Just can't resist posting more pictures of this years roses. I doubt I'll ever again be afforded an opportunity like we've had here, at this Bakersfield house, to enjoy their etherial beauty and blissful scent. In these climes they bloom basically from beginning of April all the way through till December pretty much. The very best blooms are the FIRST blooms of spring, the abundancy of blossoms and the heavy scent is to die for! How I wish I could bottle it and take with me!

"To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat." ~Beverly Nichols

Yes, I think I'm gonna miss the view from my master bedroom patio! Our roses this spring have been spectacular! Stupendous! I have filled vases with various assortments, including lavenders and thymes, just so we can enjoy the intoxicating scent inside as well as out.

If you click on a picture, then once it enlarges, click on it again, you'll get an even larger picture ... if you are a rose 'buff' like me, you'll be able to appreciate these even more!!

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." ~Emma Goldman

We have sold the house. Actually we sold it the first day of April, the first day we listed it. After considering multiple offers at list price and several well over list price we chose our buyer! If we thought we’d have a gradual, relaxed time of it these last 6 months of our journey in southern Cal, we were wrong. For starters we NEVER expected to sell so fast! Seems the housing market is turning around rather quickly, rumors of the beginning of yet another bubble can be heard everywhere (and why not, nothing has changed to regulate the banks and lending agencies that tanked the economy in the first place!), and it seems (at least in Bako) there is little inventory, especially in desireable neighborhoods. People are hanging onto their homes as they see, finally, their equity returning. Our realtor had told us when we decided now was the time to market the house, to be prepared for a fast sale. We really had NO idea! We just thought “oh, that’s what they say to all their clients!”. Ha! Anyways, according to her, the banks, having released and sold most their REO’s, and the builders scrambling to fill the void, behind the curve as they race to acquire permits and licenses, to build to fit the growing demand has created the “perfect sellers storm”. SO, who knew?!! Lucky us!

So as we wait out these last few weeks of closing, having signed Escrow docs today, we find ourselves living in a pretty much empty house. From the time all contingencies had been met (inspections, appraisal) we had 30 days left to remain in the house. With heads still spinning at how fast the house had sold we started an apartment search, with the five and a half months we still have remaining before we exit this golden State for good, we needed someplace to hang our hats in the interum..

Well seems apartments are also at a premium right now…same thing, lots of demand, and the good ones get scooped up in a heartbeat! Seems no one has been building apartment buildings in Bako for years! Long story short, we found one in a complex and area we really like, just 7 yrs old, one of the last to be built, and pounced on it, even though the sole available unit isn’t vacant till mid may. But after having lost the first few available when we started our search, while we ‘pondered’ our schedule, we realized if we wanted to have a roof over our heads when we had to be out of here, we better act now!
With two storage units now rented we’ve spent the past weeks packing up and moving all we’ve accumulated in our last 9 years here (and HOW we managed to accrue SO MUCH is beyond me! ) and now pretty much are just waiting it out..the final closing day (14th) and in the week we will find ourselves completely homeless (apt won’t be available till the 19th) we have decided we will make a trip back to Washington, loading up and hauling back as much as we can so the final trip this fall won’t be AS difficult.

Even though I won’t be here to harvest my garden this year, as always happens I couldn’t stop myself (it is like some primitive urges kick in!) from starting my little seedlings a month or so ago, then planting them in my prepared raised beds. My asst varieties of heirloom tomatos, and organic lettuces, beans, squashes, cucumber, chard will hopefully nourish and delight the new family that will be moving in. I was sure to plant a few tomatoes in containers however, and those I WILL take with me to my balcony garden…the tune and lyrics from an old movie, “Singing in the Rain”, comes to mind…”gotta dance! gotta dance!” … only with me its “gotta grow! Gotta grow!”

The pictures were taken just two weeks ago, but everything is much bigger now, since summer has come to Bakersfield with a bang! Mid 80’s then jumping to mid 90’s the last few days with no end in sight! Its nice to know this is our last LONG HOT SUMMER in this central valley town!

"In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy". ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Another milestone!

Yesterday we spent a usual weekend day with Corey at Lompoc Camp, only this visit held a special significance for us all, it was Coreys last day in the RDAP Camp. After 9 months he has completed and graduated from the BOPS Residential Drug and Alcohol Program, and last nite when I checked the BOP Locator (where one can find a prisoners release date as well as where he is imprisoned) I saw to my great relief his release date HAD changed from 4-13-2015 to 4-13-2014 (he was arrested on April 16, 2004 and has spent every single day in custody since then). He has earned the year off with completion of the program, the only relief he has from the exorbitantly lengthy 12 ½ yr sentence he received for his marijuana offense. It wasn’t until I saw it myself with my own eyes, that he was given the reprieve, the only one afforded him aside from the minor 'good time' days credited him along the way. I never fully let myself believe or hope that I’d see him realize the extra time off sentence, the disappointments along the path have been many and one stops expecting anything if one wishes any peace of mind at all. But it’s a fact, its in black and white, on the site!

In less than 6 months Corey will be released to a halfway house and from there, after a few months, or whenever his Case Worker/Parole Officer deem he is “somewhat” trustworthy, he’ll be released to home confinement for the remaining time left on the designated HH 6 month assignment. Mind you, during all the time he is on HC he will have to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet … as a first time offender, never having committed a violent act, he’ll be treated just as a violent and volatile released felon would be. Not to worry, he will be responsible for the cost of this device (or we his family will be) for the months he must wear it so at least taxpayers won’t foot the bill for that, but they will continue to foot most the bill for, not only the past 10 yrs of his imprisonment for a nonviolent crime, but for the next chapter of this sentence, which I’ll describe. Our system of ‘justice’ has evolved from one of justice actually being served (prior to the enactment of the Minimum/mandatory Sentencing Guidelines) into a massive industrial complex where the stockholders and anyone involved/employed by the BOP or private prison contractors ( aside from being the one imprisoned or the loved ones of) are only concerned with their profits, and of growing them.

SO, even though we all excitedly focus on these coming events we don’t delude ourselves that after HH and HC ends, and he is finally released from the supervision of the Bureau of Prison he is finally, FINALLY, free. Oh no, the ‘end’, the freedom our son so looks forward to will still be 5 years in the distance at that point. That is just the point when the ‘second sentence” (as the Judge so aptly called it, all part of the overall punishment for his first time, nonviolent offense in this American justice system) kicks in … five more years of Supervised Release, during which time he will be constantly under the watchful supervision of a parole officer and all the bureaucracy that comes with that. We are finding out, as more and more of friends he’s made while incarcerated have informed us, there is a great deal of bureaucracy that continues to place hurdles to full integration back into society difficult.

But I won’t ‘whine’ about that, its nothing less than we’ve come to expect, and will deal with it as it comes. For now we are just relishing this new milestone, this new realization something akin to ‘freedom’ is at hand….after almost 10 yrs of a seemingly endless journey in our country's prison system, and all that came with that, the lifestyle we have come to accept as ‘normal’ for the duration, we see the open door just ahead and are filled with anticipation and excitement of what lies beyond.

"If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention". ~Author Unknown