Fillmore, Big Love, and the Monkees

the scenic view of Fillmore, California

Today I had the unfortunate experiemce of traveling to the booming metropolis of Fillmore, California.  I won't go into my reason for needing to travel there, as it is so convoluted that I can barely conceptualize it, much less put it into written words.  Fillmore is located on Highway 126. Its total reason for existence as far as I can tell, is to function as one of two major speed traps along 126, which connects I-5 with US-101.

Fillmore is roughly midway between the two major expressways, slightly closer to the 101. Its sole saving grace is that it is only about twenty miles or so from the Pacific Ocean. Something like 14, 000 people supposedly live there. in the entire ninety minute i was there, i only counted sixt people. I'm not sure where the other 13, 940 were hiding.

My initial thought was why anyone would name their city after our nation's least memorable president ever. (Seriously, a study was done in which both college students and random adults were asked to list on paper every president of the U.S.  The president who appeared on the fewest lists was none other than Millard Fillmore.) As it turns out, the place was actually named after another Fillmore -- some guy affiliated with the railroad back in the day.

Wikipedia has entries on most cities, Fillmore included. I looked it up. Wikipedia usually lists the mean household income or some similar statistic. It did no such thing in its Fillmore entry. it's that bad.  nevertheless, there must be someone who pulls in a decent salary, as a relatively new housing subdivision, advertising itself as "The Bridge," boasts on a large sign that its houses start at $400,000. To get into the subdivision, one must drive across a bridge. Under the bridge is absolutely nothing. There's an empty cement pit. Perhaps when the drought ends, the developer plans to fill it with water, which will soon go stagnant, and breed mosquitoes.

The exterior of the houses in which the Paxton family lived is on Sandy Lane in Fillmore. I did manage to convince my traveling companion to make a slight detour off the 126 to see the houses. that, and a Monkees CD that my traveling companion happened to have in his car for some reason unbeknownst to him, salvaged the day for me. Out of respect for the people who inhabit the homes, I didn't snap a picture.

Davy Jones lives on forever.

Lousy Geography on My Part

I chose a heart-themed love triangle picture in honor of the month of February.

In reference to my last blog, Person B isn't actually going toattend med school across any body of water from me. He'll be a mere thirty-five or so miles up the 101.  This certainly complicates the somewhere-between-like-and-love triangle even further.

Still, I'm not doing anything remotely close to the wild thing with either of them, I'm not promising exclusivity to either of them (nor they to me), and they know all about each other and actually get along.

Perhaps we could arrange  a male counterpart version of  Big Love. We could call  it Brother Husbands and perhaps have our own reality TV show.  I'm being entirely facetious, of course. The percentage of people with the level of education I hope to attain who marry someone they dated when they were barely twenty is quite low, I would assume. And when I eventually do marry, I wish for a monogamous relationship. Still, it's an interesting concept which someone more adventurous than I may wish to develop.

Neither video exactly depicts my situation, nut I'm in a 70's/80;s music mood, so I'm including both.

     This one overstates my case greatly, but what the hell?

This one's a bit melodramatic for my actual situation as well, but  what's life without melodrama?

I know I said there were two videos, but sometimes I lie. I came across a third I wanted to share even though it has little to nothing to do with my present situation. Enjoy.

P.S. I didn't have a strong opinion regarding the outcome of today's Super Bowl -- how does one decide which cheating coach's team for whom to cheer ? --  but didn't the near-the-end mug shot of the rather despicable Seahawk Richard Sherman's terribly sad face make sitting through the entire Super bowl worthwhile?

Polygamists

I just learned that my first cousin has joined up with the Canadian branch of the polygs who used to be affiliated with the Warren Jeffs branch. I believe a man named Winston Blackmore is the head honcho of the community. I can't recall the specific incident that split up Blackmore and Jeffs, but such rifts usually occur as a result of greed or a power struggle.

The cousin in question is twenty-six and had not been married. If I were twenty-six and not yet married, my parents would be pleased that I had so many years to focus onn my education and career before marriage and children came along. My LDS aunts and uncles, on the other hand, start quoting statistic about how a woman is more likely to be killed by a terrorist than she is to ever marry if she hasn't married before some arbitrary age such as twenty-eight. In the LDS church, women are told that they will be married in the millenium (when Jesus personally regins over the Earth for one-thousand years) or in the afterlife. Most of the time, this means the women will be married to men who already have other wives and will have to share their husbands.

If you've ever watched either "Big Love" or "Sister Wives," you would be gullible to believe that real polygamy exists as depicted in those series. The reality is that except for factions among wives that form, hardly anyone gets along in polygamous families, and women frequently mistreat other women's children. Most of these people are under-educated. Some women work, while others collect welfare. The wife with the most seniority, the "first wife," typically hold most of the authority in the household. The only exception to this is if the "first wife" falls out of favor with her husband, which isn't as common as one might think. Husbands do picke out newer and more modern versions of feminity to marry, and the young ones enjoy attention of the husband early in the marriage. In most cases, however, a new and improved model eventually shows up to replace the previous new wife and to claim the favors formerly possessed by her.

I'm relactant to state this, but in seeing the news coverage of the raid on Warrn Jeffs' community in Texas, it was apparent that the vast majority of the polygamous females are not classic beauties by any stretch of the definition. In every book I've ever read by a polygamist female, the author would say something to the effect of, "My mother was beautiful, and the girls in our family were very pretty as well, so the others were jealous of us." I'd like to know where these attractive female polygamists are being stored. I've read more coverage concerning than has the average person, and I've actually been to the Colorado City/Hillsdale compound, and I've yet to see one female over the age of twelve who could be accurately characterized as beautiful, pretty, striking, attractive, cute, or even of average appearance. Their space alien hairstyles do nothing to enhance their appearances, but even if their hair were done by the same hairdresser who does Jessica Alba's hair, these women would be homely at best. Mt cousin is no exception in the regard.

I tend to be a bit callous and to think things like this are funny. My parents, on the other hand, are concerned about the emphasis on early marriage within the mainstream LDS culture and the way my cousin must've been made to feel when she didn't marry at the standard LDS age of twenty to twenty-two. They're also worried that she may have difficulty escaping if she ever changes her mind. They're considering driving to British Columbia this summer to attempt to find my cousin, They want to be sure she knows what she's getting into and that they will help her get away at any time she wants to. They also want to tell her she can live with them if she ever needs to.

I suppose, if my parents ever find her, they'll try to talk her out of leaving and use their limited funds to educate her as well. I only hope she doesn't have three kids by the time she breaks away, because the court battle my parents will surely finance for her to gain custody of her children is likely to usurp any inheritance I might ever have been bequeathed. Then again, there are more important things than money.

The cousin's parents are laissez-faire about the whole thing. They vacillate between "It was meant to be" and "She's exercising her free agency. Now she can lie in the bed she's made." My grandfather is a major player in the LDS church. He doesn't want anyone to even talk about the subject, which is precisely the reason I chose to blog about it.