“My brother is a musician and lives less than 2 miles south of the fire , he has lost power here is a picture he just took beforehand , feel free to post it on your blog, or to fwd it to news agencies , his name is Justin Fox, of the band Tripdavon. (Jason Fox, Seattle WA)”

I’ll be driving through the area today, assuming 101 stays open, and will offer a report, if I can see anything from the highway. I would imagine that traffic will be quite heavy, considering all the roads closed in the area due to the fire. I will be taking my laptop, and camera, so will have the tools of the modern blogger at my disposal.

I can’t believe I will be going through fire again! What is it about 2008, fires, and me?

This is not the normal type of post for this blog, but it seemed that recognition of a local young lady’s incredible accomplishment was a worth-while thing to do. 

A Carmel High School senior from Big Sur rode away with the all-around championship at last weekend’s Mid-State Classic Rodeo in Paso Robles.

Isabella Healey Hacker, 17, placed first in the cutting horse competition, second in breakaway roping and was all-around cowgirl champion of the rodeo, the biggest high school rodeo of the year in California.

To read the full article, go to:  

http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_10972502

Way to go, Isabella!!

In 1967, the Summer of Love was over. Viet Nam protests were barely beginning, and I found myself without a place to live, and had quit a job with an abusive boss. I did not know what to do, and so I joined the USWACs. The Army was segregated in those days — not by race, but by sex. All WAC training was held at Ft. McClellan, AL and so the Army flew me out to begin my training. It was in Alabama, in 1967 that I first observed racial segregation. I saw “whites-only” bathrooms and water faucets. They were NOT just a “left-over” relic from an earlier and sad time. They were a commentary on how far we still had to come, and have come.

In 1968 I was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, AZ at the Combat Surveillance School/Training Center Headquarters. I was on my way home to California when an automobile accident almost took my life, and did take my leg. 

I ended up at the Veteran’s Hospital in West LA, associated with UCLA medical center. The medical care there was the best available. What wasn’t the best, was how they treated women veterans. We were a rarity, and the VA was not set up to deal with us. There were no changing rooms for physical therapy for women vets, and I was the only one in the program. They had me use a broom closet. I was in therapy with a few WWII vets, but mostly with Viet Nam vets, youngsters like me, who had been blown up in the war – had lost one or both legs, one or both arms, or some combination of amputations. It was a difficult time, but that was 40 years ago.

Today, my son-in-law is in Iraq, serving along side many women. The WAC no longer exists. My daughter and grandkids await his return at Ft. Carson, Colorado Springs. I am hoping he comes back in one piece, with all his pieces. 

Today, we honor our veterans, from all wars, across time and oceans and death. Today, I’d like to honor my step-father, a veteran, who died this past Saturday at the age of 93. Bruce was an incredible man. He was a Jew.  Bruce was arrested in Vienna and taken to a school that was being used as a jail by the Nazis.  He was told that he would be released if he got out of Austria within 24 hours of release.  He left Austria and went to Estonia where he worked for a farmer in the underground for one year.  Then he managed to come to the US under the sponsorship of the man who owned GTX Rail Cars.  This man sponsored 6,000 Jews during WWII.  He lost his entire family to the Nazis. When he got to the United States, he joined the Army and became an American citizen. They sent him to Africa to be an interpreter. He did not like to talk about his experiences during WWII. He just did what he had to do, and then gave back to his “adopted” country. 

It is veterans like him that I salute today. You did good, Brucie, now rest, we can take it from here! We will all miss you more than you can know.

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Items of Note: Possible prescribed burn on Weds. the 12th at Andrew Molera; Sand bag party on Friday, the 14th, and two concerts coming on Sunday the 16th. See the announcement page for details.

I am trying to stay out of my political thoughts here on my blog, but with the budget impasse, my bank’s failure, and now the sub-prime fiasco, I just can’t seem to stay away from it. So, I post this from the Obama campaign, for those that are interested.

We are facing a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since the Great Depression, but there’s something you can do to make your voice heard right now:

http://my.barackobama.com/econrecovery

The Obama campaign is asking folks to support a responsible recovery plan that is fair to taxpayers and will fix our broken economic policies moving forward.

It’s actually a very simple plan:

* No Golden Parachutes — Taxpayer dollars should not be used to reward the irresponsible Wall Street executives who helmed this disaster.

* Main Street, Not Just Wall Street — Any bailout plan must include a payback strategy for taxpayers who are footing the bill and aid to innocent homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

* Bipartisan Oversight — The staggering amount of taxpayer money involved demands a bipartisan board to ensure accountability and oversight.

Join me and support these principles for economic recovery:

http://my.barackobama.com/econrecovery
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And some humor (I think) to combat the seriousness of the situation(s) we are facing:

Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had a crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully,

Minister of Treasury Paulson

BTW, I clicked on the link in the above, and sent an email, including Obama’s 3 principles and a personal note. Just for grins.

85 days without a budget. The legislature passed one Friday night and the Governor is expected to sign it tomorrow. It is not a pretty budget, and most of the hard decisions have just been postponed. The economy is struggling; most would agree that we are in a recession. I have what is probably a “recession-proof” job. The worse the economy gets, the more crimes committed, and the more needed are my services. A sad commentary on our society, I am afraid.

The backlog in the comptroller’s office is tremendous, as one might expect, so it will be 2-3 weeks before I see my first paycheck. I haven’t seen a check in over 3 months, as of yesterday, but I have managed, due to planning, a lot of hard work in May and June in preparation for this expected disaster, and a lot of deferred purchases. I am one of the lucky ones. I have no mortgage and pay no rent. My Jeep was paid off last year. Most of my expenses are business-related.

We must “fix” the economic problems in this state. The California Prison Industry (and it is truly an industry) is the biggest drain on our budget. We house people for LIFE for stealing videos. We assume their housing and feeding, as well as their medical expenses, which as they get older, are significant. We are so over crowded, that we are sending our prisoners out-of-state. Thousands of prisoners are now housed in Oklahoma, Mississippi, and other states, which we pay for. Of course, we must pay for their first appeal of right, also. That’s my income, and others like me. One figure I heard is that during this budget impasse, the state incurred a debt of 6 million dollars for appellate attorneys, and there are just not that many of us. I will put together some statistics on what the prison industry is costing the taxpayers, in the hopes I can persuade some of you that the 3-strikes law was a VERY bad idea from its inception.

I am already planning for next June 30th.

Tourist plus moron equals Tourons.

Yup, one of those. He came through this morning — a Saturday — at 7:30 am, fer gawd’s sake. He squeezed past my Jeep, which I park in the middle of the road for occasions just like this, and kept going!!

I had to climb out of my nice warm bed, in my long-johns, and chase him down at my back gate. Which reminds me, now that the budget has passed, I need new silk long-johns. The seat is shot.

Anyway, I catch him by the back gate — a Jeep Patriot, dark gray, license number 6ELS776, outside his Jeep, fiddlin’ with my gate. I am hopping mad at this point and make him turn around and go back out the way he came. He says the front gate was open, so I follow him. He stops at the top of my one and only neighbor’s driveway. I pull up next to him. (I can’t get out of my Jeep, remember, due to the exposure of my back side.) I point him in the right direction. Apparently, he doesn’t believe me, as he pulls out his GPS. Idiot.

I follow him, and sure enough, the front gate is open. The lock is gone. I go through about one lock a month during the touron season. This one lasted only 2 weeks. Hunters. They like to f*** with me. Every time I put up No Tresspassing/No Hunting signs, they tear them down. Of course, the USFS has a sign at the bottom, saying “Locked Gate, 5 miles” but tourons cannot read.

I guess I got spoiled. My road was closed for 2 months due to the fire and its aftermath. It was so peaceful up here. I only had to chase off one touron during the whole time!

The only thing I can think of is to put up a solar-powered security camera at the gate. Even a fake one might help. Either that, or I can ask the USFS to open season on tourons. I could bag my quota in just a couple weeks!

It would REALLY be nice to see some other south coast members at this meeting, besides Harry Harris, who regularly attends these past few years. (Thanks, Harry!!)

Here is the agenda for the next meeting. NOTE: The primary focus of this meeting will be the upcoming winter preparations.

BIG SUR MULTI-AGENCY
ADVISORY COUNCIL

Congressman Sam Farr and Supervisor Dave Potter, Co-Chairs

FRIDAY, September 26, 2008 10:00 A.M.
Pfeiffer Big Sur Lodge Conference Center
Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Big Sur

AGENDA

10:00 a.m. I. CALL TO ORDER Congressman Sam Farr

II. ROLL CALL AND INTRODUCTIONS

APPROVE MINUTES OF June 20, August 4 and August 12, 2008

10:15 IV. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS

10:25 V. OLD BUSINESS

1. Update on Maritime Chaparral Decision Dept. of Fish and Game
from Coastal Commission
2. Fire Response and Winter Preparation on Hwy One Caltrans staff
3. Final Transportation Management Plan for
Pitkins Curve / Rain Rocks Project Caltrans staff

NEW BUSINESS

1. Willow Springs Slope and Drainage Repair Project Update Caltrans staff

12:00 VII. STANDING COMMITTEE REPORT

12:20 VIII. REPORTS FROM MEMBER AGENCIES

(please bring written report)

Big Sur Resident Member
Big Sur Chamber of Commerce
Coast Property Owners’ Association
Monterey County Planning and Building Inspection
Monterey County Board of Supervisors
Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District
California Coastal Commission
Caltrans
State Parks and Recreation
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
United States Forest Service
27th District, State Assembly
15th District, State Senate
United States Congress

1:00 p.m. IX. REPORTS FROM OTHER AGENCIES

1:30 X. NEXT MEETING ON
December 12, 2008

(10:00 a.m. Pfeiffer Conference Room, Big Sur Lodge)

1:35 XI. ADJOURNMENT

last lotus of summer…

moment
deep breath
fathomless light

Uploaded by Maggie’s World on 8 Sep 08, 3.00PM PDT.

This is from my flickr friend, Maggie, in China. Its beauty and simplicity just grabbed me, and I wanted to share it with others. I asked Maggie for permission to post this. She has some incredible photographs if you would like to view them, just click on Maggie’s World above. I am particularly enamored with her dunes series.

New Cal-Trans project beginning next week (see Cal-Trans Page) and I repost this here, for those of you who may not have seen it:

Posted by Butch Kronlund
Dear Local Residents of Big Sur-

I’m not telling any of you something you don’t already know when I state two things :

1. The winter of 2008 / 2009 has the potential to be a once in a life time challenge of epic proportions .

2. If you thought martial law during the fire was no fun, imagine the mayhem of sneaking around slides and floods this winter with deputies from Salinas insisting you stay on your property or face arrest.

For those reasons alone, myself and a few others in the Community have been exploring the idea of creating a Community based response team that would be able to participate in the Incident Command System in the event of a declared Emergency.

The Meeting is scheduled for 6 PM, Thursday Sept. 18 TH @ Big Sur Lodge Conference Center. Robert Clyburn from County Emergency Services will outline the steps and training necessary to become certified and a sign up sheet for team members will be available.

In order to get this off the ground we will need to get organized and trained quickly. At the meeting we will go over how best to accomplish an aggressive team certification process and answer any questions regarding this organizations roles and responsibilities.

Feel free to invite other full time community members that share an interest in being part of the solution to this meeting.
Sincerely,
Butch Kronlund