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I'm as relieved to be home as I was excited to be going on the road.  Isn't that ironic? 

I went to the mountains and I never remember how dangerous it really is up there till I have to drive their "neighborhoods".  Well, imagine my surprise when I get into town proper and there is a fireworks booth on every street.  I'm not kidding either. The problem is, that the people up there have fought clear cutting and won.  My friend, Jenny was involved in that fight and the son of the man who fought back the hardest but lost, an industrial logger, bought the plot of land right next to my girlfriend.  He built his fortress smack dab up to her property line.  Yes, I said fortress.  It is a compound with a security tower! 

My thoughts are this: With the dryness of the West Coast, 11 percent more dry than last year, the onslaught of vermin who dwell in bark and feed off roots and green; these create a dangerous situation.  If you factor in mother nature's light shows of lightening and the stupidity of humans with their cigarette butts and propensity to create fireworks; well, I'd say that makes for a tragic bit of clear-cutting, by fire. 

I was so uptight about that.  I told Jenny and she said, no, the neighbor would want the lumber.  I said, unless he was in cahoots with some development company.   I mean, check it out folks.  California property is already so damn inflated, yet people are buying it up at an even faster rate than ever in MY lifetime.  The taxation laws are such that we can't afford to move out of our state or we will never get back in.  Within ten years, the state will be comprised of the wealthy, the poor, and those enslaved to debt.  Oh, wait.  That describes us now.

I feel that one day, the land developers will say, "We have had enough of those tree huggin hippies and we will show them." 

I tried to relax.  I really did.   Happy 4th folks and remember that some freedoms are really worth fighting for. Fight on.