Busy, busy busy... a new U-haul page!

Roni was looking at my earthquake page and the pages I linked, and discovered the house she lived in, in the Daly City slide pictures. I told her so! There's a reason I refer to her as my Seismically Challenged daughter! The place she lives now is no better, in fact it's pretty-much worse.
I forgot to mention, on the earthquake day, about the fireboats. They were going to be decommissioned, but they were so useful putting out the Marina fire that they're still in use.

Yesterday we went down to the State Library to look at the daguerrotypes from the gold rush that were on exhibit. They were interesting, and so was the State Library. Between that and the Sacramento Room of the main library, I only wish I were researching something. I'd have lots of fun!
From their we went to the Capitol, which is always beautiful. There's an exhibit about El Camino Real in a couple of the rooms. I noted a mission of San Luis Gonzaga, and wonder if that's in Baja. I bought some California stuff for Bill Chance's son while I was there. I'd promised to do so, then haven't been anywhere that I could.

Last night we went to the last of the 15 gold rush lectures. I'll synopsize it tomorrow, but suffice it to say, there was CAKE. The organizer had set up a reception for attendees. We'd said, going in, we wanted college credit for the series! Rich and I made 14 of the lectures. The only one we missed was the night of Loretto's graduation.
There were "adult beverages" which rather surprised me at a college venue, too used to Gonzaga's dry policy, I suppose. Brownies, other cookies, and CAKE. I capitalize that because the slices were HUGE. I had the white cake with whipped cream filling and fruit... strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, yum yum yummmmmm. There was also a chocolate cake that looked a bit like a brown version of Roni's wedding cake. I don't know if there were gold flecks on it or not, how appropriate, but it, too, was gorgeous. Yummm.

Judy Blume writes on Harry Potter, and Jon Carroll on the Boondocks.

Our Nigerian pastor, on Sunday, was sermonizing on "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's..." He said there is no reason for Americans to evade taxes. He talked about our clean water, our roads, our schools. There are a lot of things there we do take for granted, though lately it's been fees more than taxes that pay for them. this article is about population, but it also mentions water, etc.

However, apparently the Census bureau is about to redefine poverty with a stroke of the pen, making more folks eligible for food stamps, etc. If more people are poverty-stricken tomorrow who were getting by today, though, it makes one wonder about taxes. I don't like paying them for someone's franking, a special dining room, and the other perks the Congresscritters don't pay for. Or how about Tony Coelho leasing a Mercedes and chauffeur staff because he was in the foreign service? Taxes (better yet, fees) should be for necessary services, not to pay for a bloated lifestyle for someone in authority. Enjoy this "budget surplus" while it lasts!

THE PRESIDENT and congressional Republicans have just piously agreed to try not to spend billions of dollars they're already busily spending.
....
It is largely those caps that produced the illusion of a budget surplus, in other than Social Security funds, over which the parties have been fighting all year. The Republicans wanted to use it to finance their tax cut, the president to cover his own initiatives. But it doesn't exist. They've spent the entire year arguing about the use of an accounting construct, or to put it another way, the president and the Democrats have spent the entire year wriggling free of the consequences of a previous lie.
--- The Washington Post, Oct. 22

Father also got quite worked up about voting. Of course, I agreed with him there. It's just as well he didn't get into jury duty, too, or we might still be sitting in church!