Safety First :):) (Turkeys)

Happy Friday, my Darling,

I'm just getting home, you may be enjoying your Friday night, but a quick word on the safety thing, since you don't usually remark on the subject. First of all, I hope that you have never personally had any serious experiences in that regard. I know that in the past, you have made mention of drunks, and redneck and/or hunter culture, i.e. "macho man" culture, but I again hope that you have not had any confrontations or incidents with said individuals. Just going by your reference of Emily Tebbets' post, and taking it at face value as a simple protection, prevention and safety issue, that app is a great idea. Since you generally never mention this kind of thing, however, I just wanna make sure you are Triple Safe at all times. You are, I trust?

On campus, I would imagine you have some kind of student escort service? They have one at CSUN, with designated student safety officers standing by building exits at night, and in the quad area. They are easily spotted by their red shirts, and can either be spontaneously approached or contacted in advance, and they walk students (usually female) to their cars or to the bus stop. They also have walkie-talkie communication to the CSUN Police Department. I am sure you have something similar at UW. Don't know if you ever feel the need to use it, but it's there. I don't even know if you have any night classes, come to think of it, but if you do, always put safety first, especially at night.

Of Middleton, I have only knowledge of what I can see on the Internet, and it looks like a very nice town. I would guess you almost certainly don't have a gangbanger problem, or anything of that kind. Maybe Madison is more of the issue, if there are bars there, and more of the redneck/drunk thing you have posted about before. I mean, for a woman especially, safety is highly important no matter where you are, because there are a lot of weirdos in the world.

But, I think the main thing is always being aware of your surroundings. If you are out at night, travel with friends, never take the bus too late at night, that kind of thing. Don't walk alone. You already know all of this stuff.

The other thing is avoidance. Stay away from areas where undesirable types congregate, and never, ever, for any reason, confront or answer back to someone who is drunk, or who tries to provoke. Don't even make eye contact. But the main thing is just to stay away from all potential trouble areas. If you jog, do it in the daytime or before the sun goes down, and do it where there are people.

Again, you know all this stuff. Stay away from drunken frat-boy types. I made a guess last Winter that you and your friends may have been provoked by jerks, macho types or drunks, because you were posting a lot of "Amurrican" stuff. If anyone ever baits or tries to provoke you or your friends, never answer back, even if it feels like the right thing to do. Just keep moving instead. Keep walking and walk away. I am a "head down, low profile" type when I am, say, on the subway or walking back to my car in a questionable part of town, such as where some concert venues are. It's always better to be safe, every single time. Mainly, just stay in your circle and avoid all forms and energies of violence and negative energy.

A simple example for me, is even something as stupid as a mosh pit at a concert. That is more like an act of "agreed upon violence" between morons who like to shove each other, but what I do when it happens, is I just immediately get out of that part of the crowd and relocate. I don't wait, I just do it. If I see someone who is drunk, or mouthing off in a cocky way (or engaging in any form of "acting out" in public, like arrogant body language, swaggering, etc.), I give that person a wide berth.

Mostly though, I stay away from Bad Vibes of all kinds. The last thing you wanna do is become ultra-fearful or always expecting trouble. Just be watchful, always err on the side of safety, and stay in your Good Circles where the good energy is. Finally, avoid Amuricans! I know they're stupid and I know they're irritating, but they will always be among us, so just avoid them, both you and your friends.

That app is a great thing, too. Be as safe as you can, wherever you go, and remember you have a strong family who loves you very much, and a Navy Seal (that's me!) who does, too. And nothing is ever gonna happen to you, except good things.

I'll be back in a while, at the usual time. I Love You, Elizabeth.  :):)

10:55pm : I like the turkey picture. You guys have a lot of Early American birds up there, turkeys and eagles. We have something called the California Condor Preserve, located about 75 miles north of the Valley. I don't think you can go there, because the condor was such an endangered species that in the 1980s there were literally just a handful of them left. So they captured some of those and began breeding them in laboratory conditions, and now there are a few hundred. They are grim birds, like vultures only bigger, but it would be neat to see one. What we do have a lot of is hawks. And geese.

I would love to try and photograph our CSUN raccoons, but it would be tough, as they are so timid and they only emerge in pitch darkness. I am keen to go on my next short photo trip, and will do so once this triple digit heat subsides. I want to continue to look for hidden remnants of Indian culture, or even from the Western settlers who came here 150 years ago. I love anything that is hidden, and here, we miss so much when we zip along on the freeway. You get where you are going more quickly, but you miss the old stuff, the stuff by the roadside that was there before the freeways were built.

You know me; I am always interested in the "hows and whys" of things, and one thing I am fascinated by, as a person who lives in a big city, is man's pursuit of what is called progress. Don't get me wrong, I love any real form of progress that makes life easier, but I find it mindblowing that my Dad's generation, and the one just before it, saw the whole shebang come in. I mean, there was the Industrial Revolution, beginning in the late 1700s, but progress was slow changing and incremental for about a hundred years. But then, once they invented the electric lightbulb, technology took off like a shot.

Since 1880 : Lightbulbs, refrigeration, full electricity, radio, automobiles, airplanes, jets, rockets, telephones, television, computers, and all manner of electronics in between. And all of this in a mere 150 years, approximately. In Los Angeles, an ancient natural region in it's own right, they came out here to make movies. Los Angeles was a city of the Mexicans, a low key city until Hollywood took off. The early movie kingpins switched their headquarters here, from New York, because of the perennial sunshine. And what resulted, from another technology (filmmaking) was both a tremendous art form, but also a major, major revenue source for Business America, the entity that promotes what is called "progress" by the media and the world at large. Because of the success of Hollywood, which emerged as a power in Depression times and provided a much-needed entertainment diversion for Americans, Los Angeles expanded. At the same time, the automobile was becoming ever more prevalent in the American way of life, and by the mid-1950s, enormous freeways were being built all over the city (and all over America) so that people could get somewhere, quickly, by automobile. Cars were initially an invention for convenience, and fun. They made life easier from the horse and buggy days, and made possible long trips to visit relatives, or just to see the country. But after the freeways were built, they became a way of life, a Vehicle For Business, to bring workers to work (cubicles), and most of all, they made billionaires of the owners of the oil industry, who built the freeways in Los Angeles to ensure that their idea of progress would continue. All of this has happened since World War 2, in the last 60 years. So it's all really new, still, this idea of progress.

Don't get me wrong, I like to be able to use all the modern conveniences. I like being able to travel in my car, so far be it from me to put down the idea of freewways (which were called "free"ways because there was no toll), or computers, television, or any of the other inventions I mentioned.

But I am now, as a person of curiosity, trying to search out parts of the world from the "pre-progress" era that are still in place. And that is because I think there is more to life than progress. Progress was intended to serve all of us, not to make us slaves to it's continuance.

Invention should take a break once in a while, so that people can enjoy the new convenience it provides.

I have gone on a tangent from my initial writing about birds, but that's because I think we can learn from animals of all kinds. Not to be like them, because they cannot reason like we can. They can't figure things out like we can.

But they can understand how to live, without constantly feeling the need to progress, whatever that means.

That's all I know for tonight, my Darling. Sweet Dreams, I Love You So Much!  xoxoxoxo  :):)

(see you in the morn.....)