I had to go to Bakersfield yesterday — a 2 1/2 hour drive from Santa Barbara. This was followed by an agonizing four-hour drive down to Los Angeles, thanks to a Caltrans crew blocking two lanes in the vicinity of Gorman — your California state taxes at work. Hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles inching along for two full hours…crawling along at 2 or 3 mph. I was studying Google Maps for a way out of this torture, and there was — a small winding road that I could have taken that might have hastened things. But I didn’t have the boldness of spirit to risk it. So I sat there on Interstate 5 with all the other sheep…baahhh! I took care of some business in WeHo and then turned right around and drove back to Santa Barbara around 8 pm — a 100-minute journey. Eight hours on the road, dawn to 10 pm.