In other news, we have an inauguration on Wednesday. Let’s pray for no violence.

I am sorry, but I couldn’t get these pdfs to post, so I had to take screen shots. That means the “links” aren’t links. You will have to copy and paste them in your browser if you wish to see them. I didn’t have time to fiddle around to see if I could get them to post some other way, as this meeting is tomorrow am.

This week it was a bit harder to find things that gave me joy. It was a tough week. All of these are actually screen shots of things I discovered before the Capitol was stormed. Under each screen shot I have placed a link which will take you to the article and/or website.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/action/forms/thankyou.html

But to add a thing of beauty, I will post an old photo of mine which I featured on my FB page this week. It is one of my all-time favorites. Look for the bird.

Date:	Monday, January 4, 2021
District:	05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties
Contact:	Kevin Drabinski or Jim Shivers
Phone:	(805) 549-3138 or (805) 549-3237

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UTILITY WORK ON HIGHWAY 1 NEAR CARMEL TO CAUSE NIGHTTIME LANE CLOSURES BEGINNING THIS WEEK

MONTEREY COUNTY – Utility work to install and replace below ground and aerial fiber optic cable will begin this week in the Carmel area. Motorists on northbound Highway 1 will experience temporary lane closures during overnight hours.

This week, the number two (right) lane of northbound Highway 1 will be closed from Carpenter St. to the Aguajito Rd. exit.

This closure will take place between 8 pm and 7 am., from Monday January 4, through Friday morning, January 8.

Motorists can expect delays of up to 5 minutes.

Throughout the month of January 2021, similar closures will take place from Sunday nights through Friday mornings between Aguajito Rd. and Carmel Valley Rd.

Motorists are also advised to expect daytime shoulder work in the area which, however, should not result in any traffic delays.

Electronic message signs will be activated to inform the public about this work.

Caltrans reminds motorists to move over and slow down

This week this brought me joy, sent to me by a long time follower and photographer, Gunta, so I didn’t have to think this week. You can see her work here: https://gunta.photos/

911 Emergency Guide, which launches today, is a downloadable eBook to help citizens obtain the best possible outcome from a 911 experience. 

A discount code, which provides the PDF eBook at no charge, is valid through January 15. Apply the discount code JAN15 during the checkout process. Please feel free to share this discount code with family, friends, members, readers, constituents, agencies, and other organizations as you wish.
911guides.comJAN15 (discount code)
Thank you, and happy new year!
Rayner Marx911 Emergency Guide

Let us put the disaster that was 2020 behind us, while keeping its lessons in our hearts. And let’s surprise ourselves with how gentle and kind and compassionate we can be as a people and as a nation. And if we don’t heal this planet and stop our destruction, we will face more and more of these crazy pandemics.

And finally, a beautiful quote from President Obama: “After a year that has tested us in unimaginable ways, we’ve seen how people from all walks of life have stepped up to create change to make things better. Here’s to ringing in 2021 with optimism for what’s to come and a belief that our best days are still ahead. Happy New Year!”

I think I speak for many when I say, thank gawd it is over. Now can we concentrate on making this a planet that will sustain us, and not destroy it?

And from the Washington Post today:

The worst year in world history wasn’t even a close contest.
 [History’s deadliest pandemics, from ancient Rome to modern America] 
It was 1348, the height of the Black Death, during which as many as 200 million people died. That would be like wiping out about 65 percent of the U.S. population. The Holocaust in 1944 ranked second, followed by 1816, when a volcano eruption in Indonesia blocked out the sun, starving millions. 2020 ranked sixth.
 In U.S. history, 2020 was well down the list at No. 8, just behind the 2001 terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, the tumult of 1968’s riots and assassinations, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Trail of Tears of 1838, the 1929 stock market crash marking the beginning of the Great Depression, and at the very, very top, 1862.


 After the 1862 Battle of Antietam, in which 7,000 died, according to the National Park Service. (Library of Congress)
 That was, most historians say, the grimmest year of the Civil War, when the country’s total collapse seemed imminent.
“It’s a symbol of a time when the nation almost broke apart,” Parker said in an interview, “and that, really, goes to the essence of what it is to be a country and a society. It’s almost like a dagger to the heart of the country.”