Getting Full Use of Our Tam On

The lady and I decided to kick the city to the curb for a day to soak in some solidly sunny spring weather, hike what is considered to be one of the best trails in the Bay Area and climb 2,000 feet - so that we could gaze right back at the city we bailed on. Not our fault; the view from the top of Mt Tam is unmatched on a clear day. Full view of most of the bay, Mt Diablo, the Golden Gate, the ocean, and if not for a little haze, the Farallons and Sierras.

Manzanita bushes everywhere. I had no idea how smooth these babies are. I found myself stopping on the side of the trail to just stroke them for a few seconds, and yes, I realize how peculiar that must've looked.

We've got spirit.


I'd read online that there was wreckage from a plane that crashed into the hillside after mechanical failure on its way to Guam in WWII (kind of a bizarre story - boy scouts found the "scattered bodies" the next morning and the air force vaguely acknowledged it). It's definitely off the beaten path and unpublished, but we eventually found the twisted metal, wiring and even cloth from the crash a good 65 years later. Eight men died instantly here, which left its surreal impression even in the middle of the afternoon.

refund be damned

"Citizens for Tax Justice, a self-described non-partisan organization, released a report on Tuesday that read: "The 2009 economic stimulus bill actually reduced federal income taxes for tax year 2009 for 98 percent of all working families and individuals." This total includes the 95 percent of working families that will or have received tax credits in the range of $400 to $800.

The health care bill passed by the administration, meanwhile, includes a tax credit that could cover up to 35 percent of the premiums a small business pays to insure its workers. The Recovery Act, meanwhile, included such tax breaks as a $1,500 credit for home energy improvements, and an $8,000 credit for first-time home buyers.

It has been a buffet of tax breaks and credits offered by this administration (occasionally to the chagrin of progressive economists, who want more focus on stimulative federal spending).

Yet polling numbers indicate that Americans are barely aware of these developments. Indeed, a good chunk of the country believes it has been saddled by this administration with tax hikes. Back in mid-February, a full 24 percent of respondents to a CBS News/New York Times poll said that their taxes had increased under Obama. Fifty-three percent said they had stayed the same. Only 12 percent thought their taxes had gone down.

"Belief is triumphing over reality," explained Bob McIntyre, director of Citizens for Tax Justice. "Part of it is they watch the wrong television shows and believe it. Part of it is the tax cut that went to almost everybody, the making work pay credit, was dribbled out... people didn't get a check. They paid lower taxes and might not have noticed it.

"It is like arguing whether Jesus rose from the dead," McIntyre concluded. "If you believe it, you believe it." "

Tennis Ball Walkers and Rhythm Nation

A good chortle to one's self does wonders to put things into perspective. Similarly, living on the fringes of chinatown does wonders to provide chortles to one's self. There's the utter distrust of idling vehicles by the inhabitants, the belief that gradually stopping adjacent to a delivery truck with its hazards on to wait for... (?) and blocking traffic in both directions has absolutely no bearing on anyone beyond a circa 1998 minivan's radius. There's the emotionless old woman in her janet jackson rythm nation sports cap, god bless her, who eases out of an obscure door next to our go-to pizza place as sure as the sun rises, preceded by her walker with tennis ball nubs and accompanying daughter, whose fluorescent orange hat seems to have warped from the set of North Shore. They amble off around the block for a good hour's shuffle.
Today it was a senior Chinese woman who snuck out between a couple of parked cars, seemingly oblivious to my idling car just feet away. Her general wardrobe was nothing out of the ordinary: some new curtain-vest line on sale at the x-ray lead apron boutique. But she was stopping traffic over these babies:
and she was rocking them like she owned that shit.

Vague encounters of the likely perfectly explainable kind

I'd like to think it's not a coincidence that I'm always alone when these sorts of things happen. I'd also like to think that the Mayans didn't base their John Cusack blockbuster scenario on some funky Chinese calendar with math that computes to the lunar calendar year 2012 actually starting two months ago OMFG and when some drunk British guy on the sidewalk yells "we're being invaded!", the San Andreas Fault doesn't tear into a spectacular bottomless pit and aliens the likes of Babyfart Mcgeezax begin firing death rays upon us.



Some drunk Brit did yell "we're being invaded!" a couple of nights ago, but he stumbled off laughing with his fellow red coats and I was left standing there with a drunk homeless couple who had sauntered out of their storefront hotel for the night, the three of us staring up in the sky. I promptly pulled my video camera phone out and aimed it towards the four silent, independent, orange globes flying in formation over downtown. Only seemingly about three times the height of the tallest office building, they flew about the speed of a two-seater but without the typical flashing lights. Three of the four disappeared about the time they reached the water, and as the fourth flew off past the city line, I pressed the button to stop recording, and it began to record. Of course. By this time, a couple dozen passersby had gathered but no one dared overreact, so we all went on our way.

I've shared this experience a couple of times since, and I imagine the response I've received must be similar to when someone tells an acquaintance that their 5 year old has been murdering squirrels with sticks in the backyard "and isn't that the darndest thing?!"

I'm sure it was nothing. Maybe four weather balloons all got tangled in a cross breeze, creating friction that generated electricity and attracted a phantom lightning bolt, igniting each balloon in a hellacious blaze before gracefully coasting over downtown. That's probably what it was.