Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson      Red Bluff Daily News 12/03/2024

        Belated gratitude, still relevant

You’ll read this 5 days after the culinary indulgence, the (hopefully) warm, rewarding hospitality and camaraderie of family and friends, the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” for NFL and college football teams (go Ducks), and the onset of Hallmark Christmas movies. However, I’m writing on Thanksgiving Day. The coming days must be devoted to early rising and driving to get “first chairs” for skiing.

The most immediate source of thanks is nature’s gift of abundant snow on Mt. Bachelor, allowing for the best early (pre-Thanksgiving) skiing in the nearly quarter-century we’ve been trekking the 300-odd miles north from Red Bluff. That leads to being grateful for 74-year old bodies that can still navigate the groomed runs we’ve come to love so much that we ski them in our minds after the season is over.

I told you that to tell you this: What brought us to our Bend, Oregon, home in November was not, ironically, favorable skiing weather. It was medical appointments, tests, lab analysis and review, which leads to thanks for biopsy results labeled “benign,” and a Cologuard “sample” found to be “negative” for whatever they test. Yay! No need for the dreaded colonoscopy. Enough about bodily sources of gratitude.

Thanks must be expressed for 34+ years in a small, Northern California town we call home for 4 or 5 months a year, when we aren’t skiing or taking our “cabin on wheels” to mountain, forest, lakefront or seaside campsites. Beats the heck out of the years we had to return to a Los Angeles condo from similar sojourns in California.

I must express gratitude, satisfaction, even vindication for the way a certain election turned out a month ago. ‘Nuff said. Our local representatives being reelected to Sacramento and Washington, DC, brings us genuine joy; you win some and lose some, but winning’s better.

A modestly-priced meal at a downtown Bend restaurant suffices for our repast; we may even have leftovers as our tummies rapidly fill these days. Last year’s ski pants still need fitting into; new togs aren’t cheap.

Last but far from least, we never lose our gratitude for being blessed with each other’s continued love, support, companionship and joy (the real kind, not the fake stuff bandied about by a certain politician). When so many folks fail to find that special someone or, having found them, fail to keep the spark and flame of love alive, or have the heartbreak and misfortune of loss—we “knock on wood,” thank our lucky stars, and offer a prayer of gratitude.

Like many pet owners, our half a dozen feline “kids” have, over 34 years, given us far more than the food and care we’ve given them. If, as they say, life is extended and made healthier by the time spent laughing, our four-legged, rescued cats have surely lengthened our lives.

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It was a coincidence that the same day a headline for editor/reporter Rick Silva’s story, “Water parcel fee found unconstitutional by court” appeared, I happened to pull a June Daily News edition out of my bag of vacation-held papers, with Liz Merry’s column on the justifiably-maligned well fee. Suffice it to say that “she told us so.” We can be grateful for both Liz’s attention to such things, as well as a judge correctly applying the law.

So, voters simultaneously, ironically approved more indebtedness via bonds for school facilities (Measure 2), and “water, wildfire and land protection” (Prop 4), but rejected making it easier to approve bonds “for housing and infrastructure” (Prop 5). We of a certain generation recall the Wimpy character in Popeye comics who offered that he would “gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

Indicative of the (not so) Golden State’s laggardly financial habits, “The Golden State Is Eating Its Golden Geese; California Defaults on Loan: Businesses Stuck With The Tab,” by Gordon K (Twitchy.com). Chef Andrew Gruel stated: “We just ran payroll. The payroll taxes were 2K (dollars) higher than calculated. We called the payroll company. They explained (in summary) that California has a budget shortfall, and the federal government wants money back that it lent California for UI (Unemployment Insurance) that it ‘lost.’

“They are making up for it by having business owners pay it. Keep in mind that it was around 10% of our total payroll. When people say, ‘Why isn't California business-friendly?’ remember this.” It’s the equivalent of “dine and dash,” leaving the restaurant with the tab.

“BAY AREA STATE OF MIND” @YayAreaNews posted this: “March 2023: Gavin Newsom promises to build 1,200 tiny homes by Fall. Fall: Newsom's Senior Advisor on Homelessness offers a word salad explanation for the nonexistent tiny homes. August 2024: $750 MILLION gone & not a single tiny home constructed.”

The industrial rate of electricity in California is about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh); outside of Calif. the rate is about 8 cents per kWh. Is manufacturing in CA insane, or stupid?