It has been a quiet but also quixotic week in the NEWS24/680 News Bunker – our merry little band churning out news of baby mountain lion sightings, fires, Grim Ironies and the often hard-to-believe-or describe-incidents of the day as we glide into our summer while snow is falling in the Sierra.
In the end we were left feeling like the guy in Walnut Creek who apparently hit his personal wall while at work this week, picked up a hammer and started hitting himself in the head with it – to the astonishment of his pals.
Like most of the week this week that and other incidents played out against a musical background as we sought refuge in our playlists and some meaning to it all in the lyrics of others.
We’ll admit “Don’t ever hit your mother with a shovel, brother. It will leave a dull impression on her mind…” popped into our heads when we learned of the Hammer Man, though for some reason Gwen Stefani and The Ramones have been battling for control of our Inner Airwaves this week – the boys winning with this little ditty as the paper-thin veneer of international diplomacy burned away like silk under a cigarette:
Most days these days it does feel as if our brain is hanging upside down as steadfast international allies succumb to internal problems of their own and things aren’t looking quite so great in Great Britain right now. At home, Memorial Day looms with the prospect of yet another troop deployment to the Middle East, journalists are killed, jointed and forgotten lest they interrupt the latest Saudi weapons deal and exigent circumstances are created and Congress flouted as needed by an Executive Branch with its eye on the bottom line.
Locally, we learned there are more homeless folks pitching their tents in the 24/680 than ever before – something most of us could have attested to before a formal count was made – and that quite a lot of them are not nice people and some are even looking for trouble.
We also learned that Martin Nelis, an avid cyclist and spokesman for the City of Pleasant Hill, literally died under the wheels of local progress last year, killed by a construction truck on a stretch of road in Lafayette where the truck was not allowed as developers sought to build even more luxury homes not far away.
What’s it all mean? We’re trying to put it all together and make some sense of it as Liquor and Laundry Detergent Raiders hit the Moraga Safeway as we speak (7:30 a.m.) and flee to the Caldecott with Orinda PD in pursuit. We just know the answers aren’t coming as easily as we would like right now so we’re turning up the bunker’s sound system and working on breakfast – preparing for Monday’s morning flag raising and hugging our resident veterans.
Our brains, we guess, really are hanging upside down. And we’re just left to pick up the pieces.
