I live one mile from the shore of the largest natural lake in California. It's 144,000 acres and over 100 miles of shoreline. There has been a seaplane meet here every September for around 40 years or more. They haven't done it since 2019 because of the pandemic. The area where they usually gather is now a new park under construction, so they landed then rolled right up a boat ramp and parked on the street around another park.

Main street was closed off for food and other vendors. I walked down there from home and spent most of the day walking around, looking through antique stores and thrift stores and ran into a few people I had not seen in awhile. I sat down to eat a hot dog on a bus stop bench (no buses because the street was closed) and there was an elderly lady there with two cats sitting next to her. I asked her if the seat was taken and she said no, and I'll move the cats if you are allergic to them. I told her I wasn't and she said how about marijuana? I said no, not allergic that either and she proceeded to roll up a joint and smoke it. We talked for awhile about rescuing animals, I finished my hot dog and wished her a good day.

Later I saw another elderly lady in a wheelchair inching her way doen the sidewalk ever so slowly by going backwards and pushing with one foot. I think her arms were too frail turn the big wheels. I asked her if I could assist her and she said that would be nice. She was looking for a friend that was working at one of the craft booths but wasn't sure where she was. I spent about a half hour pushing her up the street until we found her. She thanked me and I wished her a good day.

During the pandemic I had forgotten the simple joy of simply interacting with people I didn't even know. It was a nice feeling. I think I may have walked four or five miles today. It's been a long time since I have done that, and I was happy these 70 year old legs could still do it. And well enough that I could help someone whose legs no longer could.

I'm retired and mostly home all day. The only cable news I watch with any regularity is MSNBC. I have them on, at least as background noise most of the day. I wanted to note here, that they are not giving much if any oxygen to the third party folks. It's almost like they don't exist. Keep up the good work, MSNBC.

Now if they would only treat Trump more like that.

And I put butter on it. That's what kind of day I'm planning on having.

I think a lot of us are really enjoying all the threads she's been posting. I know I am.

Thanks, Deb.

is kicking the shit out of Elon Musk right now.

About ten years after 9/11 I was hanging out at the local coffee joint in my neighborhood with some friends as usual. One of my friends is a retired Air Force pilot. He flew the tankers that fighter jets refuel from in the air. He had a friend with him, also an Air Force veteran who was working as a Delta Air Lines pilot on 9/11. He said while all the planes were grounded after 9/11 they were meticulously searched. He said five Delta planes had box cutters taped under some of the seats. His speculation was that if you extrapolate that to, say, five major air lines, that makes 25 planes that could have been planned to be used on targets on 9/11.

Now this is just one guy telling a story that I have never heard anywhere else, but I can't think of a reason why he would lie to me. It would make sense for the leaders of this event to plan a lot of redundancy into their plan. Maybe some of their crews just didn't show up, or chickened out while in flight.

Personally, I don't know what to think about all this, but I just thought I'd pass on the story to everyone because I found it interesting and somewhat plausible.

My sister-in law called us early in the morning and told us to turn on the TV. At this point, no one knew for sure whether it was a terrorist attack or an accident. It didn't take them long to figure it out. My son-in-law, whose family had moved here from Iran when he was seven years old was scheduled to be sworn in as a citizen that day. I had taken the day off work, and I was going to go with him and his wife to San Francisco where the ceremony was to be held. We lived about three hours from there in northern wine country.

Once it was pretty well established that it was a terrorist attack, My SIL was a little nervous about leaving the house. His first name is Mohammed, so I could understand why. He was in high school in Southern California when the hostages were taken in Iran, and he said he had to fight his way through school every day. I told him he should go anyway, because if he had any doubts about changing his citizenship, (he didn't) today was a damn good day to pick sides. He agreed.

So we set off on our trip listening to the news on the radio and the second plane hit. No doubt then that we were under attack. We got word that the Golden Gate bridge was closed, as well as any other bridge that could get us to SF. So we turned around and stopped at a restaurant for lunch, then drove home. The citizenship ceremony had been cancelled as well. He was sworn in two weeks later.

at the 100K per plate fundraising dinner Trump held for Rudy? My searching seems to make it seem like the best-kept secret on the internet.

I was coming home from a trip to visit the great grandchildren and had made an appointment for some service on my Nissan. There is a very nice Nissan place in Roseville, near Sacramento I have been using. This is my fourth visit there for service and I always go to a certain service advisor. He is very professional and very good at his job. I always give him top ratings on all the surveys they send me after I've had my car serviced. (and I tell him this)

I used to be a service advisor for a short time and I wish I had been as good as this guy. I was due for an oil change and tire rotation. That was going to cost $171.00. I know that sounds like a lot (it is) but it is synthetic oil with an additive I always use and the tire rotation involves re-programming the tire pressure monitors to the different location.

Well, they were busy and things took longer than expected. I was cool about it because I was in no hurry. He was very apologetic about it, though. As soon as the car was done I went to his desk and told him not to worry, he would still get a perfect survey. Most places give service writers a bonus for this. He went over to the service manager and when he came back and said how does $78.00 sound? I asked how he did that and he said he told his manager what was going on about us having to wait and how I always give them good surveys. The service manager said we need to take care of someone like that and waived all the labor fees. Shows you how important these surveys are to a dealership.