Eclipse

I started my day tinkling about the number of people around us who are homeless. They used to be invisible, but because of their increasing numbers, they can no longer be ignored. Despite the best efforts of numerous underfunded organizations, most of them can't be accommodated.

The state is trying to close the Sonoma Developmental Center, a beautiful (and valuable) property which at one time took care of over1300 severely developmentally disabled and mentally ill people who,  could not be cared for by their families. Ronald Reagan closed all but three of these facilities in California claiming they would be 'better served' in a 'smaller community setting'. Perhaps, if any such places existed, or if the funding existed to create them. All but about 400 of the most severe cases were 'released'. Many of them are living on the streets. The remaining 400, will find themselves without a home  by 2018.Their stories are heartbreaking. One 57 year old woman has severe autism, , cerebral palsy and an IQ of 17. She has lived there since she was four years old.. Most community settings are not equipped to care for these people, many of whom have lived where they are their entire lives.

OilMan and I went to the Flying Goat this morning. We sat at a table outside sipping our pricey  Aztek Mochas, to which we are both addicted,  and sat at a table by the railroad tracks watching tourists, families, artists and the occasional homeless person come and go. The tracks and the nearby missions, soup kitchens and shelters are a home base of sorts to a growing number of people, many of whom are addicts, mentally ill, alcoholics  or just unable to afford the increasingly costly housing here. 

We walked down the street to the Western Farm Supply, which sells everything from dog food to goat and pig deworming pills and horse grooming supplies. Ozzie was in heaven, sampling the free treats and greeting  other dogs , many of whom were there for the free vet clinic which is there every Sunday morning between the stacks of animal feed and stacks of hay bales. On our way back to fetch the car so we could pick up OilMan's giant bucket of rodent poison  and some stuffed dog toys, a rat and a hedgehog, for Ozzie and Blake,, we encountered more homeless people, talking to themselves, gathered in small groups, are just wandering aimlessly.Every city in this nation has a growing number of these people. The shelters and missions, many of which depend on private donations do their best but are  unable to cope with the growing numbers of people who have no place to go.

I find it outrageous that our increasingly dysfunctional Congress can haggle interminably over repealing a woman's right to an abortion, without any willingness to fund the resulting children whose families cannot afford or are unable to care for them. All one has to do is walk along the tracks to see the growing chasm between rich and poor in this country. I despair of any solution as long as our government refuses to fund alternatives.

At 7:30pm, we walked up to the top of our lot to watch the rare lunar eclipse of the 'supermoon'.A small traffic jam was forming of like minded people gathering to watch. I did this write up ahead of time so I could publish it after my attempts at photographing the event, but promptly deleted it by accident, My pictures weren't very good either,,,it is hellishly difficult to do in the dark. So, with apologies, I have just rewritten my whole rant and offer the best of my bad pictures of a rare event.