I haven't given up on our Sespe Creek access. It's a crime as well as a shame that one butthead homeowner has halted entry to this federally protected, and state constitutionally mandated, open public navigable river.

The legal remedy is clear and absolutely available. But I'm only one person with many challenges of my own. It is our RIGHT to enter the southern point of Sespe Creek and to travel and recreate up the entire 31-mile area. But rights mean nothing at all unless they are exercised.

Any obstruction, threat or physical impediments keeping the public out of Sespe Creek are (by state and federal law) patently unlawful, with both civil and criminal penalties available. The threats by the homeowner (falsely threatening trespass prosecution) and the County's steel fence obstructing safe parking, are both unlawful.

Who wants to help tie the bell around the cat's neck?

*****

Ants! They're all over the place. It does no good to ignore them. I have them in my office, on my chair, on my arm. They even ride on my fingers while I type - I guess they like to go for the ride.

Oh well. I guess we need the small problems to be distracted from the big ones.

****

I hate to think I've become so redundant in my old age, but it's apparently true. I just can't get the image of the USN Gerald R. Ford, atomic supercarrier and largest warship in the world, with a male crew of 3000, sailing away without urinals. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw a long time ago, with a construction manager talking to the architect, staring up at a very high-rise apartment building. The caption read, "Elevators? What elevators?"

Our newest $13-billion-dollar, 1,100 foot long carrier has the very latest radar and sonar systems and a new electromagnetic catapult for launching her planes. But, "Every bathroom on the Ford is, for the first time, gender-neutral, equipped with flush toilets and stalls, according to Navy Times." "Bathroom-design experts have said sit-down toilets are less sanitary and take up more space, and most of the Ford's crew members are men."

Sailors will no longer refer to the "head". Now they will have to say "Excuse me sir, I have to go to the toilet". Isn't that special? And about being "less sanitary" - just ask any mom in America with males in the house. It's just all unimaginable. The tradition of the urinal must be respected. Feminizing our ships-of-the-line will prove to be a dangerous innovation. I can hear the mutinous push-back now, written on small post-its throughout the lower decks - "Leave the seats up". And the feminist counter attack - "We aim to please. You aim too please."

It's going to get ugly.