Playing catchup
Not the red saucy stuff, but checking in on what's happened (or not) in the last week or so.
The election
Neither Tara Sue nor Jennifer won their elections, but each pulled in double-digit results (11% for Tara, 20% for Jennifer), which is better than any Libertarian does in California (usually 2-3% of the vote). OTOH, the voter turnout in California set a new record low, so even winners should realize they're in office at the pleasure of less than half (and perhaps only a quarter) of the state's registered voters.
I consider it unfortunate that so many people chose to "protest" the election by not voting at all. Far better, IMHO, to vote for a third-party candidate, thereby informing Democrats and Republicans that we're not impressed with their candidates, their campaigns, or their politics.
The rain
Yes, it was very wet and windy here late last week. Unusual for this early in the season, and I hope not a harbinger of storms to come. I drove back from an STC council meeting in San Jose over Hiway 17 Thursday night. It was like river-rafting upstream. I probably averaged 10 mph over the Summit.
School was cancelled for #2 son Friday morning; then our power went out for about five hours, leaving me with little to do but read by the sunlight filtered through cloud and blinds. I then drove up to Mount Madonna Center Friday night for a Zen retreat. MMC's phones were out, power was out, but they persevered with backup generators, and the retreat went on.
The retreat
This was the semi-annual gathering at Mount Madonna Center with Tenshin Reb Anderson, Senior Dharma Teacher from the San Francisco Zen Center (Green Gulch division). Reb's been my teacher for many years now; I received the Zen Buddhist precepts from him in July, 2001, in a ceremony known as the Bodhisattva initiation, or jukai. Read about it in Reb's book Being Upright. I need this periodic reminder of what Zen is about, and how we're all interdependent.
11:47:01 AM 
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