San Francisco Carnaval in 2025 took place on May 24 and 25. Both days were mostly sunny with strong westerly winds in the afternoon. I caught a little of the 17th Street stage on Saturday. Sunday we went to the parade. True to form, San Francisco Carnaval is an amazing display of the diverse cultures in San Francisco from the Latin American and Afro-Caribbean worlds – Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Brazil, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Trinidad. I am sure I missed some countries. It is festival and parade were there are no corporate sponsors. So refreshing! It is a once a year event not to be missed.
Lots of horns this year. Banda bands showed up!
Loco Bloco
Loco Bloco
Loco Bloco
Loco Bloco
Classic!
Recology, the garbage collectors do their thing.
Ray Martinez y Los OG’s playing the after-party and Blondie’s’s
Miguel Govea and Edgardo Cambon in a rare photo. Two outstanding musicians and band leaders
The Valencia Street Bike Lane Project is really pretty much done. They got rid of the ugly silly center lane earlier in March and repaved that part of the road with fresh blacktop. The bike lane now zig zags around parklets. Cars have to park further into the street (I like it how now car folks need to watch out for the bikes when walking to the sidewalk – the narrative is flipped). Also, there is plenty of space for cars to drop off people. This is the plan that I thought would work best a few years back. It is like how the bike lane was implemented originally at 14th Street. Bravo!
With the advent of the Great Highway closure and Sunset Dunes Park at the beach, San Francisco is becoming a fine bicycle town.
Cars are still getting use to the bike lane. This driver thought that green zone means that is where you park.Valencia at 22ndValencia at 21st. As bicyclists we are use to going around stuff.
Valencia Street Bike Lane looking south at 22nd Street
Valencia Street Bike Lane looking north at 22nd Street
“The Henry Miller” is a bike trip that I did solo in late April and early May of 2025. I had always wanted to do this ride and get down to the Henry Miller Library along Highway 1, past Big Sur. The trip was encouraged along by a website page https://www.bestcoastbiking.com/san-francisco-to-big-sur. This website has the maps and itinerary. I followed the maps more of less but instead of Big Basin Redwoods State Park on the first night I stopped by my friend’s place in Boulder Creek. Julie, the sister of a high school buddy and her husband Al were great to get to know and hang out with. Thanks for the awesome dinner!
“The language of society is conformity; the language of the individual is freedom. Life will continue to be hell as long as the people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality. Switching from one ideology to another is a useless game. Each and every one of us is unique, and must be recognized as such. The least we can say about ourselves is that we are American, or French, or whatever the case may be. We are first of all human beings, different one from another, obliged to live together, to stew in the same pot.” – Henry Miller from “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”
Some of the riding highlights are the first day’s climb out of Woodside up the Old Honda Road. This is 2000 feet straight up an old wagon trail through the redwoods. More bikers than cars do this maniacally climb. Once you reach Skyline Blvd you take a sip of water and have to climb another thousand feet. Light traffic and a good route when the coast is fogged in. Very wild with many nature preserves.
Old La Honda Road
The traffic from Boulder Creek to Santa Cruz is a bit nasty no matter what route you go. Highway 9 for a lot of it with a few backroad detours. Once in Santa Cruz the bike paths are many.
New Brighton State Park in Capitola south of Santa Cruz is a very good park for both bikes and campers. Killer bike camp spot. There are some premier ocean-side camp sites on top of the hill. Would some day be nice to reserve that for car camping.
New Brighton State Park
Biking through the farms of Watsonville is fun as you are definitely in farm land. It is interesting to see where the food comes from and take in the climate. Acres and acres of strawberries that go on forever as far as the eye can see. A lot of lettuce and broccoli this time of year. People hard at work picking and farming. One lettuce-picking crew far from the main road flew a huge Mexican flag and were blasting mariachi music out of a converted school bus.
When you hit Moss Landing there is about 10 miles of dreadful highway shoulder riding which is never fun. The highways in this part of Monterey County are pretty bad. Two lane roads where they need four. Traffic gets backed up with people just trying to get to work. It would be brilliant if there was a dedicated bike path all the way from Santa Cruz to Monterey.
In Monterrey I camped in a spot the bestcoastbiking.com recommended, Veteran’s Park which is up a hill from the wharf. It worked out fine but next time I would get a hotel.
Day three headed down the coast. Checked out Carmel Mission Basilica, started up by Captain Gaspar de Portola and Franciscan Father Junípero Serra. Portola and Serra are the names of streets, schools and shopping malls throughout California. Serra spent most of his life in pain from probably an infected insect bite. Thank science for modern medicine and antibiotics.
Carmel Mission Basilica
It is fun to be around a classic place like Carmel Mission Basilica, where the bones have a presence and seem to talk though the floor boards. Cool paintings like Leon Trousset’s 1887 Father Juniper Serra’s First Mass. Everything looks so orderly. The ship in the harbor. Native Indians looking on in the shadows. I then rode down Highway 1 to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park with strong tail winds. The further you rode, the less the cars.
Leon Trousset’s 1887 Father Juniper Serra’s First Mass
Day four had a fun ride to the The Henry Miller Memorial Library and hung out with the locals while the foot traffic rolled in, stopped for five minutes then got back in their cars and moved on. In our family are a few Henry Miller classics, one, a signed version of the banned “Tropic of Cancer.” The book was printed in Mexico to avoid the authorities. The books where definitely my father’s. Henry Miller was a great writer and thinker and lived an amazing life. One of the inspirations for the ride is that Henry Miller liked to ride bicycles. He did not care for cars. In his late fifties he moved to Big Sur.
“After a time, habituated to so many hours a day on my bike, I became less and less interested in my friends. My wheel had now become my one and only friend. I could rely on it, which is more than I could say about my buddies.” – Henry Miller from “My Bike and Other Friends”
Julia Pfeiffer State Park (let’s just call it Julia) is an 11 mile ride down the coast from the other Pfeiffer Park. At one time there were many Pfeiffer’s down this way and according to the bulletins the women obviously kept things together. Ranching and massive honey farms. Julia has great trails and waterfalls where the fallen redwoods wrap around other redwoods by streams in an obscene orgy of interactions. Much to explore.
Big Sur
On a Monday morning I left early and headed north. The traffic was light. There were clear skies and no wind. To Carmel, then along the coast to Monterey. Up a coast bikeway that runs along the beach, golf courses and opulent ocean mansions and then over to the scrappy Salinas Amtrak Station. The northbound Coast Starlight leaves every day at six-thirteen pm. I caught the train right on time.
Bike packing ride – Specialized Diverge Gravel bike, Ortlieb panniers
Pedestrian bridge over 280 by Crystal Springs Reservoir.
Old La Honda Road
New Brighton State Park
Steinbeck photo in a restaurant in Monterey
Monterey golfers
Watsonville area. On top of the hill is an old Victorian house.
Carmel Mission Basilica
Carmel Mission Basilica
Carmel Mission Basilica
Carmel Mission Basilica
Carmel Mission Basilica
Leon Trousset’s 1887 Father Juniper Serra’s First Mass
Leon Trousset’s 1887 Father Juniper Serra’s First Mass. This is perhaps my favorite photo of the trip.
Big Sur
Big Sur coastline with blooming purple Echium candicans, the Pride of Madeira
“The language of society is conformity; the language of the individual is freedom. Life will continue to be hell as long as the people who make up the world shut their eyes to reality. Switching from one ideology to another is a useless game. Each and every one of us is unique, and must be recognized as such. The least we can say about ourselves is that we are American, or French, or whatever the case may be. We are first of all human beings, different one from another, obliged to live together, to stew in the same pot.” – Henry Miller from “Stand Still Like the Hummingbird”
Photo is from the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur California along Highway 1. I am not sure the cast of characters or the photographer but the photograph almost seems like a Toulouse-Lautrec painting. Brilliant! What laughter!Henry liked the bicycle.
In celebration of Earth Day here is a song I wrote last year in 2024 named High On a Wire. Paul Lyons on guitar and voice. Bird recording is from the Kickapoo River in Wisconsin at dusk that I made while on a bike tour (there are seven different bird songs). Indeed, we are “burnin’ this place down.” I have a strange feeling that the birds will again outlast us.
Em7/B A7/C# Am7 G
VERSE 1
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all along .
Those are birds
that sing them songs
Quite alright
to sing along.
VERSE 2
High on a wire
they sure looked tired.
From that flying
around.
High on a wire
They sure looked tired.
Chased away
by a fire.
CHORUS 1
D C G //
We’ve been burnin’ this place down.
Just like they said we would.
Got to move now
to higher ground.
A7 // D7 //
The river’s rising all around.
VERSE 3
Up in a tree
they build a nest.
Looks like now there’s
thirty-three
Up in a tree
they dance around.
And sing their songs
because their free
CHORUS 2
D C G //
Sixty-five million years ago
her grandma once roamed these same lands.
Had a big tail and very small hands.
Never played in no rock-n-roll band.
VERSE 4
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
Been doing that
all Along.
Those are birds
that sing them songs.
If you want
just sing along.
Photos of opening day at the new park on the Upper Great Highway at Ocean Beach. They call it Sunset Dunes. People will probably always call it “OB.” It is great how they got things in motion so quickly. So many great ideas! Skate park, public art, open pianos, great spots to view the waves at Noriega Street.
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Sunset Dunes Park – Ocean Beach in San Francisco
Ocean Beach view from the Cliff House in San Francisco
We live in a time when everyone is a customer. People are no longer citizens, patients or students.
People do not see themselves as citizens. Sacrifices are just for suckers. Many people voted for Donald Trump because they liked his brand and product and did not like Harris’s laugh. They chose a president like they would toilet paper. They identified with his selfishness and saw themselves or a version of themselves. Rich, selfish, scatterbrained, pugnacious, white, demanding and full of ego. Game the system. Look out for number one. Greed is the new virtue.
The health care world no longer has patients. Now they are customers. “Would you like a pill for that problem? On a scale of one to ten, what is your pain level? After the visit, please fill out this survey to let us know how we are doing.” It is not about health care but more about money. Customer satisfaction is our goal! Oh. Sorry about that opioid epidemic and all those dead people. We got them hooked on those funny pills.
In universities people are no longer students. If a professor can no longer entertain the class, she gets bad reviews. Make students read books. You must be out of your mind! With the advent of the cellphone, the majority of students go to college having never read a single book from cover to cover. I brought this up online about five years and the parents got quite defensive. It has just gotten worse.
No, our average graduate literally could not read a serious adult novel cover-to-cover and understand what they read. They just couldn’t do it. They don’t have the desire to try, the vocabulary to grasp what they read, and most certainly not the attention span to finish. For them to sit down and try to read a book like The Overstory might as well be me attempting an Iron Man triathlon: much suffering with zero chance of success. Hilarius Bookbinder Mar 31 Guest post – Persuasion Newsletter
The student is now a customer. Anything that makes them uncomfortable and they simply do not show up. An opposing point of view? An angle that is perhaps rarely seen? Reading that is difficult with big words? Learning to expand the mind? No. Sorry. I am here because if I get this degree it will hopefully mean I will not have to work in fast food, microwaving hamburgers for the next thirty years.
The irony is that we live in a world when in past times you were actually a customer. Gas stations pumped your gas. Baggers in grocery stores were common. A travel agent would make sure you got the right flights when things got complicated. When you called a company for information, you could actually talk to a real person. Maybe now we are often just disgruntled customers.
Keep it small and in the neighborhood. That’s what I say.
These novels will give way, by and by, to diaries or autobiographies – captivating books, if only a man knew how to choose among what he calls his experiences that which is really his experience, and how to record truth truly.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
William Finnegan’s – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a memoir. It is mostly a true story of a life where the common thread is surfing. Finnegan grew up in Southern California and Hawaii and at one point when he was just a grom the waves were not far from his family’s humble house near Diamond Head, Hawaii. He took to surfing at a very early age and though he does not admit it, became a big wave surfer, riding huge waves on the North Shore of Oahu, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, discovering a wave in Fiji and later in life, Portugal. When he was a young teenager he began to experience the power of the ocean.
I was shaken to the core by the sound of the waves detonating a few yards behind me. I was convinced that if I had been caught inside I would have died. William Finnegan at fourteen surfing the Rice Bowl in Hawaii
For some inexplicable reason, he kept coming back to these harrowing experiences. He seems to have remembered the minute details of various rides from previous decades were he thought the end was near. Captivating read indeed, and much of it surely somewhere near the truth.
The book is a romp through various times in his life. It is a very fun read not just because of the surfing tales but it gives a window into a time in history when people had the ability to be very mobile, flying to faraway lands, but at the same time communications back home did not exist. A telegram now and then. Regular letter writing but making a call on a phone was far too expensive and not common. People out in the world traveling used random message boards, taping hand writing messages in often feeble attempts to contact others.
In the end, I teamed up with other Westerners, bribed some Bulgarian border guards, made my way through the Balkans and over the Alps and, with the help of an American Express office message board in Munich, found [his girlfriend] Caryn in a campground south of the city. She seemed fine. William Finnegan at nineteen bumming around Europe
For this reader, the chapters where he travels around the world for a few years chasing waves with his friend Bryan is truly amazing. With nautical charts they head off to the South Pacific and discover a phenomenal wave in Fiji, unknown to the world but for a few. Now the spot is an expensive surfing resort destination. A year in Australia surfing and working odd jobs, searching for waves. Buying a beater car and driving it clear across the country, always a bit concerned if it would overheat or the next day would even start. Such road trips are times when living in the moment seems to take precedence. They seem to be not so much in nature but a part of nature.
Then there is the peculiar way that wave size is measured. While this may not be of interest to people who do not surf, it gets pretty funny.
Indeed, underestimation is practiced with the greatest aplomb on the North Shore of Oahu. There, a wave must be the size of a small cathedral before locals will call it eight feet.
Buzzy Trent, an old-time big wave rider, allegedly said, “Big waves are not measured in feet, but increments of fear.” If he said that, he got it right.
Barbarian Days – A Surfing Life is a very fun read, especially if you enjoy travelogues, you are a surfer or just love the outdoors. There may be times when the author delves into the finer points of a two wave hold-down, or the advantages of a certain fin set up or length of board. This talk must be a bit perplexing and perhaps a bit tedious to the non-surfer. One thing that Finnegan claims is that it is just about impossible to get really good at surfing if you pick it up later in life. I am living proof of this theory and would agree.
Getting old as a surfer, I’d heard it said, was just a long, slow, humiliating process of becoming a kook again.
CODA:EVERY SURFER HAS A STORY
I started surfing at the age of thirty-five, an age far too advanced to every actually get really good at the sport. I mostly do it for the exercise, be with friends and to commune with nature. It is amazing the wildlife you see out in the water. I regularly surf with dolphins and certain times of the year there are whales within twenty feet.
Paul Lyons surfing Ocean Beach in his late forties – March 2008. This session was complete luck. I remember paddling out with a board that my friend had found while on the job cleaning out student housing. I found a channel right away and caught three really nice waves. This was a rare session. I have always been a bit of a kook. – Photo by Doug Oakley
I remember the thrill of the first time I took off on a head-high wave and made it. I also remember the first time I took off on big wave on a long period swell. The waves were overhead at Ocean Beach back in the days when you would sometimes be the only person in the water. It did actually get lonely out there. I went right, stayed high on the shoulder and remember just flying down the wave faster than I had ever surfed. I had never ridden a wave with such power. I also remember a day when my surf buddies and I when out at Ocean Beach and the waves were big but seemed at the time nothing scary. I had only been surfing a few years. We made it out past the shore-break and white water only to discover that the swell, in the course of the next hour, had increased quickly. A huge set came and we tossed our boards and dove underneath. I broke my leash, lost my board which eventually washed into shore. We both paddled in a bit terrified by the whole ordeal. I pledged to never to do that again. It scared the bejesus out of me. Later I saw the buoys from when we were out. It had jumped up to 11 feet at 19 seconds. Big waves. That’s my one captivating story and it is all true.
William Finnegan lives in Manhattan and the end of the book loses the wild adventure of earlier years. Parents die. He becomes a father. Life becomes more urban. In his seventies he must still be a really good surfer as he surfs off of Long Island in the winter and will chase waves in the summer and even during hurricanes.
For those who love the adventure of youth and want to escape into that magical time of traveling before the internet, I highly recommend William Finnegan’s – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a Pulitzer Prize winning memoir.
The Quarterly Report: A brief synopsis of the news in San Francisco over the last three months. You are now reading “Slow News That Doesn’t Break” – the exotic internet.
Weather
After a very dry January, while Los Angeles burned, San Francisco had weeks on end of glorious sunshine. Then in February we got two major storms. The wind hit from the west and the storms came down good and hard. The roads turned into rivers and snow piled up in the mountains. People had to drive with chains, just like the good ‘ole days. At Donner Summit they have had over 250″ of snow. I think in the next decade or so people will begin to realize that the weather is actually the real news. Water will be all that really matters as we guard our front doors with our Second Amendments rights terrified that someone will steal a few gallons of Hetch Hetchy. March arrives with unsettled weather and reservoirs not quite full. The snow pack in the mountains is less than average.
National Politics
Donald Trump took office in late January and began a sort of mobster data coup. His billionaire henchman Elon Musk and his minions started snooping around the Federal Payment systems causing havoc. Cutting off payments to USAID, various research grants and much more. If I was talented in the graphic arts I would make a comic where you see Donald Trump sitting on a toilet and there on the toilet paper rolls is the constitution: “We the People… ” …in scribe of course. And to top it off he is taking a dump while looking at his phone. Such is the state of our world.
On March 4 he gave an address to Congress were he lied continually. He spews out lies and more lies and people begin to believe the lies. I think people are so numb to his antics that the use of the word “lie” has been purged from the English language. I read a transcript of the speech as I have not time to listen to his performances. It is full of lies.
Local Politics
Daniel Lurie is Mayor of San Francisco. The City is still here. For the average citizen it is difficult to notice that anything is changing. The forces in our world are far greater than any individual. He just started the gig and if he can solve homelessness in San Francisco he could set his sites on running for higher office. I am not holding my breath.
Sporting News
Nothing major to report on the sporting front. The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chief in the Super Bowl 40-22. This is important knowledge for when you have to remember such trivia years later. Of course, far more important than the actual Super Bowl are the people that you watch the Super Bowl with. For me this a “third space” type of group who has returned to a sacred ground near a sacred screen often with sacred herbs, tobacco and cigars. Wagers are made. People marvel at the passage of time. Consumption becomes naturally moderated. We marvel at the connections. See you next year. Same place. Same time. We need some constants in life.
Road Repairs, Parking Tickets, Do Not Parks Signs and Other Treacherous Endeavors
As predicted they are heading north up Mission Street and repaving the bus stops and intersections. Its and big job and everyone seems to be able to drive around the mess. At some point they may have to actually repave where we drive on Mission Street, but anything is progress.
That is The Quarterly Report – March 2025
Photo Gallery of SF
The Quarterly Report – March 2025
A family commute down San Jose Ave in San Francisco
Beware of Dog
Brass sign at Ocean Beach
Windmill in golden Gate Park
One day in this century it will probably happen and the Ocean Beach Coastal Trail at Sloat will become a reality. The “coming soon” sign is rusting away – not a good sign.
James is a novel by author Percival Everett and is based on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It tells the story in the first person not from the character Huck but through the enslaved person Jim. Huck Finn is a classic work of American literature that everyone has heard of but as I am finding few people have actually read. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.” A few years ago I wanted to revisit this Twain classic. Thinking I could pick up a copy at a local Goodwill I found myself out of luck. I did find one eventually and when I read the introduction I soon realized I had picked up a sanitized, censored version. I had purchased the 2011 edition of the book, published by NewSouth Books. This version replaced the term “nigger” with “slave” (not even enslaved person) throughout the book. I am sure that Twain would have not approved as he got bent out of shape when his editors simply changed his punctuation.
But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn’t anger me. – Letter to Harriet Whitmore, 7 February 1907
Huck Finn Illustration
In any event, Huck Finn has been banned from the beginning. I did eventually purchase the original Huck Finn, complete with illustrations. This was the version Mark Twain approved. It is always best to read the original.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a complicated tale that brings up many timeless themes. It makes perfect sense for Everett to use Huck Finn as a springboard for a reimagining of this classic. James tells the story of Huck Finn through the eyes and ears of Jim; in this way he is pulling one on Twain by making a “stretcher” out of his “stretcher.” Additionally Everett goes a step further than Twain and allows the character Jim to not just be freed but to become empowered. James like Huck Finn challenges assumptions about race, sex, gender and identity and in the end through a combination of education, courage, reason and the performative, James finds agency by embracing the ideals of The Enlightenment.James is a book about the “American dream.”
In order to get the most out of James it is best to have first read a few books that are referenced otherwise these references will make no sense. Start with the short novella Candide: or, The Optimist (1759) by Voltaire (it is around 100 pages). Like Huck Finn this book was banned and Voltaire did spend time in prison for his writings. Candide is a bit like a comic book in that it moves very fast – there is sex, rapes and violence, gold and jewels. Like Huck Finn it is really for adults. Characters and places from Candide make their way into James. Of course the next step is to read Huck Finn – the original version with all the bad words. Take your time.
A major theme throughout James is the performative and the anxiety that surrounds identity. In modern times this has been often called code-switching. Jim has to be careful that he does not slip out of the language of being a slave and give away that he can read and write. Of course he pulls it off mostly until at a crucial point in the book (which I will not spoil). An important thing about this code-switching is that it is handed down through generations with the elders teaching their youth how to speak and act like a slave as a means of survival. In modern language, this is perhaps a psychological aspect of what is called systemic racism. You also have a few characters who’s sex or gender are misidentified – Doris and Sammy. This is not thoroughly explained but surely has to do with black people being controlled and abused by their owners. Interestingly, the people concerned are so abused they simply accept their lot in life. Of course the King and the Duke are all about code-switching and impersonating royalty. I think it was a missed opportunity that James does not play around more with these two characters as Twain did, revealing the arrogance, corruption and incompetence of royalty. How soon we forget.
In James, the historical characters Voltaire and Locke enter the novel though Jim’s dreams. The first time is soon after he is bitten by a snake and delirious. In this way, history becomes surreal and less believable than the fiction – we only see historical figures in dreams. Jim’s dream-induced conversations with Voltaire are brief but we get a references to Westphalia and the notion of “tending your garden” and near the end Cunégonde, the love interest of Candide. Besides references to these themes the philosophical themes that Voltaire brings up in his work are not ventured into. There is no Professor Pangloss and his dogmatic “best of all possible worlds” mantra. By the time James reunites with his wife Sadie and daughter, the Voltaire references are long gone. Unlike Cunégonde, Sadie has not lost her charm and is not irritating to be around. And unlike Candide who’s identity is a constant, Jim becomes James and this identity is reinforced with the notion that you claim your identity through courage and the performative. James discards that layer of his self that is disenfranchising. If you no longer speak with the diction of a slave, then you are no longer a slave.
Race in America has a complicated history and Everett helps to illuminate this complexity not dumb it down or simplify it. In the end, James does begin to live his dream of freedom and is empowered by his literacy and the ideals of The Enlightenment that all men are created equal. As the plot twists and turns, by the end James is not anything like Huck Finn. We find ourselves back in Hannibal then another city with Jim looking for his wife and family on a “breeder farm.” Good grief! Things move quickly and become a bit like a Cohen Brothers thriller movie with lots of violence and fireworks. It is probably a good idea to read the book now. It is a thrilling page-turner and James will be in theaters soon.
Can I call you back? Busy helping Elon put “buy” and “share” buttons on all the individual financial records in the U.S. Treasury payment system. Just a minor refactor. – joke by Paul Lyons intended for IT professionals and marketing people
While we read about the Elon coup d’état of 2025 the news reports lack significant information. The system that Elon and his young henchmen are accessing is called “Secure Payment System, or SPS.” They evidently have “read-only” access. Some reports say “read-only” access to the code base. This is very reassuring. I like my Social Security number just the was it is, thank you very much! In another report it states that Elon is running the data through AI Tools to find waste and fraudulent payments. This from a guy who works for a billionaire who somehow gets away with never paying taxes. Elon is part of that billionaire club that does not pay taxes as well. It is so virtuous for him to be looking out for our money!
When I first read that Elon is looking into efficiencies in the federal payment systems I thought that his goal was to somehow modernize the system. Refactor the code base. Get rid of crappy patches. Upgrade the documentation. Review the database design. Traditional systems like banking, healthcare, transportation are notorious for having systems build upon very old systems. They often were created in long defunct languages and architectures. People often get things done via command line. I have worked with such legacy many times proprietary systems. They are often obtuse, clunky and were built for a much early time. Even things ten years old seem antiquated.
One could optimistically surmise that Elon, in his benevolence wanted to upgrade the public system in a content agnostic way out of some sort of altruism. (I always wondered why the San Francisco Public School System never got any love from the tech sector for their systems.) But nothing is further from the truth. The Treasury Department with this Secure Payment System, up until now, has always paid out everything on time. Every invoice, Every tax return. Every bill on time. That is incredible.
What Elon is doing is not content agnostic. He thinks he can shape public policy via cutting payments to things he does not like. He thinks he can undo public policy. He obviously has never read The Constitution and how the U.S. system of government works. What Elon Musk is doing is illegal. He is not an elected official.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you can ski at Donner Ski Ranch for $69 which they call Old School Days. You buy your ticket at the counter which you attach to your jacket with a metal wire. Ask your dad.
Donner Ski Ranch is one of the last family owned ski resorts. It is a medium-sized place with a lovely backside where on power days runs can remain untouched into the afternoon. It is an historic mountain where the early California skiers made some of the first turns. On the top is Signal Peak.
In early January, as the fires blaze in Los Angeles, the Sierra has clear skies and a diminishing snow base. The slopes are a bit icy and the groomed trails are the way to go. I headed up to Donner Ski Ranch to try out some new boot liners. I had a great day on a sunny Wednesday. Even though it was Old School Days, I basically had the hill to myself.
After skiing I headed down Highway 89 to visit and stay with a friend and then did a day exploring South Lake Tahoe and then headed to Echo Summit, just to look around and figure the place out. Think snow!
William Finnegan’s – Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life is a memoir. It is mostly a true story of a life where the common thread is surfing. Finnegan grew up in Southern California and Hawaii and at one point when he was just a grom the waves were not far from his family’s humble house near Diamond Head, Hawaii. He took to surfing at a very early age and though he does not admit it, became a big wave surfer, riding huge waves on the North Shore of Oahu, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, discovering a wave in Fiji and later in life, Portugal. When he was a young teenager he began to experience the power of the ocean.
