This day

Frustrating Thing: Spending 2 hours in heavy Friday afternoon traffic to get to church. Spending 1/2 hour looking for parking, but not finding it. Driving home without getting to go to church.

Fun Things: Got to go shopping for the property. Had to buy some plants. My gardener wanted me to pay him $65 for planting flowers in a little bit of dirt by the mail boxes. And not just any old flowers, either. He wanted to put flowers there that totally die during the winter and don't come back next spring. So I just went to the nursury and found some beutiful rosemary bushes (2 for $25.99) and some grape vines (Muscat of Alexandria and Cabernet). The rosemary is going in by the mail boxes. The grapes are going to replace some ugly rosebushes (I don't have enough money in the budget to pay the gardener to husband them as they need to be husbanded. And I don't have the knowledge.) by one of the driveways. Grapes are easy. Just tie them to a stake, prune them once a year, and all is good. Unfortunately, they will only get sun for 1/2 the day so they won't be producing useable fruit.

Thankful Things: Athanasia and the big boy drove to the San Jouaquin Valley town of Madera today. They were visiting her grandmother. I couldn't go. I had a move-in I had to be here for. I also had two contractors scheduled for today but they were no-shows. (It's Friday, you know.) Anyway, my wife and son got there and back safely. I am thankful for that. It is a long drive. But on the way there, they stopped at Casa de Fruta, a well known cultural institution in the hills between the Santa Clara Valley (aka Silicon Valley, aka Valley of Heart's Delight) and the San Jouquin Valley. The little boy fed the goats.

RANT: (Before you read this, click on the Valley of Heart's Delight link, above.) A few weeks ago, at the boy's birthday party (held early because of Lent), I said something about how I think all developed land should either be high density cities (such as San Francisco, Manhattan) or farm land, and that I think tracts of single family houses are poor stewardship of the land and contribute to the erosion of society. One young woman at the party said, "You don't like houses?"
"Just single-family detatched houses."
"Why?"
"A lot of reasons, but one is that they require huge amounts of roads and parking lots, and once you pave earth and destroy the topsoil you can never grow anything on it again."
Then she said something to me that showed me how bad the situation is. She said, "But what about back yards?"
I couldn't believe it. I had just talked about the destruction of productive land and she was thinking about back yards. I should have mentioned that suburbs make people fat.
My personal problem is that I am a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke, and think that in general, people should be free to do what they want with what they own. But it just makes me sick to see beautiful orchards and vinyards destroyed.

Amusing Thing: As I was getting into the shower, the phne rang. I ran to get it. (It was the work phone.) But I didn't get there in time. Whoever called hung up. A second time, as I was getting into the shower the phone rang. I ran to answer it. Again, the caller hung up before I could answer it. So, as I was walking back to the bathroom, I saw the face off an old chinese lady (one of my tenants) looking in the side window. And she saw A LOT more of me than my face. I belive the expression is: The Full Monty. I thought she was going to die. I know I nearly did. As it turns out, she is the one who had called twice and hung up. She is very impatient so came looking for me. I hope that teaches her to let the phone ring more than 3 times before she hangs up.