Masked People

Masked People, August 2, 2020

It’s getting tougher and tougher to ignore the madness out there or to deal with it.

Today was another brilliant summer deep blue sky day here in Healdsburg, California. The high temperature this afternoon was around 95.

Memorial Beach on the Russian River was jammed with people. Though this “Year of NO Fun” meant that the temporary dam on the river wasn’t installed and all people could do was wade and splash about in a foot of water at most.

The Wicked Slush restaurant across Healdsburg Avenue from the park was doing a thriving business. We noticed that they have two new refrigerated vans for to go orders. The WS specializes in burgers, fries, and ice cream.

The plant nursery was busy, hot, and sunny. We were lucky to find a parking place. Debra found her plants and a big blue pot. While I put the big blue pot in the Jeep, Debra was in the hot open nursery building waiting to pay for it.

An older man and his wife were ahead of her at the counter. The old man’s credit card wouldn’t work. The line at the counter and outside was about 6 people long. All waiting patiently in the hot sun, with their plants on carts and all masked up.

His wife said, “I’d use my card, but my husband says he gets miles on his.”

The man then turned to my wife and said, “Excuse me! Could you please step back!”

The man was lucky that I wasn’t in the building at the time.

The local news is all about fines for not wearing masks.
“By not wearing a mask you are killing people!” Say the politicians and bureaucrats.

Yeah, well, prove it. You government hacks are the ones killing people as usual. 1/3 of the working Americans have lost their jobs.

Oh, and fire season has started again because the government never thins out the forests for undergrowth. Well, they try, but have reached maybe 6% of their goals. And PG & E is at about the same percentage for upgrading their power grid lines.

So another fire season begins with that hot wind blowing out of the northeast. California will burn again. Sixth year now, or is it seven? Who can keep track?

The crickets have started chirping this week. I haven’t heard them for a year or two. It’s encouraging to hear this lucky creature.

Cheers,

TJM