THE FLAGRANCY

When my mother lived in the Los Angeles area after marrying my father, she was "convinced" that to save money they took down the mountains every afternoon. Actually, the air polution would obscure them by tea time, and they'd fade into the greenish grey-haze. I did not really understand what she was talking about until after returning to the United States I lived in the Los Angeles area for a year or so. It rained overnight once, and that morning when I looked out of my bedroom window I was shocked to see mountains there.
So close I could almost touch them.

Okay, Southern California really IS cheap as blazes.
Why aren't those things there all the time?

But apparently things have improved.


It's still Southern California, though. I'm glad I moved back to Northern California, where the craziness caused by drugs and chemicals in the water is not quite so rampant. Except for Berkeley, where there are giant hairy vampire bats crawling around on the office carpet, which must be whacked with a ruler.

Here in the Bay Area you have to drive for several hours to see mountains. Fortunately I'm not very big on mountains. I have never been to Tahoe, and I don't ski.
I do not wish to disturb the bears.

As I understand it, once you go far enough westward and cross the mountains, you're in a fairy tale land where menthol cigarettes, high proof grain alcohol, and methamphetamine are all over the place. Which explains a lot about both Nevada and folks from the SF Bay Area. Many of whom pack their own vegan supplies for the journey, and sachets of mushroom coffee which you can't get there.


We banned menthol cigarettes in California eight years ago. One of my coworkers has to drive all the way to Oakland to break the law and buy cartons of them under the table.

I am shocked, shocked I say, at the rampant disregard for regulations.
No wonder people so many sneer at the government.
One would be foolish not to.



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