This is the online journal of Charles Dowdell. www.theguysatwork.com charlesdowdell at gmail.com
Sunday, July 14, 2019
The penthouse is more difficult to furnish than initially figured. But we are working on it.
I went to the Orange County (California) fair. It is close-by. We will be back this season in the next couple of weeks.
The ionizing radiation levels have been slightly lower today than normal in Costa Mesa, CA.
I had some vivid dreams this past week. I miss my friend Pete. He really was amazing. We are trying to tally his patents. His goal was 100. Beside the measurement using patents (post Polaroid-Kodak patent lawsuit~4.5 million) there was so much more.
We decided to hang out in SoCal over the 4th Holiday. We also moved into a new apartment, a penthouse. It is a bit better and a bit cheaper.
We felt the first earthquake. The chair I was sitting it started rocking and then the curtains. We went outside as a precaution. No one else did. We didn't even feel the larger quake here in Orange County. We will rebuild. ;-)
I took this picture of the "homeless" just inside the border of Santa Ana. Notice neither one of the folks has shoes on. They are also not near a bus stop. It reminded me of what I have seen in India. Everyday Rolls, Ferraries, McClearens, travel this road. I would have liked to get the dichotomy in the same pic. The story goes that CA has great tax incentive programs for funding rehab facilities, actually houses with some sort of basic credential. So folks come from all over the country. When they mess up in these facilities they get kicked out. They used to kick them out in parks, now they are kicking them out in Santa Ana. There are 3 jails there after all.
Have you ever seen someone picking up after a cat the way you have to for a dog?
My friend Pete passed away. I met him in 1982. We were friends the whole time despite all the competing circumstances. We picked up where we left off every time.
I will miss him. I am glad I got to spend quality time with him over Memorial Day weekend a couple weeks back. I always had tremendous respect for him in all ways. The weirdest part is that he respected me. Very humbling, and actually disturbing. He confided with me and I with him. Ask me to tell you a story about him.
Interesting song I heard about today. The lyrics are important.
Southern California Wants to Be Western New York
Dar Williams
There's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake,
Yeah, it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake.
And there's another part of the country with a land that gently creaks and thuds,
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs.
They're in houses that are haunted, the with kids who lie awake and think about
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink.
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see
What it's like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey,
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
It wants to have a family business in sheet metal or power tools,
It wants to have a diner where the coffee tastes like diesel fuel,
And it wants to find the glory of a town they say has hit the skids,
And it wants to have a snow day that will turn its parents into kids,
And it's embarrassed, but it's lusting after a SUNY student with mousy brown hair who is
Taking out the compost, making coffee in long underwear.
And southern California says to save a place, I'll meet you there,
And it tried to pack up its Miata, all it could fit was a prayer,
Sometimes the stakes are bogus, sometimes the fast lane hits a fork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
Tempe, Arizona thinks the Everglades are greener and wetter,
And Washington, D.C. thinks that Atlanta integrated better,
But I think that southern California has more pain that we can say,
'Cause it wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.
Southern California Wants to Be Western New York
There's a part of the country could drop off tomorrow in an earthquake,
Yeah, it's out there on the cutting edge, the people move, the sidewalks shake.
And there's another part of the country with a land that gently creaks and thuds,
Where the heavy snows make faucets leak in bathrooms with free-standing tubs.
They're in houses that are haunted, the with kids who lie awake and think about
All the generations past who used to use that dripping sink.
And sometimes one place wants to slip into the other just to see
What it's like to trade its demons for the restless ghost of Mrs. Ogilvey,
She used to pick the mint from her front yard to dress the Sunday pork,
Sometimes southern California wants to be western New York.
But I think that southern California has more pain that we can say,
'Cause it wants to travel back in time, but it just can't leave L.A.
But now I hear they've got a theme park planned, designed to make you gasp and say,
Oh, I bet that crumbling mill town was a booming mill town in its day,
And the old investors scoff at this, but the young ones hope they'll take a chance,
And they promise it will make more dough than Mickey Mouse in northern France,
And the planners planned an opening day, a town historian will host,
And the waitresses look like waitresses who want to leave for the west coast.
And they'll have puttering on rainy weekends, autumn days that make you feel sad,
They'll have hundred year old plumbing and the family you never had,
And a Hudson River clean-up concert and a bundle-bearing stork,
And I hear they've got a menu planned, it's trés western New York.
Angie and I went up to Sequoia National Park and King Canyon over the weekend. It is nice to get away to some really spectacular places fairly easily.
I heard they were starting a Toastmasters club at work. I decided I need to participate. It is nice to be recognized as a Distinguished toastmaster. It is such a positive organization and it is nice to see young people working to better themselves.
I am back in SoCal after a complex trip back east. A stop in Georgia for 16 hours, and several stops across NY State.
Gracie the cat likes California. She is big on relaxing and enjoys the sunshine.
A while back I drove by these people picking up water bottles that fell out of their truck at an intersection. After I took the picture, I decided I should help them pick up the bottles.
I spent time working on the farm. We have grasses planted this year.
Elsewhere in the Catskill mountains, I ran into this sculptor's show room. I think he has a good eye.
Angie and I decided to escape to the desert again this weekend. The thought/understanding of having a back yard of the immensity of the California deserts grows on me. The areas are vast. So vast, it humbles the largest of thoughts and comforts the smallest. My theory of why that is --is because there are no echoes.
At the same time I am repulsed by urban New Yorker's thinking my upstate farm is their back yard. The significant difference (in fact) is that part of the California desert is the largest national park in the lower 48 states and other California deserts are largely government land.
In Shoshone, CA (Population 31) Gas was $5.35 a gallon for the cheap stuff. The average national price in the US was $2.85.
