Anti-Dinking Song

We're coming, we're coming, our brave little band.

On the right side of dinking we now take our stand.

We like to hit high lobs because we do think

That the people who chase them aren't able to Dink!

 Away, away with dinks, by gum, with dinks, by gum, with dinks, by gum,

 Away, away with dinks, by gum, the song of the Non-Dinking Army.

We never eat granola because we do think.  

That gals with oats in their teeth are liable to dink!

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

We never hit soft thirds because we do think,

that soft shots will often lead people to dink.

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

We never eat cookies because they have yeast,

And one little crumb makes a man dink like a beast.

Now can you imagine a greater disgrace

Than a man at the kitchen with crumbs on his face?

    

 Away, away with dinks, by gum.....

----

I remember this song from long ago.  It was about the demon alcohol as I remembered it, but it lent itself to a bit of a brush up.  The source where I found it, stated that the author is unknown.  It became popular with Teton Tea Parties in the 1960s.  There are other verses, but I think what we have here ought to be enough!  Dink on!

Election Choices

 Hello loyal readers,

I'm sorry for the long lapse between posts.  Sadly I had nothing much to say and better to say nothing in that case.  Of course one might ask, why I had nothing to say about X or Y or Z and these are fair questions.  To wit, I have no real answers.  I'm doing my normal thing, though the mask rules and social distance stuff are personal pains.  I've been yelled at when at the driving range for not wearing a mask.  Well, there was no one within 100 yards, so it didn't seem important.  But the range attendant was perhaps more knowledgeable than I.

Ok, so we have some election decisions to make in the near future and I thought I would pass on my handy voting thoughts.

Of course any right minded person would have to step up and vote for Kamala, whoops, I meant Joe Biden.  Certainly a better choice over Donald Trump.  Let me lay out the data for those who are not keeping close track.

There are a number of things that differentiate the candidates and let's look at them in turn.

Being Mean:

Shall we start with an easy one that we can all agree on?  Trump is not presidential!  He is rough and brutish and just plain impolite, particularly towards foreign governments that we are sending money too and helping to support and to his political opponents.  Who can forget his jabs at Warren, who while claiming to be a native American for privilege and profit, seemed to be lacking in the actual DNA.  But it was mean to call her names.  Just not a good look for a President towards a Harvard lecturer - even if it's an open question that she should have been there.  Also Trump likes hamburgers - which are named after a German city - perhaps a note of foreign influence?

Health and Fitness:  Trump recently was found to be sick of the virus!  Clearly this is an indication that he probably ought to retire and play golf.  Joe on the other hand seems to be a vibrant guy who is dashing off around the country talking to the people, shaking hands, and thanking veterans for their service.  (Editor's note, it is actually Trump  who is running around the country.  Joe is assumed to be at home.)  Note that Trump's doctors have cured him in just a couple of days, but they are probably just saying that to get him out of the hospital.  I heard he doesn't sleep much and is "too" active.

Stock Market: It could be argued that a president doesn't have much to do with the stock market.  But I think reasonable people can blame this one on Trump.  Yes, the markets are up and in a big way from the boring old days of the Obama administration, but this is not the whole picture.  You have to look at the taxes!  If your wealth increases, then your tax burden increases.  Who is in favor of higher taxes?  Which leads us to the next topic...

Tax plans.  Trump has lowered the tax rates for most of us.  Some folks with more money in their pockets might assume this is a good thing, but it really isn't.  As Hillary and Bill Clinton once said, "We could have lowered taxes, but it wasn't clear that the public would spend the money correctly."   But that was a long time ago, in a land far, far away.  Biden has come out with his tax plan and it looks like the average household will have the honor of playing an additional $6500 per year in taxes.  Clearly this is a forward looking view and worth signing up for.  I'm sure the extra tax revenue will be used for the proper things and not passed on to crony capitalists who would run the programs.

Experience.  Trump has said a number of times that he sounds funny because he is not a politician.  Well, that ought to exclude him from office right there.  We want politicians in office.  They know what needs to be done and will jump right in there and clean up the problems immediately.  Biden is well respected as a pol and has held office for over 45 years.  What a wealth of knowledge and experience he has.  And of course he's been fixing things for decades, so whatever minor problems that are left to cleanup (probably all Trump's doing anyways) he will know what to do and how to do them, if we just give him one more chance. 

Which leads us to the international scene.  Joe has been a traveling guy, particularly as the VP to Obama.  He's been to China a bunch and the Ukraine numerous times.  He has even brought his son with him to make friends and learn the family business.  Now you don't get this from Trump.  He has traveled before being president - built some golf course in Ireland for example.  But now he tends to threaten foreign government and wants them to "pay their fair share" of things.  That's not how it's done usually.  The good old Uncle Sam is usually happy to reach for that check and that's how I want my tax payer dollars to be spent.  Some wag suggested that the definition of foreign aid was, "Money taken from poor people in a rich country and given to rich people in a poor country."  Obviously false -- we won't need a fact checker for that one!

Environmental Issues.  Biden is famous for saying that he will not ban fracking and that he will ban fracking.  You don't get that wishy washy stuff from Trump.  He is pro fracking and pro oil.  Clearly Biden is correct on this issue.  The use of fossil fuels has ruined the country, fouled the air, poisoned the water supply, and allowed us to move about the country in our cars and, God forbid, large trucks.  Shutting this down before the 6th or 7th great extinction is upon us is critical for life on earth.  Oh, you can try and make the case that a warm house in the winter is a good thing or air conditioning is almost a right, but you would be wrong.  We have to suffer and contract human activities if you want to save the Earth -- Biden is clearly on the right side of the history to be written on this issue.

 Supreme Court Appointments: Even if Trump has the ability and obligation to appoint judges to vacancies in a number of courts, he is going about it the wrong way.  He is once again upsetting folks and ignoring the dying wish of old Ruth, RIP.  The Supreme court should be a political and legislative body.  How else will things be decided if legislatures are too scared to act?  And even if people vote down against some issue, the courts can legislate from the bench and fix things.  It is only the short sighted person who wants a strict constructionist on Supreme Court.  Activism is so much better as long as our side is in charge - which is another reason that Trump should not have put forth a pick.  Once again he is following the law and being a meanie at the same time.

I'll bring up just one more point and then we can sit back and see what happens.  The last point is minority employment and businesses.  Trump has failed us in the the area as no president in history.  Black unemployment was, pre-Covid, at historical lows.  Which means it has never been lower.  And why would we, nay, America, want something lower?   I think that the Latino populations have this same problem.  Why any of those groups would vote against their own self interests is another mystery.

Let me close here.  I think I've made my case for a straight Democratic ticket.  I hope Joe, when elected, will be healthy and happy.  We've seen Kamala here in California and it wasn't a great experience.  I'm sure she is better now.  I wanted to bring up the peaceful demonstrations in a  number of our cities, but that's just folks who can't stand Trump any longer and find that burning businesses and causing some minor issues makes them happier. 

Finally, get out and vote!  It's important.  We have  saying here in California, "Vote Early and Often!"

Testing the New Cart

 

The morning broke bright and early. With a tee time of 9:39 there was time for coffee and Barb and I ventured to Peete's for some brew.

We ran into a coffee friend we have not seen since the lock down. He is Vietnamese and it allows me to practice my two words of Vietnamese. “Sin Chow!” is hello, it's different for a gal, so be careful!

It was cool and it's house painting week at the casa, so we parked off the block. I had packed the new push cart in the GTI and I loaded my clubs into the boot yesterday. At 8:30 I drove off to Calippi, which seems to be some sort of butterfly. I got a good parking place and pulled out the cart, unfolded it, placed my bag on it, attached straps, and off to the chipping area I went.

On the way, I had a couple of curbs to negotiate. That showed up some problems with my cart setup. Basically I needed to tighten a knob, which controlled the main handle position. The joints in the cart have modest teeth and when tightened create a mechanical lock to hold the front wheel and handle in place. But if the grip is not tight enough the cart will change orientation and you can feel and hear the clicking as the teeth slide over each other.

It was a warm day and by the time the round was over the car suggested it was 95 degrees. There was a modest breeze all day and it didn't feel too warm. Oh, I was sweating through my shirt and huffing and puffing up some of the hills, but it always seemed that it could have been worse.

There were a couple of things that I'm going to look into. The cart has a bit of a hook to it. It likes to run to the left at all times. This is not too much trouble, but it caught my attention all the time. Maybe there is a shim or something I can adjust to fix this.

Also the brake adjustment wasn't enough to hold the cart on some of the hills. I thought it wasn't working at all, but it will hold, just not enough. I'm not sure if the cable has stretched or I never had it tight enough. I'll tighten the cable and see what happens. The the problem that might arise is that the brake pads might drag and make it harder to push.

Speaking of pushing effort, I was surprised how much energy it took to move the cart along. A modest down hill is best, but too much and the cart will pull you along. On the flat it's not too bad, but it's pushing three wheels through wet, lush grass. Up hill was a workout, see huffing and puffing above. I looked for short cuts where I could leave the cart for the next hole and not go down hill then back up.

When the smoke cleared, I was very happy to have the cart. My back was sore all day and if I had to lift the bag 150 times or so, I would have been hurting a lot. I'm feeling ok right now, it's about an hour after we finished and I had a beer at the course and I'm working on a hard seltzer water now. But there seems to be little long lasting physical wear and tear. I probably won't know until tomorrow.

Thanks again to R2 for the cart1 I think I can give it some new life and few additional miles on various courses.

On Pins and Needles

I went off to the diving range to test the new swing changes.

I have great hope for this change, which was to get my hands over my shoulder where they should have been the last twenty years.  I was careful as I had some leg issues with my left leg.  It was feeling a weak as if the nerves were not firing properly.  The strength didn't feel that it was there and my tendency was to roll over the left foot.  That's not a good feeling.  I didn't hit golf balls for a week so that the issue went away..


So I wander to the range yesterday afternoon.  I spent some time chipping, which is normal for me.  If you can't hit a pitch, then you can't hit a full shot.  It's a good life motto and I've been using it for a while.  The pitching went well and even that type of shot allows me to practice getting hands on the proper plane. 

A guy on the hitting line leaves and he has left some golf balls to hit.  I'd not gotten a bucket already as I wanted to see how the pitching was going to go.  As it went well, I grabbed my bag of weapons and dashed over to claim the abandoned golf balls.  There were about six or so, but I scampered on the range to collect a couple of balls that had not been hit very far.  I don't feel that this is cheating the range too much as I feel I'm moving the balls out to an area of the range that allows for easier pickup.  So I'm really helping the range out, :-).

Normally I start with the 9 iron, then 6, then 3 wood, drop back to a sand wedge, then finish with the driver.  With just a few balls, I will normally skip the driver.  The new hand position is working well and I'm getting speed, direction, and solidity of strike.  It can't get better than this!  The 3 wood has a new sound to it.  It was not clear that the balls were going a lot further, but I was really happy with the strikes.

Being careful of the left leg, I was happy to cut the session short and start back to the car.  Then I started to get a shooting, sparkling pain in my right big toe.  It is really painful and I have to stop a couple of times as I limp back to the car.  This is not fun and I'm a little worried about what it is.  Diabetes is supposed to create this kind of pain.  I consider gout too, but I think that's supposed to be in the joint and my pain is running up the bottom of the toe.  I can't suspect diabetes either as I've had so few carbs the last six months.

I get home, the driving wasn't too bad.  I've settled in my recliner and am about to put in a busy afternoon nap, which I feel I've earned at this point.  But I get up to get some water.  It's about 89 out and I've had two sweaty sessions between the golf and two hours of pickleball in the morning.  As I get out of the chair, the pain fires anew.  I mention it to Barb who is working in the recliner next to mine.  I tell her about the pains and how sharp they are and what it might mean.  I collapse into one of the kitchen table chairs and take off my shoe.  I'm expecting a very red, unhappy toe.  But what I find is a two inch sewing pin stuck into my big toe.  A pin that Barb dropped on the floor while doing her sewing, didn't find and I picked up in a sock as I was putting on my shoes.  One of the things that gives me the willies is the thought of a needle going into my foot. 

With the pin pulled out the pain was gone.  The fears of gout subsided.  I glared at Barb a bit.  Relief from multiple fronts came together.  I got my drink.  Went back to my recliner and napped the nap of the recently alarmed, but now recovered. 

Fort Bragg wrapup

I realized that I've not described the motor home and campground we were using.  So let me do that.

In the first picture we have our car and the motor home behind it.  Note the tall pines that border the MH.  That's where the squirrel was munching and dropping stuff on the roof.

This is Barb looking out the door.  It has a screen and everything.  The length is 19 long and then there are the pop out pieces that you can see on the rear.  The pop outs are also on both sides.  The pop out gives you about three feet per pop out.  The kitchen and living area expand about 6 feet sideways and the sleeping area, in the back, bumps out about three feet. It's roomy inside.  It's a lot like a boat in that all the upholstery is heavy vinyl.  Some of the cushions are cloth.  With the damp cool weather, it never felt wonderfully comfortable.  It needed more areas to stretch out.  We would fight for the couch, the loser would end up at the kitchen table, which required better posture than I have.

 

Note grill and picnic table and some chairs.  I spent a fair amount of time in the recliners, doing some reading.  There is a corn hole game there, but we didn't use it.  Note the grill, it was just the right size for Barb and me.

 

This picture is looking towards the back of our site.  The bushes in the background are filled with doves.  The quail are all over and I saw them as close as the picnic table in the middle ground.  Over last weekend those two sites were filled with a group of friends.  They brought motorcycles and riding during the day.  At night they would circle the chairs and chat a bit.  We never wandered over to meet them - ever wary of strangers!

The drive back consists of two parts.  One is the windy road between Fort Bragg and Willetts, which is about 25 miles.  Then you have 175 miles on freeway to get back home.  Not too much traffic.  We stopped for a quick bite in Willetts and ate as we drove.

The Fort Bragg area is quite pretty and worth a trip.  There are a lot of parks and beach and cliffs there.  It would have been better without the virus warping the population.

We ran into Mike again, the guy who spent a lot of time in Switzerland before moving back.  He rode up to the coffee shop on Thursday morning as we were heading out.  He was dressed for the mist/rain that greeted us that morning.  The rain didn't last.  We stopped at Safeway for the last time to get some ice as we have a few groceries to take home.  He was cheerful as ever and remembered us. 

One of the fun things we did that worked well was to purchase a Bluetooth speaker.  I have a player that would send music to the speaker and we used that when we were painting or reading for some background music.

So that is all I have to say about the trip.  It was a nice week.  And thanks to Denise and Bruce for lending us the motorhome.

Fort Bragg 7, Wednesday

This is/was our last full day in the area.  It's about 5 pm and we are going to get some Thai food for dinner. 

The camp site is bordered by pine trees that have no branches until they are 50 feet up or so.  The squirrels are gray and one of them is in the tree above the camper and he is busy chewing through pine cones and dropping debris on the top of the camper.  He is quite energetic and they are hitting every few seconds.  It's loud.  I wonder what a rain storm would sound like. 

I mentioned in the last post that we were going to Jug Handle Reserve today.  We'll, we went to the Botanical Gardens first.  They have a lot of property and have covered most of it with flowers and other growing things.  Had to wear a mask for the most part.  But the plants were quite nice.  They had a Dalia garden that was well in bloom.  Lots of pictures there as the flowers are quite colorful and graphic:

They have a lot of trails too that wind from the gift shop out to the headlands and back.  Then a succulent garden and store and nursery.  We spent a couple of hours there.  Then headed back to the camper for a spot of lunch and a rest.  Then we went to Jug Handle.  

We walked the headlands path and then down to the beach.  Sat around there for a bit and then came back for a quiet afternoon.  

They also have a section of the plateaus that produce the stunted trees.  It was about a 2.4 mile hike to get there and we didn't have the energy to look.  Maybe next time. 

There are a lot of critters in the campground.  A mother deer and her twins came by, the doves have been flocking around and filling the bushes and then that squirrel...  He came down in a near tree and squacked at me for a time from about 20 feet.  The rest of his time has been spent in the upper tree areas and dropping his refuse. 

The weather has been pretty much a consistent, cloudy 67 degrees and no rain and the occasional fog that drifts in and out. It's comfortable, though I've not been out of my heavy fleece the entire time we've been here. 

This is the beach from Jug Handle. 

Here is Barb in the dahlias. 

Another shot of the botanical garden areas.  Very nice and worth the price if you get up here. 

I think that is about it.  We will probably not do too much tomorrow.  I'll see If I have the motivation to write up some kind of summary when I get home.  In any case, I hope you all have enjoyed this brief look at this portion of the California coast. 

Fort Bragg 6, Tuesday

There are state parks about every three miles up and down the coast in this area.  Of course I exaggerate, but there are a lot of them and they are close. 

Today we visited two of them.  The first is MacKarritch which is about two miles north of Fort Bragg.  This land was owned by MacKarritch who was Canadian and was in the lumber business.  Redwoods were felled near by and then transported to ships to be sent to San Francisco and other ports for milling and use.  

The park land runs along the ocean and there are a number of black gravel beaches.  We stopped at one and spent some time playing in the tide pools.  The we walked along a nice boardwalk that led to the headlands.  Shall we look at a couple of pictures? 

Black gravel Beach! 

Barb in the tide pool. 

Then we moved south of Fort Bragg and entered Russian Gulch state park.  They had the gall to charge us for the visit, but hey we are on vacation, so no big deal.  It was a modest $7 and that would have gotten us into any other state park today. 

We were hungry at this point and found a nice picnic spot just inside the park with an over look of the gulch.  No Russians in sight... 

This is the picnic area looking southwest to the ocean and points of land beyond it. 

Here is the view going back up the gulch and showing the bridge and beach below it.  We went down to the beach after a hike.  The view from the picnic area was more impressive. 

The picnic area led to the Headlands Trail and with some time to store our food, off we went.  The trail runs on the edge of the cliff and one could easily imagine a shift in the earth and then you were in for a long tumble.  The views were nice however and worth the life's risk:

The trail looped back to the car and was all of a quarter of a mile long.  As I said, we visited the beach next, but not too exciting and then headed out. 

Our next stop was Jughandle State Preserve, about two miles back towards Fort Bragg. This reserve also had some of the plateaued areas as seen in the Pygmy Forest.  Same causes, but they were claiming that this area was only about 300,000 years old versus the 500,000 to a million for the other forest. 

They didn't charge for this, so we are going to go back tomorrow and walk the loop and see the sights. 

We still have not found a good seafood meal, so that is on the docket for tonight.  

There are lot of quail in the campground.  Right now they are in the bushes and on the ground about two camp sites over.  Barb is working the camera.  They do a lot of flying from one spot to another and the wings make snapping sounds as they fly.  Covies of 30 or so.  Neat to see! 

OK, Jughandle tomorrow!