Margret Sloan

Last year the California fires making the news were the southern California wildfires. All around Los Angeles and San Diego there were dozens of major fires that took months to put out. Even the upscale and exclusive Malibu Beach area lost multi million dollar homes to the fires. People were being forced to leave their homes and camp out at the San Diego football stadium for over a week while firefighters battled to save entire neighborhoods.

This year it is northern California, with over 1,000 fires burning today and the news shows airing clips of officials crying for helping - they don’t have enough manpower or resources to even show up at all the fires burning, most of them caused by lightning strikes over the past several days.

It’s hard to imagine that areas so close to the Pacific ocean are suffering from severe drought this early in the summer season and that dry trees and brush all over the far western states is a waiting tinderbox.

There’s no way I could ever agree to make California my state of primary residence. There are just too many natural disasters waiting to take your property and your life. It’s a nice place to visit, but I’ll never live there.

Is it just me or does some “expert” come out every dang summer and announce that flip flops are bad for your feet? Personally, I’m sick of “experts” making broad generalizations on things in my daily life and then not being held accountable for their proclamations when proven wrong.

Like the “experts” who every year predict that this coming year will have lots of terrible hurricanes. Well, duh. Every year does have the chance that there will be terrible hurricanes, and if a hurricane happens to rip through your own neighborhood then you most likely will be calling that hurricane terrible and a few other choice names. But the fact is that not every year has terrible hurricanes, some years are worse than others.

I like flip flops. I have been wearing them since a little kid and they are my footwear of choice during the hot summer months and certainly better than going barefoot. There is not much difference between a pair of cheap flip flops and expensive designer thongs sandals other than the “design” and the price tag. I really don’t see how flip flops can be bad for my feet when I’ve been wearing them every summer for over 50 years.

Saw a short headline yesterday that the NFL is going to give Pacman Jones a break and reinstate him with limitations. What a bunch of sissies that run today’s “pro” league! The integrity has evaporated and it’s nothing but money money money anymore.

I’m going to join in at work with all the NFL pick ‘em games and maybe even join a fantasy team this year. The corruption in the league is getting so obvious that even I can predict the winners of every game, so I might as well make some money off it, too.

Found a website called Addict Sports that has bulletin boards for discussions on the different sports and even has college and NFL football picks on their site. Registration is free and there is a ton of information for people serious about picking the winners when this year’s preseason “games” start up again in August.

Look out, boys! Marge is playing for your money this year!

The banks, savings & loans and credit unions are a huge modern business that are getting way too big for their britches. They have strayed so far from their mission of offering a safe place for people to put their money and a resource for the average person to buy a house.

Everything they do is about generating fees for themselves and customer service has gone out the window. I’ve had banks refuse to take my U. S. currency as a deposit to my account. I’ve had banks tell me that it is too close to their closing time (15 minutes before the doors were to close) for them to help me and to come back the next day. Now the bank where I take our company’s weekly deposit - two checks and a deposit slip - tells me that I will no longer be able to make my commercial deposit at their drive through windows. I must find a parking spot in the crowded lot and walk into the bank and stand in line with all those people who have no I.D., have accounts at other banks, and all those other time consuming banking issues, to make a deposit that takes all of 2 minutes at the drive through.

On Monday I’ll be calling their other branches to see if this is a new policy with all the locations or just the branch close to my house. If this is their policy for all locations, I’ll have to find another way to do my banking business each week.

Ever since I was a teenager I’ve loved New York City. We went on several trips to New York while in school. I’ll never forget the 8th grade trip to Manhattan. We boards large commercial buses at 3:00 in the morning and slept during most of the drive up, spent the entire day doing tourist things and drove back the same night. IT was exhausting but thrilling and I jumped at every chance after that to go to New York for another visit.

Most of my friends that left the medspa company have accepted positions with a new franchise that is based in New York. Sadly, that means most of them have had to pack up and move from here to New York. So now I don’t have the chance for the occasional lunch or cocktails to stay in touch with most of my friends. It’s down to a few emails and occasional phone calls.

Alexa is the last of the old crew to take a job with the new company. We had lunch today at our favorite Sushi place to say goodbye. She is excited about the move and I’m thrilled for her! She’s going to stay with one of our friends already there, sleeping on the futon while she looks for place of her own. To help with that I put her in touch with one of the best real estate agents in Manhattan, Dottie Herman.

Dottie is a broker with Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, the largest real estate company in New York. I had met Dottie years ago at a real estate function in Las Vegas and kept her business card just in case I would have the opportunity to move to New York. Alas, it is Alexa who is getting that opportunity and I’m happy to share the contact information with her.

I don’t know who the others used to help them find a new home, but if I was looking for Manhattan New York real estate I would call Dottie first. As soon as Alexa finds her new condo and gets settled in, I’ll be flying to New York for a visit with my old buddies.