Not Again

It  was a bit after 3 when I woke up, after sleeping for about 3 hours.  I turned on Morning Joe, hoping it would put me back to sleep.  I thought I had mistakenly chosen the wrong channel because they seemed to be showing a rerun of the Pittsburgh massacre and talking about "11 people killed."

In short order, I realized this was not Pittsburgh, it was Thousand Oaks here in California and another shooter had gone berserk and killed 11 people (12 now, at the time of this writing) and wounded "at least" 12 others. 

With the shooter also killing himself, they may never know what prompted him to open fire on "college night" in "the 4th safest city in the country."  The gun was not an automatic, it was purchased 4 years ago, he has no terrorist connections that they have found yet.  Maybe they can find enough to make a "best guess" scenario, but there are still 12 dead, including a long-time Ventura county sheriff near retirement age.

Once again, my heart hurts and I feel the helplessness of being an onlooker.  Jeri had maybe the best suggestion for all of us:

Assignment for everyone: when you are out in the world this week, look people in the eye and acknowledge them. Smile and say hello. Hold the door for someone. Let the other car go first. Thank the barista. Whatever.

Maybe if we start an epidemic of "kindness" in our communities we can begin to prevent such heinous acts.  Maybe not, but what a more pleasant place it will be  to live.

Kindness did not start in the nation's capital, where the president, crowing about a glowing victory in the midterms (what TV was HE watching??), took on the members of the press and even threw out a CNN reporter and took away his White House access pass, using a doctored videotape claiming the reporter had manhandled a White House staffer, when comparisons between the WH tape and the original CNN tape (and memories of everyone who watched it live) show that he did not.

But this White House is unscrupulous and will go to any lengths to achieve whatever goal they desire.

"CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them.
You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN"

Good news in the midst of all this was checking my blood test results.  Last CK result was 558, this time it's 498.  Normal is <200 .="" better.="" feeling="" font="" i="" m="" nbsp="" no="" wonder="">

With nothing positive but blood tests to think about at home Walt and I took off for Vacaville to meet Char for lunch at good ol' Fenton's.

Fenton's is our go-to meeting place whenever Char and I get together for lunch.  It's a longer drive for her, but she will drive that distance to get a crab salad sandwich.

Fenton's is amazing.  We first encountered it in Oakland and were pleased when they decided to open a shop in Vacaville.  We don't eat there often but it's a special place.

They have humongous sundaes and my complaint is always that there is copious sweet sauce, but the ice cream is piled so high in the bowl that the sauce goes all over the saucer on which it is served.  I got smart one time and requested that my small sundae be served in a larger bowl and I was able to keep most of the chocolate sauce in the bowl so I could eat it with a spoon rather than debate about what people would think of a 75 year old woman licking the plate.

I have never ordered their banana split, which is reported to contain a quart of ice cream.

But we all ordered vanilla malts (loaded with malt!) and crab sandwiches and were very happy with our lunch.

On the way home there was thick smoke in the air, which we thought was coming from the fire that is burning about 100 miles north of here (14,000 people without power right now and mandatory evacuations of several small towns).  The traffic was surprisingly thick and in spots actually stopped, but then we discovered an active fire in the median, which professionals were in the process of putting out.

From there it was clear sailing home and an opportunity to catch up on the latest depressing news from the midterm results and the latest lies from the White House.