Cultural Impressions

          When you go outside the confines of your world, like going to Europe and seeing the differences in their cultures, you begin to notice that we do things differently here.  Nothing says either of the ways we indulge ourselves is for better or for worse, they just are there, and that is that.
           Take for instance, as I was told, Belgium takes 55 percent of the money you earn, whether you have children or not, so that all children can have access to the educational system, from say age 6, until 18 or so.  During the last few years, if you aren't going to college, then you can get involved into an apprentice program, of your choice, so when you finish, you are semi-experienced so employers can take advantage of your training, by hiring you.
            In Europe, in most public places, whether it be a store, a restaurant, or a public place, you have to pay to go to the bathroom.  If you go into a business and become a patron, meaning that you purchase something, or you drink beer, or eat food, those charges are usually waived. Sometimes you find a Church or two, that allow you to have some free bathroom time.  Now here is why this occurs.  There are people who keep the bathrooms clean, and they are not paid by anyone, and the money you pay, takes care of their income.
              In most places, some drugs that are illegal still in this country, are legal there.  Yet, things like Stevia, a plant, which is being used as a sugar substitute in this country, are illegal still, in Europe.  Prostitution is legal there, and well regulated, and is understood to be a legitimate form of income.
              In most cities along the Rhine, from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland, the cities themselves are all cobblestone roadways, except in the country and intercity roadways.  Bikes are the most important thing on the road, so cars and pedestrians have to move out of their way.  Since gas costs about 8 dollars a gallon, they are prohibitive as far as common folk are concerned, and that is why there are so many bikes in the places that we went.  There are not really what you would call sidewalks there, and the small alleys that you walk on walking tours, cars also travel down, and the groups you are in, cling to the side of the cobblestone streets, to get out of the way of the oncoming cars and bikes, for that matter.
                 Most of the housing in the cities are multistory buildings with apartments or flats.  There are lots of trains to take you from one town to the next.  In Switzerland, at least in Basel, their are electrical streetcars, that take you anywhere in the city, from hotels to train stations, or from your place of residence to where you work.  They run a tight schedule, and in every location that they stop, there is an electrical board telling you when the next streetcar you are interested in will be there, and it flashes a streetcar icon about a minute before it arrives.  Very efficient.
                When one thinks of the time to pave the streets in all these cities along the Rhine, with cobblestone, it boggles your mind.
Also you can drink in the streets legally, as opposed to our country's idea that this is public drunkenness and you can be thrown in jail for an evening as a public drunk.
                 As for the architecture, it is quite eclectic, seeing as most of these cities were bombed, ransacked by invaders, or just torn down or rebuilt, depending on who was running the country at the time.  So a lot of the castles are in disrepair, or show different styles of architecture, from the rulers, who hired different architects, and who had different styles of anthropological imagery.  This also was displayed in Churches or government buildings.
                    In Switzerland, at least in Lucerne, there are election days for the people, and then there are days when the politicians vote among themselves, for whatever purpose.  There are around 14 or so little towns in Lucerne, even though they are all part of Lucerne, they have legitimate rights separate from Lucerne, not unlike our system, which is local, state and federal.  When someone comes in and offers to invest in a community, they have a right to vote on it, and if they decline, another small community votes, and accepts, and when the one that accepts reaps the benefits, then the one that didn't, bitches at the consequences, even though they had the first crack at the deal.  Sound familiar?  Also when you are in Switzerland and go to an ATM, instead of small bills, they give you money in hundreds. This explains when you get macaroni and cheese for four, three beers and one water, the bill comes to eight dollars.  On the reverse side, the woman in Basel we met at lunch said while she was visiting California, she tried to get on a bus that took exact change, with a twenty dollar bill.  Go figure.  Reverse cultural shock.
                   There are sets of locks on the Rhine, like the Panama Canal and other places in the world, and as we went from Amsterdam to Basel, we had to go thru 14 locks, either up or down, depending on the stretch of the Rhine we were on, and what the difference in levels were.  Since the Rhine starts in Basel, from runoff from the Swiss Alps, then starting in Amsterdam, the conclusion of the Rhine, then generally we went up.  We were advised as to the lack of rain, that maybe we would end up taking Buses and stay in hotels at night.  We were informed the weather was up to us, and somehow it rained mostly at night, and we still got in the walking tours in the day, without much umbrella time.
                   There are alternative ways of thinking to produce the same or comparative outcomes, and consequences to all the decisions that are made, but all become legitimate in their own ways.  Also, in an archeological  or anthropological sense, if there are bones or historical or artwork found in any part of the city where construction is taking place, then that are is roped off, and becomes a dig.  Business or government cannot build on these sites.  This is a great charm and also a nuisance to business, the public and to government, but rules are rules.  Enough said, and as my friend Paul, in Montana says, "Think About It".....???!!!

Notions, Perspective and Ideology

                           I know you think you heard what you thought I said, but what I'm afraid of, is that you don't realize that what I said, is not what I meant.  Consciousness before the "Big Bang" was just that, consciousness, and although it was aware of it self, it didn't feel the need to manifest itself.  So for all the scientific jargon belonging to a select few of theoretical physicists, like String Theorists, Quantum Mechanics, and Metaphysical Doctrines, who concede that there was solid matter involved, and some form of explosion that occurred, there is mounting evidence that consciousness just thought it was time to manifest, and to do that it had to expand itself by giving itself the imagery or power to reflect. This I interpret as when time and space came into being, and after the simple manifestations occurred, than the idea of reflection took place, and therefor the idea of Humans, being, came about, and symbolic consciousness then followed first in some form of artwork, and then as language developed, and we found ways in which to put this down on all sorts of display mechanisms, the concepts we were trying to communicate, we were then locked into the idea that notions, became perceptions or judgements, and those judgements were followed by ideology or dogma, in which we limited our freedom to manifest in infinite ways, and chose instead to put parameters on such things, and religion and politics were the things that as I said earlier, was what I was afraid that of happening, is that you didn't realize that what I said, is not what I meant.  Further more, it wasn't going to be what you understood, as far as perspective was concerned, and even worse, it may become a moment of contention, when your misinterpretation became one of your symbolic ideology or an individualized dogmatic equation.  This is when I think indulging in self importance, and your relationship to the Universe becomes muddled and often times during the process of Brain Roulette compromises not only the original source of material, but changes the images and clarity between, past present and future.  We linger on the past, we dream of the future, forgetting that our only power lies in the constant presents of our being.  Don't become stuck being a seasonal black hole by giving only when special moments find themselves on the calendar of life, and please surrender to the concepts of seasonal presents puts us where we want to be most of the time, and that is unwrapping the continuous flow of conscious manifestations of the infinite possibilities in the Universe's unfolding.
                            

Sometimes there is a Greater Notion

          My feelings about politics is always the same.  I don't want to condone what they do, so I learn to put up with what happens and don't complain about it. It is either that they do something, which affects us, or they don't do something, and it affects us.
          Quickly, I must make a point here.  The wars in the Middle East are not illegal because of why we are there.  They are illegal because they are unfunded.  Anything that is unfunded is illegal.  Unions in the civilian world can collective bargain, but government workers should just be happy with what they get.  If the money isn't there and they lose something, then they have to live with it, just like all the people in the real world that lost their jobs. 
            How can we forget that it was us, here in the United States, that fostered the crisis over what we consider Wall Street did.  Wall Street, in other words, sold not only to us, but they sold to the World Market.  Though everyone who bought into this scheme is at fault, we started it, and it is still resonating in the Global Reality.  It is not just Wall Street that has perpetrated this, it is all those who got talked into this American Dream scenerio. It is also those people who knew they couldn't afford it, and did it anyway, and all those who for one reason or another forgot that if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't.
             What my greater notion is, is that you get what you pay for. My wife and I lived by the rules, lived within our means and did what we thought was best for us and the community we are part of.  We shared what we have with those around us, and kept our family ties so we could celebrate the things we all cherish, whether it be holidays or birthdays or anniversaries.  
             My feelings here are and I am living with the consequences of the choices that people either who voted for them, or those that got themselves elected with whatever strategy they used to get there. I watch as my retirement plans dwindle, and the cost of living keeps going higher, because those who are in business just past the buck onto the consumer, while we suffer the outcome of their choices.
             I wish I could calm the fears of anyone who is on a fixed income, and those who don't have jobs, but the truth is, if Occupy Wall Street doesn't have an affect, then we are in for some dark days ahead.  No one on TV is going to do anything but preach to their own choir.  So just please, whatever you do, just enjoy what you have, and trust that the Universe will wake up and set things straight, as it usually does.  The system is working whether you admit to it or not, and as I heard when I was a child, change takes time.  What a bunch of hogwash.  As soon as the thought occurs, the matter is set in motion, and your world changes perspective, and it will come as an individual salvation.  Change occurs one person at a time, and those who don't make the call, the Fat Lady Sings for Them, and no one seems to Cry for Argentina.
           
                

Owning the Three Act Stageplay of Your Life

                 As is in any symbolic gesture, such as life, one can act out anything they so desire, and put it out into the world, letting it manifest from the inside out, and consciously it shares the life and times of anyone in the form of  a three act play.  There is a contention here, by me, and not by all of you, there, that lives contain three acts, and for most of us, it is definitely an Off Broadway production, having been written by each individual Playwright.
                 Now in keeping with that symbolic gesture idea of scripting your own production, I plead my case, for most people, in whatever dramatic way they choose, life plays itself out in three distinct one act performances.  Those of childhood, where you are part of a nuclear family, no matter the size or intentions contained in those eulogies, those of the vagabond years, where you find goals, try to understand the perimeters of your external world, and then, a choice between the continuation of self, and one of sharing the soul with another vagabond, as in a lifelong companion.  
                 In my case, I chose, and I am claiming the territory here, where others claim the territory there, to have the sequences in my life being part of that nuclear family life in the first act of my stageplay, by being part of a military family, which every few years demanded that we pack our bags, and become a subplot in an ongoing first act. From time to time, you had to confront another topographical emotional framework, inundated with new characters, cultures and architectural landscapes.
                After that ambitious choice for the first act, of a three act play, I chose to spend my vagabond years, expanding my perimeters, by studying, not in a classroom, or with any inherent goal in mind, different ways in which to grasp that family motto that the " Child " family ran up the flagpole one evening, around a campfire and some toasted Marshmallows, of  "Imitate Rather Than Envy".  It became not so perfectly clear where these smoke and mirror wisps would land me, but the concepts were as " Close to the Edge " as I desired to go.   
                Though I am now, in all it's glory and expansiveness, in that third act, and it will take me into somewhat of a "Swan Song", of caressing the boundaries of that elusive show stopper called "Matrimony", which unlike rehearsals I was afforded for the first two one act stage plays, there are no set perimeters and no directors barking out nuances of light, action, camera or "Roll Em", it is up to the two  individual actors on stage to develop the plot as they trudge themselves thru both of their third of three one act plays.  This inherent social protocol terrior, where two individual tunes become a harmony over the due course of time, disregarding the space so defined in the beginning and middle of this harbinger of infatuated neural activity becomes one of the most difficult, demanding, and often, if you will, most rewarding one act portion of the stageplay of  anyone's life.
                This soliloquy  of the three act play of life has then been brought to you by that colloquial euphemism as it was    "In the Beginning ", as it " Is Now", and so shall it " Ever Be", world without "End"...on with the your show, this is " IT ".

Leftover Nunaced Noodles in the Take-Out Box of Life

                 Now throughout the strings that dangle from my rather obtuse life, I contend like any Quantum Yo-Yo champion that at the tender age of 3, I was aware of alternate realities that surrounded my presence of being here in what is mostly interpreted as physical reality.   Though when I had that rude awakening of a few of the perspective cognitive thoughts that rattled by brain in the womb, from those pesky images in the neural pathways of spiritual guides, prompting me to remember their conversations, it was by and large a singularity that would dog me in later preoccupations with the present.
                It is they would say, an individual responsibility when choosing to take on the unrecognizable philosophical highroads, to gather what wits you had at any given moment and be aware that the initial contact wouldn't necessarily show up as instantaneous feedback.  Rather, they suggested, it might take years to make the connections on one or all of the linear projections that you would throw out into the Universe, at any given moment.  So that old standby quote that patience being a virtue or that change takes time, could alternately become a question of space inside those neural pathways.  
               In my case, when I wasn't trying too hard to throw the first stone while living in that glass home of my brain, those provocative conversations in the womb, or as constant barrages, until I suddenly awoke at three, it was misinterpreted as though I was intellectually challenged and the solution at the time for this malady I was exhibiting was to send me to a phonics regime.  It was then that I realized that keeping to myself was not a good thing, and that after I had been thru this phonic boot camp that I would abide by any social obligation or protocol to speak in no uncertain terms, what was considered complete sentences, rather than acting out my premonitions like some begotten charades interpretation.
              Alas, though I was now accepting some of my chosen responsibilities as a teacher, a guide or so "Help Me Jesus", a healer, it was obvious that those around me might of wished that they had waited until I had let my own cat out of the bag, seeing as how my predilection to converse at any given moment, was now, in only in it's infancy, driving them up the proverbial wall.
              I would take the opportunity at that point, to hone my embellishment skills so as to later help me in giving solace away in allegorical tales, from either my own personal experience with the outside world, or take something I had heard, and turn it into my own smatterings of understanding of the external world, so as to bear witness to these thoughts of alternate realities, or processes of thinking inside the take out box of lives.

We went to Visit and listen to Roy and Jan with Gin Fizzes

The Trails that Mother Gives you, do do something after All

                 As the wisps of spiritual smoke billowed to the ceilings in my wishful thinking, one bore the tire tracks that earlier travels with the mystics imbibed in the shadows of the dusty trails my Mother had traversed, would of left if  my Mother had just come to giving Me the medicine a tad bit earlier.
                 Why do we often find that though the lights were on the whole time, but for some reason or another, the doors were not open to those lives,and those lives, laughingly, were not at home.  Shortly, as timelines go, or the strings to infinity dangled from my own ceilings, I was confronted with some of the biblical scribes that my Mother had left dangling amid the protocols of the meridians on life's highways and byways, leaving them instead to gather on their own, for most people, pervasive and unused moss laden paths.
                 Rather, as I was to find out, after her passing, that at 17 or 18, she was to take a fate filled voyage thru the rebirths of her multiple selves. She first took a train ride from Baltimore, Maryland, across Purple Mountains Majesties and Amber Waves of Grain, until she found the Pacific Ocean beckoning her to continue her quest. 
                 From here, she found herself, as part of the freight,on a ship bound for Japan to initiate her survival modes with her new found Spouse.  My Father, it seems, had not broken her Dreams, and she unlike Jack and Jill, would not fall down that slippery hill.
                        When, upon arrival, she found that my Father had been reassigned and she would have to talk a Five Star General into letting her go where no Woman had gone before, and was promptly shipped to China, where her and my Father would spend time, like his earlier assignment in Post World War II Japan, doing reparations and imbibing the cultural adaptations necessary for reconciliation purposes.
                 When those lines of communications had been telegraphed across the countrysides of China, and my Father was informed his next orders were to return to the shores of Japan to accomplish the same overtures, my Mother was told by a Four Star General she had to return Stateside, since no spouses of service members were allowed in their duty stations.  To the credit of the multitasking High Priestess herself, my Mother soon had the Five Star General overruling the Four Star General.
                  So the trails are infinite that my Mother left me to follow in her footsteps, and though I often wonder where my paths would have led me if I had known these parables earlier, I do feel as if the Pills that Mother gives you, somehow, unlike Grace Slick from Jefferson Airplane once cooed, do create something after all, even if they are given posthumously, when in silence and awe, everyone, with the lights on, was at Home. 

The Real Strings of my Lives on my Violin

                 There you are floating serenely in warm superfluous calming liquid in your birth mother's womb.  You are an intact consciousness, yet not a fully developed species, just a momentary embryo, waiting to exhale your first breath in an exterior physical reality, chosen, believe it or not, by yourself.  You are being communicated to by spirit guides, who continue to persuade your intellect that when you actually arrive, on dry land, as it were, you will be responsible for remembering those keynotes in your concertos of Lives.
                  All along this road trip, one essentially calls Life, from time to time, will be the billboards of fate, dancing, singing, and sometimes ruthlessly begging for you to notice their prescence.  As  religious artifacts, or tightly strung strings on the violin, they could be called epiphanies. You don't have to give into the tinglings of humanity, the perfect tones coming from the musical instrument itself or divine intervention, although pleading out is so much easier when they're benign, rather than malignant.
                  In my own time, just around three years of age, I woke up and remembered there was purpose, responsibility and fates attached to keeping myself awake, aware, and going along with certain epiphanies, while ignoring others.  One of those early billboards came while I was evading speaking in complete sentences, giving those who cared about me, concerns.  As fate would have it, phonics, in their eyes, was the short term answer.
                 You can fight it all you want, but going along with certain programs brings calm and reassurance, to loved ones, keeping hind sights and detours from running the musical notes off the page.  In my case however, after allowing Phonics to curtail my autism, my loved ones soon bore the hind sight, of maybe, leaving me to my own mystical concerts could of spared them from the onslaught my verbosity created.  The string duet surrounding such an epiphany had taken a turn in both directions, for those who forced the initial foray of musical notes to the song, and for myself, when actually trying to play the violin concerto in whatever key it was transcribed in,  when perchance, in later years my mother ubiquitously said, I will help you, if I can, if you have any questions, but I don't want to hear any complaints.
                This meant for me, in so many words, that part of my decision to allow myself to indulge in free will, in physical reality, was when I forgot, or ran into screen doors trying to answer the phone, that I couldn't finger peck out that all too easy stanza, "Why Me". Instead, learning to accept the consequences of the musical nuances was part of the refrain that came with the conductor's baton.
                

Halloween Parade at the Mortensen Household

           Imagine, if you will, Halloween looming just outside your reach, and the desire of family members to have a parade, down the street from where, you, as a kid, had spent time doing your own little renaissance trick or treating. Now the family had grand kids and great grand kids, and all the extended family and relatives nearby wanted a piece of the action.  
           The kids had come in costumes ranging from a Mermaid, to Captain America, to the Harley Davidson Man, to one of the characters in Toy Story, don't ask me who, and the adults came in disguises that only Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds would recognize.
           After getting a few individual pictures, they all banded together and took a jaunt down Hoen  Court.  The neighbors all peeked out their windows, and some even came out to converse with the motley crew, as they passed by their homes on the Court.  
           When the procession ended, they all enjoyed a lunch from Togo's and then hopped in their vehicles and headed over to Howath Park, to continue the festivities with Ponies and Carousels, and later headed back to their personal domiciles.
           One never knows, but always wishes, for the holidays to come with family gatherings and lots of laughs and talks about personal histories and going home with fond memories.
          

Powell Avenue Market and Deli

         Healdsburg welcomes Ann and Rob to us as they invite us into one of those charming Neighborhood Markets.  Yesterday, October 23rd, 2011, they opened up their hearts and our minds as they came out of             

hiding after  putting in some pretty fierce overtime creative action to get their local and personable Powell Avenue Market and Deli ready for their open house.   Ann dreamed one day to provide the same emotional attachment to her market, that she experienced as a kid, when she visited on occasion to pick up treats and listen to local color.

          Ann is the full time caretaker, along with a few close friends, while she provides us with local neighborhood hospitality, along with the feeling of multi-generational atmosphere and character.

                   Ann and Rob, the love of her life, hope to bring people here for diverse culinary road trips of flavor profiles of courage and down home style family cooking.  Rob, in his afternoons at the market, brings stories, embellished with his quirky personality traits.

            They were hoping to get acquainted with what they saw as their local cast of neighborhood friends, and add to an already Sonoma County tradition of small, family run Markets, displaying warmth and charm.

           The Powell Avenue Market and Deli is open Monday thru Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 in the evening, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 in the evening and Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 in the afternoon.

          The location is 555 Powell Avenue and their phone is (707) 433-2958.

The Palette of Knowing Silent Laughter on Life's Canvas

        Everyday commonplace palettes of emotion elucidate across the fathoms of open horizons, catching human glares unaware and while pontificating upon itself, grasps the benign wishes as they wink and close their daily canvas of desires. Outwardly there are no signs, or warnings, but the joys of laughter often linger inwardly to pacify satisfactions from the personality emulsions blurring the lines of each day's vicarious accomplishments, and the effortless shift into unconscious childhood rhythms at the end of each day.
       Silence, in it's own right, holds dearly to presumptive attitudes, often carrying the knowing aspects that come from the freedoms of  personal choice, and the altitude of each of the individual dances thrown onto the daily canvas of life.  Waltzing thru those outcomes derived from such infinite colors on the palette of life, brings one relentless acceptance, the unconscious laughter wrapped in silence, tip-toeing over and thru those alert and deftly piquant ears.  Necessity, the mother of invention, needs no cue to gather the wisdom, then, from such folly brought into the human condition by individuals laughing in respectful and knowing silence.
        Seasoned ulterior thought patterns don't necessarily dictate those projections into reality, though outwardly the emotional colors  themselves, promulgate their origins, thus giving the rise to lazy smirks, that develop rapidly into undulating brainwaves tossed humorously, onto the subjective individual canvas.  These events are usually followed by unweighted and silently repeating rainbow remarks, congratulating the inner child for it's conceptual and unassuming palettes of dialogues strewn across life's canvas.  We all know that though the paint is easy to throw onto the canvas sometimes as an adult, imitating nature's artwork, that the innocence found in the canvas of our unfettered childhood, often takes a lifetime to bring back into focus, and only maintains it's purity, when that particular laughter from knowing, is consumed with silence.
      
      

    

Pat shares her 88th with Us

         As was planned, we all showed our faces thru the door at Charlie and Trish's house, to bring credence to our special guest, Trish's mom, Pat.  She had made it thru many histories of herself, and sometime about 9 years ago, ran smack dab head on, with my Father.  They had known each other from when they were 17, living separate lives, and were according to my Dad, reunited thru his brother Uncle Bud.

      The menagerie of guests included, Charlie and Trish's daughter Joy and her daughter,
Pat's two son's Bill and Mike, and their spouses, Dionne and

Doreen.  Again the cavalcade of culinary artwork displayed itself on the dining room table, after a rousing bit of conversational chatter, personal family catching up from Pat and my Dad's last trip to God knows where.

     We all grabbed lots of varietal  flavor profiles from the family offerings, grabbed seats, ate, and talked about the positive things, and the fulfilled dreams we all seemed to be living, and soon found ourselves toasting both Pat 

and Doreen, the two birthday girls, with champagne and two different types of Birthday Cake, provided generously by the Host and Hostess of this shindig.

    Then we all gathered round as Pat and Doreen opened their cards and gifts, and the best one we thought was the walking stick, Bill and Dionne had given to Pat,to go, for

instance, on her upcoming trip on the Christmas Markets along the Rhine.

       As Joyce and I drove home, satiated from another fabulous family gathering, we watched the sky emanating a beautiful orange and yellow sunset, as the horizon began to set itself for the

evening.  As we drew ourselves into the night sky around Petaluma, we were enjoying the clouds and the sky turning a blushing black.  The day was slowly closing it's eyes at it's climatic finish.

   Joyce and I wish everyone an open ended joyful month of October, and this is Steven, always looking forward to good times, hard work, and simple

outcomes to glorious celebrations of life, that seem to flow along the outlines of beautiful and vivacious Sonoma and Napa county Lines, Child, sincerly suggesting everyone latch onto their lives, and live out their dreams, as it seems to Joyce and I, that our friends Pat and Dan Child seem to be doing.

Carlos and 60 smores

The Last Train to the Cain Mutiny

        Say, look behind the pedantic squalor of a pizza magnate's pleasure in elucidating his conspiracy theories of people standing around with their own free time imitating Arab Springs.  The water may not flow as easily on our hearts and minds, but there is a definite leaning toward an American Fall that rivals the same passion and discontent with the imbalance of misplaced and convoluted financial power.
        The concepts we can appreciate when Herman Cain doubts the reasons for our present inconsistency of how we view the circumstances that seem to have us mired in disbelief at what we see, even though, the bubbles have been bursting all around us for decades.  His preliminary findings conclude some mass hysteria brought on by the administration now residing in the Oval office, trying to veer us off the railroad of failed policies.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, the realization that the train never built enough steam to get the train moving in the first place, gives a clear indication of the fact that Obama has not been able to implement any policies, because he was derailed in his attempts to make them leave the station. So goes the reality check list.
         As for Cain's mutinous attitude for anyone other then himself, begs the question of his duplicity in coming to any coherent resolution to the problem.  Not everyone wants to be rich.  As for blaming banks for anything derisive to economic turbulence, and people that possess this oddity called money have anything to do with a large constituency of the population being without any means of financial support, is a prelude to a kissoff.  People didn't sell junk bonds, derivatives, bad mortgages, speculate on the stock market, or hedge their bets.  They didn't have the tools to indoctrinate those policies or protocols.
           As the American Fall continues to possess an accurate account of a large group of people living out their inability to confront the financial realities of both early childhood and senior moments, Cain invigorates the dialogue by blaming the occupying administration, and tries to claim that the alternative dialogue surrounding putting the blame on the banks for creating these furtive angry views of not being able to possess or control monetary sustenance, is ill conceived.  Further, he speculates the notion that if you don't own a piece of the rock, blame yourself.
               Why is it that anyone, especially one that is in the public eye, can find it in their parameters of thought, to ridicule anyone who differs from their concepts on life, but stand pat so easily on their own bully pulpit, mostly spending most of that time degrading others, rather than making or suggesting ways to improve the prevailing uninitiated  failed policies.
           I totally understand everyone who has been let down with Obama's leadership qualities.  So when the next election comes to fruition, take the time to remove the stain or strain on your mental capacities and remove him from office.  You gave him no support in the beginning and gave access to all the interlopers to the machine.  Now, you all have a chance, maybe not to save Obama and his forms of symbolic consciousness, but to put a cabash on the cabala of the Herman Cain Mutiny and similar characteristic representing a black hole in the human condition of this great nation we live in called the "United States of America"  Let the Eagle fly with the Dove, and if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with....It's Clobberrrinng Time and Help me Mister Wizard, come to mind.

What goes up, doesn't necessarily come Down

        As time goes on, I realize, that somewhere down the line, though people toss ideas out into the cosmos, and as Isaac Newton once, in a moment of discontented trance that they will naturally or inevitably come down and share their platitudes to the masses in an effort to show that the concept of gravity is real, that maybe, just maybe, most of them have grown wings, taken flight, and are not being recapitulated into the mainstream.
         I don't have any real gratitude for his introspective ideas, seeing as people who have in their own beliefs, indoctrinated that idea, and have compelled themselves not to take the proverbial flights of fancy. Nowhere in the histrionics of lethargy can one find solace in perfunctory concepts.  One then must take a giant step outside of one's mind, to take suggestions on how to get off the ground.
        To get some of these suggestion down on paper, I begin my Robert Frost fork in the road journey to have a where ever I go, my arrow goes moment of uncertainty.  If in any alternate thought pattern one assumes that people who are in need of welfare, in any way shape or form, enjoy the blessings of their dilemma, someone needs to correct any grammatical error in this prepubescent dilettante frame of reference.  My first idea is taking it's shape in the form of why not put those people who are out of work and receiving either welfare or unemployment stipends to work to earn their paychecks. Correct me if I'm wrong, but numerous construction workers are out of work because of what came down in 2008.  Now, we do need work on the infrastructure of our country.  Those who are either collecting these stipends still, or those who for reasons concerning their own self esteem would volunteer to help in reconstructing or rehabilitating whatever it is deemed appropriate  to maintain and improve said infrastructure, OMG, would be a first step in reclaiming our future, or as a nation of diversity and immigrant based ingenuity, bring back those ideals and ideas of being what everyone who looks at this country is or was, a United State of Mind.
               Now when one looks at whatever you view the stock market to be, it is not in anyway producing anything.  It doesn't make a product, it doesn't transport or advertise a product, and it is not producing real ideas or innovative concepts, except those that contain a value system.  Once that value system has been constructed, then to make matters worse, it speculates, and then hedges it's bets.  Money in other words, begets itself.  This defies, then maybe, Isaac's Fig Newton's premature concept of gravity.  When someone invest in something, the idea is not to make vast amounts of money, but to help further along a sound and practical idea, that helps in some way, to make life either more functional or more pleasurable to coexist with.  It is in essence, like buying a house to make into a home, not as a way to make more money, as an investment tool.  You may make improvements, remodel, or keep it maintained, but the land or the original living space, the majority of the time, does not make leaps and bounds into a higher tax bracket by itself alone. Though as it becomes a speculative tool, even if you sell it, other properties parallel it's annuitant characteristics.  This in turn does not in any way make a participant in a higher tax bracket by giving you access to breaks on a capital gains tax.
            One more arrow from the quill of ideas here, before I leap off of the page, and indulge in the familiar tasks of my day to day accomplishments.  The thoughts on the global economy are abundantly unclear as of today.  Just a few mundane observation here, whether they gather any moss, or take flight, are of no concern or consequence, because it is to the nature of the beast, and not the outcome of solidarity that I bespeak these nomenclatures.  The value of any country's coin should only withstand the value of the country's image of itself, and shouldn't be used as an image of that country by the global community, or be used as manipulative tool in order to gain some form of trade imbalance with other members of the global community.  When one uses the word community, whether it starts at the local level, and moves up the chains of command to a global essence, it is meant to stir the inner sanctum of spiritual meaning attached to that symbol of everyone lending hands to the eventual positive outcomes of any particular situation.  Each and every culture in every country in the world brings something to the table of ideas.  The best and brightest of those concepts are the ones that should be shared, and not used as wedges to gain advantages, or used to dominate the global community.  This antiquated and inane idea of putting some form of monetary value on anything, to be used as a tool to manipulate positions in the global community, always seems to fall short of it's perceived identity as sometimes a great notion.  Each cell in the human anatomy of consciousness, must be healthy in order for the whole to have it's maximum potential.  So, in symbolic terms, those countries that have, or those people who have, that are viewed as healthy images, need to help those that aren't as healthy, so as to achieve some semblance of equilibrium, starting on a personal level, and working into the global community scheme of things.  It is a natural evolution that this occurs, so somewhere along the dusty trail of human existence the strings have been cut in Nature's Way of doing things, and it should be accepted that for all the good things to exist, in a ying and yang sort of way, the diametrically opposed circumstance must also be imbibed.  This in no way should stop most of the inequality that exists, to try and evolve it's way into the acts of necessity due such proclivities.  Enough said for now, in the continuing saga of a sojourn gone sad.

Doris, from New York, Treats Adele to Bluewater Bistro

Dark Clouds and Sierra meet at Charlie's

        What we have here is Joyce and Sierra entering via the foyer, Charlie's, a really cool restaurant at the Windsor Golf Course, filled with a collection of California eclectic food items with great flavor profiles.

        Take for instance this Bleu Cheese, lemon zest,  parsley and truffle oil pile of french fries.  As we started to munch Joyce and I caught up with Sierra's agenda, and her goals, and who she gets along with.

       To add to our conversation about up coming trips and visits, we chowed down on this appetizer, a chicken quesadilla, with lime flavored guacamole, salsa fresca and a chipotle aioli.

       As the flavor profiles kept coming, and we listened to how Sierra picked out her homecoming dress and how she got a steal on the deal, we enjoyed another appetizer of calamari and dipping sauce.

       As Joyce and I enjoyed the French Onion Soup, we continued to hear about Sierra's shit list of relatives, and who she actually gets along with and how she wears the fashion faux pas she does in Pebble Beach.

       Finally, Sierra's Sicilian Pizza came, with olives, artichoke hearts, proscuitto, and mozzarella cheese, and we all took turns in downing a piece of this or two.  Later, we cruised home and got a glimpse of Sierra's new homecoming dress.  This being the end of the Charlie's Roadtrip, this is Steven, glad to have such relatives as our niece Sierra, to help me keep up on what the new generation's hopes and aspirations are, Child

Blue Octobers and Approaching Normal

       If, on a rainy day, in a Blue October, you find yourself, with your face glued to the drops of antiquity that have subdued themselves onto the glass of the window you are gazing out of, please invite yourself away from any melancholy meanderings, stop approaching normal, and fly with open arms into any concepts left of your childhood glee for such moments.
       Somewhere in your vast network of neurons the visions left there by spirit guides or your own Electric Glide in Blue orchestrations,  are melodies of infinite concerts conducted by your subconscious mind and can be used for your own fulfilling external fugue. It is with these notes that in the past, found you out playing in the mud, having a food fight with friends and family, or watching any of a dozen or so natural phenomenons take place right before your eyes.
        Those second chances of seeking out the Expressways of Your Mind, can make you consummate any or all of those mercurial stupors as a child, that put you often playing unknowingly in the peaceful sand box of your dreams.  So go and put your  symbolic galoshes on, step into the vast distances of your inner self and gleefully accept any of the donations that are blessing your ethereal and esoteric choices.
        Remember it is never too late on the occasional Blue and Rainy October day, to loosen the protocols found in primers for adult story lines late in life's prodigious rule books, and lick the newly found profiles of Banana Nut Bread Jam off of the wooden tasting spoon of a casual and sublime pagan ritual or two.
        
       

Purchasing Life....

          Now as life progresses and you have the opportunities to be involve in big ticket items, following certain common sense logic and post "what did I just do" and "where do we go from here"  after thoughts will get you thru the basic concerns and worries that come with such acquisitions.  
           As I have had those opportunities to purchase either new cars, every 12 years or so and a once in a lifetime chance to acquire a home, I do have somewhat of a perspective of how to process the information and details of such contracts.  First, it is best to go out either in public or on the internet, or God Forbid, the newspaper and do research as far as what the cost is, what the problems are, and what attributes you desire in the purchase at hand.  Second, since most of us don't have the cash laying around to purchase either of these items outright, so consideration needs to be taken as to what added cost are, including such items as insurance, interest on the loan, and maintenance costs.
            As for the concepts involved with buying a car, there are two things to consider here, either it will be new, or it will be used.  Either way, you must think about the different costs between the new car and the used one as to what the insurance will run you.  The second is any warranty on the car, and any additional extended warranties that you can purchase.  At the time of purchase, when you buy a new car, you should consider, even though it seems like a lot of money to purchase these additional warranties, you must look at it is broken down on a monthly cost over the time of the loan, and the difference between what it would cost if you didn't have these coverages over the length of time you keep the vehicle in question.  Next, the best way to purchase a vehicle on credit is to put as much as possible down, so over the length of the loan, the monthly payments are as small as they can possible be.  
             If you are lucky enough these days to purchase a home, not necessarily for an investment, but to live in most of your life, then there are also some compelling concepts to remember here.  Obviously you want the type of house, new or used that has the requirements that you desire.  This could be the architectural style, the square footage, the size of the yard, and how much maintenance will be required to take care of the yard, and the condition of the house itself.  How much care will it take to bring it up to a comfortable standard of living, or is it in good enough shape to have a few years before there are major issues to contend to.  What type of neighbors are involved, if any, and if it is necessary to be involved with them, make sure you introduce yourself before you purchase, so you know the parameters of joint custody on purchases to maintain the property down the line.  With a loan for a home, the best thing that we thought was to get an impound account with the bank or credit union that holds the deed.  This way, you will know the cost of the property tax and the insurance, so you can realize in your budget the total monthly cost, and also someone else is taking care of the insurance and property taxes for you, and that impound account, though in small increments, collects interest, so it is another savings account that comes to fruition when you actually pay off the loan down the line.  We have been lucky because in both the original purchase and the refinance we were able to borrow the entire cost of the loan, including points.  It is not in your best interest not to put some money down on the loan, so the monthly payments are lower.  Secondly, if the monthly loan amount for the impound account is low enough, please, in your best interest, pay something each month toward the principle, so as to cut the length of the loan down over the course of the loan.  If hard times prevail at  any time during the loan, you can always back off of the extra payment to the principle, until you get back on your feet again.
                    

Riding Fiscal Waves of Navigational Policy into the Shore

           Neither the coastline with it's many faceted indulgences or the permeating factors fog entitles one to, can bring about, without some type of navigational tool, like say for instance, common sense or counter intuitive measures of restraint, economic anomalies.  Putting emotional matters over the sound economic mind, often times, makes symbolic concepts like going over the cliff or precipice when involving monetary policy, seem quite literal as sudden emergencies throw themselves in front of the oncoming bus.
                  In riding the cash cow, or waves of uncertainty during spiral economic interpretations, one finds that standing up can bring about some form of dizziness, allowing deviating forms of falling to occur on the fiscal horizons.  
           One begins to conceptualize alternative awareness of day to day finances when such stormy economic patterns emerge.  It is entirely possible to circumnavigate your way into what seems to be a lost art form, that nuanced fiscal painting of living within your means.                                                                                                      Before someone leaves any road trip to ride any of the coastal breaking waves onto the shore, having the right fiscal equipment, and a safety net that ensures viability, irregardless of whatever mediocrity it entails, is good sound economic policy to adhere to.    
           First the realization of whatever cash flow is involved helps to begin any of the road trips primal urges.  Then most of us must be aware of the differences between what is coming in, and what the most basic going out precepts are.   No matter the experiences you have negotiated in any historical sequences, as the permutations enter into the picture, having snapshots of those images will help in any deciphering that is necessary at any given moment.
          Glancing at necessities becomes the first of many strokes putting yourself out into any wave pattern to catch your early peaking sets of monetary indulgences.  After getting out beyond the initial sets, finding your balance between got to have, and want to have, influences your ability to ride the wave into the shore, and gives you the chances to catch multiple rides in your daily and yearly routines of riding each fiscal wave.
           It is at this point that one sees that saving until you can afford the luxury one desires that starts the credibility to access your ability to paddle numerous times out into the sets.  Having the credit is not so much the allure to a monetary freedom, but understanding that you pay the bill off when it comes, is the second point in any navigational policy one ensues.
          Being conscious of the fact that you get what you pay for, is another crucial tool in riding these fundamental waves. This means that spending a little more to get a better tool, rather than having to purchase a cheaper tool, multiple times, is one criteria.  The other fiscal criteria then, is maintaining any of the tools you have, rather than finding yourself riding that same relentless wave of you can either pay less for it now, than paying a lot more for it later.  This of course is commonly known as preventative maintenance.
           Consider this possibility also when you consider your own health.  To save time and money, watching your diet, not only in what you eat, but in how much you eat, can also provide you with the savings that will help you down the line, in order to provide yourself with a nest egg, but also with the navigation of any emergency that you find yourself in, from one experience to the next. The concepts here also is keeping not only your body fit with either work or play, but to continue to keep those neurons firing by learning new things and meeting new people that give you alternative perspectives of not only in paddling out to the wave sets, but also the nuances involved in riding each of your chosen waves into the oncoming shore.
             To add to your circumstances in indulging your desires, when possible, two things should be considered.  One is putting savings away into a vacation fund, so when those opportunities present themselves from time to time, you have the tools necessary to provide yourself with the initial indulgence, and to maintain your peace of mind, while enjoying your seaborne extravagances. Two, after that discerning calculated move, it is time to realize that giving in to a retirement fund of sorts, on a thought pattern of a long term involvement, riding the rise and fall of certain economic fiscal waves, provides another fundamental solace to monetary responsibility.
           In retrospect, when one learns skills that provide the ability to maintain the tools and equipment used in everyday living, it too brings some of those beneficial savings that add to the additional nest eggs one requires to balance the board on incoming and outgoing waves.  Acquiring friends, family and neighbors that hold skills that you don't possess, and can be used in a bartering type of alliance, can also add to the emotional, physical and monetary health of your shoreline road trips.
            In summing up these navigational policies, finding the time to be positive, in helping those around you, and when possible buying things in quantities, and when they are on sale, and saving them in numerous ways for later usage, brings the cultural adaptations in providing functional responsibility to riding those elusive, and yet common fiscal waves, and ensures good judgement to ensure those and other anomalies the capacity to land onto and  into the warm and tender loving arms of the coastal monetary and fiscal shoreline.

Adele, Joyce and Roxy's Annual Road Trip to Dillion's Beach

     Sometime on Friday afternoon, Adele, Joyce and Roxy, made a road trip to Dillion's beach to celebrate their Annual Birthday at the Beach event.  For a few years, they have all packed up the car

the food, the fire wood, and their best stories of the past, and the dreams of the days to come, and found their way out thru Sebastopol, turning at Dinucci's and winding slowly down to their dream

real estate nestled on the frontage road at the beach.  

      As they all remembered the early morning fog, and then the sky clearing, it seemed as this history was not in any

way going to repeat itself.  Each night brought a great dinner, and a small but warming fire, to go with the heater, since the weather was cloudy, cold, with lots of murky visuals out toward the horizon.

       Steven came out on Saturday and helped celebrate with appetizers and lunch early in the afternoon.  Then a few walks with Adele, Joyce and Roxy, before a warming fire, and another great dinner

brought to them all by Joyce.  While the night grew on them all, Joyce and Adele played number games in the kitchen, while Steven kept his toes warm while watching the tube and the sunset on the

horizon.

        Sunday morning early brought rain, and made the road slick and shiny, as a lot of people left early.  Joyce fixed zucchini cakes, along with fried potatoes, cantaloupe and sausages for breakfast.

     Adele had caught the Echium and the Rosemary as they had grown and spilled either over the wall to the ground, or had climbed up into the Juniper.  It looked as though it was going to clear.

        Steven packed his bags, and left the troupe to weather their final day at the beach and headed home the back way, which had always been the front way for Adele, Joyce and Roxy.  This is Steven, the chronicler of events, the teller of tale tales and the history of what goes down in Sonoma County, Child....wishing anyone and everyone a delightful last Sunday and Monday morning of the Month of September, 20011