OFFSHORE
During the 1960's I lived and surfed in Laguna Beach, on those pristine nearly white perfect sands. However, there was a really irritating problem that was always present, sometimes more than others. The beach would have globules of tar all over the beach and consequently, all over my feet. I would have to clean it off with gasoline when I got home. We all assumed it was somehow related to ships dumping stuff somewhere and it floated into our beaches. It was only much later, when offshore oil drilling began off Long Beach that we learned the oil had been seeping out of the ground by itself and floated on down to our beaches. The drill rigs took care of that pesky problem as well as supplying us with some domestic oil for our gas guzzlers.
OWN YOUR OWN
During the last few decades I have been upset by the incessant harping by our government and others (Read fuzzy headed liberals) that everyone should own their home, especially poor folks. Being a home/Apartment designer and builder, I just couldn’t see the where this came from as well as how is this going to work. I saw non-profit corporations springing up all over, getting money from several sources, to provide these poor folks with their own homes. Well, now, a lot of these didn’t even have to put down a substantial down payment, thereby losing nothing by the time they decided to dump the whole thing and go rent somewhere. Then, recently, the whole bloody thing collapsed and we’re all in deep shit now. The message here is you have to work a long time to own something, and maybe you will spend your whole life just renting crappy apartments, just like we all did before saving up enough to buy into the concept of home ownership.
ROADS
I know France is kinda Socialist but they do have their country road maintenance in hand. All over we were amazed at how the small roads looked as if they were just paved last week. I don’t know if a pot-hole exists in France. In marked contrast, the roads around here in Sonoma County are a disgrace! I hoped Public Works would fill all the holes on the route of the Tour de California. I did notice they just marked the pot-holes with orange spray paint so the bikers would be able to see them. I’ll bet that really worked when the peleton swept over them. It’s embarrassing!
OLYMPIA!
Well, the games are here again, but I can’t watch them as the advertising drives me nuts. Anyway, the equestrian event is not my idea of what the games should be. I think the whole concept should be re-visited. The first games were individual trials to find out who was best at any event. You know, wrestling, javelin, running (with & with-out armour), that kind of thing. I don’t know when team sports entered the picture, but that’s when it all went to hell. Badminton? Oh, yeah! How about basketball. Does any other country even have a basketball team? I saw teams playing Field Hockey & handball (with a 6" ball) what the hell are those games? Do we even have teams for those? If so, they are the world’s best kept secret. Badminton & tennis. Now those are probably marginal. Swimming, speed skating, weightlifting, yeah, but water polo? I don’t even want to talk about Curling . Do they still have synchronized swimming? That was hard to believe, although the girl’s gymnasties acrobat floor routines ought to be shit-canned.! Just see what you can do on the rings & bars & horses, forget all this cutsey bull-shit floor routine that nobody has a clue how to score, and maybe they should be more than nine years old. However, how about Beach Volleyball? In a stadium. But they do have the best uniforms (bikinis)! At least that livens things up a bit. Bike racing? Sure, one on one, the best undrugged man wins.
