Friday in Encinitas

It is another beautiful day in Encinitas. For most people with real jobs its TGIF. For a Realtor it's open houses on Sat and Sun, and Friday can be kind of a goof off day. Goofing off includes taking the time to make an entry to this blog site--taking at least a 10 mile bike ride up old Hwy 101 along the coast, and checking out the beach for the current surf conditions for a few hours of fishing sometime in the next couple of days. As of a couple of days ago there was choppy surf due to wind which tore loose to much Kelp, which came ashore and messed up the surf for fishing purposes--one would spend all one's time fighting the kelp on every cast--instead of being able to work the surf for those elusive corbina. Plus when I walked the beach a couple day's ago I didn't see any sand crabs, which are really the best bait. But I know they are there somewhere--so maybe they will turn up this weekend. Can always use plastic grubs in the event they don't!.

Saturday morn I am usually up early and hit some garage sales with my wife or a couple other friends--it is amazing what's out there for sale--sooner or later literally everything there is can be found at a garage sale. A few weeks ago, I found a very nice Cannondale road bike which was a steal at $25. In fact, It is going the 10 miles today, and another 20 over the weekend!

The most interesting thing in the news today is the election in India. The current government called an early election since they thought things were going so well, then was defeated unexpectedly. The Congress party lead by the daughter-in-law of Indira Ghandi and wife of the prime minister who was assassinated in 1991, won a clear majority. She would be the first foreign born Prime Minister (Italian) in India's history. Two other interesting items: 390 million voters voted on electronic voting machines. The the reason the congress party won was thought to be that those who were in lower economic classes felt that the ruling party was not providing a government environment where they were sharing in the growing economy, and they were not trustful of the current government's attitude towards the tradition of secularism in India's government.

India is the largest democracy in the world--and while perhaps not as old or "advanced" as the good ole U.S., the unexpected results of that election seem to indicate a fairly sophisticated electorate. Not only that, the winning party conducted a grass roots, positive campaign! Perhap India should send over some "observers" to watch over our coming elections!