A missing Ben Lomond woman's body was found Friday by hikers in a wooded area several miles from her abandoned car. She was a Polish immigrant who worked as a cashier in the town's only supermarket, so a lot of people knew her at least in passing and our small community was saddened and we felt vulnerable. A monster was among us.
We were relieved to hear Saturday that the police have a suspect in custody. He was a co-worker of hers and he has been accused of sexually attacking at least one other woman whom he threatened with death.
And so tonight, I feel sad and out of focus, but this afternoon we went to the store to get a few groceries and noticed that our cashier was wearing a button with a photo of George W. Bush. It's kind of unusual to meet up with Bush supporters around here, so I listened in when another customer in line asked where she got her button. Then I noticed the phrase under the photo that read, "He's not my president."
The cashier and those of us in line to check out held a spontaneous anti-Bush rally in the check-out aisle after the cashier said she hadn't even liked him before he invaded Iraq and that he's an idiot. We all agreed.
We went into town (the city of Santa Cruz) and got stuck in traffic at an intersection. At first we couldn't figure out why people were opening their car doors and exiting their vehicles until we noticed that a dog was loose in the street and people were determined to stop traffic until the dog was securely out of danger. Witnessing these acts of kindness, made my day.
At the garden shop, I stopped to talk to a woman who was driving an electric flat-bed truck. She said it costs about $7,000 but the city of Santa Cruz gives a generous rebate (I think she said it was in the amount of $2,000) and you can get a tax credit from the state. It has a range of about 30 miles which is sufficient around here.
Gasoline prices are falling rapidly lately. Have you noticed? Anyone want to be bet they'll go up again AFTER the election?
Speaking of the election, want to bet that afterwards the pundits will all be saying that it proved that the polls were wrong again and the country loves Gee Dubya. (Thanks to Diebold and pundits who can't or won't tell the truth.)
When do you suppose the terror threat will go up? A couple of weeks before the election? Maybe as much as a month before?
