Architecture Wednesday: Patrick Swayze’s Rancho Bizarro

This is Rancho Bizarro, the former estate of Patrick Swayze and it’s up for sale; the 3,516 square foot, 3 bedroom, four-and-one-a-half bath house sits on over four acres, with a barn and stables and a horse arena, and can be yours for $4.5 million.

Automatic gates tucked away at the end of a cul-de-sac reveal a unique and private retreat with expansive space to live, ride, work, and create amongst multiple structures. The primary residence is a charming 1940s California ranch-style house featuring three bedrooms, hardwood floors, and rustic exposed beams.  There is a large flex space that could easily house an extensive home gym, a fully furnished rehearsal space for dance or theater performance, or a light-filled art studio.

Across the lawn is a guest cottage with a bath, as well as an oversized detached garage and storage space. The grounds also include two round pens, a goat pen with resident goats Cocoa and Caramel, and two friendly ducks named Baby and Johnny who enjoy lounging under the lush trees on the property.

The ideal spot for a little Dirty Dancing.

 Dwell

Meme Dump

An Open Letter to America

Dear America,

Don’t do it. Don’t.

You know what I’m talking about, don’t give up on Joe Biden because of one bad night, one awful night. He stumbled, he mumbled, his voice was hoarse, so is that the reason to give up on him and just had the presidency to a convicted felon, sexual predator and con artist?

I say No, and you should say it, too.

Think on some things … the 81-year-old Catholic is fighting for women to have the right to make their own health care decisions, while the 78-year-old felon appointed three justices to the Supreme Court who … overturned Roe v Wade—for which The Felon said, out loud, “I did that”—… who decided that bribing government officials is really just a gratuity but being homeless is a crime … who voted to allow judges, not scientists or environmental experts decide about climate change and polluting our air and water … who can decide on drug safety … banking regulations … aviation safety …. and if you’re an LGBTQ+ American and think that the right won’t come for equality and marriage, think again.

Do you really want Clarence Thomas, well, actually his wife, and Sam Alito making those choices for you?

Do you want to elect a guy who has said, out loud, that he would be a dictator on Day One; who has said all he really wants to do is punish his enemies; who has told big Oil he will give them tax breaks if they support him. Does that sound like a man who cares about We The People?

I’ll stand with the old guy who took on a pandemic and saw us through it; who gave America its lowest unemployment rate in fifty years … who lowered inflation more than  any other country in the G7 and added more than 16 million jobs. He’s working for us, and he may be a bit tired and old, but he isn’t doing the job alone; a vote for Joe is a vote for his administration that will see to it that his efforts go on.

I will vote for that man and his team.

I will not vote for the man who promised to build a wall at the southern border and have Mexico pay for it, and then didn’t. I will not vote for a man who promised to overturn Obamacare and give us all the greatest healthcare system ever, and then didn’t; I will not vote for the man who touted his fabulous infrastructure bill and then did nothing. I will not vote for the man who claimed he won the election in 2020, and filed nearly 70 lawsuits to overturn that election, and lost every single time; I will not vote for the man who claimed that he, and not former President Barack Obama, had passed the Veterans Choice Act; I will not vote for the man who swore and that he and his campaign did not collude or cooperate with Russia, even though Robert Mueller found cooperation and explained that he did not investigate "collusion", only "conspiracy" and "coordination".

I will not vote for a rapist; I will not vote for a racist who called Nazis in Charlottesville “good people.” I will not vote for a man who sexually abused and then defamed E. Jean Carroll; I will not vote for a man who p[aid off a porn start for a sexual encounter in order to win an election. I will not vote for a con artist who stole money from people at a university he named after himself.

I will not vote for the man who told us to drink bleach during COVID; who didn’t tell us a flashlight could kill the virus; who told us it would be over by Spring, but by Spring we were piling up dead American bodies in refrigerator trucks outside hospitals.

I will vote for Joe Biden, a decent human being who has worked harder than any president, given the mess he inherited from The Felon, to make life better for all of us. I will vote for the man who lowered prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices;  who signed gun safety legislation into law ; who oversaw more Americans getting healthcare. I will vote for the man who passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that helped us fund basic necessities like rent and groceries during the pandemic; I will vote for the man who also extended a $300 a week federal unemployment benefit for some 9.7 million people out of work during the pandemic; a man who temporarily expanded the child tax credit program, who allotted $7.25 billion for small business loans and $128 billion in grants for state educational agencies.

I will vote for the man who teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention —with scientists and doctors not GOP political hacks—to administer and track COVID-19 vaccinations across the country. I will vote for the man who passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law to repair the nation's roads, bridges and railways, bring high-speed internet to rural communities and more.

I will vote for the man who passed the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 and allocated $53 billion in federal funding to manufacture semiconductor chips in the U.S. instead of relying on China to produce them.

I will vote for the man who passed the Build Back Better Act, a massive social spending bill that included major health care reform, universal pre-kindergarten and paid family leave, $550 billion dedicated to combatting climate change and more, paid for in part by increased taxes for corporations and the uber rich; not from the taxes on We The people, but from the wealthiest of Americas and corporations who, under that lest president, received massive tax breaks.

I will vote for the man whose Inflation Reduction Act tackled inflation by reducing the federal deficit, promoting production of certain goods and limiting the cost of some prescription drugs; the package also included $369 billion for a climate initiative to reduce greenhouse emissions and promote lean energy technologies; $300 billion in new revenue through a corporate tax increase; $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service to hire new agents, modernize its technology, audit the wealthy and more.

I will vote for the man who has stood up for Ukraine in its quest to be free from Russian autocracy while the GOP and the former president stand by bloodthirsty Vladimir Putin.

I will vote for the old guy who had a bad night at a debate, but who spoke from the heart and promised to keep fighting for us. And if that old guy decides he wants to step aside, I will still support him and the party that wants to work for us and not for The Felon.

And I hope America will follow suit.