Beware Beaches

Arrive at your vacation destination, run into the water, and die:

“The three arrived with their group of friends in Bay County (Friday) just before 8 p.m.,” the sheriff’s office said. 

“They checked into their rental and rushed out to get into the water. The three men were caught in a rip current shortly after entering the water.” 

Lost in the Wilderness For Ten Days

This is a mystery. How do you get so, so lost in an area adjacent to the Bay Area? There are people around. Walk enough in any direction and you'll eventually run into them:

“I left with just a pair of my pants and my pair of hiking shoes and a hat,” McClish told ABC News. “I had a flashlight and pair of folding scissors — like a Leatherman tool — and that was about it.” 

He said he lost 30 pounds in those 10 days he was lost, drinking water from streams and waterfalls to stay alive. At one point, a mountain lion followed him around, but he was never was too worried about surviving until the end when he started dreaming about his next meal, he told KSBW-TV News of Salinas.

On my Facebook post about this subject, a commenter noted that he read elsewhere that the lost man was blind. That is very pertinent, and likely explains why he got lost. It's a surprise that the LA Times article didn't mention it.

Journalism is in such a pickle these days.

Russian on the Roof

Last March and April, we had several windy rainstorms, and I found various shingles blown off the roof near the front of my house. There was roof damage that needed attending to. I dallied. 

In May, I went up on the roof, but I couldn't repair the damage. The pitch was too steep there. I could hold on for dear life with both hands, but I couldn't free them up to fix anything. 

I talked to the landlord of the apartments next door. He said, "Why not hire someone to do that work? Maybe a middle-aged man (by which he diplomatically meant old man) such as yourself shouldn't be on the roof." Upon reflection, I agreed. I put the call out on Angi.com for roof repair. 

I used Angi once before for electrical work, and I wasn't that pleased. It was a kind of a shot in the dark to call on them again. 9The next day I received a text that Aleksandr would be accepting the job. The following day, I received a text that Igor would be accepting the job. The following day, I received a text that Sergei would be accepting the job. I was getting nervous. 

I was pleased with Sergei's approach to the job. He made a harness for himself, attached a rope to it, draped the rope over the roof ridge, and attached it to the porch balustrade, which freed his hands to do the repair. This was clever. I learned that Sergei had been a civil aviation pilot in Russia, so he was both motivated and smart. (The Russian diaspora in Sacramento is so large!) 

I eventually need to replace the roof. I've had one (expensive) quote already. Sergei says he has a friend who does roofs. So on Monday, I'll talk to Vladimir about roofs.

Low Rider Saturday on Broadway

My dog Jasper came into the house from the back yard and stared at the back door while sitting nervously under my legs. That meant he was afraid. Truth be told, there was enormous caterwauling outside, accentuated by explosive booms. What was going on? 

In the afternoon, an enormous assemblage of low rider vehicles had gathered on Broadway, which passes two blocks away from my house here in Sacramento. This was the biggest low-rider gathering I had ever seen on Broadway. The organization involved must be incredible! 

Recently, these low-rider gatherings were made legal again, after having been made illegal in the dark, dim, prehistoric past - oh, about twenty years ago. These days, we are a much more tolerant people than our barbaric ancestors were two decades ago, when MySpace was all the rage. Let's tolerate anew! 

But now there was a helicopter circling above my house and shining its spotlight on the tattooed vatos down below, and saying something like, "The car show is over. This gathering is illegal. Leave immediately. You risk having your car impounded and getting arrested, including your passengers." And there were technical problems too, so the announcement from the helicopter started sounding like the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons: "Wah, wah, wah, wah." And the denizens down below responded with blasts from M-80s, lots and lots of engine revving, and the hideous scream of metal on pavement as the low riders departed down unfamiliar streets and scraped against unexpected speed humps. 

Well, it is about 10 p.m. All good things must end. And maybe we aren't quite as tolerant as we think.

I Need AI To Dramatize My Nightly Dreams

Vaccination Games

Here’s a really interesting story of how the U.S. desire to get even with the Chinese led to an antivax psyop campaign in the Philippines that, of course, undermined trust in vaccines in general, not just in SE Asia, but worldwide. 

Chaos is not the same as freedom, and people get hurt:

The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.

The Rich Pay Absurdly-Low Taxes

What To Do?