Hippo, Birdie, Two Ewes...

...to gfish!

The blame game

There's plenty to go around. I hear on the news that the Feds are trying to shift most of the blame onto the states -- keeping their people safe is their responsibility, and if they didn't call for help from the Federal government soon enough, it's their fault. Maybe -- at this point 52% of the people don't blame Bush personally...

Here is what interdictor has to say about it: (full text behind cuts, or just RTFA)

( If you guys want to play Democrat vs Republican vs Independent, go right ahead, but I'm really weary of the permanent election season this country's turned into. Honestly, these are politicians you guys are getting so excited about. Politicians. )

( And another thing to think about when we start pointing fingers is this. The government is never equipped to handle a crisis like this. There's too much bureaucracy -- initiative-stifling bureaucracy which prevents swift, effective action.  )

( You (as a civilian) don't need 'Approved' stamped on 3 different forms before you can run into your neighbor's house and pull them out. )

( Anyway, I'm sure there's been human error in this catastrophe. How could there not be? But what I'm saying is that I've come to expect poor decision making and a total lack of initiative from government. They can't even balance a budget, at the federal, state, or local levels. )

Not the day we'd planned

Somewhere around 10am this morning we finally got everyone together, awake, and more-or-less agreed on a destination, and headed off toward Monterey to visit the Aquarium. (The chaoswolf would have preferred the SF Zoo, but I argued that the Aquarium would mean much less walking for our arthritic flower_cat.) Well, it seems as though half the Bay Area had come to the same conclusion -- when we arrived there was no parking to be found closer than a mile to the place. Foo!

So we turned around and headed back up the coast, and since it was lunchtime by now we stopped in Moss Landing at a place we'd been driving past for years: The Whole Enchilada. Superb choice! Mexican seafood (and other things). The Cat had enchiladas with Oaxacan salsa molé; I had their eponymous Whole Enchilada; basically a large fish enchilada with a mild but tasty sauce. The Wolfling had carnitas, and super_star_girl had nachos with shrimp. On the whole, well worth the trip.

We got back around 3:30, whereupon I flaked out for an hour or so. Considerably more tiring (and more expensive) than what we'd planned at the outset, but I'm not complaining.