Over 500, but who's counting

Just for fun, last week I counted the number of homes advertised for sale in the Democrat. It was over 500! Wow! What a market! So much to choose from.

I guess moving into "God's Country" is on hold for a number of families. Too bad.

Had we planned better, we might not have made it so attractive to Bay Area Buyer's. Maybe a little extra tax, or something. Something Supplemental. But now we have it. We have created a cute little oligarchy. Now there's a word to hold an open house on.

I didn't count the number of Real Estate professionals, but there sure are a lot of like-size heads on two pages of one company's ads. Wonder how much they make a year? Hmm.

Does no one in this county have a current photo?

It is absolutely beyond me why this paper continues to publish Obit pics, Campaign pics and other miscellaneous pictures that are consistently 20-50 years older than the person depicted.

I mean, Grandma, age 92 with a 1940 picture. Aunt Thelma, age 70 with a picture of her in her 30’s. And now the GOP VP candidate, I forget her name, with a 1992 photo.

Come on kids, it’s the digital age. 82 million digital cameras are predicted to be sold worldwide this year. Walmart will even develop the photo’s on your non-digital POS.

So what is the reason no one seem to come up with a recent photo? I heard once that your could always tell a loved child by the number of pictures in the home. Some people aren't photogenic, I give you that. The more superstitious believe a photo will steal the soul of the subject, but I don't think that holds today. I think we have just become a lazy, selfish society...pure and simple.

So shame on you readers for not taking pictures of your Great Aunt Thelma and shame on this newspaper for not insisting on recent photos.

Funny, the "County's Most Wanted" pics are current, what gives?

A Favorite Sign in Tuolumne County

These little ditties are popping up everywhere these days.

This is only the beginning.  I only wish we could go back to the late '70's and rethink the Jarvis-Gann Act.   Our counties would be stable. There would be income, life just might be grand.

So more about these photo's

Let's see.  It just dawned on me that during our last Supervisor's race we had conflicting pictures of Mr. Torchia (one twenty years younger than the other...will the real Mr. Torchia please stand up) and the inimitable Liz Bass in a visor hat...yes, a visor hat.  OMG (that means OH MY GOD!)

It is absolutely unimaginable that this woman could do more to destroy any "style" or sense of fashion this morbid little community could possibly have with the campaign photo of her in a visor shading her eyes from truth and conservative spending.  You know her votes:    No, no, no!

I remember years  ago, a career counselor advised me to shave my moustache & beard and never wear shaded glasses when going for a job interview.  There is something that comes across devious, or dishonest, or disguised with such facial hair and eye shades.  And here we have two glimpses in the life of one candidate and another hidden by dark glasses and a visor.

So much for upfront honesty!

Now about that run off race!  I'm all for the tow guy. I mean, I'd actually move into District 1 to vote for him.  He, at a very early age, taught me every expletive I would ever need to know in the course of my life.  Unfortunately, my parents thought that at the age of 6 or 7, it might be a bit premature in lesson.  So, after a few brief courses, they ended.  Hmm.  I sure hope I didn't miss any.

Again, when the tow guy was a Sonora Police Officer he let me pass whilst careening down Lyons Street at 65 mph.  It would have been hell in that decrepid old jail at the age of 16.  Let's just say, "I like him!"  

Common Sense Obituaries

Ok, I give up!   Why, pray tell in the Obituaries c olumn of the local newspapers must they insert photo's of the deceased that were taken, say 60 or 70 years ago.  I don't get it.  I mean, I really don't get it.

I heard once someone said you could tell a person was loved when there were photo's around their homes and of their relatives.  Well, my God...in Tuolumne County no one must have been loved.

I give you a recent example.   La Ti Da, aged 90 - photo circa. 1940's.     Ti La Da, aged 65 - photo circa. 1980.  Even better yet are the younger folks that have high school pictures.

In the most humblest opinion of this writer, I believe a photo that accompanies a Death Notice should be reflective of the person.  Maybe when they were most active in the community, maybe recent, if it were a sudden death but none of this 50 - 80 year old photo's.  I mean, who's gonna recognize them?  Doesn't someone in the family have a photo which would resemble the deceased?

Speed Traps and Hysterical Monuments

Ain’t no two ways about it and we have one of the greatest speed traps in any of the 20 or so states I’ve been to:  That is, 55 from O’Bynes Ferry Road to J-59 turn off on 108/120.  Yup, a virtual straight-away with two nice easy turns…55 mph.  Maybe Seniors shop in the Valley on Tuesdays.

 

All in all, where else can you find some local attorney’s wife running around making every inch of downtown a Hysterical Monument, further restricting the addition of a bathroom, a heater, or possibly a toilet paper holder.  A group of High Brow Soroptomist’s (what the hell is a Soroptomist anyway, putting on a fashion show of bad outfits once a year).  A county with two radio signals (both owned the the same company mind you) playing music that had it’s hey day in 1978?  The blatant run of racism and homophobia I’ve seen in years…yes, there must be a seat between two men in a movie theater.   We must remember in the words of one of our Supervisor’s, “…we like to keep them (homosexuals) silent and scared”.How else do you have a full theater with ½ the seats full.

Let Me Out!

You may not have noticed, if you own a vehicle but have you tried to get out of this county without one lately?  Better yet, tried getting from Sonora to Jamestown more than twice a day?  Hey, we are stuck here. What ever happened to Greyhound Bus Lines?  Which county agency coaxed them to change their route?  And why?  Could it be that our law enforcement wants to keep us here?  

God's Country Burning Up?

When I was a kid, everyone called this county, “God’s Country”.  I still can’t figure out why.  Is it because of the number of church’s?  (a count awhile back yielded over 45)  Is it because the population is older and therefore closer to God?  Is it the beauty of the Golf Courses?  The beauty of our funky owl infested forest, which thanks to the Forest Service, Sierra Club (of which I hold membership) will soon be charcoal? 

We may have to recalculate our carbon footprints after that event because the age and emssion levels of the majority of vehicles is making the air less clear when the county is not on fire.  Has anyone checked the number of grandparents who have gifted their 25 year old Buick’s to their “kids” in the past few years up here, avoiding a smog, a wee bit of revenue to the state and more so…clean air in  which to see God’s Country.

Now with the heat from all that fire, it would seem that we may not be in "God's Country" at all.

The Most Wanted, Fungus and Polling Places

Has any one noticed that the polling places are pretty much generally in Senior Living Trailer Parks or relatively close-by?  Has any one ever actually tried to find a polling place?  Oh, I just remembered…Practically everyone under the age of 50 has a warrant out for some reason or another,  Like being the County’s Most Wanted for taking 3 aspirin and can’t register to vote for fear of being locked up in one of the State’s most fungus filled facilities around.   A good talking point for a new jail.  I certainly hope they will import the shower fungus from the old one.

I must note that the fungus problem has not been verified by this author.

Pew Research

 

Has  anyone done an “audit” on the pulpit’s in the county to see that politics are not on the Dias lately?  Or, would that take too much time?

My History

When I was born my parents lived in Sonora but somehow I missed being born here by one day. I went to Sonora El (at the Dome), graduated from Sonora High, took classes at Columbia, moved away two or three times, came back and still can’t figure out what the hell has happened to good old Tuolumne County.  I mean, you can still go into a local bank and have the Teller whisper to you who was overdrawn last week.  You can still see a whole lot of Senior’s lining up the halls of the cathedral on the hill, with their great insurance plans.  And by the way, anyone who has lived in Tuolumne County less than 50 years is not a long time resident!  You can always, always tell what day Tuesday is because of the extra traffic!  Ross, TJ Maxx, well any store that honors our  glorious Seniors with a discount is packed.  Never many of them pulled over for the worst driving skills around though.  And thank God for that Prop. 13, so many years ago which has kept these counties like ours having a ridiculously low tax base.  God forbid someone might have to spend some of that pension, or cash in a CD or two to widen Old Bald Mtn. Road.  After all, they only use it on Tuesday.

and more

Now being such a backwoods little county, I’m sure the developer’s, contractor’s, architect’s, workmen, well, you get the idea, are from outside the county so the new job factor for locals is relatively nil.  And to think, was it just a year or so ago, our illustrious supervisor’s couldn’t figure a way of providing healthcare and had to just give up on the county’s loser of a hospital only to now rely on the Patron Saints of Tuolumne County!   Who have made Prompt Care a joke, made a blood test a day’s worth of travel to the oddest location imaginable (other than the Hospital) and now want to spend $200 million of this county’s money, much of it coming from I assume Revenue Recovery with the new jail and all needing to have a vacancy factor similar to the privately funded hospital.

more Justice

Talk about Economic Stimulus!   Which Supervisor is related to the company who has been contracted to turn out an overpriced EIR?   And by the way, if you do an EIR in this county, why is it necessary to photocopy it and pump up another one for an adjacent property?  Ever read one.  For all intents and purposes, they all say the same thing.  Verbatim.  The variance is maybe $20,000 - $40,000, that’s it.  (In cost to the county, that is).

A New Justice Center

Let’s give a hand to a group of longtime generational, most likely cash poor, land rich property owners, who along with a group of hungry real estate appraisers, brokers and attorney’s came up with the idea of taking some of this county’s most beautiful grazing land, now that the beef industry is on the skids and instead of knocking their heads against a group of “no growth” residents, and “no to more homes” supervisors to figure out a way of selling, that is, turning their dirt into Cash” by way of reclassifying their gorgeous property to a county use.  This land, most likely zoned farming or under the Williamson Act, with unbelievably low tax revenues for the county, would be unsuitable, by the way for residential because of the marginal neighborhood it is adjacent to (Walmart), to turn this land into an extremely high priced piece of property which now has the highest and best use being a new county jail, still with no tax revenue for the county…and additionally, uh hum, well, fabulous new sheriff’s offices.