morning joe

After posting my pix last night, I think I got to sleep around 2 or something. I don't recall, but I remember it was my plan to wake up and tear it on out to the beach, or get a full day of Bocce Ball in at the courts here. When I woke up this morning, I think it was early enough to do some beach, but I think I was maybe too lazy to do it, and opted to walk over and grab a cup of coffee. On the way there I saw the front page of the local paper. It was saying something about some person who was like, I'm not sure exactly. A member on a board of some global warming watchdog group, and she had been charged with being heavily invested in oil and gas and energy stocks. I thought it was pretty funny, so thought i'd ask the guy at the coffee shop what his take on it was.

When I got in there it was quiet. Silent quiet. No morning jazz or whatever I might have expected to hear in the cafe, and the guy wasn't especially chipper either, which normally I won't tolerate. If i'm going to pay 3 bucks for a coffee, you wanna be smiling at me when I come in the door and have something nice to say while you're at it, but i'm open minded. For all i know his wife died or something yesterday. (I assume that wasn't the case because his wife's father was there making sandwiches or something, and i'd wager they'd probably take the day off if that happened) So anyway, I say to him, "did you catch the one about the lady with all her money in the oil & gas?" and he explodes.

(HA HA)

"It's BULLSHIT. It's ALL bullshit. Everything is bullshit. The feds, the taxpayers, the watchdog groups, all of it. I was in stocks. I was a trader. Not even the administration can do anything about it. Even if they wanted to, which they don't. But they wouldn't and they can't. All they can do is raise or maybe lower some rates here and there and hopefully the next administration, or the one after that creates some bubble while they're in office. Is it the internet? is it energy? is it real estate development? is it prisons? whatever it is, it's all bullshit and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so you might as well invest or not invest in whatever the hell you want, because even THAT is bullshit. it's ALL bullshit!"

Changing tack, "Um. Ha! yea. I hear ya man. Good morning. Could I please get an iced mocha?"

"Sure. I mean look at it this way. It's always somebody trying to be a watchdog. But they call themselves a non-profit and are first in line to buy themselves a Mercedes SUV or get their fucking toenails done by some asian lady, or say they're supporting the troops, by what?! By driving a fucking chevy suburban around town all day with a "Save Lake Tahoe" sticker on the back? Did you want that to stay or to go?"

"um, yea. totally. I'll um, I'll take that to go. Thanks."

Anyway, I opted for the Bocce Ball. I don't want anyone saying I drove Ol' Rusty Brown out to the coast just to drive out to the coast, and I don't even have a "save the lake" style sticker. In fact, i've been looking all over the place for one of those fancy american flag stickers like you see on the cop cars and every other fucking car these days, and for the life of me I can't find one. I go to the car part store, I go to the car wash, I OBVIOUSLY go to the gas station, but nobody's got 'em. Don't worry though. I'll find one. It's nothing to worry about. And when I do, I know just how it goes.


Keep ya chins up, and you know, try and shop local.

Good Times,

dtown | 70˚ and perfect out there | Listening to The Shins.