5 Snouts Up for Ace in the Hole

(:)(:)(:)(:)(:) for Ace in the Hole black and white 1959 Billy Wilder film starring Kirk Douglas. I don't know how my husband does it but he finds these great old 5 star films that I've never heard of and blows me away with them. This is one of them.

Director Billy Wilder (my husband reminds me that he's known for Double Indemnity, The Apartment, and Sunset Boulevard) does it again with this one. Douglas is gorgeous and terrible as the nearly washed out big time news reporter consigned to a small-town paper who stumbles on, and then creates, a huge news story about a man trapped in a cave. As the media circus he successfully creates builds over a week, Douglas comes to see what he's done, how he's cost the trapped man his life in order to make a bigger story and goes into a tailspin.

Fans of Mad Men will enjoy the 1959ness of the smoking, the drinking, and the hats. For me, the cleft chin is enough.

Four Snouts up for Crazy Heart

(:)(:)(:)(:) for Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall. I enjoyed this movie very much. Jeff Bridges' performance is extraordinary--so is Maggie Gyllenhaal's. I believe entirely that Bridges' character Bad is a washed up, drunk country singer songwriter with a following. Jeff sings pretty darn well, and it's clearly his own voice. I believe that Gyllenhaal's character falls for him despite his gut, his alcoholism, and the age difference.

And I believe it in spite of heavy-handed flawed dialogue that doesn't always ring true (I thought the scenes between Bad and his protogee turned superstar were painfully badly written). I loved the ending too because it is not typical Hollywood, neither happy nor sad, just real.

See this Video about where American jobs have gone

Oregon Voters Deliver Game-Changing Victory | California Progress Report

Oregon Voters Deliver Game-Changing Victory | California Progress Report

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Day 22--Season for Nonviolence--Prayer

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 21 PRAYER 'Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else in the world can,' said Gandhi. Begin and end the day with a prayer for peace. Let peace begin with you."

This is a good reminder for me. I spent the first half of my adult life working for social justice, social change and I've spent the latter part working to change my life from the inside out. I pray every single day for strength, courage, thea bility to be kind, loving, peaceful. I let peace begin with me, but I almost never pray for world peace, or peace generally, just peace for me.

I believe there is no separation between any of us. We are all one. We are all connected. Therefore, is there a difference between a prayer for world peace and a prayer for my peace of mind?

Day 22 -- Season for Nonviolence-- Mission

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 20 MISSION 'My life is my message.' (Gandhi) Write down what you want to 'stand for' in your life. Note at least one way you can show through action that you stand for your beliefs. Take this action today."

My life is my message, wow. I'm too tired to consider this one right now, but I will think about it and get back to you. Tonight I want to stand for putting my time with my husband ahead of my blog.

Day 21--Season for Nonviolence--Inspiration

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 19 INSPIRATION Think of at least 2 people who exemplify the practice of peace. What is it you admire about them? Practice these behaviors today."

My father Nick Nichols exemplified the practice of peace. He was always calm and forgiving and loving. He almost never raised his voice. He was always working towards true peace at home and in his university and California and the world. When he noticed that he taught classes and held meetings about feminism, but that he wasn't doing his fair share of cleaning and cooking at home, he came home and changed. He started to cook and clean. He believed in walking his talk.

My father was a professor of comparative literature at San Diego State University. He was instrumental in organizing the professors of the California state college system to unionize--particularly he advocated for the rights of part-time, women and people of color on the faculty. He was also actively involved in opposing and organizing against the Vietnam War, supporting the United Farmworkers of America in their first great grape and lettuce boycott, and advocating for U.S. out of El Salvador.

After my father's death in 1987 at the age of 55 from a heart attack, the university named the big quad at San Diego State "the Nick Nichols Free Speech Plaza."

Day 20 -- Season for Nonviolence--Self-forgiveness

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 18 SELF-FORGIVENESS Knowing that who you are is greater than what you have done or not done, have or don't have, forgive yourself for forgetting the good that is you."

People who know about forgiveness always say that self-forgiveness is the hardest. I have a lot of trouble with it myself. I have historically been harder on myself than on anyone else.

I like a book called Start Where you Are by North American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. This concise, funny, warm book tells us how to start with the messy, dark, yucky parts of ourselves and to just sort of roll around in them and embrace them. Note to addict readers: this does not mean suddenly go out and drink, eat, er, embrace someone/something. This means to put your head in the lion's mouth and say "eat me, do your worst, I am not afraid of myself and my feelings any longer."

My experience is that only by turning and facing, and loving the dark parts of myself, myself exactly as I am, am I able to turn around and love others. Start where you are.

Day 19 -- Season for Nonviolence--Acceptance

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 17 ACCEPTANCE 'Resentment, fear, criticism and guilt cause more problems than anything else.' (Louise Hay) Choose not to judge yourself. See yourself as unique, loving, capable and bright. Accept yourself as you are."

This has been my experience. I am my own worst critic. This is really true, by the way. Over the years, I have tended to attract people into my life that I perceive to be highly critical of me (some of them may have even raised me). And I have told myself that their criticism has caused me great pain. I have told myself that if only they would accept me, I would feel/be okay, but the truth is that I am the one that is most critical of me, not them.

Everyone around me is a mirror. If I'm in emotional pain because of someone else's criticism of me, the first place I have to look at is myself. How would I possibly feel that pain if I were not critical of myself in that place too?

An example might help. I am, always have been, and may always be insecure about how fast I eat. I inhale my food and I don't like it if people call attention to it or mention it. No matter how good I get at portion control, healthful eating and other food behavior modifications, I eat as if I'm trying to set a land speed record for cereal consumption.

As a result, once in a while someone (usually my mother) will say, "you know, it'd be a lot healthier for you if you would only slow down."

What emotions does this bring up?

Resentment and anger: why the hell don't you mind your own business? who died and made you the queen of what speed you eat at? etc.

Fear of being unlovable: could I possibly be unattractive when eat a full plate in less than 30 seconds? (you think I'm kidding on the time, I'm really not) Could you possibly love me if you're taking the time to criticize me? etc.

The truth is though that if I were comfortable with my speed-eating, nothing you could say about it would bother me. But I'm not comfortable, I hate that I eat so fast. I wish I were different.

If I truly accepted myself, loved myself exactly the way I am, there is no way that your comments could hurt me. I could say something like "you could be right!"

...and I could mean it.

Day 18--Season for Nonviolence--FREEDOM

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
Feb. 16 FREEDOM Take a leadership role today in your own life. Find one way you can be more expressive of who you truly are.

First, let me explain what may be obvious, I left town for 3 days thinking I had access to a computer and I didn't. Alls I had was my non QWERTY cell phone--hence the tweet like posts (but at least I had set it up to be able to do that).

So, on freedom, and being expressive of who I truly am. Just when I was thinking I should be less expressive...well, truly, this whole nonviolence exercise is an exercise in freedom for me. By writing publicly on this subject, I am trying to unite my spiritual and political sides. So far, there have been some good days and some pathetic ones where I simply was fearful of my audience's reaction to this experiment (see "Bring in the Snouts" post below). But how free is that? If I'm going to do it, I can just do it. So for today, damn the torpedoes (oops, violent metaphor, how about embrace the turnips!) here I go!

Integrity. When faced w a choice 2day, lstn 2 ur conscience. U no whats right. Do it

1 oakland 2 bill 3 kids 4 mom 5 god

2/14 gratitude begin day by listing 5 things u r gr8ful 4 & end it by sharing w/ some1 all t good things that happend 2 u 2day

Oakland ca no puter. 3/13 reverence 2day, go 4 a walk & realize the beauty around u. "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread"

Day 14--Season for Nonviolence--Humility

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 12 HUMILITY Making mistakes is part of learning and growing. Freely acknowledge at least one mistake you make today, and reflect for a few minutes on what you have learned."

Okay, I took a bath and thought about this one. Although it was a great day, like any day, I made several mistakes (because I'm human, not because I'm sort of f***-up, although there's that too...lol). Today's doozy was probably trying to control one of my immediate family member's behavior in advance for the weekend.

Upon reflection, I realized that I did this because I was feeling powerless over the pain in my back, and my lack of ability to control another family member. I felt empty and I somehow unconsciously thought that by controlling the more controllable family I would reach equilibrium.

I didn't. It made things worse in my back and in my family (it really affected the whole unit as I tried to pull others into it too). As I saw it, I went in to talk to the person I was trying to control, apologized to him, told him how I was a heel and asked for his forgiveness. I placed my trust in him to do the right thing this weekend. I feel a lot better and I imagine he does too.

Today I am grateful that I'm examining the ways to be more nonviolent.

Day 13 -- Season for Nonviolence--Creativity

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 11 CREATIVITY Identify at least 5 ways in which you express your creativity every day. Today, allow something unpredictable and joyous to express through you."

I like that this is in the present tense. How do I already express my creativity every day--not another flippin' way that I need to change to be more something.

Let's see, 5 ways:
1) I blog
2) I make up weird songs to the kids in the car
3) I make up fun stories with the kids in the car and the dining table
4) I cook
5) I pray (this actually may be the most creative thing I do--when I am praying for someone else, I am often able to get out of the way and let God directly guide me in my words)

Today, I'm tempted to say I was fairly predictable and joyless, except that I picked my daughter and her friends unexpectedly up from school and I think that they loved it and it gave me joy to do it.

Day 12--Season for Nonviolence--Groundedness

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 10 GROUNDEDNESS 'Some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it...' (Black Elk) Today, place a seed in the earth or nurture a plant."

Okay, I gotta do this earlier in the day. I don't know if I'm going to run outside to plant a seed right now and we don't have any inside.

Did I do anything remotely grounded today? or metaphorically like this? What comes to me is that I bought a lot of containers at Ikea and am reorganizing and decluttering the home thereby nurturing its inhabitants.

Okay, I did nothing.

Day 11 -- Season for Nonviolence--Contemplation

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 9 CONTEMPLATION 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is.' (Bible) For at leat 3 minutes, relax, breath, and let your mind be fed by 'whatsoever is good and beautiful.'"

Right now I'm distracted by the fact that there's a giant advertising balloon that says "Search all Inventory under $11,000" stretching out covering part of my post. How do I make it go away? Do I need to search all inventory first? All inventory? This is certainly not my idea of the good and the beautiful.

Okay, I'm going to do the 3 minute thing right now. I'll be back in a moment. Okay I'm back (did you miss me?) I thought about my children, and telling the truth and trusting myself.

I love contemplation. I regularly meditate for about 40 minutes a day now but it has taken me years and years to work up to that level. I can remember when just carving out 5 minutes of sitting was agony. Now I spend 20 minutes connecting with the energy of the earth and sky and clearing out anything that's troubling me, another 10 minutes contemplating a quote for the day and a final 10 minutes sitting completely still and silent.

I do it in that order because this way I can kind of clear out some of the crap and have a fighting chance at just sitting still and being present. I still will wander. We all do. Monks who have been sitting on the cushion 30 years wander. The trick, I find is catching it. that's the real meditation.

Hmmm, this days tool was "contemplation" not meditation. I'll bet they have different word for a reason. I'll contemplate that.

Day 10--SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE--FAITH

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
"Feb. 8--FAITH Today, say 'I Can' even if you are not aware of how to accomplish your goal. Have faith and say, 'I Can' until you find a way."

Ok, this exercise of blogging on this is either going to heal me or kill me; I'm not sure which (maybe both). I am going to resist correcting the punctuation above (that would be violent, and I've already invoked killing). Here's what I'm not sure that I can do: I'm not sure that I can say something new. I'm not sure that I can say it in a new way. I'm not sure that I can bridge this gap of my political and spiritual readers. Oh, what made me think I could blog on this? where are the snouts?

Where are the Snouts? (sung to the tune of Send in the Clowns)

Ain't it a bitch?*
Ain't it unfair?
Me here I'm blogging at last
And you just don't care
Where are the snouts?

Isn't it trite?
Can you ignore?
I think I'm saying something
You simply snore
Where are the snouts?
Send in the snouts.

Just when I'd come out of retirement
Finally knowing I wanted you to read only me
Writing my posts again with my usual flair,
Sure of my lines,
No one is there.

Don't you love farce?
My fault I fear.
I thought that you'd want what I want.
Sorry, my dear.
But where are the snouts?
Quick, send in the snouts.
Don't bother, they're here.

Isn't it rich?
Isn't it queer,
Losing my timing this late
In my career?
And where are the snouts?
There ought to be snouts.
Well, maybe next year.

*Sac bee website's automatic editing made me change this to "stitch"!

Day 9 -- Season for Nonviolence--DREAMING

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet]
Feb. 7 -- Dreaming--Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. What is your dream of peace? Write it down. What is one thing you can do to honor that dream? Do it today.

Is it just me or do my readers hate my season for nonviolence? I think you miss the days at the DMV. Maybe I'm being too sincere. It's hard for me to find my voice here. I'm bridging so many worlds, I have got my leftwing warriors in the political trenches readers (who are maybe ostensibly nonviolent, but constantly "fighting" and may not be at all spiritual about it) and I've got my spiritual warriors, fighting for their recovery, or surrendered to the will of God, which may be their own, expressed only through them.

By the way, here's a question, is surrender a peaceful or a warlike term? On the one hand, you've stopped fighting, but on the, you're still envisioning an enemy to whic to surrender.

So, what is my dream of peace? Sometimes, frankly my dream of peace is just a social welfare state, a government that actually protects its people through good education, quality health care for all, a guarantee of a living wage and a roof over your head. Most if not all of the developed nations in the world provide that, the U.S. does not.

A friend of mine recently moved to Toronto, Ontario. She and her husband were trying to decide what neighborhood in which to buy a house. They asked their new colleagues, where are the best schools? Where do we want to live? Their colleagues literally did not understand the question. And my friend couldn't understand that they didn't understand.

In Toronto, if not all of Canada, the quality of education does not vary by school or economic tax base or who happens to be the PTA of the school. Every school provides the same quality education: it all completely sucks. No. I'm kidding. It's good and it's all the same. The same is true for Canadian health care. It may matter a little which province you live in, but it doesn't matter who you for, whether you're married, how much money you make, your health care is covered and you have a Canadian insurance card and you can take it your doctor and be seen with little or no out of pocket costs.

That's my dream of peace today, that we can finally begin to take care of our own people, that people can relax and breath because we've got their back. No better, that's not a peaceful metaphor because it implies we're under attack. No one has to have your back. You're safe.

What can I do today to honor that dream? How about write about it here?

Day 8 -- Season for Nonviolence--Healing

[From The Season for Nonviolence, 64 Ways in 64 Days pamphlet)
"Feb. 6 HEALING--Today, choose a painful incident in your life and find the "gift" it has given you. Consciously share this gift with others."

Ok-ay, WHY did I commit to writing on this every day? My kids, who read my blog, will probably appreciate it if I do not use a painful incident involving them. As will my other family members; but what else causes us real pain except family?

It's funny, I share about these kinds of things all the time, but not on the web. I'm finding that I can't talk about anything truly painful to me in this format. So I guess I'll just talk about thati: it's actually sometimes painful to me how many life lessons I've learned that I can't really talk about in public. I'm on a path to be a minister. With luck soon I'll be expected to stand up in a pulpit and connect with people. My pastor, Rev. Georgia Prescott, minister of the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento does that once a week without fail. She gets up there and she talks about what is real, her struggles, her pain, tangibly, with detail. She tells what she's learned from the experiences, and gives us ideas on how to grow, to change.

I've taken people to listen to Rev. Georgia who are hard-edged cynics and atheists or agnostics. By the end of one of her sermons, they're taking notes, either mentally or on paper, learning how to use spiritual principles to improve their life. And they come back. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do that. Spiritual principles and practice has completely changed my life. My pain and my struggles have completely and utterly led the way for me to emotional freedom. I can and do share that with other people daily, maybe even with you. But not here. Not, amusingly, on this sad little cyber link that can only be found by me. Not today.

Day 7 -- Season for Nonviolence--EDUCATION

"Feb. 6. EDUCATION. Learn about the power of nonviolence by educating yourself. Read an article that relates to nonviolence. Learn about human rights, diversity, ecology, history, forgiveness, spirituality, peace studies, and more."

My first reaction is this: this commitment to nonviolence can't be meant for me. I already know everything I need to know about nonviolence, human rights, diversity, ecology, history, forgiveness, spirituality, peace studies, and more. What do I need to learn?

Ok, maybe I could learn something. I pick up my Ghandi Reader (edited by Homer A. Jack) and flip randomly to a speech that M.K. Gandhi gave on "The Untouchables." The "untouchables" of course are the caste in India that literally aren't to be touched. Gandhi tells how when he was a boy, if he touched an untouchable, he was supposed to do ablutions to remove the stigma. Untouchables, the lowest caste in India as I understand it, were give jobs to do such as cleaning latrines.

Gandhi says "I regard untouchability as the greatest blot on Hinduism." Even as a child he inherently understood that it was wrong to consider an entire group of people, by virtue of birth to be untouchable. He sought to change that, and I believe eventually did although I think I've also read that elements of the caste system persist in India today (though the legal rights have changed and can be enforced).

As I read it, I wondered, who are America's "untouchables?" At first I thought of Republicans, but of course, for a large number of the population that wouldn't be true, and it isn't even true for me. I may not like what Republicans stand for, may not want to associate with them, but I don't pull my children into the house with fear when they pass by. No, what came to my on reflection is prisoners, to a certain extent, and specifically sex offenders. Those are America's true untouchables.

With Megan's Law, and the constant fear and hype that the local and cable news keeps up about sex offenders, we taught not only to fear and loathe these people but to plot where they live on a map so that we can keep a wide berth of them and to restrict their privacy.

Granted, there is a difference between treating someone as untouchable because of what group of people they happened to be born into vs. treating someone as untouchable because of what they've done. Surely we have a right to protect ourselves and our children from sexual predators? Surely the predators can lose some rights?

I have grown up in a safe world where I have experienced no sexual offenses. I am very lucky that way. I understand that that is not true for many people. Yet, from what I can tell, statistics bear out that the vast majority of child sexual abuse takes place within families, not from random people in our neighborhoods and towns. Yet, we do not usually track the repeat offender grandpa or uncle or cousin on a map. We pray for them and keep our distance.

It is also likely that most sex offenders are born into abusive situations themselves, and play that out as adults. Otherwise, where and how would they have learned to be the sad, sick way that they are?

I do not condone anyone harming a child in any way ever. And I certainly intend to do everything in my power to keep my children safe from such harms.

But I also agree with the Bible verse, Luke 9:48 "For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest."

Day 6 -- Season for Nonviolence -- Simplicity

Feb. 4. SIMPLICITY. Think of 3 ways you can simply your life and put at least one into practice today.

Simplicity. Hmmm, mostly I like to find ways to complicate my life like by starting to Twitter yesterday so that whenever I'm sitting still I can really be tweeting (I still can't think that I have anything interesting to say in 40 characters, but we'll give it a try).

OK, simplicity...what does that even mean, really? Dictionary.Com says this:
sim⋅plic⋅i⋅ty
1. the state, quality, or an instance of being simple.
2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts: an organism of great simplicity.
3. absence of luxury, pretentiousness, ornament, etc.; plainness: a life of simplicity.
4. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness: a simplicity of manner.
5. lack of mental acuteness or shrewdness: Politics is not a field for simplicity about human nature.


Okay, let's look at definition 2 above, freedom from complexity. I make make my life more complex when I place a lot of phone calls to make sure that people are doing what they say they will do. That might be appropriate when I'm a paid organizer, but when I'm just another mom, how about letting people keep their own calendars and either fall short or not?

Definition 3, absence of pretentiousness. Where would I be without pretention? I love being pretentious. Hmmm, how about not trying to take credit for whatever the next thing is that I want to take credit for? I could do that.

Is that 3 yet? No. One more. Definition 4, freedom from deceit or guile, sincerity. I was raised on deceit and guile. Deceit and guile is mother's milk to me. I remember one time my mother-in-law emailed me after a visit to their home across the country. She said, "we had such a lovely time with you and Bill and the kids. You are a wonderful family. We can't wait until you come back." I emailed it to my brothers and they said, "what kind of sick game is she playing?!"

Okay, what's coming to me is less sarcasm. Sarcasm is, at its root, guile and deceit, thus not simple. What's simple is telling the truth. So I resolve to be less sarcastic with my children. They need to grow up knowing what sincerity looks like. I don't know if I can resolve to do it on this blog, isn't simplicity boring?

Oh, and put at least one into action--why not all 3, wouldn't that be more simple? Actually no, okay, sigh, I pick the sarcasm with kids one. Just for today.

64 Days of Nonviolence

Every year this time, my church, the Center for Spiritual Awareness in West Sacramento participates in an international Season for Nonviolence from January 30th through April 4th (the anniversaries of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assignations). The creators of this event have made a booklet of 64 ways to practice peace in our lives on those 64 days. We're on day 5 so far, but I'm going to give you the daily tool and then write a little bit about it each day.

Feb. 3 BELIEVING "Today, believe that you have all the resources to move your life in the direction of peace. Be aware of simple demonstrations of peaceful responses."

On the surface, my life is pretty peaceful. I hardly ever hit or kill anybody. Ok, never. I am lucky enough to live in a peaceful community, with a loving family in a country that, while at war, the war seldom overtly affects me.

So why do I need to move in the direction of peace? Where can I be more peaceful? Well, a lot of places, frankly, if I'm willing to look at it. Much of the time I am not so peaceful towards myself. For example, I feel like I'm getting a late start this morning, it has taken me forever to get to this keyboard. In my head, the running commentary goes something like this, "Sara, why didn't you get up earlier? Why did you talk on the phone quite so long this morning? Those calls could have been accomplished much more efficiently."

That's a good inner monologue for me because I haven't called myself any awful names but how peaceful is it for me to be so critical of what just is? Can I do anything about the fact that it's already past 10am? Is it useful for me to bash myself? Is it really so bad to have a little bit longer conversation with people I love on the phone rather than be my usual curt self, efficient, on and off?

The answer is to all these questions, no. I could be more peaceful. Do I have all the resources? Well, if I don't, who does? I meditate and pray every day. I'm studying to be a minister. I have a wide range of friends who support me and love to hear from me when I need help being more peaceful. I can be more peaceful.

So a simple demonstration of a peaceful response today would be to laugh at myself for being late, laugh at myself for being critical, laugh at myself for blogging about it and just accept that my day is showing up the way it's showing up. I can change my focus at any time, but I cannot go backwards.

Day 5 at the DMV

All right, I'm not in the DMV any longer. Haven't been there since last Thursday. But I've blogged about it and I've gotten lots of emails back. So I have two things to say: one is a public service announcement and the other, well, the other is a public service announcement too.

Public service announcement #1:
There are other DMVs besides the one on Broadway in Sacramento! Who knew? It crossed my mind at some point, but I try not to leave a 5 mile radius of my home if I can help it and so I immediately pushed it out of my mind. People have written in to recommend the DMV on Mack Road in South Sacramento, the Davis DMV, a special phantom DMV that AAA may operate for AAA customers (but no one knows where it is), and some other DMV in the eastern part of Sacto.

There's one thing everyone can agree on: don't go to the Broadway DMV. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, nobody goes there, it's too crowded.

Public service announcement #2:

Don't just hit reply, comment! People keep emailing me with comments on my blogs but not posting them on the blog itself. Pleast post them on the blog! The main reason is that what you're all saying is really good and interesting and thought provoking and all my readers would benefit from reading it.

The more self-serving reason is my handlers tell me that the only way to build a successful blog readership is comments. Every comment drives the post higher in the ratings and the search engines. No comments = no readers. So, please comment! If I can make it easier for you technologically somehow, let me know.

Day 4 at the DMV

Day 4, January 29, 2010

Tempted to drive by and just get a ticket in the early morning. After all, today's the only Friday of the month they're not furloughed. Maybe it would be just me in the Bs...