Trumpery...Look It Up

Apparently this is what we deserve... America and the World. And where it will stop, nobody knows. Hitler made the same kind of comeback in the 1930's...even after being jailed by his countrymen in the twenties. White Nationalism was the order of the day. The "impure bloods" were deported, incarcerated and disposed of. So ninety years later, here we go. We americans are better educated than any society had ever imagined. It didn't matter, we are sliding down the same dirty laundry chute that we were sufficiently warned about over and over again. So, do we hunker-down and say that "we told you so" following every bonehead proclamation and legislation that clobbers our liberal democratic system of government or, do we resist and insist on our humanitarian values and sympathetic responses to the less fortunate among us? As I have said for eight years or longer...Trumpery...Look it up.

It Doesn't Take Much For Me To Have A Successful Day

It starts with getting out of bed and going vertical. I make my way down the stairs avoiding piles of folded laundry. I feel with my toes for dog toys and balls, to the first light switch and furnace thermostat. I find a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms and move over to the coffee pot. So far, a successful morning. After grinding and brewing some dark roast, I choose a cup for the day...after coffee I'll use the same cup for a mouth cleansing serving of chai tea. The dog needs to be let out and I need to ingest six tablespoons of yogurt, for microbiome gut health. I'm on my way to a very successful day.

Brewery Worker Dream

I was one of the first of six Sierra Nevada Brewing working stiffs in 1980. I labored there on Gilman Way until October of 1985. Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi were generous with me by letting me take Autumn sabbaticals of four to six weeks for cycling and backpacking adventures with my beautiful wife Lisa Jo. I would return to the bottling line every November and bust my butt for $5/hr through Winter, Spring and Summer until the middle of September when we would launch another outdoor escapade. Colorado River floats, British Columbia and Rocky Mountain bicycle tours, John Muir Trail backpacks. They always welcomed me back and listened to my stories. So, here we are forty years later and I have a four hour dream that puts me right back to working at the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Kenny asks me to name the next ale. I am excited to show him the label Lisa Jo and I came up with...It's called 3.2 Ale with a beautiful Sierra green background. He and Steve H. look at each other and say, "Yes, a light ale. We are ready for a light ale."

The Last Family Bicycle Shop in Northeastern California

Twelve years ago there were two bicycle shops in Susanville, one in Burney, one in Quincy, one in Graeagle and one in Chester, Ca. Of those, the only family bicycle store that remains is Bodfish Bicycles and Quiet Mountain Sports in Chester. A bicycle shop wrenches on everyone's bicycle, brings old bicycles back to life, putting them back into circulation and attempts to stock new bicycles for the whole family. Public service is high on a bicycle shop owner's list of responsibilities.....'where to ride' and 'how to ride' safely is incredibly important. You don't get that from the Big Box sellers. So, what has led to the disappearence of bicycle shops? Online shopping is number one, however, large fires have made the territory seriously less attractive to vacationing cycliists and local self-propelled wanderers. Tariffs have had an effect as well. In 2018 the Trump administration decided that tariffs on Asian goods were a good idea. Prices on new bicycles and bicycle gear increased by 20%, scaring off many who were considering a new bike purchase. The Covid epidemic should have been good for bicycle shops but the epidemic and tariffs combined to result in a serious supply-chain problem and hardware was difficult to obtain, limiting store owner options. Finally, suppliers decided to bypass small independent dealers and sell everything on-line.....at bargain prices. This eliminated already slim margins and has resulted in the disappearance of many rural bicycle shops. Bodfish Bicycles is actually operating on life-support, luckily our bills and mortgages are paid and our one employee is willing to work for minimum wage.

Insanity....continued

Same thing over again.....expecting different results. Obviously, I don't know what I thought I knew. As an amateur Psychologist and Counselor, I SUCK. Wrenching on old bicycles today has been incredibly therapeutic.....predictable turns of the wrist resulting in beautiful rehabs of old friends, now destined to be satisfying "town bikes". People, on the other hand, I certainly don't understand. How anyone can vote for such a train-wreck of a human to represent our hopes and dreams for our nation.....spoiling the future of millions of young Americans who will miss out on lessons of honor, truth and compassion for their fellow citizens. The return of Trumpery will set numerous bad examples that are bound to be adopted by 50% of Americans. How long after will it take to re-establish our national integrity.....and regain the respect that world citizens have had for our stable form of Democracy? What I really don't get.....how is that 50% of our fellow voters don't see the insanity in supporting this degradation of our national ideals. Do you want your kids to adopt any of these behaviors displayed by the man called The Donald.

Losers and Winners

The Yankees have lost the World Series...they weren't quite good enough when it counted..."That's how the cookie crumbles." My mother used to say. No 'sore losers' here. No lawsuits, no whining, no threats of violence. Baseball is a civilized game with well over a hundred years of following the rules and accepting the results of these yearly campaigns. The judges deciding between right and wrong are called umpires. Get 'huffy' with an umpire and you are expelled from the contest. Baseball players know better than to get 'huffy' with an umpire. Managers are a little more likely to kick dirt on an umpires shoes. They are also immediately expelled from the contest. Sore losers never come out on top. Donald Trump is preparing his sore loser campaign in these weeks before the contest results are tabulated. He has an ugly history of being a sore loser. He insists he never loses, his cult of followers are prepared to kick dirt on the shoes of Uncle Sam one more time.