Soooooooooo. Happy 4.20. To some, Earth Day; to others, a day celebrating Mother Nature.

Gorgeous day here in Ventura, and I've spent it gazing longingly out the window, with a few strafing missions out into the garden and away from the computer. Sanity comes from birds, trees and green for me, not 1's and O's.

Yet, here I am again, you say? Indeed.

Last week was sucky, as my partner and I discovered that the repeated and randomly timed flat tire he's been having over the last couple months were not a bad tire. Not at all. We discovered this as I suddenly was gifted with a flat. Coincidence? Methinks not. Same tire on both vehicles--passenger front--which would make it not likely for either of us to see it before driving off.

And we started thinking about it...his tires had been rotated, and he had the same tire position go flat.

Conclusion: Some asshole in our Pleasant Valley Sunday neighborhood is letting the air out of our tires.

A kid? Maybe. Pretty good thinking about the position and how we'd not notice. Took a lot of time to let nearly all the air out. Was a tire that was less convenient to reach from the sidewalk. I think it probably was an adult.

We work in the yard together all the time. We live on a corner. We are highly visible. We are the only bi-racial couple in miles and miles and miles.

I reckon someone don't laik "those people" mixing in with "us." My neighbor next door, an old-school hippie who's been around, but grew up here, commented, "Well, I warned you, you were living in Bakersfield-by-the-sea."

WTF, really? Like I needed more to put me over the edge about this place. I wander by the houses early, early in the morning with the dog and wonder..."Is it them?"

And I fantasize about catching whomever is doing it, and hurting them in various ways, depending on the day I'm thinking about it.

I posted to a list I'm on up in SF--full of crazy, wonderful, varietous women--and they had much wisdom to share. Many of them have been victims of harrassment and/or hate--right there in the middle of god's own liberal haven. Everywhere you go, intolerance and ignorance festers and roils.

We are a nation who "others."

So it's a matter of rising above it, I suppose. I see how people draw into themselves, though, and become fearful. This seemingly simple act has made me think such violent thoughts. It is so easy to extrapolate and see why whole communities rise up, after going through so very much more, and for generations.

There is no peace in this right now for me. We'll put up motion-sensor lights. We'll tell more neighbors. If it happens again, I guess we'll call the police and have them dust for fingerprints.

So very, very stupid.