The Siren Song of Priceline......

basking in the rising sunlight by the gazebo firepit

 or, William Shatner would never steer you wrong, would he?

My better half is, indeed, weather obsessed. He moved to Northern California as a young man expressly to avoid the weather conditions of his youth in Long Island. This trait explains his urgent need to experience our recent bout of beautiful weather in the most lovely landscape possible......in our case, the Monterey peninsula. However, after discussions last Friday, we'd decided to skip a trip on this weekend. Contact with some skeevy chairs at a book signing on Thursday night left my leg extra-gimpy, so any hiking (for us, the point) would be out of the question.

Casanova restaurant in Carmel - go for the atmosphere, not the food

However, late Friday night someone started thinking about Priceline, and how it couldn't hurt to submit a ridiculous set of parameters.  Just to have a laugh.

Touring the Museum of Colonial Bedposts in Carmel

Well, the laugh was on us when someone's parameters were * accepted *. I found out late Friday evening that we were booked for Saturday and Sunday night at the Hyatt Monterey (on the Del Monte golf course). (No, neither of us plays golf.) I don't travel well or pack quickly, so i went into 'full frazzle mode' for a bit. But when we got to our destination, Carmel, Pacific Grove, and Point Lobos all shown with limpid light, and the air had little silver and golden sparkles floating around in it....

Point Lobos surf

But we did learn a valuable travel lesson. Our basic room rate beat the price we normally pay for bed and breakfast lodging. However.....Hyatt Monterey is a 'resort', so add $15.00 per night "resort fee".  The amenities include two bottles of Aquafina bottled water, refreshed nightly, and an in-room coffee pot which makes the world's most execrable brew.  Additional bottled water? Buy it in the souvenir shop! Cup of joe? The Starbucks coffee bar opens at 7:00am (caffeine starting at $2.50). All that food and drink adds up quickly.

Snapdragon and Salvia flowers brighten a Pacific Grove parking lot

Casanova's cheese platter tasted as good as it looks

 And it's at least half a mile to anywhere a tourist would want to go - downtown, the Aquarium, Cannery Row, the municipal beach (such a romantic name!) - but no jitney. B & B's have a full breakfast, unlimited coffee, tea, and cocoa. Many have very robust snacks in the afternoons (high tea or hors d'ouevres), free bottled water and sodas, obviating the need to go out to dinner. And most are located within easy walking distance of shopping, beaches, and other 'destination spots'. They also have great staff who are readily accessible to help with any arrangements you can imagine (even helping you call your mom about test results when you've forgotten your cell phone!).

Yarrow and Seathrift overlooking Point Lobos

So in the end we didn't save any money, and for the same amount of money we got less desirable lodgings. I hope we learned our lesson!

How We Treat Each Other

In a bit of a mid-winter, post-assassination-attempt funk.  It took all of twelve hours before i heard the first 'pundit' spinning events and bits of facts to support his own political viewpoint ('the shooter listed The Communist Manifesto as his favorite book therefore he must be a left-wing radical'). I'd harbored hopes that this horrible event would bring people to their senses and encourage us all to consider the responsibilities that come along with our free speech rights. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case.

On the hopeful side, many people in and out of the public eye are using this opportunity to speak out against inflammatory, violent rhetoric for any purpose and against any category of people. After all, once you decided it's fine to de-humanize anyone it only takes time and fear for people to decide that we need to torture, incarcerate without due process, search without warrant more and more people.Once certain lines are crossed, it's very hard to argue against crossing them again on principle.

So much media and so much of our 'political discourse' these days relies on emotional appeals to get people on their side, to get ratings and contributions.  Let's face it, it's just the easiest, cheapest, fastest way to goad people into action. Reduce any issue to the good guys vs. the bad guys, get people all whipped up by creating some boogeyman to terrify them, and watch the dollars roll on in. It works - to get ratings, money, &, in some cases, votes.

But does it address the concerns which our political process is specifically set up to address? Does it help us to overcome any of the significant, real problems that we face as a society today? Has any of this hate-filled speech stimulated the economy, provided health care services for poor children, made our streets safe, our communities more tight-knit, our lives longer or happier or healthier?  No.

Violent, cartoon-like rhetoric based on 'us vs. them' arguments don't help solve any of the very real problems we face as communities, as a nation and as a world. Reasoned, thoughtful, open-minded and respectful communication has a chance of doing so.  I know this is a 'clothes blog', but it's the most public forum i have to let my thoughts be known. And every interaction i've had in the style blogging community has reinforced for me the idea that actual problem solving ONLY takes place in a respectful, thoughtful environment. I feel it is time for people who disagree with violent rhetoric, who believe in the importance of respect in exercising our first amendment rights, to let their principles be known.  Thankfully, many people are doing so. I'm publishing this post in support of them.

Be Still My Heart.....

I'm on someone's blogroll!  It's the first i've run across.  Thank you Kelly!

There's a bit of kismet to this - i posted my first blog post on The Dashing Eccentric, then of course called my mom.  Both of my folks are MUCH more computer savvy than i, and i was finally doing 'a computer thing' before mom had. Mom navigated to my page, and said, 'Oh, you have a comment!'  I just about fell off my chair - i hadn't told a soul, and i know how long it takes any blog to get traffic.  It was Kelly, who'd followed me over from the comments at Already Pretty.  That was quick!  Have a great Friday Kelly and everybody else!