Oh Yes, Most Definitely Going To Change The World

The streets are crawling with idiots

Cell phones out, recording each other's lunacy

Throwing rocks, starting fires

Spray painting walls with proof of their inability
To understand that what they're doing
Does nothing to improve humanity

And most importantly

Cementing in the minds of those 

Who believe them to be the problem

The idea that they are the problem

In the meantime

The content-starved media

Are gorging themselves silly

Not The Oddest Thing I Saw Today, Nor The Funniest, But Still...

Driving north up Kipling just past 6th Avenue this morning and I caught sight of an RV parked in a motel parking lot.

An RV. A large recreational vehicle. Parked in the parking lot of a motel.

I mean, isn't the point of buying an 8-mile a gallon, $100,000 apartment on wheels so that you won't have to stay at a motel?

There's No One Home, Go Away

Is there anything better than a big ol' snake basking in the sun on the front porch stoop? 

Yes, yes there is. Millions upon millions of things are better than that, including said snake (even if it's a mostly harmless bullsnake) slithering away.

Metal Sculpture In The Middle Of Somewhere

You Get A Thanks, And You Get A Thanks, And You Get A Thanks....

Slightly Odd Dream #4,253

In the dream I was with a large group of tourist from Great Britain and a few of us were discussing the influence of American Rock & Roll on the generations that came of age during the mid-1950's to the present day, and someone made a statement that he always felt that the contributions of the "great British Power Pop band Cheap Trick were extremely under-appreciated."

Of course, in the dream I corrected him immediately by stating that Cheap Trick was from Rockford, Illinois, and were definitely one of the greatest Power Pop bands the United States had ever produced.

Then arguments ensued, but I don't remember them...because it was just a fleeting dream.

An Adventurer By Occupation

His resume was incredible - 10 year veteran of the French Foreign Legion, seven trips down the Amazon and back, member of the Royal Society of Astrophysics, ascender of all 14 eight-thousanders (Nanga Parbat twice within the same year), 4 time world acey-duecy champion, New York Times Best Selling Author (twice, once in 1986 for his compelling semi-autobiographical "Selling Girl Scout Cookies At The Beach" which climbed as high as #4 and again in 1992 for the Mythpunk novel "The Woman With The Razor Sharp Bosom," which was released under his pen name Taffeta Ravensclaw and spent three consecutive weeks at #7), and even twice being included as a "for consideration" nominee as Horticulturist of the Year (1991, 2003) for his work with Rose hybrids.

Which made his murder all the more interesting to Detective Ronald Posturial of the Antwerp Federal Police. Interesting enough for him to request that the General Commissioner supply him with a specialized staff and the necessary budget to engage in a worldwide manhunt for his murderer.

Well, that and the fact that the victim was the father that had abandoned Detective Ronald Posturial when he was but 6 months old.

The Scary Part Of The Data

Looking at the data regarding reported cases of CoVid-19 and the resultant deaths can be a little worrying.

Especially when projections of fatalities being made for areas that haven't been hit really hard yet are based on areas that have been hit much harder.

Let's use for example the United States, a vast country (9,833,520 km2, or 3,796,747 sq mi) with an official  population of 328,239,523 (339 to 344 million if you count the 11 to 15 million number for illegal residents that gets bandied about in the immigration debate).

To date in the U.S. there have been 1,597,795 reported/confirmed CoVid-19 cases, with 94,629 deaths and 303,367 recoveries.

That's a Preliminary Case Fatality Rate of 5.92%. That's staggering.

However, it could get so much worse. Take a look at the numbers for the 10 hardest hit Western European countries:

United Kingdom: 250,908 cases, 36,042 fatalities, no data for recoveries. That's a 14.36% PCFR

Spain: 233,037 cases, 27,940 fatalities, 150,376 recoveries.
That's a PCFR of 11.99%

Italy: 228,006 cases, 32,486 fatalities, 134,560 recoveries,
PCFR equals 14.24%

Germany: 178,875 cases, 8,277 fatalities, 157,941 recoveries, Preliminary Case Fatality Rate of 4.62%

France: 144,163 cases, 28,215 fatalities, 63,858 recoveries, PCFR of 19.57%

Belgium: 58,235 cases, 9,186 fatalities, 14,988 recoveries, resultant PCFR is 15.77%

Netherlands: 44,700 cases, 5,775 fatalities, no data for recoveries, PCFR equals 12.91%

Sweden: 32,172 cases, 3,871 fatalities, 4,971 recoveries, for a Preliminary Case Fatality Rate of 12.03% 

Switzerland: 30,694 cases, 1,638 fatalities, 27,900 recoveries, PCFR equals 5.33%

Portugal: 29,912 cases, 1,277 fatalities, 6,452 recoveries, PCFR of 4.26%

Of those ten countries, only three (Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal) have PCFR's comparable to that of the U.S. but, due to the size of the United States it becomes necessary to add the totals of those ten countries for a more representational comparison.

The combined area of those ten Western European countries is 2,703,872 km2, (or 1,043,970 sq mi), with a combined official population of 316,640,882 (I have no idea what the illegal residents situation is in those ten countries, so I am not going to even begin to guess, but as anyone who has spent 15 minutes in any European country can attest, there are quite a few).

Even though there is a slight disparity in the land masses (7 million or so sq km2), the populations are fairly close - I could add a couple more countries such as Austria & Norway to eliminate the population disparity, but I've done too much math as it is.

For this is how it stands. To date those ten Western European countries have counted a combined 1,230,702 cases of Covid-19 with a combined 154,320 fatalities, resulting in a combined 12.53% Preliminary Case Fatality Rate.

The United States could easily reach that figure. It only takes a few people who think they are too special to have to wear a mask in public, or think the social distancing rules do not apply to them.

Don't be like that. You're not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else, and chances are you are susceptible to CoVid-19 just like everyone else.

So wear a mask, and abide by social distancing recommendations.

Cold War Horse

About 20 miles from my home, just west of the intersection of Indiana & Co State route 72, is a spookily unique memorial.

Cold War Horse, a steel, fiberglass and resin sculpture of a horse wearing a hazmat suit and a gas mask.

The sculpture was created by Jeff Gipe, and the reason for the sculpture is engraved on a slab of stone erected just to the right of it.

The slab tells a very abbreviated history of Rocky Flats, a munitions plant that exited in the area for forty years. It is where plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads were manufactured during the period of history known as the Cold War.

Nasty stuff, that plutonium. It's radioactive, accumulates in bones. Dangerous to handle.

The sculpture is both a memorial to the workers at the plant and their families, as well as residents of the surrounding area, who may have been exposed to radioactive fallout due to a couple of mishaps at the plant, and numerous violations of safety protocols by the operators.

It also serves as an ominous warning of sorts about the dangers that may well still be lurking in the soil and water, despite the area being a superfund clean-up site. 

There are also two plaques affixed to the fence that surrounds the sculpture. One is in memory of Dru Nelson, a young man who passed away in July of 2015 who was a passionate about the environment and justice, and the other is in appreciation to Bruce & Janice Roberts for their assistance in getting the Cold War Horse displayed.

Keep Yourself To Yourself

The need has arisen for everyone to stay away from everyone else.

This is not a news flash. By now, every last person on the face of this planet is well aware of this.

Hermits everywhere are rejoicing...by themselves, of course.

Introverts, the ones you might expect to have the upper-hand in the keep your ass at home game, may or may not be rejoicing.

Depends on whether or not they are living with family, or have roommates, and whether or not in those situations they are being compelled or cajoled into participating in a game or Netflix night, or some such activity they no doubt would prefer not to have anything to do with.

Me, I'm kinda okay with all the measures being mandated or suggested for flattening the curve.

Don't need no 'rona around me, no way, no how.

Steve West: From Pirate Radio To 91X To The Great Beyond

This morning a friend sent me an obituary for a man I never knew, but who at one time I felt I did know, and I also felt he knew me.

The obituary was for a man known as Steve West and he was a DJ on 91X in San Diego when I was living there in the 1980's.

Steve West was his on-air persona - his real name was Steve Vinter, and he had immigrated from England to the United States in the early 1980's. He had started in radio as a teenager on one of those infamous Pirate Radio stations that broadcast off the coast of Great Britain, and later honed his craft over the British airwaves on legal stations before bringing his talent to Southern California at the dawn of the 1980's. 

The mid-'80's for me was a rough period, and the music Steve played was almost salve-like in the way it could take away the harshness of life. He played a lot of what I would classify as the cheerier side of Punk or New Wave - what's referred to as Modern Rock or Alternative music now.

That was the music that did it for me. Every time I listened to his afternoon show, when he'd play everything from the goofiness of Captain Sensible's "Wot" to the slightly off-kilter surf guitar-ishness of the Hoodoo Guru's "Let's All Turn On," as well as the occasional Sex Pistols or Clash tune, I would find myself thinking that this DJ had a perfect playlist.

Perfect to me that is, and judging by how popular he was, perfect to thousands of other SD radio listeners.

He also hosted 91X night at a long-gone club in PB called Diego's. I won tickets to an English Beat concert from him on one of those nights - for having the biggest feet (of those in attendance that is - I do not have unusually large feet).

Thanks for all the great music Steve, on nearly a daily basis for several decades you made life a little better for many, many people.

Careful With That Chainsaw, Bob

Steps In The Right Direction?

Well, we re-opened three days ago, and so far, so good. 

All of us are maintaining the suggested social distance of six feet of separation, and we're all wearing masks. 

It's been a little surreal greeting customers who are wearing masks while wearing a mask as well, and keeping the length of an imaginary picnic table away from one another.

However, everyone is being respectful of the new protocols, even though it means words have to be repeated a few times.

I'm not much for the government dictating how I live my life or go about my business, but I'm also not much for dying, so I say let's keep the masks on and the social distancing going for awhile, just to be safe.

Prayer, Persistence & Pluck

There are moments when certain memories just pop into my head. Memories of my childhood, which, truth be told, was a challenging time.

Those memories all concern my family, and how much crap my Mother had to endure trying to keep us all alive, and healthy, and on the straight and narrow.

For those not in the know, my Mother raised me and my five siblings alone - my father bailed just before my second birthday.

Against incalculable odds, my Mother was able to keep all of us together, kept all of us from hurting ourselves or each other, at least physically, and managed to do so without having to resort to using anything but prayer, persistence, and, for lack of a better word, pluck. 

But mostly it was the persistence.

She persisted in pushing all of us to try harder every day to be better than the world around us, and to become better than people thought we could ever possibly be.

She persisted in her belief that we would not be victims of our environment or circumstances, that we could and would create better lives for ourselves.

And so we did, each and every one of us.

Thanks, Mom. 

The Legal Right To Leave One's Past In The Past

Today I learned that a person has a legal right for his or her past to be forgotten, as in, a person has a legal right to leave a past that one wishes to forget.

So evidently there is grounds to sue anyone who publicly brings up your youthful indiscretions or missteps.

This is very valuable information.

It's based on a ruling by the state of California's Appellate court made in 1931 regarding the case of Melvin V. Reid.

The ruling basically states that a person who has turned themselves around after a life of  inappropriate, illicit or immoral behavior has a right to happiness that includes not being unnecessarily publicly harassed or shamed, attacked, etc.

Very valuable information indeed.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Monument To Buddhism

Some time ago I wrote about driving past an odd

large concrete slab that had been poured in a vacant lot near my home. Well, I discovered what that slab was created for.

People Who Live In Burning Houses Shouldn't Throw Gasoline

 I have a friend who used to refer to his relationship with his ex-wife as "a house on fire", as she always seemed to be running about the house screaming at the top of her lungs as if the place was on fire.

He frequently complained about the marriage to me and several of our mutual friends, to the point where it got a bit tedious to be around him at times - just too much airing of the dirty laundry.

Finally a day came that he announced that he had filed for divorce, which was initially doubted by me (and a few others), until he called one day not long after he had made that announcement and asked me for help moving his things out of "their" house and into "his" apartment.

It wasn't until a few months after the divorce was final that him and I went out for the dinner he had promised me for helping him move. At that dinner he told me it had been years since he had felt so happy and stress-free. He also bragged a bit about his new dating life.

Flash-forward a few years to the present, as the other day he sent me a text telling me that he had just learned that his ex-wife had passed away after being in a car accident. 

He had not seen his ex-wife in a number of years, and they had not had any children together, and never once in the past few years had he mentioned her.

But the other day (Sunday) he sent me several messages telling me how much he had always missed her, and was fairly distraught about her passing.

Which did not strike me as odd, not one single bit. 

That feeling of missing someone you at one time could not wait to be as far from as possible, that feeling of never wanting to see a specific person ever again and then one day being told that you literally will never be able to see that person ever again if even you wanted to, yeah, I've known that feeling.

It sucks.

Less For Style, More For The Pragmatic Effect

Going to buy me a grizzly bear suit to wear around the house. I see no reason not to and as a bonus I'm fairly certain it will scare the neighbor's kid.

At least it will until the cat jumps up on my lap demanding to be petted.