A positive change for the Holidays?

             Peace on earth, goodwill towards man. Does it get any simpler than that?

As some of you may have noticed I’ve been putting more of a positive spin on my last few columns. I’m not sure what’s gotten into me (maybe just age) but let’s just go with it, and I’ll try not to dwell on the negative for a change.

Not dwelling on the negative is easier said than done especially with the reality of the violent world we live in. Right now it’s all about terrorism, both religious and political. Whether it’s in the Middle East, Colorado Springs, Paris, or just 500 miles away in San Bernardino, it feels like it’s all around us. Yet we go on with our lives, we are naively optimistic that it won’t happen to us or our loved ones.

I guess for me one of the amazing things about being human is that we all go about our lives knowing that someday it’s going to end. Talk about naïve optimism, how much more optimistic can you get? We love, teach, learn, work, reproduce, and create families, all knowing way back in our minds that it’s finite, even futile.

I suppose the reason so many people turn to religion is because of the promise of an afterlife. It’s just too hard to fathom that this is it, you only get one chance.

But what would happen if the religious teachings were the opposite? What if we were taught the truth that there is only one life, this one, the one you’re living right now? Would it become a free for all? Take what you want now since there is no future or treat others with kindness since there’s no point in fighting? I don’t know which way it would go and it’s kind of futile to think about it since the modern religions are so well established that I don’t think they’re going anywhere anytime soon.

Ah, but one can dream that someday humans will see the light that there is no light at the end of that proverbial tunnel to heaven. Maybe then they will stop all the hating and hurting and killing because we are different and embrace the love and the kindness because we are all the same.

So were those last few paragraphs positive or negative? I’m not sure because this positive stuff is kind of new for me. How about we just move on and see what’s in store for Winters in the not too distant future.

As Bob Dylan wrote so many years ago, “The times they are a changing” and things are definitely going to change around here. Change can be good, bad, or a combination of both. I’m trying to stay positive so I will reserve judgment and see how it all plays out. That being said here’s what’s in store for us in the coming few years.

There are tons of new houses coming with new families filling them as well as filling the schools, the restaurants, the shops, and the roads.

The PG&E facility will bring a whole new modern look to the eastern gateway to town. It will also bring new employees, some who might even live in the new houses. It will bring hundreds of annual trainees that will spend time and money here in town.

Right now Hotel Winters is just a hole in the heart of downtown but soon it will be this new massive building full of vibrancy with guests coming, going, and staying. It will change the landscape of our downtown forever.

The vacant lot on Grant just west of the Dollar General will eventually be filled with the old (seniors) and the new. A new credit union, doctor’s offices, senior’s center, and senior’s housing are all going in that space as well as a traffic circle out front.

A new retail development is in the works for the first block of Railroad north of Main Street. I’m not sure what businesses will be in there but they will be one more place where locals and visitors alike can contribute to the Winters economy.

Last but not least is the new car bridge at the south end of Railroad Avenue. As compared to the old one this one is big, bright, and bold. It will for sure make some kind of an impression on those visitors using it as the gateway to historic downtown.

So as this year ends and a new one begins I am optimistic about my life here in Winters. The outside world can be a big scary place but I still feel safe in this wonderful small town. Yes there will be a lot of changes but the people that make Winters feel like home will still be here and I can happily live with that.

Happy holidays (whatever yours might be) or at least Happy New Year, because you never know…

To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 12/17/15

The Generation Gap at Warp Speed

            In my last column I wrote about how the perception of a “Millennial” would be totally different than what I was feeling. That got me thinking about the “Generation Gap” and how it seems to be widening at “Warp Speed”. If you know what “warp speed” means then you’re probably of my generation.

            The generation gap is something the media coined to describe the difference in changing attitudes, beliefs, and work habits of young adults verses their parents. Since the media also loves to just label things they have given names to subsequent generations starting with the WW II era “Greatest Generation” to what we have now, the “Millennials”.

            I’m part of the “Baby Boomers” AKA the “Me Generation” because so many of us were self absorbed, materialistic, and in need of immediate gratification for just about everything. I find myself blaming my own generation for most of the current problems, like the growing income inequality, climate change, and yes the negative ramifications of our incursion into the Middle East. But let’s leave all that for another day and another column.

            The thing we did right was technology. I am amazed at the advancements I’ve seen in just my adulthood. Typewriter to personal computer, to laptop, to tablet. Regular broadcast TV to cable to satellite, TV with nothing to VHS, to DVD, to DVR. And what about the telephone? When I was in high school only the cool rich kids had a private phone and number in their bedrooms. Then we got cordless phones and answering machines, then pagers, and finally cell phones. Now we have smart phones that have more computing power than the first desk top computer I had back in the early 80’s.

            But I think the biggest and most important development has been the Internet. My generation may have invented it but it’s not ours anymore. The younger generations took it and went nuts with it. I’m talking about social media and instant global communications.

            At this point, being of the older generation I kind of have to lump the internet and smart phones together. I know they are different technologies but they are so interconnected I can’t tell them apart. It’s hard enough for me to understand a computer program verses an app, is there a difference? I don’t have a smart phone (yet) so I don’t really know about apps. I guess that’s my point, the technology is changing too fast for me to keep up and that’s creating the widening generation gap.

            The gap isn’t in the technology part itself, I will eventually learn to use all the gadgets. The gap is more in the how and the why of the younger generation using it.

The how is fast; swishing and swiping and tapping and typing. It’s so fast that they don’t even have time to write whole words. It’s all about abbreviations and acronyms or even just making words up. That’s one of the things that got me started on this column. I kept hearing the term “on fleek” and just couldn’t figure it out. I finally “Googled” it and all I could say was OMG, really, that’s just “Cray” because you’re using a made up word instead of a real one. If you don’t know, in essence “on fleek” means on point or perfect or awesome or I guess whatever you want it to mean.

The why is where I have a real big generational gap. It’s seems to be all about sharing personal information. That’s what the whole social media phenomenon is about. You have FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest, Snapchat, and all the rest with new apps popping up every day. You have friends and followers, likes and hash tags, photos and videos, tweets and re-tweets. Putting it all out into cyber space for just about anyone to see and possibly forever.

In my opinion it’s TMI (too much information) but that’s the generational thing. I’m from that selfish me generation and I don’t like to share. I still have way too much of my parents generation in me and we were taught to keep our feelings and our problems to ourselves or maybe just to our closest friends or family.

Even though I say that I don’t like to share, obviously I do like to share my opinion or I wouldn’t write this column. I also do have a FaceBook account but I think I have more ignored friends requests than actual FaceBook friends. For me FaceBook, the internet, and social media are more about watching, reading, and hearing what others are doing and saying than for sharing what I am doing.

I guess I’m more of a voyeur than an exhibitionist and that’s also kind of what’s different about our generations. This Millennial generation wants to be seen (I think that’s why tattoos are so popular), they want to be heard, and they want to share their lives.

I wonder if they’re like all us previous generations and just want some attention from their parents. Maybe all this posting and tweeting is just an abbreviated version of Andy Warhol's proverbial “15 Minutes of Fame”, but with the lightning speed of the internet and the attention span of a tweet all they can hope for now is 15 seconds of fame, unless of course they go viral.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 11/5/15 

Location, Location, Location

           In Real Estate as well as in Business the saying goes that the three most important factors are location, location, location. That’s why when I moved to Winters 14 years ago I thought I had hit the jackpot.

            Winters was located a quick 10 minutes from where I worked 3 days a week in Vacaville and right off the freeway for the other 2 days I commuted down to the East Bay. Within a couple of hours we could be in San Francisco or at the Ocean or just sipping wine in Napa. Whatever leisure activity we fancied was just a day trip away.

            Talk about prime location, the house we bought was it. Right downtown within walking distance to all the amenities that were available back then. Restaurants, bars, video stores, hardware and drug stores, a bakery, the bank, the post office, the library, art galleries, and even community theater.

            We couldn’t believe our luck, and it just got better. The Palms came to town and we had live music to go with everything else. Berryessa Gap was building their tasting room and there was a vibrant art scene going on.

            In 2003 when they started renovating some buildings at Railroad & E. Main I thought that would be a perfect location to open a Coffee Bar. It was just a couple blocks from my house so I figured I could walk to work.

            At that point, my life was located in this perfect dream. But like so many dreams there can be some nightmarish qualities to it as well. What I recently realized is that for the last 12 years I have been living and working in a construction zone.

            It took over a year for the coffee house to be built out. As soon as we opened they started renovating the two buildings right next door as well as Ficelles behind us. Then the following year the City expanded the parking lot at the community center. For months we had heavy equipment and loose dirt and dust right across the street.

            Not to long after that, construction of the bulb outs commenced at Railroad & Main. Once again heavy equipment, dirt, dust, and ugly fencing. They even closed the intersection to traffic for what seemed like months. That sure didn’t help our business at the time.

            After we sold the coffee house and the economy tanked there was a short reprieve but then Preserve started construction just a few doors down from my house. Even after they opened they were still working on the patio.

            And finally in the last three years they took out a dam, built a temporary bridge, tore down a bridge and are now in the final phases of completing the new bridge and redoing the intersection at the end of our street.

            I almost forgot to mention that right next to where I work they’ve just demolished 3 businesses and the old fire station. They’re making room for a hotel, so I guess no end in sight as far as construction goes.

            So where am I going with all this talk about construction and location? The point I’m trying to make is that the location where I live and own my house is no longer the idyllic dream it once was, at least not for me.

            All the construction we’ve had Downtown has been great for the businesses and there are more visitors coming to Winters now than we could have ever imagined a decade ago. But like with almost everything there are two sides to the coin. With that growth of outside visitors there are now some quality of life issues for the locals.

            In the grand scheme of things our local’s problems are pretty minor. Sometimes we have to wait longer for a seat in the restaurants or wait a little longer at the ever increasing number of traffic lights. Parking can be a pain especially if you’re in a hurry. Everywhere downtown is more crowded and louder, not exactly the definition of quaint.

            Like I was saying, I’m not too happy about where I live but that really has more to do with me than with the location. I’m older, set in my ways, and somewhat socially awkward. If I was a hip Millennial who enjoyed the loud vibrancy of the new and improving downtown Winters I would love this location.

            So I think whoever coined the phrase “location, location, location” was a little off, it really should be “perception, perception, perception”.

Oh by the way if you know a Millennial with money to burn, feel free to give them my location, it could be a dream come true for both of us.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 13 of the following link. Winters Express 10/15/15

Irreconcilable Differences

            I want a divorce! No, not from my wife, I want one from myself. You see I’m starting to realize that I have irreconcilable differences within my own psyche.

            Those of you that know me or even if you’ve just read my columns you probably think that I tend to lean towards the pessimistic. You would be correct if you just looked at my writings or even the outward persona I portray in public. But if you were to look at just my actions you might actually think I was an optimist.

            So what are these optimistic actions I’m talking about? First and foremost would be the big move to California 16 years ago. We left the life we knew so well for an unknown opportunity 3000 miles away. Then after just 18 months we bought a house that we really couldn’t afford in a community we didn’t know anything about. A couple years later I invested everything I had to start a business in this same community.

            That’s the more recent stuff; I have a whole long history of blindly diving into jobs and businesses.

            I seem to have a negative outlook on life, yet I always act like I can make it better. See what I mean? Irreconcilable differences between my thoughts and my actions.

Here’s another example of the ambiguity in my life. One of the reasons I moved to California was to be closer to my Mother and siblings. I thought that since we had lived so far apart for 25 years it would make me feel more like part of the family if we were in closer proximity. But the reality is that we’re not a close knit family, never were, never will be. What I realize is that it’s not about the miles, it’s about the emotions. Or in the case of my family it’s the lack there of. It’s not that we don’t love each other or wouldn’t do whatever we had to do to help each other. It’s that we don’t have a strong emotional need to show it.

But that last example is another case of that irreconcilable difference in my mind. Even though I don’t have a need to show much emotion towards my own family when I see sappy family crap on TV or at the movies I get all teary eyed and really can’t control it.

OK, enough of the family and emotional issues, that’s just kid stuff. Let’s get to the really big issues; you know life and death stuff. That’s where I have the real psychological conundrum, reconciling living and dying. I don’t mean death per se since that’s inevitable for all of us and I’m resigned to that. What I’m talking about is the half glass thing, pessimist versus optimist. That’s my big issue, am I living life or am I just killing time and going through the motions until the inevitable end? I mean all my life I’ve heard the hype about “live life to the fullest” or “don’t worry, be happy” but that’s just not me.

Don’t get me wrong, for all intensive purposes I consider myself a happy person and I have enjoyed many moments in my life but have I ever “seized the day”? I don’t think so. Sure I’ve lived many a day but most of them without much forethought or planning. I’ve always pretty much just lived my life in the moment. I’ve never had a “life’s plan” or given much thought to the future.

I never thought I would be this age; it was just one day after the next and now I’m here.

I never thought about a long term relationship or marriage but 35 years ago Diane and I were spending so much time at each other’s apartments that we figured we should just live in one. Four years later she changed jobs and I didn’t think she should be without health insurance so I suggested we get married and two weeks later we did. Now 31 years on I couldn’t imagine it any other way but I sure didn’t plan it.

I never thought about having kids, no I take that back. I did think about NOT having kids. Lucky for me and my marriage that Diane wasn’t very interested in kids either.

So not having a plan is how I’ve lived my life but contrarily I really like things in order. One of my biggest sayings is “a place for everything and everything in its place”.

So all that’s another irreconcilable difference, who I am verses how I am.

Damn, now I’m even more confused with myself than when I started writing this column. I think it’s just time to call it a night and go to bed. Because as I always say, “there’s always tomorrow, or not”.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 10/1/15

Taking one for the team is good for the community

I’ve never really been one for team sports, that’s probably why I like playing racquet ball, chess, and poker where it’s just me against them. Most of my life (even the one year on the high school soccer team) I never felt like I fit in or was part of a team, family, or community. Growing up my family was fairly dysfunctional so we weren’t that close and definitely didn’t work well as a unit. Most of my past jobs I either worked for a strong boss or I was the boss, not the best formula for building a team. Living most of my life in a community (Flint, MI) that was in social and financial decline also didn’t create much sense of camaraderie.

But some of that changed when we moved to Winters. I started to feel what it was like to be part of a community. The very first experience I had here in Winters was when we were trying to buy our house. It was for sale by owner and that owner was the (for lack of a better word) eccentric Bruce Goulden. Diane and I had come to look at the house for the first time with check book in hand but Bruce was in no hurry. He was still fixing it up and had some other people that were interested in it as well.

            

            It wasn’t that he was trying to start a bidding war; he really didn’t care about a few thousand dollars. He wanted to know who would best fit in the community. I on the other hand just really wanted this house. I felt it the second we walked in, it felt like home (still does just a little noisier). So I wrote Bruce a letter telling him how much we wanted the house and that if he sold it to us we would give back to the community (weren’t really sure how). After a week or so he told us that we could have the house so we jumped on it.

            We started to get to know our neighbors and they introduced us to their friends who introduced us to their friends and we quickly started to feel like part of the community. Bruce took us to one of the Winters Express Friday the 13^th parties and introduced us around and so it went for the first few years.

Things were also starting to change around Winters, The Palms came to town, Dan Martinez started making wine in the back of a building on Main Street, the Participation Art Gallery was open, and there were plans to rehab an old modular building that had been moved downtown.

It’s that rehab project that got my attention; I thought it would be a great location for someone (other than me) to open a coffee bar. But long story short, two years later Steady Eddy’s Coffee House was born and that’s where my contribution to the community comes in. It may not be what you think because creating a business that’s still going is not what I’m talking about.

I’m trying to bring this back full circle to the team player thing. More importantly I’m talking about sacrificing for the team because that’s the reality of what happened. If we think of Winters as being the team then Steady Eddy’s is now a successful part of it. They are poised to have a good long run but that’s not how it was in the beginning. The truth is that the first four years were rough (as most start ups are) and Diane and I were almost bankrupted. I’m talking physical, emotional, spiritual, as well as financial bankruptcy. To use that sports analogy we “took one for the team”.

That being said, I love that Steady Eddy’s is part of the community but would I do it again? Maybe not, but probably yes because as much as I hate to admit it I’ve kind of become a bit of a team player. At work I’m not the boss but I feel that I make a contribution to the Turkovich Team. At home I do my share of the cooking, cleaning, and cat care. In the neighborhood I’m working with the City to come up with a compromise solution to the noise and parking problems. In the community I applied for a seat on the planning commission (I didn’t get it) and am watching all the planned growth with an optimist eye.

         I guess what I’m saying is that even though the sacrifice can hurt your personal stats it’s necessary for the good of the team and I’m OK with that. So GOOOO WINTERS.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 9/10/15

Forgetting the Thrill of the Kill

            Recently there has been international outrage over the killing of Cecil the Lion by an American hunter. I’ve written before about my opinion on hunting for sport but I will reiterate it again for those who don’t know. I feel that as a species, Humans will never socially evolve or advance as long as we still get a thrill from killing things.

            I know that’s kind of a simplistic thing to say because killing is such a huge part of our common human history. If humans hadn’t evolved to be such smart and efficient killers we wouldn’t be the dominant animal on the planet. The reality is that for most of us it takes a lot more brain power to not kill than to just let our primal instincts run loose.

            Killing is such an everyday part of our lives and lexicon. Right now I’m “killing time”, but when I finish this Pulitzer Prize winning column I will have “killed it”. When I’m playing racquet ball and I make a great shot it’s a “kill shot” or when I get my butt handed to me on the court I got “killed”. Even when I do something nice for my wife, I’m “killing her with kindness”. But these are just everyday meaningless words, what about when someone really ticks you off and you just want to “kill” them? What’s stopping you?

            For most of us it’s our brains (conscience) and the fact that most of us don’t walk around with a way too easy to use weapon in our pocket. I know that if I had had a gun on me the day I was fired all those years ago I could easily have killed my boss, or at least that’s how my fantasy goes. But really that’s just a fantasy because I know myself and I don’t have the stomach for killing. I even find myself saying “sorry dude” as I mush a spider that surprised me in the house.

            For me there’s a hierarchy of killing verses conscience. I know some of you will probably laugh at me because I’m even thinking about this but here it is.

Insects, spiders, and rodents: I have no problem killing them when they are bugging me but I don’t go out of my way to preemptively get rid of them.

Fish and Shellfish: I have no problem killing or for that matter “eating them alive” as in fresh Oysters.

It’s at this next level that I can’t do the killing but I also don’t stop the killing being done for me.

Poultry: I still eat it a little and I do love those fried chicken embryos.

Pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle: Because of my wife’s eating habits I don’t eat any meat at home but occasionally I do when I am out. In all good conscience even that’s getting harder to do.

Wild animals: I don’t think any wild animal should be killed, period. I know all the excuses about managing the herds or them threatening our space and livestock but there is such a fine line there when it comes to the “thrill of the kill”.

Cats and Dogs: As painful as it is for me, I will have them euthanized when they are suffering irreversibly.

 Now at the top of my list are people. I can’t imagine taking a human life and I am thankful that I came of age in-between wars. I was never put in that position, unlike so many young people that were. But I also don’t want any people killed in my name. I don’t believe in capital punishment and I can say this knowing that my sister’s murderer is still out there somewhere. I may wish they were dead but I wouldn’t want them killed in her name.

I also don’t want wars fought in my name. I have always considered myself a Pacifist so I don’t think that in this day and age we should be fighting any wars especially preemptive ones. If some foreign power wants to come here to Winters and attack me or my family then I will defend myself, even to the death if I have too. But really, I don’t find that very likely.

But let me bring all this talk about killing back to Cecil the Lion. The part that I find most upsetting is that Cecil was first shot with a bow and arrow and suffered for 40 hours before he was killed. That was inhumane. Inhuman, as is the collateral damage from our wars on terror. Inhumane, as is the treatment of the fifty plus billion animals that are “harvested” (not slaughtered) each year to feed our insatiable appetites. Inhumane, as is the way many of the poor are treated here in America because of the growing inequality in wealth.

Even as it feels like we are being overwhelmed by all this inhumanity it is my belief that our humanity will someday evolve us from the natural born killers that so many of us still are. That evolution has to start sometime, so let’s hope that it starts now with the death of Cecil. As has been said for countless millennia, “May his death not have been in vain.” 

To view the column in it's original form go to page 7 of the following link. Winters Express 8/13/15

Why the 4th of July is my least favorite holiday

            In the weeks leading up to the 4^th of July everyone was asking with such glee and excitement, “are you ready for the 4^th, any big plans, are you going to watch the fireworks?” I would answer in my best Scrooge persona, “no, I don’t like the 4^th of July”. I even made one of my rare Face Book comments on a post by the Winters Express suggesting that fireworks should be banned statewide.

            I do believe that especially in this time of severe drought no one should be igniting anything, in particular things that fly with fire through the air. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. That being said, like most men I do like things that go boom and make bright lights and colors. I don’t know why, maybe because it brings out the kid in me.

            So if it’s not fireworks then what? Is it the over the top display of the red, white, and blue? Everyone flaunting their patriotism? Sometimes it feels more like Jingoism (def: the feelings and beliefs of people who think their country is always right and who are in favor of aggressive acts against other countries).

As the first American born child of immigrants I don’t quite understand this patriotism/nationalism thing. I can truly say that I love living in the United States. I’ve traveled to other countries, back to South America where my parents were born, and I watch the world news. I can’t begin to imagine living anywhere else, but does that make me think were the best country?

            I grew up during the tail end of the Vietnam War and I remember the constant use of the term “Love it or Leave it” thrown at anyone who criticized or dissented against that war. It’s a lot like the term “Unpatriotic” used against anyone who criticized our two post 9-11 wars in the Middle East. In my opinion there is nothing more patriotic than dissenting when you think your leaders are wrong. Isn’t that what the Founding Fathers were doing all those many Fourth of July’s ago?

            But once again, none of those things are why I don’t like the 4^th. The truth is that I don’t like this holiday because it makes me sad. That’s right, I’m just sad because it reminds me of my dead dog Kudzu. So let me tell you the story of how Kudzu changed my perspective on the 4^th of July.

            Growing up I had always considered myself a cat person, we had dogs for brief periods but I always related better to the cats. As I got older I never felt the need (kind of like children) for a dog, I was content with cats. One day when I was in my mid twenties my wife Diane came home with a full grown White Shepherd and asked if we could keep her. Being the “grumpy cat” person that I was, I immediately said NO! “But she’s blind” was her reply. Geez, what do you say to that? Turns out that Diane and a friend had found her wandering and bumping into things along the freeway. It wasn’t that she just couldn’t see, she didn’t have any eyes, just pink behind her eye lids.

            So that’s when I went over to the Dog Side. We don’t know who she belonged to or where she came from but she was great. She already knew voice commands like sit, stay, and come. She was always happy and loving, and man did she love to run. We would take her to the park and let her off the leash and she would take off, running in these big wide circles. If we saw here running towards a tree or something we would yell her name and she would screech to a stop. She did occasionally run into things and chasing squirrels by smell was kind of tough but she sure loved life.

            The first 4^th of July she was with us we didn’t think anything of taking her with us for the big fireworks display downtown on the riverfront. We lived in Flint, MI and they had a big show, usually about 100,000 people would come watch. It was about a 10 to 12 block walk to get right into the action so we headed off like past years.

            As we walked along the crowds got thicker, it got louder, fire crackers, sizzlers, and whistlers were all around. Kudzu started to get jumpy and anxious, she started panting and we were starting to realize maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Then Kaboom, the real show started and Kudzu freaked. We all took off running towards home with her in a panicked lead.

            When we got home we tried to comfort her as best we could but we weren’t that far away from the explosions so all we could do was wait it out. As we lay there all huddled together on the floor I realized that this glorious display of sound and light that we as humans just saw as entertainment was scaring the living hell out all the other creatures around us.

            Kudzu only lived another year or so because she had other health issues and I still miss her, so that’s why I don’t like the 4^th of July. We got lucky that Kudzu didn’t get away from us that day but unfortunately the 4^th of July is the biggest day of the year for lost pets and that really makes me sad.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 7/9/15

A sporting evolution of the mind.

            Yesterday (Saturday May 2^nd) was this huge spectator sports day. First there was the 141^st  running of the Kentucky Derby . Weeks of hype, a bunch of goofy hats, and millions of dollars spent for what? A race that lasted 2 minutes and 3 seconds or I guess you could just say “wham bam, thank you ma’am”.

            I don’t understand this human obsession with competition.  Why would millions of people around the globe, most of whom have no financial interest in the horses spend their time on this? I can understand and even relate a little to having a social interest in a competition, our local, city, state, or country team verses their equivalent. But a bunch of horses owned by moneyed elites running a little over a mile and for what? Just to show that on this day, that horse, ridden by some little guy, was faster than the others.

             So what? Don’t we have better things to do with our time? I guess not because the Kentucky Derby was just the warm up act for the real competition of the day. I’m talking about the super hyped, obscene amount of money making, barbaric competition that was the Mayweather vs Pacquiao boxing match.

            I use the term boxing match somewhat sarcastically because it’s really just a fight. Two grown men trying to knock each other out using just their lightly covered fists and doing it for the viewing pleasure of millions of people who paid money to watch.

            This is the part I don’t get. How or why do so many people get pleasure out of someone hurting someone else? I know it’s been justified for years as a “physical competition” but in truth it’s barbaric. I’m not just talking about the definition as savage and brutal but more of the definition as primitive. The only way it could be more barbaric is if we let them kick each other as well, oh right that’s the MMA. What if we gave them each a knife and had them fight to the death, wouldn’t that be entertaining?

            But I guess in terms of human evolution it really hasn’t been that long since the old gladiator days when people were forced to fight to the death as a form of entertainment. Even though many of us have evolved psychologically to where we know that things like boxing are wrong our primal selves haven’t kept up with that evolution. But so as not to come off looking like I think I’m better than the next person let me explain my own personal evolution on boxing.

I grew up in the late 60’s and early 70’s, these were the glory days of Muhammad Ali when he was fighting (boxing) the likes of Joe Frazier and George Forman. Like any other red blooded American kid I wished that I had the ability to “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. I thought he was the greatest, just like he said. I also didn’t give boxing a second thought when it came to right or wrong, it was just a sport like any other and I watched it on TV along with everyone else.

But that all changed shortly after I graduated High School. A friend invited me to go watch the live “Golden Gloves” competition at a local arena. For those of you that don’t know about the golden gloves competitions, it is amateur boxing starting at 10 years of age. That’s right 10 year olds being taught to fight for the entertainment of adults.  I can say with certainty that it was at that event that my thoughts and feeling about boxing evolved. But once again it’s not what you might think, it wasn’t that I had a real problem with the kids fighting it was the reaction of the crowd that sickened me.

Mothers, Fathers, friends and relatives, as well as total strangers yelling at these little kids. Hit him, kill him, don’t be a chicken, all that kind of crap. It literally made me want to puke so I got up and left and haven’t watched a boxing match since.

I can appreciate and admire the boxer for their skill and dedication to the training that’s needed to become good at something. The problem I have is with us, the spectator. Because as long as we still view fighting as entertainment we will never evolve as a species and isn’t the goal to evolve for the better? Let’s stop glorifying violence and maybe over time humans will become less violent. Let’s stop promoting competition and start promoting cooperation, that’s how we can evolve.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 4 of the following link.Winters Express 5/14/15

These are the declines, ascents, ups and downs of life

    I’m starting to get this déjà vu feeling, like I’ve been here before. The feeling I’m talking about involves my home and the neighborhood in which I live. The strange thing is that I’m having those same feelings, but the causes are from opposite ends of the economic spectrum.

    I’ll start with some history of where I used to live before moving to Winters. The city I lived in was Flint, Michigan. Made famous by Michael Moore in the documentary “Roger & Me.” More specifically I lived in a 10 square block area that was bordered by downtown and the cultural area where we had venues for music, arts, education, and science.

    Diane and I owned a 100-year-old farm style house, we loved our house and we loved the neighborhood. But even when we bought there, Flint and our neighborhood was already in decline. We just didn’t see it.

    Flint’s economy peaked in the mid ‘60s around the time that my family moved there. Many of the grand old houses in our neighborhood had already been converted to multi unit rental apartments. The little store around the corner that had once been a small grocery store now primarily sold booze and cigarettes. The neighborhood was changing from owner occupied to transient tenancy.

    With that change came people who didn’t care about maintaining their homes or neighborhood. There was an increase in crime, in particular drug related. This was when “crack” was the big thing and we now had “crackheads” renting across the street from us.

    This was in the early ‘90s before everyone had cell phones, so the payphone at the mini mart was always being used for drug deals. I got to the point where I would keep bolt cutters under my seat in the car and in the early morning on my way to work, I’d stop and cut the cord to the handset. Eventually the phone company just quit fixing it, but that didn’t make the neighborhood any better.

    Homes were still being burglarized, loud people still loitering around, cars coming and going at all hours of the day and night. It got to the point where we just hated it. We hated where we lived. We still loved our home and the sanctuary of our big fenced-in back yard, but we hated our neighborhood and most of our neighbors.

    Luckily in 1999, when my brother asked us to come to California and help him expand his business, we were able to quickly sell our house. We had tried to sell it a year earlier with no luck. Also as confirmation that we were making the right move, one of our “good” neighbors was randomly shot through a window and killed as he slept in his bed just a week after we signed the purchase agreement to sell our house.

    So, that was our experience with a neighborhood in decline. Now let’s fast-forward 15 years and here we are in a home we love in Winters. The house that we bought in 2001 is situated on the block just behind the Buckhorn. When we bought it we thought it was great to have all these amenities within a short walk. We had everything we needed restaurants, video stores, hardware, bank, drug store, parks, Community Theater, dry cleaners, and yes, even a small Irish Pub just a few doors down from us.

    We loved it. Sure there were some annoyances, like the constant smell of grilled meat, or sometimes the Irish Pub got loud, or one of their patrons puking in my yard, or people parking on our street for an event at the Community Center.

    All minor annoyances, at least in the beginning.

    Unlike the decline we saw in Flint, Winters downtown is in an ascent. Business is booming and downtown is a destination for locals and out-of-towners to come and have fun. Yes, I know that I personally contributed by starting a business that draws people to town and yes, it’s only going to get busier, more homes being built, a new hotel, more and expanding businesses, economically everything is definitely looking up.

    So why am I making this sound like a bad thing? To me it feels like opposite sides of the same coin. I love my house and fenced in back yard but I’m getting to the point where I hate my neighborhood.

    The patio of a nearby business can get so loud that even with our windows closed, we can barely hear our TV, let alone try and relax on the front porch. Downtown customers and employees are always parking on our street (because there aren’t enough alternatives) and are coming or going until the wee hours of the morning. All in all it’s not a very peaceful place anymore.

   What am I going to do about it? At this point there’s not much I can do. I’m still underwater on my mortgage, so I can’t sell, and who would want to live here anyway. Sure someday someone may want to put a business in my house or on the lot, but I’m not holding my breath. For now I’ll just continue riding that rollercoaster, full of ups and downs, declines and ascents, twists and turns, you know, Life.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 4/23/15

Recycle, my sanity depends on it.

            I’ve never considered myself to be a “tree hugging environmentalist” or outdoorsy kind of guy. I prefer being indoors so camping, forget about it. In High School we used to go camping all the time but for me it was just an excuse to stay out all night and party. I usually ended up sleeping in the car, not very comfortable but still better than sleeping on the ground, at least in my opinion. Back then in the early 70’s I never really gave the environment much thought but as I look back now I guess I’ve almost always made a little effort to be responsible. We tried not to leave any trash when we did go camping and I can remember yelling at one of my best friends because he was always throwing his empty fast food bags out the car window. That wasn’t polluting just littering but it still pissed me off. I would tell him “not out the window, that’s what the back seat is for”.

            In Flint, Michigan where I lived, back in the 80’s and early 90’s there wasn’t any kind of public recycling other than the 5 cent deposit on beverage bottles and cans. We had this “Hippy” dude that had been able to get some grant money to start a recycling center that took all the other stuff like newsprint, cardboard, aluminum, and glass. He was only open a couple of days a week so you had to plan ahead to be responsible.

            At the restaurants that Diane and I owned in the early 90’s, we would save all our cardboard and rinsed out cans and jars to take to the recycling center once a week. It was a pain in the butt because we didn’t have much storage room but we felt we had to do something to try and help save the planet.

            Fast forward 20 years and I’m here in California with a recycling tote that gets picked up every other week at home and a free recycling dumpster at work. It takes almost no effort at all to keep a big part of my garbage out of the landfill. It just doesn’t get much easier.

            So why am I writing about recycling when it should be a no brainer? By now all of us should know about garbage and the environment. It should be second nature, the very least that we can do. But that’s the problem, to a lot of people it’s not.

            This is the part I don’t get and what drives me a little crazy. I work with a bunch of 20 something’s and a few not so 20 something’s and I am constantly pulling plastic water and soda bottles out of the trash. In the tasting room we recycle all our wine bottles back into their boxes before taking them out to the recycle dumpster so it’s not like they have to go out of their way to recycle the plastic. As a matter of fact, they have to walk past the recycle box to get to the trash. Most of them seem oblivious to what they are doing or should I say not doing.

            It’s these young people I don’t understand. My generation had to be taught and made to feel guilty into caring by public service messages with images of smoke stacks, garbage piles and of a lone Native American with a single tear drop rolling down his cheek. This younger generation should have concern for the environment engrained in their blood, it should be all that they have ever known or been taught. After all they are the ones that will have to live with the garbage after me and my generation is gone.

            And piles of garbage there is, tons of it. In plastic bottles alone we as a nation throw away over 50 Million per day. That’s Throw away with a capital T, not including recycled. Obviously I’m generalizing because not all young people or all my co-workers are apathetic or lazy when it comes to recycling and or the environment. But I sure do see a lot of it. So what can we do about it? Not sure about you, but I’ll just keep picking their bottles out of the trash and hope that sooner or later they get the message.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 2/5/15