LITTLE THINGS

*Ally is back from school now but rarely home.  When I know she is sleeping upstairs and needs to get up the old "mom voice" from the bottom of the stairs no longer rouses her.  I 've lost my touch.

*The first night Maggie was home she went out and picked a pile of lemons from our tree which we squeezed and made into several large cocktail shakers of lemon drop martinis.  When I went out the other day to pick a lemon for something I was making, I realized we used every lemon off the tree...Tom reminded me there were a few trips out to the tree that evening!

*At the A's game we bought a couple beers for Ally - one of which didn't quite make it into the cup holder. When it hit the ground, it spattered  on the shoes of the Yankee fan in front of us.  We were all  apologetic and scrambling for napkins.  Ally pulled out her red "Keep Calm and Carry On" tissues and handed them over - he just melted into a grin and was our good buddy the rest of the night.

*We rode public transportation to the game - the local BART system.  This was the scene in the station about 45 minutes after the game and fireworks display was over.

Okay - enough of my kids and our week together and back to the usual work, housework drudge. 

JUST A COUPLE OF EARTHQUAKES

This morning I saw a news story about the Great California ShakeOut, our annual state earthquake preparedness exercise.  It occurred to me that we don't have a preparedness kit like we used to.

This afternoon there was a 4.0 quake in Berkeley - about 30 miles from home.  This evening while at work, there was another, slighter bigger one.  I don't get too rattled by the quakes and I have no fear of "the big one" they have said all my life is going to happen.  I think it is a common attitude, not the safest one, I guess.  We don't have quakes with the regularity of blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes and other weather related events, so we get a bit blase.

I reassured a couple of hotel guest that the building was built under strict California building codes and it is a very safe place.  This quake did make me look around for the spot I would move to if there was a bigger, longer shake.  My bit of preparedness.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE CA SENATE RACE

For me the picture says it.  The sleek, multi-millionaire candidate who can write check after check to fund her own campaign and say anything (true or not) to discredit her opponant. After being fired from her CEO job she took a $28 million severance package.  HP, once considered one of the most employee friendly, ethical companies in the country is still paying fines from the kickback scheme to get in on government contracts engaged in while Carly Fiorina ran the show, a failed merger, fluctuating stock value, a spying scandal and thousands of  US jobs sent overseas.  Fiorina has been characterized as "as self-centered, she also fell short as a moral manager" in a study  printed in  Entrepreneur Magazine.

Then there is scruffy little Barbara Boxer in her ill fitting suit.  She has been in public service for much of her life.  She is a California Liberal, supporting marriage equality, reproductive choice, environmental issues including keeping green industries in the US rather than overseas, biomedical research, education and more.  While she has stood up against the wars in the Middle East, she did not refuse funding for the troops and their welfare.  She is a humanitarian and can not be faulted in the least for her ethics or charged with self-interest.

So while the candidate will represent California - the Senate makes decisions which affect the entire country.

Which would you rather have in office?

NO MORE EQUALITY

I am so sad and disappointed by the voters in California. A majority of votes have been cast for Proposition 8 which removed the right to marry for same sex couples.

The Christians did an excellent job of spreading lies, hate and fear through the state. Their relentless attack fueled by the Mormon church, abetted by the Catholic church and others. They have removed civil rights from residents of California.

Who will they go after next?

SUNDAY SUNRISE

Late last night I realized that I forgot to buy milk when I went to the store, and the last slosh of milk in the jug was being used to make Ally's mac & cheese. I got up at around 6 - guilt plagued that Tom would not have milk for his coffee, and honestly, not wanting to be found out for such a lapse. I can only say that the new layout of the grocery story still has me kerfuddled and I am not even sure where the milk is anymore.

At 6:30 I went out into the cool, dark morning to buy milk. When I came out the the store, I saw the sky to the east was glowing a soft magenta, throwing the trees in the subdivision across the street into silhouette. As the sky turned from pink to peach I pondered the choices people make when landscaping - one home had obviously gone for a tropical look with palm trees swaying high in the sky, next to that were a couple of triangular tops, some kind of pine trees. Ah, California, where the beach and mountain can reside side by side. I sat in my car thinking about living here - there are so many options when we are not ruled by the extremes of weather or dogma.

I listened to the end of the world music program and realized the bagel shop really should have opened by now - so I walked up to the door to find a hand written sign that the ovens were broken - no bagels. Oh, well. Waiting had given me a chance to watch the sunrise. And we don't really need the carbs anyway.