8.28.2025

The lawlessness of Castro Valley. No zoning, no enforcement. Amazing how they keep the peace. No law at all, they say, in Deadwood? That first scene with the horse thief in jail in Montana, trying to talk Bullock into letting him go so they can strike it rich together but you know the guy's a scumbag more like to murder than collude. Sets the tone. Not sure there are any other similarities between the fictional tv show I watch all the time and this unincorporated township or whatever it is. There oughta be a saloon, a base of operations. There oughta be a whorehouse for that matter and to be fair I haven't Googled whether there isn't or is. For all I know they're running one out back of the library. Except if you don't have a town you can't have a library either. Excuse me? I'm told there is in fact a library. Back to the theme I've been on all year: What Makes a Community a Place. Maybe not as interesting as I thought it was, but when I was on an island with clear boundaries where everyone shares at least one tongue it seemed a reasonable topic for consideration. Here what we have in common is the sun shines hard on all of us the same during the day and at night it's windy and cool and the dogs sleep through most of it until a delivery truck shows up to ask if this is the right address, it's just a blur on the GPS, and all hell breaks loose all of a sudden.