I just took these shots about twenty minutes ago from my backyard. Rick

Where am I going, what will I see? I'll see me.Hello Kmart shoppers! Or am I dating myself? It should actually read Walmart shoppers. Now that companies own the governments as well as most of the so called politicians, there is much more limited freedom than I remember growing up. Big Brother is alive and thriving. Thank you George Orwell. Since the corporations have taken over we have in the meantime turned into a Police State. One in a hundred US citizens is in jail. It is no longer the USA. It is AMERIKA. Now when you go to the store and/or the gas station, you carry that little device known as the cell phone. Are you being pinged by the IRS? The bloody IRS should be changed to corporation666. They have an insatiable appetite for your hard earned money which is to say, your life's blood. This includes your children and the rest of your family. What the world needs is empathy not gold prices. Have you taken a plate of cookies to your neighbors house lately? Instead of texting have you actually asked your neighbor to coffee and had a conversation face to face? Have you meditated (prayed) for the poor and suffering in the world all over? There are sick, blind, starving, insane, drug addicted, good people who are suffering this life while you are cutting me off on the freeway all because you are so special. Are you indulging in worldly delights? Well you can suffer the consequences of you own American narcissism. I am sorry but my friends and neighbors are suffering foreclosures, poverty, alienation, depression, violence, greed, drug addiction, all in the name of the American dream. Family members have been jobless for years. So please wake up and help someone today. Take something to the food bank. Take your elderly neighbor to the doctors visit. Make a quilt for your brother. Adopt an animal. It is all about kindness and empathy and the human condition. May the spirit in the sky be with you this holiday season and the next before the world economy collapses like it did in 1929. Rick

Here I am again

I have not posted here in some time. There is nothing in particular on my mind but here I go. I have been very antsy lately. Last night I went to the casino and got hooked on the new Amazing Race slot machine. They are very exciting and well done. I won $91.00 then went off and lost it on other machines plus more. When I got home I was so amped up I had to go to my 10PM group (which helps me stay sober) to settle down. I will have 30 years of sobriety this coming September 17th if God is willing and the creek don't rise. Anyway it always works for me. When I came home I wrote a letter to a friend on my new iPad then printed it out through my computer. The new iPad is going to revolutionize computing and lots of things as it gets going. It is wild and I love it.

I am annoyed at the political scene here in California. This Meg Whitman is a business person with no experience and thinks she can buy her way in, wave a magic wand and everything will be rosy and she will get a parade. Arnold thought the same thing. Meg will be giving all the breaks to businesses and the wealthy. That is who she represents. Well there are thousands of power brokers in California and the democrats have the edge. She will just fly into the wall like Arnold. Government is not a business. It is about the distribution of wealth. We shall see.

I turned sixty this last April first. It is scary. I even got my Medicare card due to my disability. Cest la vie.

Where am I going? New Mexico, that's where.

On July 23rd I will be going, along with my sister Jody to visit my aunt Dolly in Albuquerque, NM. Jody and I have a tradition of going to visit relatives in New Mexico because we have many all over the state. I am very close to my sisters Rosalie and Jody. My mother Emma was born in Albuquerque in 1924. She left this dimension in 1994 at the age of 70. Jody and I have warm and exciting memories of traveling to Albuquerque in our childhoods. Many cousins would meet us some from Concord and Hayward in in northern California. The adults would leave us in Albuquerque and go to Juarez in Mexico to carry on where as my mother would say "you could stay drunk all weekend for twenty dollars". We will be going to the Spanish Market in Santa Fe which is a very popular cultural event held annually. You can check it out here http://www.spanishmarket.org/. Just thinking about hanging out with my peeps in NM is very exciting and jogs memories from my whole lifetime. I hope to bring back many pictures to post here. Be well my little gloworms. Rick

Where Am I going? To the chapel, that's where.

Well history is made again. Us gay people can get married and divorced just like those crazy heterosexual folk. Why would we want to do that? Well it is that whacky thing called equal protection under the law. It was not that long ago that one was forbidden to marry outside of ones race. It was not that long ago that blacks could not drink from whites only drinking fountains. It was not that long ago that two men were arrested in their own bedroom in Texas after police broke in. They were arrested for sodomy. Go figure. The Supreme Court of the United States struck down the archaic law. I guess the Supremes get it right every now and again. After all, I guess that so-called straights were not getting arrested for their back door activities. Only gay men were in peril. It was not very long ago that Matthew Shepard was nailed to that fence in Wyoming and beaten to death for being gay. He was a slight five foot tall and weight about a hundred pounds. So I guess it is time in California for gays to get married. We must remember however, that like everything else in this life, marriage is a two edged sword.

Where Am I going? The Desert Thats Where

I am a desert rat. My partner and I have had another dwelling in the desert since 1983. One weekend trip and we were hooked. There is a peace in the desert you cannot find anywhere else. I have tried to define it many times before but the best I can do is to tell you that it is the light there. The desert in July! Yikes!! It can be harsh and you must take precautions however the desert nights are divine. I will be gone for a few days so I will see you when I get back my little earthworms. Rick