I work in a pretty special place- Woodside, CA. What is is like there? Well, for starters, it is isolated. I have a 45 minute commute over the hills and through the woods in a setting that looks like something right out of a car commercial. It is gorgeous, but it can also be lonely. At 2000 ft. altitude, with a tiny 2 pump gas station and no Costco in sight, it is the place where people live when they do not want to be bothered.
Not just any people. Rich people. Like so rich that SugarDaddy.com offered the town over $11 million to change their name to SugarDaddy.com, CA, USA and the town council laughed it off because they pretty much pay each of their kids that sum in weekly allowance. Here's an
article all about the publicity stunt.
Here's the kicker: these rich people are armed to the teeth! Guns, crossbows, you name it, they've got it! And they are organized. I sat in on a neighborhood meeting to talk about safety and neighborhood watch kind of stuff and found out so much! Did you know that there are home security systems where your house can text you a picture of the person entering your front door? Ya, when you are rich that's the kind of stuff you buy. At least the lady in the fur coat did. Her husband probably won't be bringing home any girlfriends on the side. On the other hand, the rich guys in camo who have truly taken to the mountain life have adapted game cams to not only keep an eye out for the next buck to mount, but also to investigate that suspicious utility truck that keeps driving by. Heck, one of the guys there live streams his home security cameras online while he is at work.
As it turns out, the privacy of the mountain life is also very appealing to those in the drug business. Not surprisingly, there are marijuana grows uncovered in the forest and open space preserves on the regular. I've noticed that the trail heads in the area often have a sign asking hikers to report the illegal farms. What really gets the locals going, though, are the temporary cook houses that pop up now and then. I guess the chemicals are so potent that the winds carry a rather meth-y smell across the mountain side. Usually around 4 am. I'm told the smell is like auto exhaust but so strong that you may as well have your mouth on the exhaust pipe. Report those Winnebagos immediately.
In California, I learned, you can fire your gun on your own property. You can fire your crossbow on your own property. The same laws that apply to fire arms also apply to crossbows, so don't point one at anyone. Now the regular bow and arrow, which the police similarly recommend that you do not point at others, have much less severe charges. So if you want to have a "Hillbilly Hoedown" and shoot off your guns into the night sky from your back yard, you can do that. But just know, your neighbors will call you hillbillies in front of the whole town. But, those hillbillies don't care- say what you want! They have more money than God.
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| The view from my office: vineyards, mountains, SF Bay |
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