Well, Toto, I guess we’re not in Winters anymore

            Today July 26^th, I got a letter in the mail from the City of Winters and I am PISSED. I’ve never used this column to write about the city or city staff or even local politics but today all that changes.

            

            The letter reads as follows:

Dear Lis, Edmund;

The City of Winters is preparing to file liens on real property that are past due on the water and sewer bills due to the City of Winters.

Currently the property located at 9 RUSSELL ST is past due in the amount of $133.41. Please forward payment to the City of Winters in full by August 1, 2014 to prevent a lien being placed on your property.

Please contact me at 530-795-4910 ext 104 if you have any questions regarding this notice.

Sincerely,

Shelly A. Gunby

Director of Financial Management

City of Winters

            My first thought is that I missed last month’s payment or they lost it. So I went on line and looked at my banking stuff and sure enough there was the cashed check. I then checked my current bill to see if there was a previous balance and there wasn’t. The delinquent date on that bill is July 15^th less than 10 days prior to the “Collection Letter” being sent out.

            So why am I pissed off? Because yes, I am late, but Lien threatening late? I don’t think so. I’ve been late before (I get paid on the 20^th so don’t usually pay it till then) where a past due amount shows in the previous balance box. When that’s happened I might even get a red bordered past due reminder notice but never a threat.

            So what’s changed at city hall? I can’t imagine its Shelly. She is the nicest, number crunching, hand quilting, Harley riding, city staffer I know. Is it rubbing off from the Police department? They are getting a bit of a hard ass reputation. Maybe it’s the Neu voice on the City Council. Or what about J.D.? Is this part of his (personal or city) plan for a bigger and better future? Is it just growing pains even thought we haven’t had any growth?

            If it’s anything, it’s probably preparation for the inevitable growing pains that will come with hundreds of houses that are congregating at the entrance to the proverbial pipeline. Somewhere in the not so distant future there will be a few thousand more people sharing this community and its services with us.

Does that mean that Winters will become a not quite so small, small town? A town run by uninvolved nonresident bureaucrats and contract personnel? Is it already becoming that? Shelly the Finance Director lives in Woodland, Gene the Building Official lives in Davis, and the Fire Department is being run by out of Towner’s. Not to mention the contract lawyers, planners, and backups for staff.

All I know is that the letter really rubbed me the wrong way. And that’s my point, when did Winters become this impersonal place. I know Shelly and a lot of the people at City Hall. I’ve dealt with them over the last 10 years in many different capacities. I’ve served them coffee and wine, I’ve sat in meetings and on committees with them, and I’ve also gotten licenses and permits from them. So why the form letter? I thought Winters was better than that.

But maybe I’m just fantasizing that there ever was this small town vibe. Was I wearing rose colored glasses when I first drove over the freeway and looked up at the Gap and down to the water tower? Did I really get chocked up the first time I walked in to the house we bought here in Winters? Was I being naïve when I invested everything I had into the coffee house because that’s what Winters needed? Did I cry and feel a great loss, like a hole in the heart of Winters when Charlie Rominger and Gloria Marion died even though I just knew them as customers. Or the deep loss I felt more recently with the deaths of Leslie and Julie.

Maybe it’s like Debra recently wrote, have we lost our collective innocence? Are we becoming hard and calloused, like the hands of the farmers that made this town? Or are we just becoming like most other cities and towns in America? A loose knit group of nameless neighbors that consume the services but complain about the price.

I truly don’t think that Winters is that place, YET. But that letter makes me wonder what their thinking down at City Hall. I may not know what the powers that be are thinking but I do know what the rest of you are thinking. “Oh just shut up already and pay your water bill like everybody else!”

To view the column in it's original form go to page 16 of the following link. Winters Express 8/14/14

Is Civility Dead?

            Forgive me father for I have sinned, it has been more than 4 months since my last column. In that time I have had many thoughts of things to write about but the sloth in me has won out. Also you may not have noticed the irony in the name of my column but when I think about writing I think “What’s the Point?” Does anyone really want to know what I am thinking? Does anyone care? And most of all, does it matter or makes a difference?

            Ah, I feel much better now getting that off my chest. No wonder the Catholic Church has been so successful for so long. Do whatever you want, give a small confession (and donation), then off you go to do it all again.

            Sorry, wasn’t planning on doing any religion bashing but since I started lets continue for a moment. Here’s a question. If there are a bunch of different religions, and they all can’t be right, does that that mean that most of them are wrong?

            I’m not a religious person and I’m tolerant of the majority faithful that do believe, but it does bother me when it’s put right in my face. There is one religious thing right now that’s been bugging the hell out of me. It’s something that came out of nowhere and now seems to be everywhere and to me it’s just ridiculous. It’s something that if there really is a God, would he have the time to micromanage this? Would he even care? It’s none other than “Christian Mingles Dot Com”. The website where God in all his infinite wisdom will help you find your perfect match. Come on! This is so wrong on so many levels. What bothers me the most is the segregation aspect. I thought we were trying to be a more inclusive society. What happens if a non Christian tries to use the site? And what’s next? Aryan Unite Dot Com or Couples of Color Dot Com? Where does it end?

            All that being said, I think the Christian Dot Com thing is great marketing. So I have come up with the newest gang buster on the web. Remember you saw it here first, introducing… drum roll please. Christian Shoe Shop Dot Com, where God will help you find that perfect pair. I just took the two most annoying commercials on TV and rolled them into one, now that’s heavenly.

            OK, enough with the joking. My intention was to write a serious column because there was something in the recent news that I just haven’t been able to get off my mind. With the constant bombardment of news feeds on TV and the internet it’s easy to become numb to the death and destruction that is all around us on this planet we call home. The incident I am talking about is the killing of the two year old girl outside of Detroit. She was shot in front of her father because the killer wanted her death to be the last thing the father saw before he was also shot. The word that keeps coming to my mind about this incident is “Barbaric”.

            What I see happening all around me is a decline in “Civility” and an increase in “Barbarism”. I don’t just mean the kind of over the top brutal acts like in Detroit or even the crazy beheading type stuff in the Middle East. I’m talking about what we see now as common everyday actions. Things like spitting on the sidewalk or using S**t and F**k in conversation (I’m guilty of this). Those are examples of crudeness and disrespect for the people around you. Don’t get me started on texting and cell phones, the level of disrespect for those around you is getting ridiculous.

            A lot of you might think, what’s the big deal? An F-bomb here a text message there, what’s it hurting? What it’s hurting is our society’s ability to command respect by showing respect. You know the old saying, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. We are sending the wrong message to the impressionable children around us. Quoting from Psychologytoday.com, “Studies have shown that incivility leads to violence, unhealthy communities, and societies paralyzed by conflict and political division”. That sounds like Detroit to me but it could also be anywhere, even here in Winters.

            So what can we do to hold back the Barbarians and return to a civilized society? Simply, we have to provide a sense of security and respect from and for all members of our society. Including people like the killer in Detroit. How do we do it? Not sure, maybe start by showing some respect and courtesy to those around us. Take off your hat when you enter a building, swallow your goober when you’re out in public, and for the love of God don’t answer your F**king phone when you’re at the checkout counter.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 7/31/14

Just call me STUD for short, and let me solve societies problems.

    Through out my life I've never really aligned myself with a particular political party or social movement. Not because I didn't believe in some of the things they stood for or thoughts they espoused. I never joined because it just goes against my nature to be part of a group; I've always been a loner.
    
    Not to say that I haven't tried to fit in. First there is the most natural of groups the family. I love my siblings and my mother (my father when he was alive) but I don't feel this strong need to see them or talk to them more than every few months. If by chance I see them more often, great, if not, no big deal.

    For the 25 years I lived in Michigan and my family was here in California I probably talked to my mother on average 4 times a year (birthdays and holidays) and to my siblings twice a year. It goes both ways, it's not because we don't care, we just don't feel the need, so I guess it runs in the family.

     

     I had friends in school and some of those friendships carried over to adulthood but I always still felt like an outsider when there was a group of friends. I have to say that even of those people I consider close friends I barely ever communicate with them. It's not that I don't think of them or wonder how they are doing; it's that I don't make the effort because I don't feel the need. Maybe it’s the loner in me or maybe I’m just self absorbed, either way I'm going way off topic.

    

    Back to my point about politics and social movements. 

    Personally I think that most of the so called “main stream” groups are to polarized, short sighted, and narrow minded. They are just looking out for the self interest of the rest of their like minded group. In essence they are thinking too small. What we need is a group that thinks BIG, real BIG. Not a little big like all of California, or medium big like the United States, not even big big like global. I’m talking SUPER BIG, like the United Federation of Planets BIG. That’s right I’m talking STAR TREK BIG.

    

    OK, done laughing? I’m serious.

    You see, a lot of my personal philosophy about living life can be traced back to the society that was portrayed as our future on the TV show Star Trek.  A society that is referred to as the “Star Trek Utopia”. I have long dreamed of that utopia. I guess you could call me a Star Trek Utopian Dreamer, or STUD for short.

    Please, stop laughing. I’m serious.

    Why can't we strive for a society where everyone's basic needs for food, shelter, health, and education are provided for? A society where if you want, you work for the betterment of the society in exchange for having those needs met. Or if you're so inclined you go off and do your own thing. Either way it's OK and you're not judged.

    I know, it sounds like some kind of socialist / communist society but it's not. It’s also not capitalism either because in my opinion that social model, like the other two doesn't work very well. In this utopia you can still own property and have possessions but they're just not that important, they don't have much value.

    Value, isn't that what kind of makes a society? Having shared values, both moral and monetary? It’s us, the members of the society that dictates the value of any object or thought. Why do we give more value to the wellbeing of a wealthy person than a poor person? Why do we give more value to the right to own a gun than the right to live without fear of guns? Why do we value the rights of a corporation over the rights of an individual? Why do we value the rights of heterosexual couples to marry more than homosexual couples or for that matter why a couple, why not three, four, or more partners? Values, they are what holds societies together and what can also tear them apart.

    I've always wondered, how over thousands of years our loose knit societies have given so much value to Gold? It’s just a shinny yellow metal that can't do anything by itself, yet we as a people give it tremendous value, it's conceptual, it's all in our minds.

    Ultimately I think it's that simple. If we want to create a future that resembles the Star Trek Utopia then all we have to do is change our minds. That might sound a little simplistic but what else do you expect from a STUD like me.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 14 of the following link. Winters Express 3/27/14          

ObamaCare or CorporateCare?

            Hey everybody, long time no writing. I've been a little busy, a little uninspired, and a little lazy. One of the things I've been doing over the past few months is getting signed up for health insurance under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or as it’s more commonly known “ObamaCare”. Not only did I sign up once but I got to do it twice.

            As I've written before, Diane and I already had health insurance through Anthem Blue Cross. It was a high deductible plan that cost us around $600 per month. In October we got a letter from Anthem stating that because of the required provisions of the upcoming PPACA our current policy would no longer be available after the first of the year. The letter suggested we shop for a policy on the new Covered California Insurance Exchange or if we wanted they could put us in a comparable policy for $1100 a month (an increase of only 83%).

            As suggested, I went on the Covered CA website and started looking at policies. I entered all my information including financial and was surprised to find out we qualified for a premium subsidy. A new policy, comparable to my $600 one was now only going to cost me $2 a month. Cool for us I thought, but what was bugging me was the federal subsidy part. Why was the government going to pay $912 for a policy that was the same as my $600 one? That’s an increase of over 50% and that’s our tax money paying for it.

            I went ahead and signed up for a new policy through Covered CA with Anthem Blue Cross. It took a couple of months and a few phone calls to actually confirm that we were enrolled before the January first deadline but we were, so nothing to worry about, or so we thought.

            In January Diane had a couple of routine appointments with her doctors at UC Davis Medical. She gave them our new insurance information and went on her merry way. Then in February, a day before a scheduled follow up appointment she got a call from UCD saying that they wouldn't accept our new insurance because they didn't have a contract with Anthem for that policy. WTF! I thought Obamacare was going to give us better coverage! We had done what we were supposed to do, buying through the exchange and now we didn't have coverage where we needed it. Kind of ticked me off, so I spent the next 6 hours on the phone (most of it on hold) with Anthem and Covered CA getting it figured out. Ultimately we ended up switching to a different policy and company, one that UCD would accept. Now it’s going to cost me $24 a month but that’s still better than the $600 I had been paying. I guess for me personally it’s working out, but what about Obamacare in general, what do I really think about it.

            If you've read my columns in the past you probably know that I’m a politically unaffiliated, left leaning, so called social progressive. You would think that I would be a strong supporter of Obamacare. Well you would be wrong. I am a strong proponent of health care reform and government subsidized health care but as I see it, Obamacare is neither of those things. It is a subsidy to the insurance companies not to the health care providers. It is a monetary windfall for the insurers in exchange for what? Not being able to deny coverage anymore but still able to raise our rates. If I was unfortunate enough to earn more money and didn't qualify for the premium subsidy I would be paying hundreds of dollars more each month and not really getting any better benefits or health care.

            Now that I've climbed on the soap box I might as well lay it out there. What I think we need in this country is real heath care reform. What I mean is government control of pricing (not free market), if the insurance companies can dictate what is a “usual and customary allowed expense” then why can’t our government? At the very least we should have a single payer system, get rid of the insurance companies.

            Unfortunately the biggest reform we need is the hardest. We need to reform our collective attitudes on the balance of health, quality of life, and our inevitable deaths. We have to ask ourselves the question, is health care a human right or a profit center for big business? Do we want to spend our tax dollars on wars, weapons, and corporate bailouts? Or do we want to spend it on “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (healthiness)? I know which way I want to go, do you?

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 3/13/14

On Fear and Inaction.

          In my last column I wrote about my fear and ignorance. This time I want to write more about the inactions caused by fear.

          First, I want to say that my wife Diane is the love of my life and I couldn't imagine being in the here and now without her. She has also heard this story before and was only slightly involved at the end. This is a story about one moment of inaction that was caused by fear. This is also a story that took place 40 years ago so my memory, “she not so good”.

                Tanya was a girl I first meet when I was in 6^th grade. I had just moved to Michigan and was starting at a new school. I’m not sure if I even talked to her that year but we were in the same class and I noticed her. The next year we started Jr. High and in my home room class she sat at the desk right in front of me. She always wore a crisp white shirt and I remember being mesmerized by the outline of her bra strap that was just an arm’s length away from me. Once again that was the extent of our interaction in 7^th grade.

            The following year I started 8^th grade at a new private school and Tanya stayed at the public school so there was nothing between us. Then in 9^th grade she transferred to my school and we became friends. We lived in the same neighborhood so we got into this routine of walking to and from school together. It took us about a 20 minutes to make the walk and we would talk. She was smart, witty, and funny, oh and did I mention she was also beautiful.

            That’s how our relationship went for the next year or so. We spent a lot of time together but just as school mates and friends. Of course I was a teenage boy so I was thinking and feeling all sorts of things. I was infatuated with her (and a few other girls as well) but I was scared to say or act on those feelings. I guess my fear was of rejection and loosing that friendship. Now comes the moment of inaction that I can still see and remember clear as day.

            Our relationship had started to develop just a little bit of physical contact. We would hold hands or hug goodbye, things like that. So on this spring day, Tanya was getting ready to leave on a week long school camping trip. We were standing outside the bus that was full of kids and I was giving her a big hug. Our faces were inches from each other and I wanted to kiss her so bad, BUT I DIDN'T. I was afraid so I didn't kiss her and she got on the bus and left. I regretted my inaction instantly and spent the next week beating myself up and thinking how I would do things differently when she got back. Now here is where the story goes from bad to worse.

            So like a puppy dog, I’m waiting for Tanya and the bus to arrive. They get back and the last ones to get off the bus are Tanya and Steve and to my horror they are holding hands. They are now a couple, oh just kill me now. I primed her up, put her on a bus, and sent her into the woods with an older boy. No wonder I’m still kicking myself to this day. But that’s not quite the end of this story yet.

            I never got into the relationship that I really wanted with Tanya but we remained friends. After graduation she went off to college and I took to the school of hard knocks. About 4 years later, Diane and I were already dating, Tanya came home after graduating and wanted to get together to tell me about her life.

            I had other ideas. I invited her to my apartment and tried to seduce her. She was trying to tell me about problems in her relationship with the guy she eventually married and I was trying to put the moves on her. I wasn't being a friend, I was being a DICK. I thought that since I was now more experienced with women and had less fear, I could relive that lost moment. But the reality is you can’t and if you try you only make it worse. I lost a friend and in hindsight some self respect and for that I’m not afraid to say I’m sorry.


To view the column in it's original form go to page 10 of the following link. Winters Express 8/1/13

A life of Fear & Ignorance.

As some of you have noticed and commented to me, I haven’t written anything in a while.  One of the excuses I've used for not writing is my fear that I may say something that could embarrass my employers. I am fairly open about my life when I’m writing and unfortunately I am not in a financial position to not care about staying employed. Thinking about that fear and fear in general has helped me realize and acknowledge how much of a motivating or rather un-motivating factor it’s been in my life.

“My name is Edmund and I’m a Scaredy-Cat.” Is there a 12 step program for that? Seriously, as far back as I can remember I've always been afraid of getting “Hurt”. I’m talking both physical but primarily emotional pain. On the physical side I can honestly say that at 56 years old I have never, ever, been in a fight. I have always avoided physical confrontation by any means necessary, including flight, deception, or if need be submission. I’m not proud of that record and I've always wished that I could fight back but that’s my point, my fear has always dominated my actions. So where does that fear come from? Is there a gene that controls the basic instincts of Fight vs. Flight? Or is it early life experiences?

Now for the Ignorance part of the title. This may get a little confusing so try and follow me.  My fear comes from lack of ignorance. Huh? Yes, that’s right. When I am ignorant of the consequences, I am not afraid of the action. Let me give you a few examples.

When I was around 5 years old and living in Argentina there was a tall armoire in my bedroom, there were also bunk beds with a removable railing. That railing looked like a ladder so I decided to use it to climb up the armoire. I leaned it upright and started to fearlessly climb up the ladder. Unfortunately it slid out from under me and I crashed to the floor breaking my arm. I don’t know if it’s a direct result of that but I’m now afraid and very uncomfortable climbing up ladders.

As an adult I got fired from a good paying job because I was ignorant of the possibility that not showing up to receive a commemorative watch could get me fired. If I had even the smallest inkling, I would have taken the friggin watch. Shortly after that I was offered an opportunity to buy a restaurant and being ignorant of how much work it would be for so little return I jumped on it.  Even here in Winters when I decided to invest my inheritance in Steady Eddy’s it was out of ignorance because I didn't do enough homework and I let myself get talked into making it a bigger space than I originally wanted.

I’ve told those stories before and everyone thinks I was brave or courageous to stand up to my boss or start my own business. But the reality is I was fearless because I was ignorant.

As for emotional fear, I can’t give you direct “cause & affect” examples like with the physical but let’s just say it’s probably my father’s fault. Remember me being in Argentina as a kid? Well that was because after moving to the states and having 5 children my dad decided that we were cramping his style and sent my mom and us packing to Argentina. Then he felt guilty and back we came. Without going into all the details let’s just say life with my father was an emotional roller coaster.

            Of all my fears, I think the fear of rejection has been the most debilitating. Through all of high school I only went out on one date and that one was because she kind of asked me out. Even with my wife Diane, it took me months to get up the courage to ask her out. And that was after the years I had been in door to door sales which were filled with rejection but of a different kind.

One of the main problems of the inaction caused by fear is the years or even lifetime of regret and wondering “what if”? Of course you can’t fix or relive the past all you can do is live life for today and keep move forward. For me, even with all my fears I still head into the unknown future because as I’m too fond of saying, “Ignorance is Lis”.

Postscript: Shortly after I started writing this column my boss gave me a little book to read about “fear of change” called, Who moved my cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson. It’s a fun read and oh so apropos.


To view the column in it's original form go to page 12 of the following link. Winters Express 7/11/13

Enlightenment of the Gray

            You know the old saying about seeing the world through rose colored glasses, well my glasses are gray. I know I know, with all my columns about pessimism and negative outlook on life would you expect anything less? Well here’s a twist, I’m not talking about the gray of that dark cloud hanging over my head or of the gray on my head that comes with age. I’m talking about that lovely shade that exists between the hard edges of black and white. I’m talking about the gray of compromise, the gray of seeing both sides of the story, the gray of knowing that life is indeed not black and white.

            When I was a young man of Twenty-two I went to work as a forklift driver at a beer distributorship. My immediate boss was an ornery old (probably the age I am now) red headed guy named Tommy who had been working for the company most of his life. When it came to his warehouse it was definitely a case of black and white. “This is how we do it, this is how we've always done it, and this is how we will continue to do it.” Of course me being the passive-aggressive kind of guy I am, I would just say OK and do what I wanted to do anyway.  Needless to say we butted heads a lot and didn't get along very well.

            Unfortunately for both of us, within a few years I went into management and became Tommy’s boss. We still didn't get along and now it was his turn to undermine my authority. Now I was the one being ridged, fighting with him about not following the “new” rules. I wish that I could say that we both found the “Enlightenment of the Gray” and compromised on issues and learned to get along. But that’s not what happened at that point in my life, we never really got along. Years after I had left the distributorship I saw Tommy at a funeral and he still wouldn't talk to me. I guess it didn't help that he was the one in the casket (just kidding, but it did make you laugh).

            In my youth I was much more in touch with my gray side, I could listen to two sides of a story and they both made sense and sounded valid to me. I bet that’s why I never went out for the debate team. As I got older and became a boss and business owner I lost sight of the Gray and became much harder. I’m the boss and it’s my way or the highway. I got caught up in the power and now with hindsight I can see that I wasn't really a very good boss.

In my personal life I wasn't much better. Diane and I now laugh about how earlier in our relationship I would say “No” (much like my father before me) to just about any request she made. I sure wish now that I had listened to her when she said no to my business ideas instead of just pushing ahead anyway. Luckily and through hard work and perseverance there is much more Gray in our marriage today.

Sadly today in this country as a whole there doesn't seem to be much room for Gray. In politics  it’s about Red verses Blue. In business it’s all just about the mighty Green. In energy we’re still way too dependent on Black oil and coal. And when it comes to dealing with other countries it’s all just about the Red, White, and Blue.

So what’s the point or reason for this column today? It’s because now as of late, I once again find myself having to deal with people who only seem to see the world in black and white. You’re either with me or against me, my friend or my enemy, I’m right and you’re wrong, etc. etc. etc… I wish that they could see the Gray that’s all around us. That in almost everything and every situation there is room for compromise and in so many of those situations there is a need for compromise.

That’s what I’m calling the “Enlightenment of the Gray”, the understanding that in this world of Seven Billion plus people we are not alone. If we want to survive in our society, in our community, in our family, in our work, and in our play, then we all need to get along. The best way I know to get along and avoid the fray is to be, “One with the Gray”.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 15 of the following link. Winters Express 3/14/13