Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right. Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.
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Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 37th Episode in Season 4 of “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 8th day of May in the spring of 2022.
What’s Going On …
Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll
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- @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
- Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.
Foresight
Quality-of-Life
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- Is the Bay Area at risk of a housing bubble? Here’s what experts say
- Federal plan to thin forest on Pine Mountain draws lawsuits from Patagonia, Ojai and others
- The luxury California mansion that featured in ‘Big Little Lies’ and ‘Basic Instinct’ just went on the market for over $30 million – take a look
- Go SLO: Discover Sustainable Travel and Healthy Living in San Luis Obispo
Context
By the time Jay and I returned from inspecting their property in a cookie-cutter suburb that might have been a stereotypical community in California, except instead of anything green for this spring time of year, all you could see was Palm Springs-like decor but without the palm trees.
Like at Jay and Elle’s house smaller and larger rocks filled in their landscape. At least in their front dry-rock gulch instead of a lawn, trees shaded their entryway. Not so much at their house they had intended to flip or rent to other California investors.
There, the sun reflected off the street, the dry rock landscape and brownish block walls adding to the morning temperature without a breeze.
As Jay navigated through The Dells (Granite Dells), on each side of the road made up of large boulder granite outcroppings that have eroded into a spectacular appearance of bumpy rock features, we talked a bit about his former career in firefighting, but more specifically about the Yarnell Hill Fire years before he moved to Prescott.
The wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona ignited by dry lightning on June 28, 2013. By June 30, it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived—he was posted as a lookout on the fire and was not with the others when the fire overtook them. The Yarnell Hill Fire was one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires.
Jay vaguely remembered how the widows survivor benefits weren’t paid, getting tangled up in some sort of finger-pointing and counter lawsuits. I thought the hotshots were independent contractors so they weren’t entitled to benefits.
We pull into his driveway. Apparently the two wives had run out of stories to share about us, so they’re ready jump into Jay’s dark blue SUV for a drive into historic downtown Prescott.
As a footnote, Elle points out Jays rearview air conditioner doesn’t work properly and suggests we switch to her SUV for our next sight seeing adventure.
Jay and Elle point out a few restaurants and shops on the way down the hill towards the main town. They discuss parking tactics. Jay swings left and crosses a few intersections until he spies public parking lots near the destination he has in mind.
The old courthouse. The one where they have public rest rooms.
Negotiating the space, he tells us he’ll let us out on the passenger side, so he can squeeze in as close as he can to the cement wall. Elle winces a little as he moves back and forth inching closer and closer to the wall. She’s now glad he’s not driving her car.
From a distance, the town seems to be laid out like other western towns. In fact, I’m reminded of a combination of Durango and Telluride in Colorado. Everything old time western radiates out from core frontier square.
My new, left knee replacement holds up well as we walk downhill two blocks and hear cheering, an announcer and gazed over to our left and notice where it looks like a bandstand had been set up and picnickers sat on blankets in front of it.
Wait, I remember the headline of an article that made its way into my Apple News feed before we hit the road in California.
This must be that race known as the Cocodona 250. More specifically, Here’s Who To Watch For At The Cocodona 250 – And How.
Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” And over there too must be where you can watch, right?
Jay picked up the pace heading towards a statue. I joined him as instead of climbing the stairs to the courthouse straight ahead, he veered off to our right and trotted around the side to the back entrance and bolted for the door which said, “Men”.
I joined him.
Having done our business, we mingled in among a crowd of cyclists and made our was to where the race was under way.
Between occasional cyclists the announcer chattered about how long he’d been calling the race, how you can listen to him and where you could catch his webcast I think. Honestly it was hard to tell above the general din of supporters, spectators and tourists like us.
I hung back a little scanning the row of cycling gear marketing tents and began to read a vertical banner hung on a light pole, like at a bus stop listing all the stops and transfers you should know before boarding.
I could only make out that this race, it was a race at all, included tiers of participants based upon I knew not what. But, it burst my assumption about it being the Cocodona 250.
“What?” I only faintly recognized Jay’s voice.
Jay had to yell out what he told Emma the Baroness and Elle for me. “This is Whiskey Row.”
The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right. Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.
“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
“5” Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio
We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year.
Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.
Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year
S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots; S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance; S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott
Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year
S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …
Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year
S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?
Related from Season One, the Normal Year
S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment;
Evidence
Today’s Holiday Theme:
Mother’s Day, a celebration of a commonality that goes beyond the human species. This tribute to the person who is, at best, a first friend in life, and at least the double-X chromosome contributing to our physical existence … children, playfulness and theatrics.
“5” Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio
Haha I remember Jay asking if I was an influencer yet. He had no idea what I described as phase two of my natural experiment which will lead to “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”
Random ones that make me want change my sign.
Today’s Holiday Birthday:
Your magic formula for success starts with curiosity — a most alluring quality that will keep you in the best and brightest company this year. Ask questions, even if you think you know the answers. Thinking you know the answers is disadvantageous, but the rewards you find as you continue to clarify the world will make you positively rich.
Curiosity killed the cat. I’m glad I’m not a cat. I’m sad. I so wanted to claim this birthday, but it’s not for me. I hope it is yours.
“4” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re friendly and inclusive, and yet still careful about who gets into your inner circle. It’s not that you’re afraid, more like practical. It’s cleaner and smarter to keep some things on a need-to-know basis.” Taurus
We’re friends with Jay and Elle. But, not to the extreme fear of an impending argument about politics, I know something may erupt to harsh our vacation mellow along divisive party lines.
“3” Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53; Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “‘Talk is cheap,’ they say… But if that were true, public speakers and spokespeople wouldn’t be paid nearly so well. Words paint mental pictures that inspire action. Yours are definitely worth something today.” Capricorn
That’s so flattering. I’m not sure if I hit the 14,000 hours necessary to claim the ability to paint mental images to inspire you, but I’d lie if I weren’t aspiring towards the goal.
“4” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “The secret to your success is that you don’t show up once or twice, rather you do so consistently over long periods of time. Good things are coming to you, hard-earned and well-deserved.” Pisces
I prided myself as a Executive MBA career advisor to be there for the students over the two years they attended, and to stay in touch with them after graduation to see how or if they actually applied what they learned, especially if I had matched them to a mentor.
Long-Form
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- “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.”
- David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
- “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President.
- “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.
- “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden.
- “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate