A high school girl made Sammy Hagar cry

Today is your lucky day because I have a story about two fairly well known people and it has nothing to do with generative AI. <br><br>Sammy Hagar made a few waves in the news this week. He's come out strongly against a bill in California that would limit the number of houses that could be built in an area. He's taken fairly heavy criticism because he lives in an area that, per his own admission, only has 1500 residents and he has a 9 bedroom, 9 bathroom house with a 3,000 bottle wine cellar. <br><br>I think the article from CNBC has a pretty neutral take on it:<br><br>>“Appearing on the hit podcast SmartLess, Hagar discussed efforts to block Oakville residents from building new single-family homes with three or more bedrooms in the Napa Valley. The singer-songwriter said he’s been living in the area for 31 years, and he’s concerned that if the bill passes, the construction of new homes could lead to over-development, more traffic and even wildfires.” <br><br>He claims he moved there in the early 1990s because he was looking for a place to raise his kids and he wanted to be as far away from the rest of his family as possible while still living in the United States. <br><br>This got me curious because I had no idea who this man was. It turns out that he was a rock star in the 80s. He used to be the lead singer for Van Halen. I've heard of Van Halen, but I'm not really that into rock music. That sounds like it would be a fun job though!<br><br>The next thing that came up was that he used to play music with some people as a kid. He claims they were the best band in the area and he was the lead singer. Then I saw the name. I know this guy. After high school he went on to do rocket science while I did high school science. <br><br>I thought about the story of Van Gogh who sold only one painting in his lifetime. People often say that if you ended up as a great artist then that's all that matters - the art. I think about that and the fact that when I got to college I wanted to be just like Van Gogh. I made a lot of art, and some of it was good. People thought it was good. Sammy is talented at music, but I doubt very much he's a great musician. He's not that rare. He's just a guy who got to be a rock star and now he gets to live in his dream house that he's had for over 30 years. <br><br>Then I read something that made me cry. I was reading this story from a girl in high school who is worried that she'll never get to live in the home she grew up in. Back in the 200s, there was a housing crisis. A lot of construction was abandoned. I think it had something to do with the rise of the McMansion. They lived in this beautiful old house on a big piece of property. But in the last few years it seems like a lot of people in California are getting priced out of homes that they've lived in for decades. <br><br>It's not a problem in California. The first part of the article is about Iowa. I see it everywhere. <br><br>We have to build more houses. Houses aren't just a place to live, they're also the lifeblood of an economy. People need a place to live. We can't just make people live on the streets and end up without any houses. They will build houses, but they will build them however they can. It's not like they have to be safe. <br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>This makes me sad. I've done math. I've studied economics. I've read history. If we don't act now, a lot more people will suffer. We can't just pussyfoot and we can't just tell people to move to a different place. I get it that a lot of people want to live in a certain place, but that doesn't mean they should just be priced out. <br><br>I know I'm not alone in thinking this. I bought my house in the first year of college, when I was 20. After I had kids of my own, I thought about moving to a bigger house so that I could have control over my environment. But I realized that there are so many other dangers just out there in the world. The world is a scary place, and at least I ended up in a place where I can control what happens. I have a dream house - it's like the one Sammy Hagar had for 30 years. <br><br>That's not okay. I don't want to live in a world where it's easy for someone as talented as Sammy Hagar to live in a dream house for 30 years. But I don't want to be the girl who cries in her bedroom. <br><br>I'm not going to be the girl who cries in her bedroom. I'm going to act. I'm going to show people that we need to build more houses. I'm going to show people that we need to build better houses. <br><br>I need to stop typing and go to sleep. I'm going to start by reading this book. <br><br>Thank you for reading my rant. It is late in the day for me. I am drunk, but it's not the brandy that made we write - it's the sadness.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>Edit - I was not drunk.