The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

If there is a more devolved creature on God’s green earth than a used car dealer, it’s got to be a rental car service rep. I’m in L.A. waiting for a car I reserved, but, oh, we’re sorry sir, we don’t have one available. They tell me they’ll have one in 30 minutes so here I sit an hour later as rush hour traffic builds, something I’d hoped to avoid by flying in early. What do you do, what do you say? You gonna walk??

These lowlifes have more scams than dogs have ticks. Extra insurance, cheap gas if you let them charge you for a fill-up as if it were on Empty, all kinds of bogus deals for the unwary or those in a hurry. RENTER BEWARE ought to be in large block letters over every Budget, Alamo, Avis, Bend-Over rental agency in America. I blew a tire in Arkansas on a car with over 30,000 miles and was charged for a new tire that I spent a day rounding up, ordering and finally getting it put on even though the old one was 75% used up. Sure, I argued politely. Course I asked to speak to the manager who explained patiently that since I hadn’t purchased the insurance policy (an amount approximately equivalent to the cost of the tire) I would have to pay for a new tire. He even agreed, finally, that, yes, it was unfair to charge me full price for a tire nearly beyond its expected lifespan. And then he said, “Here’s what I’m gonna do. Take some coupons for a discount on your next rental.” Well, there’s a sucker born every day but I don’t plan to be born again, not with religion and definitely not with rental car goons.

A nice couple sat next to me on the bench reserved for Suckers. Same deal, same scam, same sorry story. Their car would be arriving, oh, oddly enough, about when mine was expected — an hour ago. My guess (and I didn’t want to depress them any further than the depth they’d already sunk to) was we’d both get the same car, kind of a ride share deal. I’m just hoping we’re going in the same direction….

When the investigation on Hillary’s emails was completed, the GOP and Trum demanded to see the full report. They didn’t get the Reader’s Digest condensed report, they got the unredacted entire enchilada. If that wasn’t complete enough, they grilled her for 11 straight hours. And when it was over they chanted Lock Her Up, Lock Her Up! It would be mind-boggling to watch these hypocrites defend the notion that we have all the information we need on the Mueller investigation based on a 4 page summary by an Attorney General whose stated position prior to getting the nomination was that a sitting president can’t be indicted for matters such as obstruction of justice — until you remember we are 3 years into the Trump era where facts are ridiculed, news demonized, political enemies are mocked and bullied. Hypocrisy? Gimme a break.

Yesterday all 9 Republican members on the House Judiciary Committee called for Adam Schiff’s resignation for being too partisan, this from the boyz who demanded to see complete FBI reports on various topics and whose chairman at the time, Nunes, dropped them off after dark at the White House. Hypocrisy? Gimme another break.

Schiff countered their unanimous demand to step down with an item by item detailing of Trump’s transgressions, a list that laid out the case for future legal problems for Donald and said of each, ‘some may find this okay.’ At the conclusion he told his smirking and whispering accusers that he was NOT okay with it and that when we accept these actions of the President, that will be the day America has lost its way.

It is heartening to hear a full throated defense of justice when a lot of us are beginning to think we’ve already lost our way. I know there are days when I want to throw up my hands, turn off the news and just walk the beach. Trump called Adam Schiff ‘Pencil Neck Schiff’ at a ‘Victory Lap’ rally in Michigan shortly after. Some may find this okay — and most of the crowd did — but … I’m not okay with this. I can only hope most of us never will be. The man needs to go … and so do his Enablers.

I’m flying the friendlier skies out of Paine Field in Everett this morning, avoiding the gauntlet of megalopolis through Seattle and Gomorrah and driving into a two gate airport with a TSA checkpoint line shorter than a McDonald’s at midnight. In other words a nearly enjoyable experience after our last misadventure on icy roads trying to make a flight out of SeaTac … which we missed after over an hour in their TSA cattle line. A long day, that one.

Course in a few hours I’ll land in LAX and fight rush hour traffic to push through Los Angeles gridlock to where my final destination waits open-jawed further north. But for now, like the stewardess says, push back and enjoy the ride. My seatmate is a four year old girl engrossed in her personal device, some game gizmo impersonating as a cellphone, her fuchsia glitter tennis shoes tapping occasionally to the beat of a thumb 20 times more dextrous than mine, manipulating icons in whatever game of solitaire she’s queued up until her short attention span changes the game. She has no more interest in me than the man in the moon, four years old and already marching to the Pied Piper’s walled cave with all the other kids.

Here’s another perk with a small airport: we back out onto the tarmac, rev up the engines and skip the 20 plane taxi. We’re always going to be the first in line on the jetway.

Off to the side a group of the Boeing 737 Max jets that were grounded after two crashes sit in a row with the Olympics as backdrop, waiting for a software fix to prevent their computers from misreading anti-stall demands causing the nose to ‘porpoise’ before plunging to the ground. My seatmate, innocently unaware of the lethality potential of planes certified by their same manufacturers, is busy learning the skillsets necessary to find work right here in her hometown. I’m just glad we’re both on this plane, not one of those. Strike One against self-flying planes, trucks and automobiles, but … it won’t be long. My seatmate will just take it for granted. Driver’s license? She won’t need no stinking driver’s license. Her fingers will do a lot more than just the walking….

Now in case you’ve taken up residence under a rock, you’ve probably heard the news. The State is in the preliminary planning stages to build a one mile tunnel under the present Hwy 532 to bypass Stanwoodopolis. Sure, the city is upset, all those potential shoppers who for years were bottlenecked up at the gauntlet of stoplights and figured they might as well turn in to the grocery stores or the Rite Aid while traffic is backed up, they’ll zip right past on the four underground lanes, no exits.
Can’t say I blame them, but hey, they had a century to make their profits with a captive audience and the slogan ‘Shop Local’. A tunnel, ladies and gentlemen, 4 lanes UNDER not only the Stillaguamish, but under all of Stanwoodopolis. Out of sight, out of mind. A win-win for the Camano commuter sick of big box grocery chains, dying strip malls, bad signage and the Twin City Foods Concrete Curtain. Sure it’s an engineering challenge. Sure it costs more than an above ground freeway. But in 2050 dollars, probably what a unit costs in Camano Condos.
Us South Enders want to applaud the State for finally solving the ‘Stanwood Bottleneck’. It’s a good start. But while we’re planning for the future’s highway solutions, why don’t we think a bit more Long Term. The South End, as always, is way out front on the region’s transportation issues. Take the Elger Bay Canal, the Big Dig. Eighty years ago we were advocating a series of locks and dams to connect Port Susan with Saratoga Passage, open up shipping through the South End – South End ISLAND, I might add — to the Mainland from Langley, Greenbank and Coupeville. Lock fees would offset the costs, something the Stanwood Tunnel won’t have. Yet, anyway. No doubt the Legislature will eventually consider tolling the tunnel once commuters are hooked on its advantages.

So call your commissioner, call your state representative, call the lady with the alligator purse, this is our best opportunity to solve more than the Stanwood Sewer Lagoon Seawall Bottleneck. It’s our chance to create shipping lanes, possibly a port for a ferry terminal and definitely a new island for the county and the state. South End Island, a stone’s throw from Camano, a world apart for future tourists. The possibilities are beyond imagination. Don’t let this opportunity slip by. The Tunnel budget can easily be amended to include another transportation fix.