American Autoban

I just finished a high speed run down to Bakersfield.

I live about 300 miles north of there in Novato; about 20 miles north of San Francisco.

I went down for my sister, Patty's birthday. I won't say which one, but it rhymes with Spifty.

All the family was there. I also saw Michele Griebling. She has a different last name now but I'm not sure what it is. Her being mentioned in this blog counts towards her 15 minutes of fame so be sure to tell a friend about it.

We had dinner at a Mexican food place. I love Mexican food. I can eat a ton of it and still pretend that I'm eating healthy. After all, it's not candy (M&M's) and it's not fast food (McNuggets) and it was probably cooked in an oven.

Speaking of food, it has come to my attention that not all of you have been to my cooking website. This is a must read. You can get there by clicking on the Cooking For the Single Man link above this blog.

Back to my road trip. I tend to make this 600 mile round trip in two days. It's not that I don't like Bakersfield. I actually grew up in Wasco, a small town near there. No, I come home quickly just to get the trip out of the way.

I don't know if you have ever been on Interstate 5 between Bakersfield and the Bay area but its not exactly the most scenic place to spend 5 hours. The easiest job in the world would have to be a travel guide on a tourist bus along this road.

"Looking back over your shoulder, you can see the vanishing Bakersfield skyline."

Two hours later: "Be careful not to lower your window as we are now passing through the largest methane cloud outside of Jupiter. And yes, those are 50,000 cows off to your right. They seem to be standing in mud (or something) up to their knees. I'm told they are very content."

(Cows got Knees??)

Three hours later: "We are now entering Oakland. In the event of an emergency, handguns will fall from the overhead compartment. I'll now demonstrate how to load it..."

And that would be about it.

This stretch of road has no real speed limit. The signs say "75 mph" but I think they just didn't have any bigger numbers in their Acme Sign Making Kit. It's basically, go as fast as you can, dropping out of Warp speed only when a cop car is spotted on the other side of the freeway.

Every time I see someone getting a ticket on that stretch of the road, I can't help admiring them and thinking, "How fast was that guy going anyway?" I routinely go around 80 and spend the entire time in the slow lane watching the fast cars speed by as their paint peels back from the wind friction.

So now, I'm home.

Now, just a bit of politics...

After the fact, I'm glad the budget came down to the wire. It brought a lot of focus on the need to cut spending. I'm all in favor of either cutting spending or increasing revenue.

Here's the thing: Everyone wants to balance the budget. The GOP pretends they are the only ones. I have no problem with them being the vocal leaders on this so long as they comply with the following:

• Don't use budget cutting to forward your social agenda and pretend it's about the money.
• Don't tell me you want to cut spending when you just gave the richest 2% over $1,000,000 apiece over the next ten years by extending the tax cuts to include the rich.
• Don't eliminate Medicare and pretend that you've solved a problem instead of creating one.

By the way, Props to Boehner. This guy has essentially signed a deal with the devil. He knows the Tea Party is a joke and yet, he has to do their bidding to keep his job. I think he held up fairly well considering who is pulling his strings.

I'm off to Budapest tomorrow. I'll try to post before my flight in the evening. By the way, I'm trying to post more often to see how it affects readership. If you like this coming out daily or every other day...or never, let me know.

Now, I'm not in the mood to "Keep them honest" so here is a feel good song.

Enjoy while I get my cape out of the wash and packed for my trip.

Up, up and away...