A RARE SUMMER ROAD TRIP by Lu Sobredo  More than one year into the pandemic in one’s golden years counting  blessings, mourning regrets, tracing etchings from times past. Distant  memory blurred by life’s losses; soured by warming climate and ash  coated air from fires—forests and grasslands suffocated from lack of rain.  This is not the California of my youth.  This is not planet Earth of my innocence, but more a semblance  of an ailing heart scarred with ravages of human neglect, disrespect  and dishonor. A universe wails in agony at its inhabitants’ indifference. Driving the stretch of highway from north to south, breath held not  in awe but in sorrow at the stretches of desolate places far too wide  for comfort; once gleaming in lush trees, vines hugging the ground  brimming of  plump seasonal colors and juices of late summer harvest.  The familiar sight is gone and replaced by barren farms; cows huddled  for shelter from the sweltering sun under a lone tree of broken dreams,  lost