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

We got us an “outside agitator”, right here in Winters

Using a term made famous by the now infamous Governor of Alabama, George Wallace during the civil rights struggles of the Sixties, there is an “Outside Agitator” in our midst. I know based on the response to my last couple of columns some of you might think it’s me, especially the person who complained to the Express about that Jew making fun of the Catholics. But it’s not me, at least not in this instance.

             It’s someone who is very new to town but could easily be mistaken for someone who’s lived here all their life. It’s someone who has seen and done more in their lifetime than I could ever even conceive of doing. Someone who was born in “The City” but moved here from “Down There”, you know, SoCal.

            This agitator has infiltrated the local Rotary Club and ruffled a few feathers of the “Old Guard”. She (hint – hint) can be seen chumming it up with the Mayor and her father while sipping cocktails at the Buckhorn. Or on many an evening she can be found drinking a glass of “The Boss” wine (that should have been named after her) at the Turkovich Family Wines tasting room. While there (I know firsthand), she will engage anyone who will listen in conversation about how things were, and how things should be.

            She is someone who seeing that the Rotary Park Gazebo was in need of repairs and not able to get the club to commit, just went ahead and fixed it herself. She’s that kind of a person because at 93 years young she doesn’t have time for BS, at least not on the receiving end.

            So who is this woman and why am I calling her an “Agitator”? Well first let’s clarify, unlike the negative connotation that George Wallace tried to put on outside agitators, agitating for social change can be a good thing. Without a good shaking most of us don’t look past our routine lives to see the problems and injustices that are all around us.

            I know this column is starting to sound like a pitch for Citizen of the Year but I figure if Donald Sanders can keep talking about Libby Earthman and her work on the creek I can introduce all of you to someone who is also trying to make this community better.

            Without further ado, let me introduce you to the one and only Mary Rolston, my “Provocateur du jour”. Oh, for those of you that don’t speak French that means trouble maker of the day. Well she’s not really a trouble maker, she’s just trying to get attention focused on an issue that most of us don’t see around us. An issue that at some point will affect all of us in one way or another.

            That issue is the plight of Winters Seniors and I don’t mean the High School kind. Just because we sometimes see the Senior Nutrition van delivering meals on wheels doesn’t mean that all the old folks are OK. Sure there are a lot of seniors (like Mary) that are in great shape, physically, financially, & emotionally. They are the ones we see around us, the ones that make us think “why should I worry about them, their house is paid for and mine is underwater”. But the reality is that just like in most aspects of modern America they are just the top percents.

The majority are on small fixed incomes or just Social Security. They have very limited or no access to transportation. The same goes for health care and access to good nutrition. And in Winters, one of the biggest problems is language and communications because a lot of our seniors are Hispanic and don’t speak much English.

Now that I’ve told you about Mary and the issue that she’s agitating about, what next? Last week the City hosted an informal meeting to get input on addressing and bringing attention to this issue. If any of you would like to get involved (and we all should) call City Hall and find out when the next meeting will be and give them your contact information.

But in the meantime if you’re looking for a fun kick in the pants, keep an eye out for Mary at one of her downtown hangouts. When you see her, and you’ll know it’s her, she’s the thin, white haired lady all full of “piss and vinegar” as they used to say back in the day. When you do see her, don’t be afraid (like I was) to strike up a conversation. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be better for it.

To view the column in it's original form go to page 13 of the following link. Winters Express 9/4/14

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