On Friday night, the stacks of the library are still, quiet, vacant and distant. Nobody is ever there and Wracks decides not to go, so he comes home on the bus, with few people, and a black driver, sitting near the front so he will not be missed by anyone if they were there, The long expanse of moonrise boulevard through tall trees hiding huge homes on the highway but set back away for no one to see. No one walks in Tranquil Hills.
Home again for the millionth time. Grandma is in her room watching Lawrence Week Reruns.
Wrack waves to her and asks her if she needs anything. She says no, smiles and holds the speakers to her ears because she is hard of hearing. A message is on the answering machine and the Wracks picks it up.
Hello wracks, this is playboy. There is a party tonight in Bel Air and they want your presence. To get in the secret password is “Cadillac”. Stick around, I will be there later. I have business and have to pick up a shipment. Here is the address. Write it down and then delete the message. See you there.
Wracks has a boil a bag spectacular from the outside freezer. Chicken parts in peppers and onions and after simmering it for five minutes it is spectacular. Add a coke and Wallah! His parents are at a restaurant in a high place, for the select few, downtown., The place is called “le escoffier” what ever that means and Wracks takes the keys off the racks and gets into the white and green ford pinto runabout to go to a party. Wracks doesn’t dress up for parties because he doesn’t have party clothes, just his clearance JC Penney attire, so he shaves and brushes his teeth.
Wracks has never been to Bel Air before and normally he is not allowed there because…….
A big home, well manicured in California Mediterranean Contemporary, stands with a well lighted perimeter but a door shrouded in shadows far away. Wracks goes to the door and knocks and a person opens it a crack and says Hello.
“Cadillac” says Wracks
Come in and browse says the voice and the door widens and he enters. Inside the standing room on the first floor is a ballroom. A large mirrored globe spins and laser light refract off of it splatter the room with scintillating colors that would incite a photosensitive grand mal epileptic.
A beautiful blond bombshell in a bikini, with light eyes, and holding a serving board lashed to her chest, walks up to him and says, “Hi”. With her slender manicured hand with long nails painted in neon paint, she slips a pill in Wracks mouth and then kisses him on the forehead.
What did you just give me asks Wracks.
“It is vitamin V and it makes you grow”. I will be back, and she disappears. She must be Norwegian Wracks thinks and begins to look around. People arrive with satchels and checkbooks and they don’t notice Wracks but move quickly to a room at the end of the ballroom. A guard within opens the door and scrutinizes. He is really big and dressed in a tuxedo. Then they are admitted and they disappear. Wracks knocks on the door, and it slowly opens, and a big wrestler says “show me 20 G.” “I don’t have 20 G says Wracks”. “Then you cant come in he says”. Disgruntled, Wracks disengages and walks back in the ballroom and people are slowly coming out of the room. He asks them “What’s going on inside there?” Barter, buy and sell, hot commodities otherwise it is none of your business, Kapish? I am paisan says Wracks, I understand. Where there is money there is beautiful women and they dress in almost nothing and they are young and well connected. I am just surf scum thinks Wracks and I like big tubing waves instead, Disco music starts streaming over the hidden speakers, unnoticed like everything else here. People dance, beautiful women swing and the Wracks knows this was never meant to be part of him. He prefers a twelve pack of hot tacos from the bell after a good go out. He decides, then turns about face and leaves. Why are you going says a incredibly gorgeous Norwegian in a sarong and high heels. “I don’t like Vitamin V and coke makes me go crazy” Good bye beautiful and have a good night. She winks and smiles and Wracks hurriedly leaves.
The way is long and dark and back on moonrise boulevard, Wracks knows he is in familiar territory and in the little white pinto with a hatch back and the big V4 overhead cam engine he blasts back home. The police are told not to come out this way so he speeds and practices his race car driving. Back at home he checks his Grandmother. She is asleep and he closes the door slowly. It is fall here and almost Halloween and the santa ana winds blow from the north and warm winds keep everything cozy. Santa Ana winds and a west swell and Silver strand will be ten feet perfect A frame tubes, and so offshore, just don’t mind big sharks and locals with 22 magnum ruger 10/22. I dream of Genie if she was and the sky is clear and black, and the stars shine and the clouds blow one thousand miles an hour under a harvest moon. Halloween is tomorrow and Wracks will hand out candy to the children in costumes with their parents and begin the sacred holiday season. Boo!
Month: October 2026
Somewhat Seal
Wracks, your parents have given you to us for two weeks. They are going to Vegas to stay at the Flamingo with the rat pack, and now you are with us.
What is the rat pack asks Wracks
A bunch of rich people with a lot of time on their hands says the Scoutmaster.
When is lunch asks wracks
We will have a late lunch-dinner at four because the squad is practicing a kayak insertion at Doctors cove, and from there, they will run back with their gear to the camp. They will be timed.
No you cannot go says the Scoutmaster, you must be 18.
Can I have a candy bar asks Wracks, I brought one with me and it is in my tent.
I have to go for the insertion says the Scoutmaster. I am leaving you in the hands of my good friend. His name is Scuba. And the scoutmaster picks up his pack and leaves in a trot.
Hi Wracks, my name is scuba and today I will teach you all about it
Will I swim says Wracks?
No you will listen. The gear we cover today is very sophisticated and requires your attention.
One of the elder scouts is going under in a diving rig. We are trying to simulate repair of a ships hull after it is hit with a torpedo. He will be under for about an hour. Are you with me?
Yes says Wracks. Where is the bathroom asks Wracks.
Shit in your pants says Scuba. Do you understand soldier
Yes Sir.
Firstly, the regulators on scuba equipment are of two types, freeze open, and freeze closed.
If you choose a freeze closed respirator in a dive under thirty feet, it will freeze close and your dive is over and you race to the surface. These devices are inexpensive.
Look at it, it is small. This is the regulator knob. There, you have seen enough give it back to me. This is a freeze open regulator if you are going for a dive of over 30 feet of deeper choose this regulator. The deeper you dive the colder the water is. If you are under and the tanks start blowing air into you lungs, you have gone too deep, you ascend in stages of 15 minutes so a diver does not get the bends.
What are the bends asks Wracks
bubbles of nitrogen form in your blood and it hurts like crazy. See this, it is freeze open regulator and they are very expensive. This is my personal device. No you cannot touch it.
See the soldier on the end of the pier with a metal helmet on, We are going to supervise his dive today, this is a dry run for him and it is very serious. Don’t be childish.
Scuba steps over to a large machine run by a gasoline engine with a long black tube shrouded in metal weave that leads to the soldiers helmet. He starts the machine and the compressor chugs away with a puff puffing sound. He gives the thumbs up sign to the soldier and he jumps off the pier into the water surrounding the island. The water around an island gets deep quickly. Bubbles start popping on the surface of the water as the diver moves outward. He has to be submerged for an hour to be certified in deep water says Scuba. Watch the fucking bubbles, his life depends on it. Watch the tube, be sure it doesn’t kink. Now watch what I am going to do.
Scuba takes his pliers and kinks the steel encased tubing and the bubbles cease to rise.
See that says Scuba, he can not tell his air supply is compromised until he starts to black out. He takes his pliers off the hose and the bubbles start appearing again. If anyone approaches you with a pliers in their hand, draw your sidearm and shoot them. Your highly trained divers life depends on you. If someone approaches you station, unless they are brass, ask for identification and if not draw your sidearm and shoot them. Do you understand. Your divers life depends on none except you.
I understand says the Wracks.
While I am on the subject, If you can choose a two tank unit to scuba. When one tank is empty, switch to the other on your regulator, it is time to head home. Each tank yields about thirty minutes of under water time. Fill your own tanks with a compressor at home and be sure the intake port is nowhere near the gasoline engine exhaust system or you will get carbon monoxide poisoning. At scuba shops they are not so careful. Fill your own tanks and check the regulators for function before you dive. When you are under thirty feet avoid the urge to drop your weight belt and float to the surface and ascend in stages using your dive watch. Unless you follow strict protocol every dive you might get a stroke in the water.
It is about time to bring my boy up, I will signal him.
The bubbles drifting upwards get closer and closer together, and the diver ascends in his rig with bright brass helmet, and moves to the ladder on the pier, grabs hold to the rail and is up. When aboard. Scuba releases the fittings on his helmet and eases the appliance off his head. The diver doesn’t look any worse for wear and the first thing he says is,
How did I do?
You are good says Scuba, no hiccups. Do you think you can manage one and a half hours.
I will try says the diver.
Next time bring a bag of tools with you to stimulate planting an explosive or patching a hole.
Manana
See you tomorrow says the diver and he showers off with a clean water hose and then leaves.
That is scuba diving in a nutshell says Scuba. If you become a certified scuba diver, the navy will draft you if they can. Good divers are very hard to find. Do you understand
Yes Sir.
There, you can go and get your candy bar. I have to clean the compressor and get it ready for tomorrow. Put a shroud over the device when you finish and tie it with a cord and knot.
Dismissed.
The Wracks runs as fast as his little legs will carry him and gets a milky way candy bar hid in his sleeping bag. It tastes so good and he drinks brackish water from a hose.
I hope mom and dad are having a good time in Nevada, swimming at the Flamingo and diving off the huge tower into the deep end. Dad says they all like martinis dry and he is bringing a gallon of beefeaters gin with him. The sky is summer blue away from the haze and the ocean is deep green and grey out here on an island and Wracks lays in his two man tent and waits for the dinner bell to sound.
If Yahweh the maker exiled him to the evil one, in his service,
He would require as payment that all human beings, man and woman would find someone to love them for their lifetime.
Light
What is light?
Light is the basic particle of energy and matter and is the building block of the atom.
Light is the transition substance between energy, matter and time. The physical properties of light reveal its intrinsic nature. Light has both particle and wavelength aspects. Light exerts pressure when beamed on solid matter. Light has properties of electromagnetic radiation and can be demonstrated to have different frequencies like the elemental colors of light.
Mass properties of light
Light can be bent or deflected by gravity and electromagnetic fields. Anything that can be attracted by gravity is mass and this is the primary definition of matter. Anything that has charge can be deflected or held by a magnetic field. Light can be bent or focused by electromagnetic fields thus light has charge as do protons, and electrons.
Radiant energy properties of light
Light travels at the speed of light which is 3 times ten to the eighth power meters per second. Radio waves, microwaves, and x-rays travel at the speed of light. In addition, Light traveling at the speed of light can go no faster. Light is relational and may be the linking essence between energy, matter and time space. Incandescent, fluorescent and combusting matter generate light and light sources seem to be inexhaustible until the emitter degrades due to heat destruction. Light radiates from a source and degrades in intensity as an inverse proportion squared function. All radiant energy dissipates in relation to the inverse square law. Light at infinity slows down and becomes matter. Can anyone calculate this distance?
Energy properties of light
Light transmits heat when impacting on a material surface. Any braking mass acted upon by an outside force creates friction that yields heat. According to photoelectric theory, light absorbed by a crystalline lattice, reradiates at a lesser frequency and can liberate an electron. Electrons in a wire are a current. Lasers are nothing more than crystals with a definite bond length that absorb impacting photons of light with a similar frequency as the crystal bond length and reradiates the energy incident upon the crystal as laser light of a defined and readily calculable frequency.
It is at this point we realize that light is a relativistic quantity of energy, mass and time and this is the substance that is relational and can be changed to be any one of the above three elements of existence. If the observers slow down light with gravity it becomes mass and as the mass accumulates the intrinsic forces of gravity cause it to coalesce and then at the quantity of mc squared, in eons of time, the mass fissions and creation begin all over again. Light is the linking quantity and according to how it is handled, it can transmit information, be a carrier of energy, or be slowed down to become mass again. What is the weight of one photon of light? Is it a function of Planck’s constant, the Avogadro number or of pie. The reverse integral of a vibrating particle becomes a circling quantity in accord with the Tao. Is the integral of the furthermost region of the electromagnetic spectrum a constant mass? Is the donut in your hand really a circling mass vibrating at extreme frequencies until it becomes apparent, and is time the final quantity to be discovered after we isolate the gravity wave? It is all light and we light our lives with light to read, and become wise, and hopefully make life on earth better for all.
Recon
Wrackie, I am taking you to the scouts today and see how you like it says mom
Cant I stay with you mom? Says wrackie
No, I am going to a party for adults and you wont fit in, says mom
Can I stay with Dad, it is Saturday, says Wrackie
Your father is gone on a business trip, he will be back in a couple days
Where did he go mom, to visit with family.
No, he got a call and had to go on short notice. He will be back soon.
Okay, where am I going, asks Wrackie
You will learn to hike in the Santa Monica mountains says Mom
You will be in good hands, says Mom. They are a big family
Can I have a coke before I go asks Wrackie
Yes, then it is a short drive
There was and maybe is a destination in the small Santa Monica Mountain range. Their exists a small paved road to get there. It is inland to where the landed gentry have big houses with elevators. The blue Chevrolet station wagon with extra strong pneumatic shock absorbers bounces and jumps on the minimally paved highway. Then they are there. A bunch of tall men in khakis are standing to greet them. They have prepared for Wrackie arrival. All sorties eventually leak. The bunch of tall men are forwarded by the tallest, he has a long stride. He looks gaunt, almost like he is starved, just like the men. His eyes are clear, so very clear, and of a lightest grey that they are almost silver.
Hi Wrackie says the leader, I am your guide today, we will be hiking towards a destination, I will show you the way of the woods.
Wrackie turns around to say goodbye to his mother, but she is already gone.
Lets get moving says the leader, we have to reach the destination and get back before nightfall.
Plan your forays within a day time. A tent in the woods is easily spotted. Lets go. You do not have a pack today, you are training, If you carry a rifle, it is good weight training, I have a m-14
Automatic fire out to 800 yards with precision. I love that Garand.
The squad hikes up the mountain in a gully, a debris laden wash that heads uphill. The way is tremulous with moving bolder and falls, but it is a way
Use a gully or a defile to get uphill fast says the leader. Remember, you must move as fast as you can, and never stop, piss in your pants, and don’t drink, it takes time. The opposition view gullies and defiles and watering holes and wait for you to arrive. Never hesitate. Get to your destination and set up. We will have lunch at the intercept.
Wrackie is tired and asks the leader for water from his canteen.
If you drink, you will be shot before you can swallow the water. The answer is no, live with it.
After about two hours of going uphill through scattered terrain, moving fast, with purpose, unseen the squad arrives at a secluded outpost. It is a huge bivouac, a shelter dug into the mountain and covered with tree branches for camouflage. Unless you camouflage, the opposition can see you from the air, camouflage is not cover. Outside the sleeping cave is a large picnic table, How they dragged it up here is a matter of speculation but it is here and now is time for lunch. Wrackie sits down. He is tired and wants to go home and watch tv. The men bring a large oblong form dug out from a pit like a pig, and covered with aluminum foil. The leader peels back the foil from a leg and cuts chunks of the meat off and distributes it to the men with paper plates. They all have an aluminum camping fork and their Kbar, it is hard to separate a man from good food.
The leader pours Wrackie water from his canteen into a paper cup . Bring your own liquids, for no reason drink water from a cistern or a well or you will die.
Wrackie picks up a piece of the meat, tastes it and then swallows the bite. Then he takes another. The meat tastes just like roast pork shoulder.
One of the nameless men says, It needs a little salt.
The leader moves up close to the sitting Wrackie and says:
This is God keeping you alive. The opposition shoots all the farmers so they cannot grow food and our people starve. Kill a hostage and cook him in a pit like the Hawaiians. When you are done, let the animals have the rest. Then move on, do not loiter or linger.
After the sun reaches its zenith, it seems to enlarge and rapidly moves to the sunset, and it is descending now. The group move quickly down the wash, into the gully and down the mountain.
They are moving rapidly now, faster and faster as they are trained.
Back at base camp, the leader shows Wrackie his rifle.
It has never let me down, even once. Never field strip a Garand because for some reason it never works the same again. When it wont fire or jams , then throw it away. To clean a Garand, open the bolt and spray WD40 over all the moving parts and down the barrel and set it out to dry. I hope you enjoined our little mission today, we practice to stay in shape. We all hope you decide to continue in scouting. We will see you later.
What is your name asks Wrackie, I didn’t get it.
Suffice it say, my men call me strider. Enjoy your day.
Wrackie was all alone in the parking lot when mom showed up. He was all dirty and bruised and tired and he sits on a parking strip.
I am back says mom, how do you like scouting.
It is a lot of work and scary, says the wracks
We ate a human being for lunch.
People do not eat human beings said mom, Don’t lie to me, only unholy cannibals in Africa eat human beings.
What for dinner asks the Wrackie?
Grandma cooked you a chicken with garlic and parsley just like you like says Mom.
I am going to sleep till we get home says the Wrackie and he lays down in the back seat with his seat belt on and the day goes on.
She says, you have a long way to go I hope.
Every day without fanfare or clamor the sunsets in Tranquil hills are beautiful. The colors slowly change from yellow to orange to pink to red and then pastel shades of mauve and then that is the end of the day. If it is beautiful, it is made by God.