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.
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.
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.
I was watching the news when a Depends commercial aired, and I thought, thank goodness, I don't have to worry about that for a while.
Phoebe is still not fully house trained, so every night before bed, I take her and Cooper for a walk. I thought if they had Depends for dogs, that could be helpful. I usually take a flashlight, but this time I forgot, and we were out in the dark. At the edge of the driveway, I heard a noise in a tree. Suddenly, I sensed something and heard a loud screeching sound right above me. I had apparently gotten too close to an owl's nest, and she came down to scare me. She succeeded, and I realized I should pay more attention to those commercials.
On a better note, thank you to John for graciously giving us a bed for my daughter's roommate.
Thank you.
