Celebration of Life for Tom and Helen Austin

Celebration of Life for Tom and Helen Austin, October 25, 2025, at their home on the far side of Folsom Lake. In attendance were various friends, family members, and associates, from Sierra Research, the California Air Resources Board, and the Iron Butt Association of long-distance motorcyclists. 

You can feel the time slipping away...

Thursday School Activities

Last Thursday (October 23rd), I went to the elementary school, first substituting as a teacher, then as a special education teacher, then as a teaching assistant assigned to the kindergartners. 

The substitute teaching was quite pleasant. The teaching assistants in the class knew exactly what to do to keep on schedule, so all I had to do was preside and keep order. The teacher returned earlier than expected. I was sent to special education. 

This was my first brush with the special education folks. I was assigned to help one student, who seemed reasonably capable, so no problems there. 

Then I was sent to keep watch over the kindergartners, particularly at recess. I seem to have an unusual energy with the littles. I'm less a minder than a big, clumsy, ancient playmate. They are endlessly curious about why I have a mole on my face, or hair in my nose. They try to scare me, and insist that I try to scare them. They incorporate me into strange storylines and games. 

Then, as the afternoon wore on, the energy seemed to shift. The play got more boisterous. I think they were getting crankier with fatigue, as school ended and parents began arriving to pick up the kids. At one point, they snagged my iPhone and played keepaway with it. Kids began stumbling more and scraping knees. 

As the number of students dropped off with various pickups, it was time to leave the playground and consolidate everyone in one of the classrooms. It was time to collect the remaining kindergartners and move on. But they didn't want to go. A group of kids gathered at the top of the playground's play structure, and started resisting. 

Suddenly, a boy reached up from below and pulled on the pants of another boy, exposing his bare bottom. The boy apparently liked the suggestion, and quickly removed his pants and underwear. Since anyone approaching the school on foot could clearly see the top of the play structure, this was a significant problem. A girl quickly copied the boy and removed her tights. They were both experiencing the thrill of complete rebellion, intoxicated by defying all the rules, and challenging anyone to stop them. 

I could hear the call go out over the walkie talkie, asking for assistance from the office. The kids didn't seem to understand that time was running out. I did my best to peel off the kids, one by one, and urge them to leave. A second appeal for assistance went out over the walkie talkie. The power structure was slow in responding, but it was responding. Come on kids! We're out of time! Let's go!!! 

The boy heeded the call to leave at the last possible moment, and vanished, leaving just the girl. Then, suddenly it was all over. The girl got hauled to the office and suffered through the Stern Lecture. 

You learn a lot in kindergarten.

This Saturday's Protest

You never know exactly what you are going to get in a protest. It can be tedious at times. Still, there are some things that are a given. This Saturday at the intersection of Howe and Arden in Sacramento, I got four; maybe five, middle fingers thrown my way. Probably not enough. I should try harder to rile folks up. The Sacramento crowd in general is quite supportive of our anti-ICE protests. It makes me smile. These days, the fuck-your-feelings crowd has hurt fee-fees, and is beginning to be afraid of looking uncool. We're beginning to drive the Trump pestilence back under rocks, where it belongs. 

There were three notable encounters today. The first was earnest discussion with a man who described himself as a political independent. He stressed the need for compromise between opposing factions. It was hard to find much fault with anything he was saying. He hadn't heard of ICE's use of the John Moss Building on the Capitol Mall in Sacramento as a makeshift detention center. It puzzled him. He is a contractor for providing water-related chemicals to several prisons and is familiar with the needs of prisons. An improvised prison simply didn't compute with him. How does that work? 

The second encounter was with a couple in their fifties idling in the left turn lane who objected to the sign I was carrying saying "Don't Idolize Charlie Kirk - He Was a BAD Man!" The woman said, "How dare you insult the memory of a dead man!" In the absence of traffic I walked into the street to talk more with them. She said, "Get out of the street! You're such a dumbass you're going to get hit!" I replied, "Charlie Kirk was an EVIL man!" The woman's husband replied "Charlie Kirk was a good Christian." I replied, "NOPE! Evil!" Traffic began moving, so I couldn't provide examples of Kirk's evil to them. 

The third encounter was fairly alarming. Waiting for the light to change, a man jumped out of his vehicle's passenger door and shouted that I must have an incredibly-small penis. Apparently this encounter wasn't about the signs I was carrying. Then he raced up to me in the right-turn lane in a highly-aggressive way, stuck his middle finger an inch in front of my nose, and dared me to touch him. "No way I'm touching this guy," I thought to myself. Clearly he wanted the excuse of an assault in order to hit me. I sized him up. Dyed, curly, short blonde hair. Taller than me; fairly muscular. A beach bum look. Looked a bit like Barbie's Ken, but on drugs. Probably doesn't have a penis at all, but a plastic lump in its place. So, we had a shouting match right there in the right turn lane, just inches apart from one another. In the driver's seat of their vehicle, his wife seemed embarrassed and kept calling for him to return to the vehicle. This was all performative bullshit. No way was I backing down against Mr. Perfect-Teeth-In-Need-of-a-Gap. Fellow protesters began to react. A woman I hadn't seen before came into the street to warn him away. Eventually the traffic light changed, so the guy got back in his vehicle and they left. 

Just another day in service of the truth at the protest.