The last few days one of our local TV news affiliates has been running stories about road kill that crews, rather than move, have either paved over or painted road-stripes on. This same affiliate spoke to the people in charge of such work crews, and they claimed it was simply an over-sight.
I thought it was jus’ more of Nevada’s Senator Harry Reid’s roadside artwork, he generously paid for using our taxpayer money.
It’s completely American to poke fun at politicians of all stripes. Take for instances, rodeo clown Leon Coffee wearing a Hillary Clinton mask during the 59th Annual Stock Show and Rodeo in 2008 at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Now, jump to present day and the fact we have a Black president.
Note, I didn’t say African-American — because to truly qualify for that title, one must have been born in Africa, like say Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Unfortunately, Rabbi Lapin doesn’t fulfill the same-stream media’s bias of what an African-American is — after-all he’s a white guy.
Over the weekend a rodeo clown caused the same-stream media to go nuts once again by wearing a mask resembling President Obama, then asking the audience if they’d like to see him “run down by a bull.” The clown not only has been permanent ban from performing at the Missouri State fair, they voted unanimously to forbid use of ‘Obama masks’ at the venue again in the future.
This is the same same-stream media that tried to paint George Zimmermann as a racist, even after he was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. It’s also the same same-same stream media that gutted Paula Deen’s career and reputation, only to see all the so-called charges tossed out by a judge.
Oh and lest I forget — take off the Hillary mask and face paint and you’ll learn Leon Coffee is Black.
We get some pretty odd mail at the radio station. This is jus’ one of the many examples.
Inquisitive to see where this might lead, the first thing I did was look up Psalm 37:20, which reads, “But the wicked will perish: Though the Lord’s enemies are like the flowers of the field, they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.”
So far, so good.
Next I looked for an overlay of “God’s Temple upon America.” Try as I may, I could not find one.
In the end this piece of strange mail remains jus’ that — strange.
Though I have been in the area of Fourth and Valley several times this year taking pictures, I had never seen the large statuary tucked back against the building I was now photographing. It reminded me of some sort of Egyptian god, but I have no idea which one.
So since I was there, I figured I’d snap a shot or two of the thing and head for home. I had to get close to the relief as it was pushed back under the awning of the building.
Though I was in the shade of the building, there was enough light outside at three in the afternoon that I didn’t require my flash. I took a close up of the face, followed by a picture of the entire statue.
Surprisingly, I found ‘light artifacts,’ around the relief in both frames taken. While I’ve no idea where they came from, but do have some idea what it means.
The week continues to get rougher for my wife, Mary. First one childhood friend dies and then another passes, jus’ as sudden.
Anita Zick was 54-years-old and recently diagnosed with a non-operable brain tumor. She lost her battle with the malignant cancer, passing quietly in her sleep.
Mary and Anita graduated from Ramona High together in 1977. My heart aches for my wife’s pain and if I could take it from her, I’d do it in a split-second.
All I can do is remain quiet, offer an ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on.
Now that her public image and livelihood is destroyed, the “Associated Press” reports:
“A federal judge Monday threw out race discrimination claims by a former Savannah restaurant manager whose lawsuit against Paula Deen has already cost the celebrity cook a valuable chunk of her culinary empire.
Lisa Jackson sued Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, last year saying she suffered from sexual harassment and racially offensive talk and employment practices that were unfair to black workers during her five years as a manager of Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House. Deen is co-owner of the restaurant, which is primarily run by her brother.
But claims of race discrimination by Jackson, who is white, were gutted in the 20-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. The judge agreed with lawyers for Deen and Hiers that Jackson has no standing to sue her former employers for what she claims was poor treatment of black workers, regardless of her claims that she was offended and placed under additional stress.”
Too little, too late.
It’s been a difficult and sad couple of days for my wife, Mary as one of her childhood friends has died. Paul Ransom was only 50-years old and battling lung cancer when he passed away.
In fact Paul’s mother, Esther and his sister Janet tossed our wedding rehearsal dinner in January 1987. However, I first met Paul when Mary’s sister, Sarah and her husband Ron tied the knot two years before, at which point I referred to him as “Smilin’ Paul,” because he always seemed to be smiling or laughing.
I found an online posting from the Ramona Vineyard Church:
“Paul Ransom will live on in all the hearts he touched everywhere he went. Paul was a man that never met a stranger; as he touched and still will touch many lives by the kind words he has always so graciously spoken to many.
Paul Ransom was an amazing man of God that that lived a selfless life; serving his wife, his friends and his community in a Christ like manner.
If you didn’t know Paul Ransom (a man that most all in Ramona do) you wouldn’t have known the disease he was battling with this last year that finally took him home to Jesus where his pain finally stopped. Paul was more concerned about what storms of life others were in, RATHER THAN HIS OWN!
He will be missed be all that knew him. There will be a huge hole in Ramona that Paul once occupied as he ministered Christ to many.
However knowing Paul and his sense of humor; I think he would say: ‘Let Christ now fill that hole until we meet again in Glory!’”
There’s not much else than can be said – so I won’t even try.
It surprises me, how much I cleave to the past. I’m not talking about history, but rather my past.
My brother’s 50th birthday, came and went and I promised myself, I wouldn’t allow it to grip me, leaving me sad and heartbroken. He died in 2010 and it still feels like the moment my Aunt Barbara called to tell me of his passing.
Furthermore, I promised myself, I wouldn’t write about it, knowing I’ve spent a lot of time going over Adam’s death, both on paper and in my head. I cannot hold out anymore, especially when I saw my sister, Deirdre’s Facebook post:
“Adam’s Birthday today, August 4, 1963. I sure do miss him. Of every person lost in my life, I have wanted to talk to him the most. Hey Adam, I plan to see in about 54 years. Time passes quickly and it will be like a wink of an eye.”
Yup, it’s exactly how I feel. But I’ll get there sooner than she will.
The Gasquet Toll Road is a corduroy road, with a bed composed of timbers laid across its width and a surface of dirt and gravel. The result is an improvement over impassable mud or dirt roads, yet rough in the best of conditions and a hazard to horses due to shifting loose logs.
A newspaper of the time described it as a “wagon road leading from the forks of the Smith River up the middle fork of said river on the left hand bank thereof about four miles, thence across the same; thence to the mouth of Patrick’s Creek; thence up Patrick’s Creek to Shelly Creek; thence to a point on the state line between California and Oregon, about three miles east of the ‘Robin’s Nest,’ being about twenty miles in length and intended to be a toll road.”
Corduroy roads built of huge logs were the mainstay of local logging practices and called skid roads. These were the origin of the more widespread meaning of ‘skid road’ and its derivative ‘skid row,’ referring to a poor area.
The Gasquet Toll Road was planned by a French immigrant, Horace Gasquet, and was built by Chinese American workers. The road was begun in 1881 and completed in 1886.
On May 15, 1881, petitions were circulated among the citizens of Del Norte County to document their endorsement of the plan and ask for approval by the board of supervisors to build a new road. The May 15, 1881 issue of the Del Norte Record quotes Gasquet: “Understanding this great work, I consider myself the servant of the people interested and a full accounting shall be made of all expenditures and progress.”
Although the road may have been repaired or resurfaced with dirt and gravel in later years, it has largely retained its original composition and construction. It can still be used, but it is narrow and winds through the mountains.
Klamath County might still exist today, had it not been for its geography. When Del Norte County was founded in 1857, Klamath was still a county, with Siskiyou to east, Del Norte on the north and Humboldt and Trinity Counties to the south.
The history of the northern counties of California goes back seven-years prior, when the state legislature created 27 counties. At that time the extreme most northern counties were portioned off into two counties, Trinity and Shasta.
A year later, Klamath County was carved from the northern part of Trinity and in 1852, Shasta County was divided, forming Siskiyou County. Then in 1853, Humboldt County was drawn out of parts of Trinity County.
At this time Klamath County entailed present day Del Norte County, parts of Humboldt and a chunk of Siskiyou. This, and the fact that transportation was poor, led to disagreements over where the county seat should be located.
At one point the seat was held in Trinity, later at Crescent City and finally at Orleans Bar on the Klamath. The Bar was a natural location because it was both centrally located and could be accessed by the river.
However during the early part of 1856, petitions started circulating asking for the division of Klamath County, because it was difficult and dangerous to reach the county seat. In fact the Crescent City Herald‘s February 23rd, 1856 issue called for Klamath to be subdivided, creating Requa County.
When the petition made its way to the legislature in 1857, in the form of a bill, several names were bandied about, but all were rejected for one reason or another. Then someone suggested, “Del Norte,” Spanish for “of the north.”
Since it seemed right, the bill passed and the new county of Del Norte was formed. At the same time, Crescent City was designated the new seat.
Eventually, though Klamath County existed in various forms for the next few years, it was finally dissolved by an act of the 1874 legislature. The public debt as well as the remaining land was divided between Humboldt and Siskiyou Counties.
Historically, it can be stated Del Norte County predated the dissolution of Klamath County by 17 years. Furthermore, California state records show no other county has been dissolved after its boundaries were officially noted by the legislature.
Finally, Klamath County still exists today. It can be found north of the California state line and east of the Klamath River in Oregon.
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