Give Me a Break

I know I should be concerned for the future of our Country and our World, what with being a father and an Uncle and all the hopes and fears those roles bring.

But right now I just want to Catch a Break.

Like, just a few days ago I was seriously considering chucking in my pre-millenium VW Diesel, which although it gets 45 mpg religiously, has basically devolved into a disintegrating mass of metal and plastic and is now slightly embarrassing to be seen in. I mean, I lost the front cupholder 5 years ago and my kids destroyed the rear one sometime in the year '00.

So there I was looking at leasing or buying a new generation 'clean diesel' from the company that has come to mean diesel cars to me - Volkswagen.

Just as I was circling in on a decision of which model to haggle for, the news about VW's cheating on emissions testing came out.  On their diesel cars, it appears they installed software that could detect when testing was happening and lean out the motor to clean up the emissions, then revert back to normal operation at all other times, meaning the 'clean' diesel was actually significantly dirtier than testing showed, at least for some forms of emissions associated mainly with diesel motors.

Now, I know these diesels are not as clean in certain forms of pollutants as modern gas-engined cars, but they emit far less carbon dioxide and you'll never see one (that isn't seriously broken) coughing out black smoke, unlike the old days when following behind a diesel going uphill would give you a basic grounding in smoke-screening.

So, I wasn't deterred by the VW news.

But then they stop selling all diesels in the US. Gone, none, nada ...

Give Me a Break!

Who knows how long it will take to get these things fixed and back on the shop floor.  And when they are fixed how will they run if they have to operate all the time in the right mode for low emissions?

I guess I'll have to invest in my old diesel from the last millennium, then, but I priced those cupholders and they are $200 plus for a few bits of plastic and a spring.  (Give Me a Break)

Despite Change, The Same Lament

The more things change the more they stay the same.  An old saying, and one that seems shaky given the apparent pace of technological and social evolution, but nonetheless feels true in some fundamental aspects of our human civilization.

And this can surprise you.

The degree to which this country is still plagued by bigoted, even full-on racist, attitudes has certainly surprised and shocked me.

Having spent my childhood years in the South, I was  exposed to the 'separate but unequal' status quo of the fifties and early sixties, and that was indeed ugly and hateful, but I've seen so many positive changes over the intervening years I thought that old attitude was gone, an historical anachromism tied to our less educated, less aware days.  Living most of my adult life in larger cities among intelligent and progressive people, and not being a man of color, I guess I've been insulated against reality.

But the events of 2014-2015 have shown us all in ways we can't ignore that prejudice is alive in this land; weakened from its former self maybe, but like a half-dead rattler in the grass still capable of delivering a deadly strike.

From the string of fatal inflictions of police prejudice that began in Ferguson, to the lack of respect shown for our President that exceeds anything thrown at a sitting chief executive in living memory, we are awash in evidence.

If I am very lucky, I may have a little more than two decades left on this planet.  I am hoping that what I thought had happened but hasn't yet, finally does, and that before those twenty-odd years are done there will no longer be reason for this lament.

Quaking

The big quake in Nepal that has caused so much death, destruction, and disruption, is a potent reminder to those of us living on or near the 'Ring of Fire' that we are vulnerable.  What we see in faraway corners of the World reflected on our TV screens has meaning beyond the obvious human sympathy.

In the past week we've had a few 3-plus sized quakes in the 'Greater LA Area', and those little jolts are like pinpricks against our calloused sensibilities (we've had a long time since our last 'big one' to forget and grow dismissive of the danger.)

It is only a matter of time before either LA or San Francisco have our number come up on the wheel of misfortune that circles the world's big fault zones, and we have another Big Quake.  Chances are, thanks to higher standards of building codes, the damage here won't be as complete and devastating as seen in Nepal, or in Haiti before that.  And chances are also good that our big one will not be as BIG as that 9.5 Quake in Japan - and it had better not be because nothing is built here to withstand that large a jolt.

As a final ramble through my thoughts on this subject,  I'd like to ponder why we have such a fascination with these sorts of horrific happenings.  There have been a number of films made about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and tornadoes - there is a new one called 'San Andreas' due out this Friday in fact.

I find this disturbing, especially since I feel the attraction of this kind of entertainment too, and that fact depresses me, but I guess what's happening is we are all 'Whistling Past The Graveyard' in hopes that wallowing in the worst case scenarios will magically prevent them.  Did the residents living near Fukushima fail to watch enough disaster flicks?

The Maybes of May

Its just about this time of year, when we are either well into Spring or fiscal Q2, depending on your ability to separate Life from Work, that some of us start second-thinking about the way the Year will go.  We start saying to ourselves ... "Maybe "

Maybe I should take that trip to the Isle of Man TT ...

Maybe I should change jobs ...

Maybe I ought to join a gym before summer ...

Maybe I should stop watching so much television, or cut back on the coffee, or alcohol, or all of those things at once.

Maybe I should read more, or blog more, or learn Spanish.

Maybe its time to move to another State, maybe another Country, preferably one where they speak Spanish.

These equivocations can go on and on, at least until the Summer is old and even the most optimistic of us are forced to admit 'it's too late this year', and the 'Maybes' get reconfigured as New Year's Resolutions.

And, as dependable as the ever so slowly diminishing rotation of the Earth about its axis, around this May-time next year we will start questioning those Resolutions and the Maybes will come out again.

It is my fervent but realistic hope that All of Us can make a Maybe or two come true this Year, if that is what we truly want.

OMG 2015

 By now I've stopped dating my checks '2014' by mistake,  so its about time to take a look at this year 2015 we find ourselves in...

... cue swirling intercut images of burning Jordanian pilots, terrorist attacks in France, Netanyahu 'addressing' Congress, and Jon Stewart breaking up with the Daily Show

Enough!  Can't we go back and stay a while in 2014?

What? Not possible? Okay then, can we fast forward to 2016?  Wait ... that's an election year and I'm not ready to go through THAT again, not yet.

Oh well, a slow hopeful plod through the remaining three quarters of 2015 then.  A year in which we must hope nothing worse (and maybe better) than what we've already seen comes our way:

No greater escalation of the Ukrainian War ...
Fewer and less lethal Terrorist Attacks ...
Calmer heads in Congress willing to compromise for the good of the populace ...
An Iran nuclear agreement that will prevent the 'Islamic Bomb' but gets Iran the e-power it needs...
Increasing mutual understanding and sympathy between Hamas and Israel (we can dream) ...
Respect for women in India, Pakistan, and other medieval places (its 2015, damn it) ...
A North Korea that can laugh at itself ...
- and - John Oliver seeing the light and ditching his great HBO show for an even greater gig as the new Daily Show host ...

If even one of those things could be said to be true of 2015 when we are sitting around in March 2016 and looking back, then maybe this year won't be such a disaster.

Unless that Big Space Rock finally hits ...
Or the Large Hadron Collider turns Earth into a New Big Bang...