SQLGeek wrote:Enjoy Santa Maria even if unarmed. The SLO area is where I went to school so I'm rather partial to it, even if it is Commiefornia.
Oh, it's real pretty, and the weather is nice, and the pace of life is slow, and people are relaxed. It's all enjoyable..........and naked. My aunt is the local "grand doyen" of community theater and pretty much ran the Santa Maria community theater for decades. My uncle Tom, who passed away a couple of years ago, owned a popular photography studio in town and shot all the high school yearbook and graduation pictures and most of the weddings. They are VERY plugged into the community. My aunt's son is
Bryn Smith, who had a moderately successful major league pitching career (Expos 1981-89, Cardinals 1990-1992, Rockies 1993). He made a small fortune in baseball, invested it wisely, and now his "work" consists of making sure that the bass pond and putting course on his property don't wilt for lack of attention, lending his name to local charity work, and coaching little league ball and collegiate summer season ball. For them, it's an idyllic existence.
Bryn's very large house is on a very large property outside the hamlet of Orcutt, which is immediately south of Santa Maria. We're staying at the Radisson hotel which is right next to the postage stamp airport, and about 4 miles from Bryn's house. It's a very relaxing place. But everything outside of it is like the land of the lotus eaters.
Unfortunately, my aunt got badly hurt the day before we arrived on Friday. On Thursday night, my cousin Tom, Bryn's older brother, was dropping her off at her house. She normally drives her own car into the garage and enters the house from there, but this time, she was entering from her front door—which she normally never does. She tripped on a very small front step and fell forward. She put her arm out to break her fall and broke her right humerus mid shaft, and she struck her head on the flashing at the bottom of the door and sliced her head open from above her eyebrows to the top of her crown. So my cousins had to get her out of the hospital Saturday morning for her own birthday party.........not that Meg would ever let something like that stop the show. (She's an old school Hollywood trooper from a day when Hollywood kept things clean and gave patriotism its proper due. She was in the industry, friends with people like Cary Grant and Clark Gable, and Jane Russell was her best friend.)
So Meg spent the day ensconced in a plush armchair which had been carried out to the patio, in a flaming orange mumu, big sunglasses to cover two shiners, and a straw hat covering the gauze her head was wrapped in, while her acolytes gathered around her as she dispensed her blessings. She was like a mafia godfather in drag. It was hilarious. "Meg" is short for "Omega," her full name, and she truly is the end of that era of Hollywood.
I will say this....Meg is, or
was, one of those uniquely
California republicans.....which means that she is a liberal.....and she is vehemently anti-2nd Amendment, unless we interpret it to exclude anything except muskets. I found some recent letters to the editor of the local paper which she wrote, including a recent one in January of this year, in which she calls the NRA evil, and accuses people who own "assault rifles" of "hiding behind" the 2nd Amendment. My cousin Bryn is a horse of a different feather. He's not a gun collector, but he is an avid bird hunter so I know he owns at least one shotgun. He has a feral hog problem and he has a buddy with an AR10 and night vision equipment who comes over to fix that for him. And there were several other pro-gun people at the party, including someone who gave up his FFL because he had it more as a hobby and it wasn't worth the hassle from BATFE over the 8 or 10 guns he sold each year.
So in this environment, I am treading lightly, refusing to discuss politics, and just enjoying being with my family. Tomorrow, it's home sweet home, and I've just finished upgrading our seats on the return flight. Life is good.
“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
― G. Michael Hopf, "Those Who Remain"
#TINVOWOOT
