Jump! and Stockton

Sophie takes a splash, which I shoot from the lake, treading water and hoping I do not drop the camera Adam-style (but this another, more expensive story, oh boy). Sophie and I have a romance as she gives me her attention and chooses to take our SUV (the boys are generally teaming up against the girls - an age thing really). Indeed, we are a caravan of three enormous rides and I feel momentarily guilty about the carbons but somehow appeased by the number of people and goods transported. Plus it is vacation, for Pete's sake. We ride into town looking like a presidential motorcade and I think about Detroit's dying days: an hour at 60MPH and 30 miles per gallon at today's gas prices means 10 bucks which is more than the minimum wage. No wonder Toyota taking over the roads - and thank goodness too. The real pinch, and one reason for the sub-prime collapse in outer areas like Stockton, is the cost of a commute. Unfortunately affordable housing for many in the Bay Area comes with a two hour+ trade-off - this may no longer be tenable for those already stretched and so the commuters split leaving their under-water house behind. Driving through Stockton (which BTW is presented, along with Florida, as the center of the housing crises fiasco) one sees endless rows of same-style properties. I rather like Stockton's simple, historical skyline but the 'burbs are ghastly. And now they are becoming empty.