in Wisconsin.

The next day, I hopped on the CTA and made my way to Bucktown where my friend Dave lives. His directions were to get off "Western." Note for any travellers to Chicago. They reuse names on their CTA trains going in and out of town on the Northside and Southside. There were 3 stops called Western and 2 called California all on the same blue line.

Anyway, I found Dave's place. We hopped back on the train and went downtown and walked around a bit. We then tried to see the Bodyworld Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. That Exhibit was sold out, but we walked around that Mueseum for a couple of hours. It features a couple of Midwestern things that I appreciated because I had never seen them in a Museum before. The Museum has a working coal mine underneath. You can go down and learn all about methods for extracting coal from the old centuries until the present. Neat stuff. They also had a John Deere display about agriculture that taught about the hundreds of uses for corn and soy and an actual German U-Boat from World War II.

Dave is a writer with about two dozen short stories to his credit and a novel that was just picked up by an agent. We spent a bit of our time talking about writing, which was sort of nice because I don't do a whole lot of that around here.

We ended up having dinner back at the hotel with Sandra. That's all we did in Chicago. The next morning we flew out to New York. I'll get to that later.