Good morning and greetings, Obamacare fans. Or should I say hopefully Affordable HealthCare Act fans? In late September, I received notice from my current health care provider that the membership group I was part of was being disbanded. They further stated that if I didn’t join a new group by December 15 that the new rate for my insurance premium would be basically be double. Lucky I’m a skirt steak eating vegan or my blood pressure would have gone through the roof.

To say the least, I was not thrilled. Now I’m not going to give away the name of my carrier (Anthem Blue Cross) because that would be wrong, as all insurance companies have the same rights to gouge their customers. I’m just worried about the old double cross.

However, last week I spoke with a woman from ABC (Anthem Blue Cross,) and she assured me that as easy as one, two, three, if I went to their website and put in my information, they would offer me a rate that is not comparable with my monthly home mortgage. What a relief to know I still might be able to afford my NBA League Pass.

I’m going to their site this week in an attempt to obtain what those courageous conservative congressman fought so hard to deny me and the rest of the country, affordable health care. At this point I’m optimistic, as the Taliban have momentarily stopped laughing at us. As the saying goes in the heath insurance marketplace, “Hardly working to help you get covered.”

On a more pleasant note, the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf turned 100 years old on October 13. Now I dig the wharf. I love the fact that I can hear the sea lions barking from their home on the pilings from my abode, which according to the way Sheryl Crow used to fly, is over two and half miles away. Now if I could just hear my wife when she calls me from upstairs. It was the French philosopher Jean de la Bruyere who said, “The sweetest of all sounds is that of the voice of the woman we love.” Obviously, this guy was not a sports fan.

For a photographer, the wharf is a photo paradise, as there is always action up and down the longest wooden pier still standing in the U.S. Whether it’s gulls, pelicans, walruses, seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales or Russian submarines, all can be seen from this spot, where back in 1914 they plunged 2,000 70-foot-tall Douglas fir pilings 21 feet deep into the ocean floor. And I believe it was Jacque Cousteau’s cousin who tweeted, “We all know sponges grow in the ocean, but I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that wasn’t the case.”

Depending on who you ask, there have been five or six different wharves built along our shorelines. Our current wharf was built back in the day for steamships to haul goods and surfers in and out Santa Cruz. It’s where the commercial fishing boats brought in their daily hauls from the waters of Monterey Bay. Today there are displayed on ice in the fish markets along the wharf. It’s amazing to see what’s swimming around in the bay. Or to quote the late, great Rodney Dangerfield from the movie classic ‘Caddyshack,’ “The last time I saw a mouth like that it had a hook in it.”

It was in the 1960’s that the wharf started to change and became the tourist attraction that it is today, with restaurants, souvenir stores and more restaurants. Last week I had lunch at Gilda’s, which is owned and run by the original Stagnaro family, who have been serving Santa Cruz since 1879. Being the seafood lover that I am, I had the Wednesday special, the freshly caught prime rib, which comes with soup, bread, potato, vegetables and a view to die for. All for $8.95. And there’s always plenty of free parking and if you’re lucky, you’ll take home a souvenir on your windshield from one of the local gulls.

And speaking of dining, you might want to check out the $8.95 locals special at the Firefish Grill. There’s eight great selections to choose from. My favorite is the freshly caught parmesan crusted chicken, which is a parmesan cheese and parko breaded chicken breast topped with a savory sun dried tomato, wine and butter sauce served over a double portion of mashed potatoes, as my doctor told me to cut back on my ruffage intake. No soup but a tremendous view of the action at Steamer’s Lane.

So for today’s photo lineup, I’m featuring some of my favorite photos of this Santa Cruz landmark. The first two shots are from March of 2006. This multi-colored arc was lighting up the sky at various times throughout the day, and in the late afternoon, I finally timed it right and caught these magical moments of beauty.

The next shot was taken in the early evening, as I was on my way to see Eddie Money perform down at the Boardwalk bandshell. Some baitfish were running in the bay and the pelicans had gathered to take in dinner and a show. Eddie blew the crowd away that night with “Wanna Be A rock ‘N’ Roll Star.” Or as the Money Man told the crowd, and I paraphrase, “I love Santa Cruz. I’ve been coming here since 1970, back when I was snorting South American countries.”

When then move on to the biggest moon of the year rising over the Santa Cruz mountains, before checking out some fantastic thunder clouds. We close with my favorite picture taken from the wharf, of hundreds of sea lions ‘rafting’ alongside the pier. This was the largest group I’d ever seen, and they were just happy relaxing and doing a lot of heavy breathing, much like the detectives during Sharon Stone’s interrogation scene from “Basic Instinct.”

Bottom line, wharf fans, when you can drive out onto the water, park your car, walk 30 feet to a boat landing and sidle up alongside a giant sea lion basking in the morning sun, then life is good. Very, very good.

On to the late night humor. “The government will temporarily reopen until January 15 with the debt ceiling raised until February 7, and then we’ll do this over again. Why do we have a debt ceiling? Why can’t we get rid of the debt ceiling, have a convertible government, and feel the wind in our national hair? It’s day 15 of the government shutdown. President Obama said he was hopeful an agreement would be reached tonight. Part of the problem is that Republicans can’t even agree among themselves on what they want. Which means Obama doesn’t know what to tell them they can’t have.” –Jimmy Kimmel

“Because of the government shutdown, the White House is under attack – by squirrels. They’ve invaded the White House garden because the gardeners were laid off. When I first heard the White House was under attack by freaky rodents, I thought, ‘What’s Ann Coulter done now?’ This kind of thing would never have happened under George W. Bush because Dick Cheney would have been on the White House lawn blasting the squirrels with a shotgun.” –Craig Ferguson

“Yesterday John Boehner led a group of 20 Republicans to see President Obama. Unfortunately when they got to the White House, the president was still black. There are these people they’re calling ‘debt ceiling deniers’ – Republicans who have decided that, unlike every economist on the entire planet, maybe defaulting on our debt would be a good thing. First they didn’t believe in evolution, then they didn’t believe in global warming, and now the debt ceiling; what I like to call the ‘moron trifecta.'” –Bill Maher

“President Obama said the day after the budget deal is made he’s going to concentrate on immigration. He says he’ll start by deporting Ted Cruz.” –Conan O’Brien “Nobody’s happy about the government shutdown. In fact, the Taliban just issued a statement where they criticized Congress for putting themselves before everyone else. You know things are bad when Americans are saying, ‘Yeah, gotta go with the Taliban on this one.'” –Jimmy Fallon “Talking to reporters today about the shutdown, John Boehner said, ‘If ands or buts were candy and nuts, every day would be Christmas.’ You know, if they’d get off our butts and quit squeezing our nuts, we could enjoy Christmas.” –Jay Leno

So here’s a thought. Take a moment this week to think about the sacrifice our troops and their families are making. We’re still fighting in a war, folks. And if you have another moment, think about the courage displayed by children and their families who are bravely fighting catastrophic illnesses. Maybe do something nice to make a difference in someone’s life.

We’ll catch you being called up in August and putting together two shutout performances on the mound in the national league playoffs. Aloha, mahalo and later, Mike Wacha fans.

Good morning and greetings, October fans. Word has filtered back to me that our federal government shut down last week. Now I normally try to stay away from writing about these types of subjects, as I want folks to come to this site to get away from the depressing news that pervades our daily lives. But the elephant in this room needs to be diapered.

Now what we have is a certain band of morons, er politicians, who have gotten together to prove just how selfish and removed they are from the reality of the people they are supposed to represent. I will not refer to them by name. Let’s just say I haven’t had a cup of tea since the Carter Administration, and if I had, you can imagine where I’d like to shove those two lumps of sugar.

But who am I to judge?. This small group of taxed enough alreadyers think they are standing up for the little guy. They are holding Congress hostage as we look like a joke to the rest of the world. Who elected these idiots? You know we’re in trouble when the Somali government is laughing at us.

So who is affected by this shutdown? Well, let’s start with employees of the Departments of Defense, Special Teams, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Claire Danes, the Smithsonian Institute, Jamba Juice, the White House, White Castle and National Parks. We’re talking about 800,000 federal employees who are now enjoying unpaid vacations courtesy of their local Club Feds.

Now it’s not all the politicians in Washington who are at fault, just a small group of conservative Republicans who are trying their best to wreak havoc with the American economy in the name of no health care. Or as my favorite philosopher Plato had to say about the people responsible for the shutdown, “Those who are too smart to engage in politics will be punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” Added the diminutive one, Napoleon Bonaparte, “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”

Now 17 years ago during the last shutdown, or shutout for you sports fans, the stalemate lasted for 20 days. According to my sources inside the NBA, there are tears and fears that this latest lockdown is going to be a doozy and that it could take weeks for certain members of Congress to remember that they were elected to help run the government, not bring it down. This stalemate has the employees of the birth certificate office in Kenya laughing in hysterics.

So let’s bring this situation back home to our Golden State. Last time I checked my GPS, there were no national parks located in Santa Cruz. But if you head northeast, you will run into a lovely little meadow the locals like to call Yosemite National Park. Or as photographer Ansel Adams described it, “Yosemite Valley to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and gold wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space.” Where photographers dreams really do come true.

So with no one inside the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon closed due to lunacy, where does that leave our national jewel we call Yosemite?

In a story by Pete Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle, it was reported that there the was no joy in the Sierras, as last Wednesday, tourists, survivalists, employees, squirrels, concession workers and some tule elk left the famous park amid the confusion, delusion and absolution from the disappointment of the first government shutdown in nearly two decades.

Families from all over the world had come to Yosemite to experience the grandeur of this internationally famous park of wonders. Instead, rangers closed the roads to their hearts, shut down the hiking trails and put the kibosh on what should have been an experience of a lifetime that many had traveled thousand of miles to experience. And all because of some fools playing the role of politicians back in our nation’s capitol. Or as the saying goes, “Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”

So Washington is playing politics and punishing the tourists. Sara Turse, a visitor from Florida, said she had waited a lifetime for this trip. “There are a lot of international travelers here. It’s embarrassing for our country to be so dysfunctional that the government has to shut down the national parks.” All this from a small group who want to prevent health care reform. That sound you hear is the Canadians chuckling.

Yosemite has been closed over the years due to floods, snowstorms, wildfires, political disagreements over appropriations of funds back in Washington and last year’s 49ers’ loss in the Super Bowl. Over the weekend, at least six weddings, bar mitzvahs and toga parties parties were canceled in the park due to the childish and spiteful behavior of these Koch brothers supported individuals.

For the families who had planned these events for months, it was a major inconvenience. However, with the closing of the National Institute of Health, 200 people a week, including 30 children, who were waiting to start new clinical drug trials that will hopefully save their lives, were turned away from these clinical studies due to a lack of funding. I’m sure their cancer will understand.

And with the loss of federal funding, we’re talking no paychecks for workers. But not to worry. When those federally funded foodbank shelves are empty, they’ll just magically refill themselves. No one should go hungry because of politics. Shame on you, Congressman. Or in the words of Henry Cate VII, “The problem with political jokes is they get elected.”

And if you like coincidences, and you know I do, the first day of the government shutdown on Tuesday coincided with Yosemite’s 123rd anniversary. What better way to celebrate and showcase our most famous national treasure by closing it down on its anniversary? The last word on the elected officials wreaking havoc in Washington goes to one of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who so eloquently said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.” And rest assured, these guys are working overtime.

On a lighter note, my wife Allison has penned her first E-book, entitled “Mothers Have Needs To.” It is available online for sale and would make a lovely Halloween gift. To check it out, go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/363706. Photographs in the book were contributed by yours truly. She is now busy working on her second book, “Fathers Have Needs Too, But Who Cares?”

For today’s photo segment, we are clearing out the showroom floor to make room for the 2013-14’s. This was the last 2012 sunrise remaining in the archives from last season. I didn’t necessarily save the best for last, but this would definitely be one that I wouldn’t mind bringing to the dance.

So from this day forward, all future sunrises and sunsets, will be, in the words of those Jersey boys, Kool and the Gang “fresh, exciting, so inviting to me.” What’s going to be coming down this photo pike is “a celebration to last throughout the year.” The sky’s the limit. And in case you missed it 49er fans, last night’s sunset was fantastic.

On to the late night humor. “People are saying now that before the government shutdown congressmen went out and got drunk – celebrating that they had shut down the government. This is the kind of thing that could damage their 10 percent approval rating. They say it’s a partial government shutdown, and I can remember something similar happened. It was like the government was shut down for eight years when Bush was president. When you sign up for Obamacare you choose between the bronze program, the silver program, the gold program, and the platinum program. If you sign up for the platinum, you actually get to drive the ambulance.” –David Letterman

“People are mad at Congress because of the shutdown. According to a new poll, 69 percent of Americans say that House Republicans are acting like children. I think they may have a point because when asked about it, Republicans said, ‘Ha ha you said 69.’ Because of the government shutdown, President Obama has had to scale back his planned trip to Asia. Now Obama’s just going to cross the street and eat lunch at a Panda Express. People have events in the national parks and they’re canceled because of the shutdown. There was a KKK rally scheduled to be held in a national park that was canceled. This was bad news for the KKK but good news for the park’s black bears.” –Conan O’Brien

“So far the ones hit hardest by the government shutdown are tourists because all the national parks are closed. Where will people go for anonymous sex? We still have the airport bathrooms, but that’s only for Senators, and we can’t all use that.
At least here in America, crucial agencies like the U.S. Border Patrol are still on the job. That’s a good thing. The last thing we need is an influx of Canadians, with their politeness and a government that’s open every day. The shutdown means the national zoo is closed. Who’ll feed the animals? Is anyone even there to lock them up at night? Pretty soon starving lions and tigers could charge out of the zoo. They’d devour the fattest, dumbest people on Capitol Hill. Actually that might be the answer to all of the problems.” –Craig Ferguson

“Scientists in Stockholm say hundreds of jellyfish have shut down a nuclear reactor. Hey, that’s nothing. In this country, a bunch of spineless jellyfish have shut down the entire government. This is unbelievable. The government is shut down. Even Al Qaeda couldn’t do that. Do you realize that?” –Jay Leno “The Los Angeles district attorney has decided not to press charges against Justin Bieber for spitting on his neighbor because it was the neighbor’s word against Bieber’s. The D.A. said, “Frankly, I don’t know who to belieb.” – Conan O’Brien

So enjoy the baseball playoffs. We’ll catch you you giving up just four hits and throwing eight shutout innings in your first-ever postseason game Saturday night. Aloha, mahalo and later, Sonny Gray fans.

Good morning and greetings, Supreme Court fans. Last week was a disastrous one for many Americans, as wildfires and flooding ravaged parts of the nation. The worst wildfire in Colorado state history raged away, with 60 mile per hour winds doubling the size of this “firestorm of epic proportions,” forcing frantic residents to evacuate their homes at a moment’s notice. This blazing inferno wiped out entire neighborhoods, taking with it precious memories and photographs that are irreplaceable.

Which leads to the question, if you only had a few minutes to grab what’s important, what would you take? For me it would be simple. My golden retriever, as much Johnny cash as I could stuff into my pockets and a certificate which states “In recognition for superior scholarship, the name of Geoffrey Dean Gilbert has been entered on the Deans List for the fall semester, 1971, for the College of Arts and Sciences at Syracuse University. Forty-one years later and my parents still think it’s a forgery.

If wildfires burning out of control weren’t enough, Tropical Storm Debby lashed into Florida like me swinging a whiffle ball bat, drenching parts of the Sunshine State with over 20 inches of rain and causing more flooding than a reunion show on Oprah. Debby’s rainfall also shut down Interstate 10 for a few days, which caused major havoc with traffic and fans of Stevie Winwood.

But the good news is that the drought is temporarily over in Florida, the bad news is that this was just the first tropical storm in 2012 to form in the Gulf of Mexico, and the NBA news is that LeBron James and the Miami Heat are not going to be satisfied with just one championship.

And speaking of Dwyane Wade, last week over 1,600 heat records fell across the country in a seven day period, with triple digit temperatures scorching the midwest and Great Plains. For me, when the heat index tops 115, I tend to get a little cranky, even when I’m chanting in a sweat lodge. I don’t want to say it was hot, but even Mitt Romney seemed cool.

And then to top it all off, last Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of almost all of Obamacare, which was President Obama’s greatest signature legislative achievement besides picking the Final Four teams in last year’s NCAA basketball tournament.

This was the Supreme Court’s most important decision since Bush versus Gore in 2000, which they screwed up worse than John Edwards’ decision to speed date while he was married. I would have paid good money to have seen Karl Rove’s face contorting in anger and disbelief when his handpicked Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the liberal bloc and upheld Obamacare, which is not to be confused with the Tea Party’s platform of Idontknow and Idontcare.

In a related story, Donald Trump is now demanding to see Justice Robert’s birth certificate.

These events give closure to the month of June, which like my hopes for another season of “The Firm” on NBC, are now history. Which brings us to July, and the thoughts of fireworks and color flow into my mind like sockeye salmon returning to the rivers of the Pacific Northwest.

So to honor Independence Day and the freedom I feel when shooting the breeze and the skyline, I thought we would start off the second half of 2012 with a blast from the recent past, and feature the top six moments of spectacular color and pageantry from the 2011-2012 sunrise and sunset season.

In my salute to “Fiddler on the Roof,” we’re going to line it up sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset. All the rises were shot on location at Its Beach and Lighthouse Point, while the sets took a bow at Natural Bridges State Beach. As a photographer and a spirit channeler, these were my favorite moments of the digital year, along with picturing myself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies.

On to some late night. “Yesterday in New Hampshire, President Obama said Americans need someone who will wake up every single day and fight for their jobs. Then he said, ‘But until we find that guy, I’m still your best choice.'” –Jimmy Fallon “The latest rumor is that Mitt Romney’s running mate will be a white male from Ohio. Or as Romney refers to him, ‘a person of color.'” –Conan O’Brien

“A new survey found that only 31 percent of Americans would want to sit next to Mitt Romney on a flight. Romney was so upset, he was like, ‘I don’t understand. How would they get on my private jet?'” –Jimmy Fallon “Obama called Romney a pioneer of outsourcing jobs. A spokesperson for Romney said, ‘I dare him to come to India and say that to my face.'” –Conan O’Brien

“This week a woman in Florida got into trouble for groping a TSA agent while she was getting a pat-down. Or as the TSA put it, ‘The student has become the master.'” –Jimmy Fallon “The Supreme Court has decided not to fine broadcast networks for fleeting expletives or momentary nudity. It looks like ‘Wheel of Fortune’ is about to get a lot more interesting.” –Conan O’Brien

So that’s our first blast for July. Enjoy Independence Day and we’ll catch you watching the third season of ‘Louie” on FX. Aloha, mahalo and later, Louis C.K. fans.