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.