Jul 14 - 20

By Friday afternoon, I had a long week and decided to relax with a beer or two. First, I fed the dogs and started dinner when Phoebe, the Australian Labradoodle, began sneezing like crazy. It was clear she had a foxtail up her nose, so we needed to visit the vet. Unfortunately, our vet was about to close, so we went to an emergency vet. She threw up all over the back seat on the way. At the vet, they had to sedate her, and after two hours and $950, they removed the foxtail and I got a sleepy Phoebe home.

Saturday morning, I returned from Taylor's, and she was throwing up again with an unattractive stool. Back to the vet, and four and a half hours later and another $550, we got home. I thought I could finally relax, but she had another unattractive stool. Looks like today, I will become a regular at this vet clinic.

Jul 7 - 1

My buddy Michael came up with these 2 innovations for lawn care and cheap fire detection.

What do you think?

So my kids apparently live with in 2 block of this event in Orangevale, where hundreds of people were lighting off illegal fireworks.

I am so glad we chose a safe neighborhood for them.

Jun 30 - Jul 6

This is a disturbing story, with no humor.

I recently realized how lucky I am to be alive.

My parents moved to Sacramento in 1966 and bought a home behind Town and Country Village. In my twenties, around 1976, I moved back in with them for a while. At night, I would often go out into the street to stretch and do sprints.

One night, while I was stretching, I happened to look up — and saw a tall, thin man walking directly toward me from behind a large bush at the side of our driveway. As soon as I looked at him, he immediately turned around and disappeared into the darkness. At the time, I didn’t think much of it and went on with my sprints. I would sprint to the stop sign, then turn around and sprint back.

As I approached our driveway on the return run, I must have startled him — because he suddenly took off running. Apparently, he had still been hiding behind the bush.

Fortunately, I never saw him again. But not long after, a family was murdered in their home up the street on Morse Avenue. Then a woman was murdered on the other side of us, on Tioga Way. That’s when I started to wonder.

Eventually, the killer was caught. He had murdered six people in total. His name was Richard Chase — a young man with severe mental health issues. When I saw his photo, I immediately recognized him. It was the man who had been behind the bush that night.

If I hadn’t happened to look up when I did, I probably wouldn’t be here today.

Years later, after my parents passed away, we bought the house from my family. While putting up a new fence in the backyard — the side that faces Tioga Way — I was digging for a post when I found a large chef’s knife buried under the leaves. I still have that knife, and I still wonder if it was the one he used back then.

Jun 23 - 29

Birthright Citizenship and the struggle of the lower class.

I suffer from turtle envy.

We live out in the country, and in our area, we are all close to an irrigation canal, so we all have ponds. However, my pond is no match compared to my neighbor's pond. We have a nice pond, but compared to our neighbor's, we are considered a lower-class pond. Consequently, the turtles all hang out over there. On top of that, my neighbor has installed turtle islands. These are lavish islands with vegetation, rocks, and little beaches that make a little turtle paradise. Okay, so now it is time for all the turtles to lay their eggs. They come up on shore, bury their eggs in the dirt, and when the eggs hatch, the baby turtles all head down to the pond. The problem is that all his turtles come over to my yard to lay their eggs. I have found 8 nests with remnants of eggs left behind. We are talking close to 80 baby turtles. These babies all go back to his pond, and that is not right.

You have heard of Birthright Citizenship. If you are born here, you belong here. So theoretically, these are all my turtles. They should not be going back, but they have been instructed that my pond is a low-life pond, and I am left turtleless. It is just not fair, and I am not sure what to do about it.