Visiting SF Bay Area

I took Amtrak to the Bay Area a few days ago. The train ride was interesting. My car was full of older Spanish speaking women from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Guatamala. They were very chatty for the entire five and a half hour ride. I just listened for the most part even though my Spanish is passable if I focus. The oldest woman was from an Indigenous area of southern Mexico which just happened to be where two sisters mother also came from. The two sisters knew some songs in her old native Indian language and sang them for the older woman. It made her cry to hear the same language that she remembered from her mother who had recently died. I also showed them pictures on my computer that I took during my travels through Mexico and South America which they seemed to enjoy.

When I got to Richmond I rode my bike over to my daughter's house to visit her and her five month old son. He is almost at a very fun interactive age for babies. I had a lot of fun playing with him. I did the usual rough house type of macho play and he loved it. He was laughing out loud and almost went into that uncontrolled laugh that babies tend to do at around six months old. They are moving to Germany in a couple of weeks so I won't see them for a long time.


For the next couple of days I visited with my old friends and spent more time with the Grandson and my children. For a couple of hours I wandered around the University of California Berkeley campus. I wanted to go to a bake sale they were having there to protest affirmative action. They were charging different prices depending on the race of the person buying the baked goods. It caused a lot of uproar which is exactly what they wanted to do. I then went back to the house and made some sourdough bread which turned out pretty tasty. I did a 30 hour double rise with it so it was extra sour which is how I like it. I toast it up and smother it in butter just to make sure my heart is still ticking. Then I went out to have a beer with my youngest son after which we had some Thai food.

I feel pretty good right now healthwise except for some balance problems for some reason. My pain was a bit elevated after the long train ride but after a couple of days rest it got better. I head back to Bakersfield on Saturday. I have enjoyed the cooler weather here but it will be nice to get back to bake in the Valley again in a couple of days.

Bigots

So I have been living in Bakersfield now for around six months. I have noticed that many people here consider themselves very religious. Many of them are very vocal about just how religious and good they are. That is fine by me. I don't give a rat's ass what other people believe in or don't believe in. The problem I am having is that the majority of these same people that claim to be so holy and perfect are also the biggest bigots I have come across since I left Wisconsin forty years ago. Most of these people are white and they seem to hate everybody that isn't just like them. They hate gays, blacks, Mexicans, Asians (they lump all people together that even remotely look like they might be from that part of the world because they are to lazy to learn about other cultures and ethnicities), Indians (from both America and India), homeless or poor people, people on welfare, bike riders, pedestrians, long hairs, punks, juveniles and the list goes on and on. The only real criteria being that the person is different than them.

I listen to them rant and rave about how communist social security is. They rave about how Obama is just a monkey and is ruining their fine country especially with his communistic Obamacare. They rave about how patriotic they are. They rave about how Christian they are and pat each other on the back. They seem to rave about just about everything. They sit in groups and shake their heads in agreement whenever one of them is spouting off against one of their target groups. They never really say anything of substance however. They just spout hate and criticism in generally vague terms using key words like socialist, communist, gay, all the derogatory slang terms for other races, and whatever is hot on Fox News or their favorite bigots on the radio.

I usually sit quietly and just listen to them rave on. I am way outnumbered here and I have no urge to change the world anymore. I would like to know how they justify their bigotry with their religious beliefs. Did Jesus really preach hate like this? Is this a Christian way to behave? Is it really alright in their religion to hate people because they wear different clothing or hairstyles or are in any other way different from them? Also, just why do they hate so strongly anyone or anything that is different from them. Are they afraid? Are they just lazy? Are they just ignorant?

One of these days I am going to explode from listening to their ignorant hateful ranting. Then I will call them out for being such evil people and they will probably gang up and kick the shit out of me because that is how they roll in their country, the land of freedom as long as you are one of them. Their government does the same thing to other countries, but then again this is a country run by the people for the people unless of course you are one of those people on the very long list of people, religions or countries that they hate.

There doesn't seem to be many decent, tolerant, peaceful and respectful people left in this country. This is why I have given up on the world and I don't care about anything or anyone any more. I am tired of all the animosity and I just want some peace and quiet. If I am lucky maybe their country will send one of their drones out to get me and send me on my way to their nights plutonian shore like they do to other dissidents around the world.

Recovering Slowly

It has been almost six months now with Valley fever. For the last couple of months I have been extremely tired day and night. I have been sleeping twelve hours at night and still taking three naps a day of an hour or more each. Over the last few days though I have suddenly started to wake up again. I am down to one nap during the day and only sleeping around eight or nine hours at night. That is still a long way off from the three hours a day that I have slept for the last fifty years but it is a lot better than sleeping sixteen hours a day. My muscles and joints still hurt but that seems to be getting better also. The doctors told me it would take about a year to recover and even after that I could have relapses.

My advice to anyone that does not already have Valley Fever is to just never go into the areas in California and Arizona where it is found because it is just not worth the risk of getting this awful disease. Almost all the cases in California are in and around Bakersfield. In Arizona it is concentrated around Tucson. A friend of mine went golfing in Tucson then went home to the East Coast and when he started getting sick none of the doctors knew what was wrong with him and he ended up getting it in his brain and passed away from it. Of course the Chambers of Commerce in those areas do not want to hear anything about not going to their areas. Myself I think it is wrong that there are no warnings posted anywhere in the areas where this disease occurs. If I had know this could happen to me I never would have come to this area-just common sense to me.

I am taking the train back to the Bay area to see my kids and grandson this weekend. I actually seem to enjoy the train rides now. Five and a half hours to go only 223 miles seems like a slow way to travel but the time seems to go by quicker than that. I enjoy watching the world roll by and meeting some of the other passengers.

Summer is winding down now and winter is going to arrive sooner than I want it to. I live in fear of winter. The cold wet weather makes my pain go up--often times way way up. I am not so sure I am going to be able to tolerate the next spike in pain. I have had a couple months now of relatively low pain and my mood has gone way up. Lately every little twitch of pain makes me wonder if it will spike up this time. When my pain goes up my mood goes down an equal amount. I am trying to prepare myself as best I am able to for the inevitable pain return as the weather cools down but I sense a dark doom approaching this time. I am just tired of living with this monster on my back. We will see what happens when it hits the fan. Time is ticking.

I finally found a new place to live

After over a month of being homeless I finally found a room to rent that I can afford. I am done with couch surfing until the next inevitable time. The room I found is in a dangerous part of town of course because that is where poor people have to live. However, this place is a dead end street of owner occupied houses and the neighbors have all been here for decades. That makes this small enclave a relatively safe place as long as I don't go out walking a few blocks away at night.

My room mate owns the house and is renting a room out more out of boredom than because she has to due to financial reasons like most rented rooms. She is a quiet, stable, self employed woman that is easy to get along with and appears to be drama free which is a big plus. So I hope this works out and I stay here for a while.

I am still waiting for Medicare to change my paperwork to this new county. I can't see a doctor until the paperwork transfers. They told me it could take up to six months. Why? It is only a few simple strokes on a computer to transfer it. The real reason I presume is to save money by keeping people like me from being able to see doctors for the six months it takes. That is just unethically wrong in my opinion. I am sure all you rah rah patriotic twits that claim this is the number one country for healthcare disagree with me because you would just as soon see us all die off to save you your taxes.

I have suddenly started sleeping sixteen hours a day after sleeping only three hours a day for the last fifty years. Gee I think something might be wrong with me now. But I can't go to a doctor even thought this is the best medical care in the world ha ha. The locals all tell me I must have Valley Fever which is a local area infection caused by a fungus spore that gets in the lungs. There is treatment for it but the treatment is almost worse than the disease so they really only want to treat people that get the infection in their bone marrow or nervous system. The treatment otherwise is bed rest. The good part is that my long term chronic pain is low lately which is a welcome respite for me.

I am still enjoying life every chance I get. I am getting out here and there. I play some pool up at the corner bar some days. I also have a few girlfriends here now that I visit a couple times a week. I hang out with some friends almost every day now. My days of riding my bike sixty miles or more a day are over until I get healthy again. I still ride but only about five miles a day now.

I don't have much to post with only eight hours a day of awake time so until later, enjoy your life while you still are able.