toddspoint...

toddspoint, mendocino coast, california

here we are, secluded, well-off the beaten path, a headlands bluff on the pacific ocean, about halfway between san francisco and the oregon border, bordered by the ocean on the north, west and south, and the coastline highway (hwy 1 at top of picture) on the east, blessed with an incredibly temperate climate (our best-kept secret) that rarely dips below 40 degrees on the coldest night of winter and just as rarely approaches 80 degrees on the hottest day of summer, and with an elevation of about 25-30 feet above the ocean, we are relatively tsunami-proof...
indigenous wildlife abound, some welcome, some not; in the welcome category are the quail, hawks, osprey, and henri the heron; in the nuisance class are the myriad of gophers, wild turkeys (who seemingly disappear around thanksgiving only to return in the spring to coat your wooden decks with disgusting turkey turds) and deer (who are really very tall rodents, eating every type of desirable vegetation)...
in addition, we even have our own weather station and resident weather wizard, and a great local supermarket (harvest market) is only a half-mile away...

...off on a tangent...
however, in this island of relatively normal and sane occupants, we find ourselves sandwiched between two eerily dissimilar towns;
we are just south of fort bragg; a redneck mill town (although the mill closed a few years ago) with ample liquor dispensaries (read "bars") and populated by looney-tune luddites, social system freeloaders, a few minor-league anarchists, a varying degree of nitwits, edge-of-the-earth truants from mainstream society as well as ambition-challenged dead-enders of infinite variety...
and we are just north of the village of mendocino; a blue town in a blue county in a blue state, inhabited by radical revolutionary agitators, over-the-hill hippie activists, communists, peaceniks, tree-huggers, atheists, obstructionists, alarmists, and one of every other politically correct arrogant condescending variety of whackos and total nutcases commonly found in northern california - you have to experience the mendocino fourth of july parade to get the real flavor of these screwball fanatics...
what these two areas have in common, besides it's only industry which revolves around lightening tourist's wallets, is a complete disconnect from the reality of life on many levels - it's like a parallel universe, maybe even another galaxy...

an old polish proverb applies here:

too many freaks, not enough circuses...

...end of tangent...

in the meantime, we are secure in our own little domain - so secure, that the toddspoint militia (self-appointed military and local governing body) declared a few years ago that we were seceding from the county, state and nation to become the republic of toddspoint, and immediately applied for foreign aid...
our citizens are remarkably not diverse, and in addition to the militia there is the marching band and chowder society, the yacht club and even a chapter of USC alumni (membership, two), an uncommon occurence in this area which contains way too many berkeley (come for the protests, stay for the panhandling) sympathizers...

bottom line; it is quiet here on the point, peaceful, and life is good...