A bit delayed, but I’m finally getting around to another update. Again, I’m using Amaya, although I have Blue Griffon standing by if I need it. The blog is also progressing well, so I do encourage everyone to follow it. As always, you can keep up to date on the latest headlines related to California Highways by friending the California Highways Facebook group. I’ve set it up to get the regular Metro.Net headline posting, and I regularly highlight any highway related articles I find on the net. It is also your place to share news about California Highways, and I pick up that news from there for these updates.

On to the update… Entries for the following routes were updated based on my reading of the papers (which are posted to California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum and misc.transport.road, but didn’t find any updates there. This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research⁽¹⁾, contributions of information or leads (via direct mail or Usenet) from Anneliese Ågren⁽²⁾, Michael Ballard⁽³⁾, Andrew Leung⁽⁴⁾, David Markowitz⁽⁵⁾, Oscar Voss⁽⁶⁾, Tom & Millie⁽⁷⁾]: Route 1^(1,2),Route 4^(1,3), I-5⁽¹⁾, Pre-1964 Route 7⁽¹⁾, Route 7⁽⁶⁾, I-8⁽¹⁾, I-10⁽¹⁾, Route 12⁽¹⁾, Route 17⁽²⁾, Route 20⁽¹⁾, Route 24⁽¹⁾, Route 39⁽¹⁾, Route 46⁽³⁾, Route 47⁽¹⁾, US 50⁽¹⁾, Route 65⁽³⁾, Route 66⁽⁴⁾, Route 68⁽⁵⁾, I-80⁽¹⁾, Route 91⁽¹⁾, Route 99^(1,3), US-101⁽¹⁾, Route 103⁽¹⁾, Route 111⁽⁶⁾, Route 121⁽¹⁾, Route 160⁽¹⁾, Route 190⁽¹⁾, I-210⁽¹⁾, Route 237⁽¹⁾, I-405⁽¹⁾, I-580⁽¹⁾,I-605⁽¹⁾, I-710⁽¹⁾, I-880⁽¹⁾, Siskiyou County Route A12⁽⁷⁾.

Added the book Where the Road Begins: The Saga of Big Sur’s Pioneer Families by Peter Gray Scott to the recommended reading list, based on a recommendation from Anneliese Ågren. Also added a link to Pacific Electric and the Growth of the San Fernando Valley, which I picked up recently and has wonderful information and pictures of the San Fernando Valley.

Updated some information on the theft of mission bells along El Camino Real in Ventura.

Alexis Tate provided some reports of broken links on one of the links pages. As a reminder, if you ever discover a broken link on any page, please report it to me so I can correct it or remove it. In other link changes, Bridget Summers submitted DistractedDrivingHelp, which is an omnibus site that collects a number of resources to help in the fight against distracted driving. Given the importance of that fight, I added it to the Other Links page, and included links to the sites on distracted driving from the AAA Foundation and the California Highway Patrol. The students at Pinewood Elementary School also submitted a link for the history page–they found a good site with the history of the transcontinental railroad. As a reminder: I always welcome link updates or link suggestions, but I don’t just link to help people advertise. Links must be highway related, and I review every link I add. Note that “highway related” does not mean “travel related”.

Based on information provided by Charlie McCoy, added information on Classified Landscaped Freeways. A Classified Landscaped Freeway is a section of freeway with planting that meets the criteria of the Outdoor Advertising Regulations. It is used in the control and regulation of Outdoor Advertising Displays. A full list of such freeways may be found here, supposedly there are regular additions that can be found here. Classified Lanscaped information was added to the following routes: Route 1, Route 2, Route 4, I-5, I-8, I-10, Route 12, Route 13, Route 14, I-15,Route 17, Route 20, Route 22, Route 23, Route 24, Route 29, Route 30, Route 33,Route 37, I-40, Route 41, Route 44, Route 47, Route 49, US 50, Route 51, Route 52, Route 54, Route 55, Route 56, Route 57, Route 58, Route 60, Route 65, Route 67, Route 68, Route 71, Route 73, Route 78, I-80, Route 84, Route 85, Route 86, Route 87, Route 90, Route 91, Route 92, Route 94, Route 99, US 101, I-105, I-110, Route 113, Route 118, Route 120, Route 125, Route 126, Route 134, Route 135, Route 154, Route 160, Route 163, Route 168, Route 170, Route 178, Route 180, Route 198, US 199, I-205, I-210, I-215, Route 217, Route 237, Route 238, Route 241, Route 242, Route 244, Route 259, Route 260, Route 261, Route 275,I-280, Route 299, Route 330, I-380, I-405, I-580, I-605, I-680, I-710, I-780, I-805, I-880, Route 905, I-980.

Checked the Calnexus page, but I don’t think they are updating the exit number lists anymore.

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page. Noted the passage of the following item:

• AB 610 (Solorio) Vehicles: specialized license plates: Veterinary Medical Board: pilot program.
  Under existing law, the Department of Motor Vehicles issues environmental and other specialized license plates. The issuance of some of those license plates is subject to additional fees. Existing law prohibits the department from establishing a specialized license plate program for a state agency until the department has received not less than 7,500 applications for the plates within 12 months after the date of the department’s approval of the agency’s initial application to sponsor a specialized license plate program. This bill would authorize the Veterinary Medical Board to contact the department by June 30, 2012, and indicate its intent to undertake collection of additional applications and fees or deposits for an additional period of 12 months in order to obtain the minimum 7,500 applications for a special license plate the board is seeking to sponsor pursuant to existing law. The bill would make this provision inoperative on July 1, 2013, and would repeal this provision on January 1, 2014.
  Chaptered April 26, 2012. Statute Chapter 9.

I was also amused by the title of SJR 27, the “Are You Dense Day”. Alas, it wasn’t what I was hoping for, instead being focused on Breast Cancer density testing (not that such testing is a bad thing; rather, I was hoping for a day where we could go around to people saying, “What? Are you dense?!?”.

Noted that one of the CTC items below identified that portions of former US 99W (that are neither Route 99 nor I-5) may still be in the state highway system. This is best seen starting around Williams, CA, where there is a road roughly parallel to I-5 that appears to be called “Old Hwy 99W”, “County Road 99W”, “Highway 99W” (as in Williams, CA), “99W Highway”, “State Highway 99W”, and “Road 99W”. The latter designation is co-signed with Tehama County Route A8 north of San Benito Avenue near Red Bluff, CA. It is unclear if these portions have postmiles. Information on this was added to the “SUFFIXED” section of the Route 99 entry.

I checked the CTC Liaison page for the results of the February, March, April, and May meetings. The following items were of interest (note that the results from the May meeting were not yet posted):

( Read the rest of this entry » )

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Most of the time, when you see trailer parks, you don’t stop in. You drive on past, oblivious to the goings-on inside. We’ll I’ve got a trailer park that is worth visiting–”Armadillo Acres”, in Starke FL. Now, to make your life a little easier, you can find “Armadillo Acres” in old-town Newhall, right next to a Mexican restaurant.

Perhaps I should explain. “Armadillo Acres” is the fictional setting for “The Great American Trailer Park Musical“, on-stage at REP East Playhouse in Newhall until June 16. In presenting this show, the REP has transformed itself into a trailer park: Pabst Blue Ribbon, tacky accents, tacky dress, and tacky demeanor. It has done this to support a show that itself it tacky, but is also incredibly funny, well performed, and a delight to watch. This show is a hoot–a load of fun performed as only REP can do it.

“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” (book by Betsy Kelso, with music and lyrics by David Nehls) can be enjoyed on two levels. On the top (or should I say “over the top”), it is a celebration of all things Trailer Park and “White Trash”: from the Trailer Park culture itself, with its pregnancy and messy relationships and borderline incest and tackyness, to how that culture is portrayed on television, advertising, QVC, and such. But deeper inside, GATPM is a love story–a story about a couple whose relationship has persevered for over 20 years, and the relationships of those around them with the men in their life. Of course, they don’t quite present it in those words, and the relationships (especially if you’ve seen Jerry Springer or Sally Jesse) may not be what you expect.

At its heart, GATPM is the story of Jeannie Garstecki (Kristen Heitman) and Norbert Garstecki (Jeremiah Lowder): two high school sweethearts (the math nerd (she) and the football jock (he)) who have been together 20 years. After a traumatic incident at the beauty salon, Jeannie became agoraphobic, and hasn’t set foot outside of her trailer for almost 20 years. It is their anniversary, and she has promised Norbert she’ll go outside and he can take her somewhere special–the Ice Capades! This basic story is introduced to us (and carried on throughout the show) by the trailer park equivalent of a greek chorus: the trailer park owner, Betty Burnside (Leslie Berra)–a tall, well-worn gal who has seen everything, especially in this park; “Lin” (Lori D’itri)–short for Linoleum, whose husband is on death row in the Florida Penitentiary; and “Pickles” (Beth Ann Sweezer)–a young woman who wants a baby so bad she has continual hysterical pregnancies. Into this mix is thrown Pippi (Shannon Bouknight), a stripper on the run from her psychotic boyfriend Duke (Luke Barnett). Pippi moves into the trailer park to hide, and Norbert has a wife who has been unavailable for 20 years. You can figure out the rest. Let’s just say that the story plays out with humor both small and large, amplified by stereotypical “white trash” behaviors, and magnified by the hilarious videos projects on screens on the side and the clever music and lyrics.

All of the performances in this production were excellent and each actor has their moment to shine. I walked out of this production going: these guys were perfect–they could sing, they could act, and most importantly, they were having fun on stage and conveying that fun to the audience. There are a few performances and moments I want to highlight. The first is Beth Ann Sweezer as “Pickles”. Sweezer has a smile and a bubbly personality that light up the stage, and was just a joy to watch in every scene she was in. Your eyes were drawn to her as a result (and not just because of the pregnancy belly), and she made the show fun. She also had great comic timing, which was especially demonstrated in her scenes as Tina from Oklahoma City. The second highlight to me was Kristen Heitman. Initially, she didn’t fit my image of Jeannie, but she won me over with her perkiness–and more importantly, her singing voice. She truly shined in numbers such as “Owner of My Heart”, “Panic”, “But He’s Mine”, and particularly “Flushed Down The Pipes” (which had the most hilarious accompanying video I’ve seen in ages). The third highlight was Shannon Bouknight as Pippi. Again, she was having fun with her role (and especially that pole dance!), but man, could this young woman sing. This was highlighted in many of the numbers with Jeannie (such as “But He’s Mine” and “Panic”). Lastly, as Norbert, Jeremiah Lowder, exhibited a gentle charm that was infectious.

The show was directed by Mark Kaplan, who did a wonderful job of bringing out the inner “white trash” of his actors, and making the production come across as natural and fun. Choreography was by Stephen Bailey and was effective for the REP space. Vocal direction was by Leslie Berra. The music was prerecorded (the REP doesn’t really have space for an orchestra, let alone an onstage band), and was not credited in the program.

The production aspects of the show equaled the acting quality. Much credit goes to the regular REP team. Jeff Hyde was back with a spectacular set design that put four trailers on the small stage, utilizing a turntable and other tricks to also provide inside views of the two of them. Art Direction (which likely means helping Jeff with the numerous design and props) were the REP artistic directors, Ovington Michael Owston and Mikee Schwinn. These three transformed the entire REP facility and did a great job of setting the stage. As an aside: this is one thing I love about the REP–the show isn’t just on the stage… for they transform their lobby and bar into a parallel area whose them echoes what is on the stage. The costumes (by Claudia Alexopoulos) and wigs (by Jennifer Alexopoulos) were period-appropriate and (especially for the wigs) appropriately tacky. The sound design by Steven “Nanook” Burkholder was a step above his normal work, with on-actor mics (something one rarely sees at the REP) and appropriate sound effects. The videos (by Jeremiah Lowder and Mikee Schwinn) were period-perfect clips from advertising and TV shows, and augmented the action perfectly. The lighting by Tim Christianson was effective and unobtrusive, and did a great job of setting the scene. Vicki Lightner was stage manager, assisted by Christina Gonzalez.

“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” continues through June 16 at the REP. Tickets are available through the REP Online Box Office. Go see it; you’ll have a wonderful time, and never look at trailer parks the same. Following Trailer Park at the REP are the two shows in the more mature “81 series”: “The Laramie Project” (running July 13-July 28) and “Playdates” (running August 17-September 1).

Upcoming Theatre, Concerts, and Dance: May will end with the production of “Seussical” at Nobel Middle School. I wanted to see “Follies” at the Ahmanson, but that doesn’t look like it will work out. June is more open, but does feature both “Addams Family” and “Million Dollar Quartet” at the Pantages, as well as the Palisades High School mega-picnic and the Wilshire Blvd Temple Camps 60th Anniversary. July features “The Savannah Disputation” at the Colony, “The Laramie Project” at REP East, and “Meet Me In St. Louis” at Cabrillo. August is more open, but will bring “Memphis” at the Pantages and “Playdates” at REP East.  As always, open dates are subject to be filled in with productions that have yet to appear on the RADAR of Goldstar or LA Stage Alliance.

Music: Greatest Hits I & II (Linda Ronstadt): Desparado

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Well, it’s Friday at lunch, and you know what that means… time to clear out the accumulated links. This week, they are all across the board.

• Happy Birthday To You. I’m sure by now you’re aware of my tradition of birthday songs. I used to post these on LiveJournal, but LJ has begun to lose its audience, so I now post them on Facebook*. So naturally I was interested when someone posted a heat chart showing the distribution of birth dates. Most birthdays are clustered in the summer months (Jul-Sep, with a little overlap in Jun). This gives us an idea what people are doing come October and November. People also seem to avoid giving birth on major holidays (look at the anomalous coolness of July 4, December 25, and Thanksgiving… but seem to want to give birth on Valentine’s Day and just before the end of the calendar year (nothing like a little tax deduction).
  *: If you’re an LJ reader and still want an LJ song, please let me know. Also, if you are a reader of this blog and haven’t friended me on FB, please do so. Please drop me a message so I know you’re doing this as a blog reader.
• Whose Garden Was This. At our previous house, I had a large collection of different varieties of roses. I would plant them in January or February as bare-root roses. I’ve been meaning to do this at our current house, but the last time I went to Lowes, they had an extremely poor selection. Here’s part of the reason: roses are fading away in popularity. People are buying fewer roses, and fewer growers are producing new varieties or maintaining old variety. This is sad. Having a bush of lovely fragrant hybrid roses is a delight to the senses.
• I’m Changing My Name To Chrysler. The movement of corporations and brands is something that fascinates me–it has going back to the debacle of the NBC “N”. So I read with interest that Motel 6 has moved from Accord to Hilton’s owner, Blackstone. I wonder if that means Motel 6 might connect to the Hilton reservation line, accord Hilton Honor points, etc. Could be interesting–I don’t think Hilton has a real budget brand. In other news, NBC is looking to push Microsoft out of the online version of MSNBC (they are already out of the TV network).
• Don’t Slay That Potato. A couple of food related articles. First, echoing the fact that “gluten-free” is the current in-fad (not that I’m complaining), Frito-Lay is joining the bandwagon in getting its snacks certified as gluten-free. It is important to remember that Gluten-Free .NE. healthy be default (just as Kosher .NE. healthy). Does it really serve society to have more gluten-free junk food? Speaking of junk food, a congressman has introduced a bill that removes pizza as a vegetable. In understanding this issue, it is important to realize that “pizza is a vegetable” is as meaningless a phrase as “Obamacare”. Pizza is not a vegetable: the real debate was whether a serving of pizza had sufficient vegetable material to count as a serving of vegetable. It’s like asking if spinach pasta is a serving of vegetables. The debate raises an interesting question: does eating tomatoes count as eating vegetables, and how much concentrated tomatoes (which is what tomato paste is) constitutes a serving. Further, what makes pizza bad as a food is not the tomatoes or even the crust — it is the fat that comes with the cheese and pepperoni. But we neglect educating the public on these facts, preferring the sound-bite of “pizza is a vegetable”.
• Made in America. Stupid debates (such as the one about pizza) seem to be made in America. We’ve certainly seen the dumbing down of America; this is demonstrated by the speeches that Congress gives. So is there anything good made in America? The answer, of course, is yes–as demonstrated by this list of 10 products still made in America.
• Take Me For a Ride in Your Car Car. Two transportation articles. First, it looks like Carmageddon II will be delayed. As you may recall, Carmageddon was when the entire I-405 was shut down in the Sepulveda Pass to demolish the southern half of the Mulholland Bridge. Part II was planned for June, but that looks to be delayed. Why? According to the article, “Workers have encountered dozens of unexpected utility lines that need to be removed or relocated from the area, he said. Retaining walls must be rebuilt because of manufacturing defects. Additionally, a $300 million lawsuit – filed last year by a Bel Air landowner – forced Metro to move a freeway on-ramp near the Getty Museum 150 feet to the west.The lawsuit, which claimed a planned, nearby golf course would be negatively impacted by the widening, was dismissed last month, it but still necessitated the construction changes. And then there’s the FBI. The agency works out of a building at 1100 Wilshire Boulevard, near the construction site. Government officials are demanding Metro workers go through security clearance before working on the sensitive FBI lines.” That last part is fascinating to me, as a security guy. Of course, when Carmageddon II happens, people will need to ride Metro. Guess what? They are going to have to buy TAP cards (the reusable card costs $1 on top of the fare) — gates will be locked, and there will be no more paper tickets.

Lastly, as a reminder to me: There are some interesting musicals previewing at the NoHo Arts Center.

Music: Ramblin’ Boy (Tom Paxton): Harper

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

I’m taking today as a vacation day because of a very special thing happening this evening: my daughter is graduating from Van Nuys High School. I’ve seen this little girl grow and blossom into a delightful young woman. She’s still a little girl in some ways (and she’ll always be my little girl), and she’s still a typical teenager, but more and more she’s showing maturity and drive that will do her well.

Today is the culmination of 13 years of hard work within the public school system of LA Unified. Starting from kindergarten days at Lassen Elementary, through Vintage MST Magnet, Nobel Middle School, and now Van Nuys High School, she’s achieved. Some years were harder than others (3rd grade was particularly bad), and some courses were harder than others. There have been ups and downs, but she had demonstrated that she enjoys hard work, much as she complains about it. She has also demonstrated a strong loyalty and love for her friends.

I thank the teachers that have been positive influences over the years. As much as LA Unified gets maligned, there are some wonderful teachers and staff members out there. I thank the friends that have been here for her–both her friends and our friends. I especially thank the two women who are not here to see her graduate but influenced her life immensely: Lauren Uroff and Karen Denise Pratt Holmes. We know you are watching this evening, just as we know her grandfathers are watching and smiling.

When I graduated from high school back in 1977, my father wrote in my yearbook the following quote from his mother: “Not failure, but low aim is crime.” Erin has always aimed high and worked hard. Not everything worked out the way she wanted, but the universe has ways of compensating and moving her to the right places. We saw this as her focus shifted from technical lighting to a love of history and the effort that was Academic Decathalon. We’re seeing it as she goes off to college: for all her plans to go to a private college (notably Reed or Wash U St. Louis), she’s ending up at UC Berkeley… which is possibly the best choice for her in terms of the student diversity (which she loves), academic diversity (which she eats up), and the complete unique funkiness that is the city of Berkeley.

This summer we’ll pack her up and she’ll move to Northern California, where I’m sure she’ll be welcomed by our friends in the area, and more importantly, will make tons and tons of new friends in what I’m sure will be another life-changing experience. I have confidence that she’ll exceed beyond our wildest dreams.

Music: Rooms: A Rock Romance (2009 Original Off-Broadway Cast): My Choice

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Vanpooling has been heavily on my mind of late, which leads to the obvious lunchtime plug: Do you commute from the North San Fernando Valley to El Segundo every day? Want to escape the grind? Join our vanpool! Ask me how!

Seriously, the RIF combined with some other factors has reduced our ridership, and we need new riders. So if you know people that commute from the valley to El Segundo every day, with a work schedule of roughly 7am to 330pm, have them contact me.

I’m highlighting this (of course) because of an article I discovered in my lunchtime reading. INRIX has released their new traffic scorecard, and guess what the #1 most congested stretch of freeway is?

“Los Angeles: A 13-mile stretch of the San Diego Fwy/I-405 NB from I-105/Imperial Hwy interchange through the Getty Center Dr. exit that takes 33 minutes on average, with 20 minutes of delay.”

I drive the van on that stretch every day on our way home. We have our tricks, but from Santa Monica northbound, it is a long.  Of course, we can’t forget the #7 item:

” Los Angeles: An eight-mile stretch of I-405 SB (San Diego Fwy) from Nordhoff St. to Mulholland Dr. that takes 22 minutes on average, with 14 minutes of delay.”

We drive that every morning, although the van can use the carpool lane. So if you want to avoid having to drive those stretches, come join our van and sleep instead (or listen to scintillating podcasts). You can contact me for information.

Curious about where else is congested? #2 is in NYC (a 16-mile stretch of the Long Island Expy/I-495 EB from the Maurice Ave. exit to Minneola Ave./Willis Ave. exit); #3 is in LA (a 15-mile stretch of the Santa Monica Fwy/I-10 EB from CA-1/Lincoln Blvd. exit to Alameda St.); #4 is in NYC (an intense three-mile stretch of I-678 NB (Van Wyck Expy) from Belt Pkwy to Main St.), and #5 is in LA (a 17.5-mile stretch of I-5 SB (Santa Ana/Golden St Fwys) from E. Caesar Chavez Ave to Valley View Ave.). Pittsburgh has one entry at #9, and San Francisco as one at #10 (CA-4 EB (California Delta Hwy) from Bailey Rd to Somersville Rd.). Overall, the worst traffic cities are Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Bridgeport.

Of course, I do have other traffic/automated related stuff for you. For example, did you know that Ford Corporation mortgaged their iconic blue oval logo during their recent bankrupcy? They did, and they just won it back. Prefer riding your bike? Here are 25 awesome and unusual bike racks. Prefer public transportation? How about a map of bus and streetcar lines in Los Angeles… from 1934!

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

By now, you’ve probably realized I love history and historical oddities. Here are a few historical items saved during lunchtime reading:

• History Every Day. You may not realize it, but you’re exposed to historical items every day on your computer. Don’t believe me? Look closely at the various icons you see. Most are for things that most people no longer use. For example, you’ll see a floppy disk icon in Acrobat to give you an option to save to disk–but who uses floppy disks anymore?
• Old Things Still Around. No, I’m not talking about me. Rather, I’m talking about old computer equipment or operating systems that should be long gone, but for some reason are still in use today. For example, there’s one company that is still using plugboard equipment.
• It’s Still Burning. The recent renovations at Clifton’s Cafeteria uncovered a neon light that has been burning behind a wall for about 70 years!

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

So, I’m reading the LA Times, and I see the headline: “Listening to loud music linked with pot use, unsafe sex, study says”

Oh yeah, this is going to be on next week’s “Wait Wait”. Somehow, I don’t believe the loud music is the cause, no matter what the headline wants to imply. If it was, somehow I missed out.

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

I was just reading an opinion piece in the LA Times on why “tax the rich” is the wrong idea. It got me thinking, and tied into some thoughts I’m having from a book on the early days of the Pacific Electric I’m reading, and some thoughts on unions.

Society has changed, and not for the better.

If you look at some of the robber barons of the 18th century, they were in business to make money. And they did. But they also had the sense of giving back: they built libraries, they created foundations, they give to charities. Today, what do we see? The folks that get the large bonuses — the bankers and oil company executives and such — where are they giving back? The notion of earning money to do good is gone. Instead, we expect the government to do the good, but then don’t want to pay for it.  We see executives, in fact, doing what they can to avoid giving money to the government to do good.

When they do give money, what do they do? They often build buildings or other infrastructure, forgetting the ongoing costs of that infrastracture… leaving government on the hook to keep the lights on.

We’ve seen this in unions as well. Whereas they once worked to protect workers — to ensure good and safe working conditions (an admirable thing), to ensure that reasonable benefits were provided… they’ve gone into the mindset of greed and preservation of that status. They collect more money; they fund political campaigns — things that may not help the worker as much.

We need to get away from the “greed is good” notion. We need to get away from the collection of significant excesses of money. We need to get back to the mindset of doing good for all.

Music: Sing For Joy (Rabbi Gershom Sizomu And Others): Havu Ladonay

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

The California June Primary is in a little under three weeks, which means it’s probably time to crack open that sample ballot and start doing some analyzing. Some ground rules going in:

1. I’m a registered Democrat, which means less than it did before this election year, with the change in California balloting, but it also means I’ve only got one candidate for president on my ballot;
2. I’m a Humphrey Democrat, meaning I feel one of the functions of government is to do good for people–this is probably a bit different from where the Democratic party is these days, but the Republicans of these days aren’t the Republicans of 1968 either;
3. I believe that government should not be intruding in people’s personal lives–so if a candidate believes that they must impose a particular religion’s mores on me, they won’t get my vote;
4. I believe that it is the job of the legislatures to do what is best for the country, and not necessarily their party. This means they must be willing to compromise and find a middle ground. This means, apriori, I will not support any candidate who will never consider a tax increase or supports Grover Nordquist’s pledge. A responsible household looks to both increasing income and reducing expenses.
5. I tend to support what is referred to derogatorily as “Obamacare”. It is far from perfect, but it is probably the best we can get as long as the large insurance players are in the picture and we have employer-provided health care.

So, with that said, let’s go through the ballot, ignoring the Presidential primary (because I only have one candidate, who I support anyway), and the party central committee, because I have no idea who any of those people are anyway. Also note that this is the first test of the “open primary”, meaning we have tons and tons of candidates, and the top two in terms of total vote go on to the general election.

• United States Senator.  Here we have 24, yes, 24, candidates: 6 Democrats, 14 Republicans, 2 Peace and Freedom, 1 Libertarian, and 1 American Independent. Let’s start with the Dems: Dianne Feinstein is the current senator. She’s done a reasonable job, but has been pretty partisan.  Running against her are Colleen Shea Fernald, the “candidate  for peace”–reasonable positions but no experience to speak of; David Alex Levitt, whose main emphasis is the end of the prohibition on medical marijuana; Mike Strimling, whose main emphasis is taxing the rich; Diane Stewart, whose focus appears to be rebuilding communities and legalizing marijuana; and Nak Shah, who doesn’t appear to have his own website. Turning to the Republicans: Some we can eliminate right away, such as Orly Taitz, who lives in a world where Barak Obama was born in Kenya. Looking at the others: Elizabeth Emken, who is out based on #3; Rick Williams, who claims to be a radical conservative like Ron Paul and says there will never been new taxes (out based on #4); Rogelio T. Gloria, who doesn’t give a lot of detail on his positions other than to support the military and call to abolish the Dept. of Energy; Robert Lauten, who wants to restore Glass-Steagal (good) and reestablish a Hamiltonian National Bank (bad)… with no other positions; Al Ramirez, who is out based on #3 (“protect traditional marriage and the life of the unborn”); Dirk Allen Konopik, who puts “Christian” on the front page of his website and wants to promote American’s Christian heritage (this guy is scary); Donald Krampe, who doesn’t have a lot of positions on his website, but what he has seems reasonable; Nachum Shifren, apparently Orthodox Jewish, but doesn’t put any positions on his website; Dennis Jackson, who does not believe in multinational treaties; Dan Hughes, who is for the 9-9-9 plan and traditional marrage (out on #3); Greg Conlon, who tends to have reasonable positions as well, although doesn’t cover everything on his site; John Boruff, who among other things, is antiabortion; and Oscar Alejandro Braun, whose sole focus is water issues. As for the rest: Marsha Feinland (P&F), who wants to cut all aid to Israel; Kabiruddin Karim Ali (P&F), who is pretty much anti-Defense; Don J. Grundmann (AI), who is anti-gay, anti-IRS, and anti-Fed; and Gail K. Lightfoot, who is a basic libertarian (and thus anti-tax). That’s a lot of candidates to sift through. So I’m cutting out the 3rd parties as they all have positions I don’t like in one way, shape or form; and the lesser Democratic candidates, because they won’t beat Dianne Feinstein. Most Republicans are out as well — the only reasonable ones are Krampe and Conlon. So it boils down to Feinstein, Krampe, and Conlon.

  Conclusion: Right now, I’m leaning towards Feinstein, but I need to research the other two more.

• United States Representative (30th District). This is the big battle: Howard Berman (D) vs. Brad Sherman (D) vs. a number of other people. I say this because both Berman and Sherman are incumbants, well-liked, well-respected, in a strongly democratic district. This is the case of  “I’d vote the bum out… but I don’t have a bum to vote out”. The other candidates really don’t have a chance, but let’s look at them: Vince Gilmore (D), who calls himself a “constitutional democrat” and who wants no federal tax on any citizen; Susan Shelley (R), a moderate Republican who is liberal on social issues; Mark Reed (R), who believes climate change is a hoax; Navraj Singh (R), who characterizes the Affordable Care Act as Socialistic (demonstrating he doesn’t understand what socialism is); and Michael W. Powelson (G), who doesn’t have his own webpage. Of these, the battle is really between Berman, Sherman, and Shelley, although Singh has the market on street corner signs. Given their positions, you wouldn’t go wrong with Berman, Sherman, or Shelley, although Shelley would have no influence or seniority. The edge on that goes to Berman. Berman also didn’t photoshop his mom out of pictures sent to non-Jews.

  Conclusion: Howard Berman

• State Senator (27th District). This is easier: one Democrat (Fran Pavley, a CSUN graduate who wants to lower CS and UC tuition), and one Republican (Todd Zink, whose positions also seem reasonable). Both have reasonable positions; I’m giving the edge to Pavley simply because I’m tired of having a Repulican as my state senator (which is what I’ve had for years).

  Conclusion: Fran Pavley

• State Assembly (45th District). Again, only two candidates: Bob Blumenfield (D) vs. Chris Kolski (R). Kolski, although he’s an EE (+) and a UCLA grad (+), is campaigning on an anti-Waxman platform (I like Waxman) and is for returning to the gold standard (bad idea).

  Conclusion: Bob Blumenfield

• Superior Court Judges. Six different offices. I always find it difficult to sort these out. Looking at the Times endorsements, they like Sean Coen for Office 3, Andrea C. Thompson for Office 65, and Eric Harmon for Office 114. I can’t see any flaws in their logic. For the other offices, I see no reason to vote out the incumbants.

  Conclusion: #3-Coen, #10-Kumar, #38-Olson, #65-Thompson, #78-Otto, and #114-Harmon.

• LA County District Attorney. Six candidates: Bobby Grace, Jackie Lacey, Carmen Trutanich, Alan Jackson, Danette E. Meyers, and John L. Breeault III. Of these, the two leaders are Lacey and Trutanich. Lacey is endorsed by local papers, Berman, Steve Cooley. Trutanich is endorsed by Jerry Brown, Brad Sherman, loads of politicians, and law enforcement.  I’d rather leave Trutanich at the LA City level, as he indicated originally he didn’t plan to run for higher office.

  Conclusion: Jackie Lacey

• Proposition #28: Changing Term Limits. In general, I think what we’ve done in the past for term limits didn’t work. We created folks who were just running for office. This appears to fix the problem.

  Conclusion: Yes on 28

• Proposition #29: Additional Tax on Cigarettes for Cancer Research. Much as I’m in favor of additional taxes, I don’t like this one. This creates an additional bureaucracy to administer things, and does more tying of specific income to specific purposes. I’m not sure we need this.

  Conclusion: No on 29.

• LA County Measure H: Continue Hotel Occupancy Tax. This is a major source of revenue that is already in place. I see no reason not to continue it.

  Conclusion: Yes on H

• LA County Measure L: Landfill Tax Continuation Measure. Again, continuation of an existing tax on landfill operators to fund general fund services. No reason not to continue it.

  Conclusion: Yes on L

So there you have it. Pretty clear positions on most offices, except senator. There I like Feinstein, but might be convinced to go for Krampe or Conlon.  As always, feel free to convince me why your position is better.

Music: Stan Freberg Presents The United States Of America, Volume II, The Middle Years (Stan Freberg): Madison, Jefferson, Franklin & Osbourne (Part 2)

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Today I did something unusual. I went to a rail festival at Orange Empire Railway Museum.

Perhaps I should explain why this was unusual. After all, we’ve been members at Orange Empire since the late 1980s. We’ve been volunteering at rail festivals for years. What’s so odd about going to a rail festival? What’s unusual about this time is that I went as a visitor. No volunteer assignments. Parked in the main lot, and came in the main gate. So I’d like to share my impressions with you… as a visitor, and as a long time member.

We’ve been coming to Orange Empire since perhaps 1986 or 1987. I think we joined in 1988. We’ve seen the museum grow from a dusty, volunteer run hodgepodge with old equipment boneyards everywhere to a professional, well-laid-out volunteer run facility. Coming in, you go past lovely ticket booths (ex-Disneyland, if I recall correctly) down a nicely landscaped path to the heart of the museum. Signage directs you to the lawn where there was food and entertainment, or to the trains where you could ride trolleycars, the nicely restored diesel train, or the steam train. You could also wander through the car houses seeing old cars.

Now, I should note that this was the Spring Rail Festival. Thomas had left the bulding. That meant we didn’t have the craziness… or the crowds… of Thomas. If I had to guess, there were perhaps 500-750 people there. It wasn’t crowded at all.

If you’re the type that craves adventure rides, this isn’t for you. If you want adventure, go up the road to the March ARB air show. If anything, this Spring Rail Festival struck me as old-fashioned, turn-of-the-century entertainment. You could sit in the park, listen to bluegrass bands, and have lunch. You could ride trains. You could experience a slower pace. For me, it was just what I needed: to sit at a picnic table and listen to a pretty good bluegrass cover band; to sit on a park bench, feel the breeze, and just relax. To have some wonderful BBQ pizza. To take a day at a slower pace. To relax.

What is wasn’t, however, was the Spring Rail Festival of old. There weren’t the crowds. This wasn’t an old-style fest where we were running three diesels every 20 minutes and a steam train and the Irish tram and the Carhouse 4 shuttle. It wasn’t crowds and crowds of people waiting in line in Perris. Perhaps those days are gone: where crowds are drawn just to see the trains. The crowds come out for a media sensation (“Thomas”); they don’t come out for a day in the park. Looking back on it, I guess that’s just OK. Things change over time.

However, there was something missing… and it wasn’t the crowds. It was the people. Let me explain… with the old festivals, the same people showed up and volunteered, and the members of the museum became a family. You got to know people and to care about people. Since Thomas (and the deprecation of the Spring Rail Festival into a lower-tempo affair), the volunteer nature has changed. There’s no camaraderie in the Thomas crew, because there are so many non-museum members volunteering (Civil Air Patrol, the nearby military school). The volunteer contingent for Spring is low, so not all are called. With this, we’ve lost the family nature of the museum. Perhaps this is a side effect of the organization growing both bigger and older, but it is a loss. There needs to be a community event that needs volunteers, that are drawn exclusively from the membership, that has organized outings for dinner afterwards. Perhaps there needs to be organized activities for members in various geographic areas. Something to build up the friendships and relationships that used to be there.

But perhaps that is just me reflecting on the past. From my point of view, it was a wonderfully relaxing day. Who cares that I had websites to update, shopping to do, and laundry loads to process. I took a day to relax, and I needed it. Next will be going back up to temple for a talk by Rabbi Gershom Sizomu on the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda.

Music: Better Day (Dolly Parton): The Sacrifice

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

It’s Friday at lunch, and you know what that means: time to clear out the links to give you something to chew on…

• Crowning the Past. A couple of automobile related items. First, Ford has stopped making the iconic Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, but that doesn’t make them any less popular. Entire groups and clubs have formed to celebrate the car whose silhouette inspires fear. Secondly, here’s an interesting piece on San Francisco’s Auto Row… with lots of before and after pictures. It makes me think of the flower dealer next to the Pasadena Playhouse, which is housed in a former Cadillac shop.
• News for the Jews. Two items of interest from the Jewish Journal. The first is political: we’re in a redrawn congressional district where there is a battle royale going on between Howard Berman and Brad Sherman. Brad Sherman just released a political mailer showing his family at a local playground… but photoshopped out his mother for the non-Jewish recipients. The other article is culinary: due to a change in the packaging equipment (not ingredients), TJ’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips are moving from K-Pareve to K-Dairy, and this has kosher consumers up in arms.
• In One End and Out The Other. Two somewhat food related items. Carl’s Jr (who is about to do an IPO) has started testing a new product: an Ice Cream Burger consisting of chocolate ice cream between two sugar cookies, with red, yellow, and green frosting to simulate condiments. On the other end of things, there may soon be a laxative free colonoscopy.
• What’s In a Word? Many years ago, I learned that the words we use can slant our views: contrast “terrorist” vs. “freedom fighter”. Here’s another example. News has come out that more non-white babies are being born than white babies. Some, I’m sure, are finding a way to take advantage of this. My question is this: so why are we still referring to the non-white babies as “minorities”? Here’s another example: Google’s “customer service”.
• And Lastly… an interesting story out of St. Louis, where a stack of cash was found inside a box of Christmas donations that had been donated to the Goodwill store on Baptist Church Road. In fact, $14,505! So far, 15 people have claimed they left it.

Music: Bring In The Noise, Bring in the Funk (Original Cast): The Uncle-Huck-a-Buck-Song

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

As housing is currently on my mind, a few lunchtime articles related to housing, architecture… and ghosts…

• Cursed Ground. An interesting article in the Wall Street Journal posits the position that Wrigley Field must go. Actually, it’s a bit more blunt about it: “Destroy it. Annihilate it. Collapse it with the sort of charges that put the Sands Hotel out of its misery in Vegas. Implosion or explosion, get rid of it. That pile of quaintness has to go. Not merely the structure, but the ground on which it stands.” Why? Because as long as it exists, the Cubs will never win. Actually, the article is a fun read.
• Haunted Ground. In Boyle Heights there is a long closed hospital, the Linda Vista Community Hospital, that is believed to be haunted. Once the Santa Fe Coast Line Hospital (yes, that Santa Fe), it was closed in 1991 and became a home for filming various haunted hospital and jail scenes. The LA Times tells the story of its transformation into Senior Housing.
• Scary Ground (as in it will share the shit out of you). Someone has built a restroom at the top of a 15-story elevator shaft… and put in an industrial glass floor.
• Final Ground. Thanks to the Oschin Family Foundation, the California ScienCenter has now raised over half the funds it needs to move and house the space shuttle Endeavor. The new wing of the museum will be called the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center and is expected to open in 2017. The interim hangar, being built now, will be called the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Pavilion and will display the vehicle horizontally. Once it moves to the permanent wing the shuttle will be positioned vertically, as if prepared for launch, for generations of museum visitors to see.

Music: All Time Favorites (Roger Whittaker): Red Roses for a Blue Lady

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

You know you’re old when… you read your RSS headlines and see a Slashdot headline about Diablo III being released… and you’re surprised they are still updating the daisywheel printer.

Music: The High Flying Trumpet of Al Hirt (Al Hirt): I Can’t Get Started

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Ah, the start of a new week. Today’s lunchtime news chum brings together a collection of articles all related to something old being revisited in some way, shape, or form:

• Old Cars, Reborn. An interesting article in the Daily News about a car manufacturer in Chatsworth CA who is expanding. This manufacturer crafts custom vehicles on modern platforms, and then wraps them in vintage car bodies such as Willys Jeeps, Toyota Land Cruisers and Ford Broncos. He manufactures in Southern California and uses Southern California suppliers because of local incentives and the quality of the local work.
• Do You Swallow? An interesting article in the LA Times looks at the attempts of Mission San Juan Capistrano to encourage the swallows to return to nesting at the church. The most recent trick is a speaker hooked to an iPod, tucked away in the bushes behind a statue of the mission’s founder, Fray Junipero Serra, that plays a recording of the swallow’s mating call on a continuous loop, up to six hours a day five days a week.
• Riding the Subway. No, not the current one. An interesting photo-tour of the current state of the Pacific Electric Subway Terminal Building. I still remember when Ralph Story did such a tour in the 1980s.
• Outing the Outlet. Many years ago, there was a JC Penny Outlet store in Fallbrook Plaza. I think it is long gone, but there was an interesting article in the St. Louis paper about a JC Penny Outlet in a mall there. It appears JC Penny dropped the business, the management took it independent (but retained a close relationship to JCP) and has reopened it as JC Five-Star Outlet. I wonder if this will happen to the outlet at Ontario Mills?

Music: Legends (Andy Williams): Love Letters in the Sand

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Last night, we went to Van Nuys HS for what will be our last performing arts performance there (most likely). It was the final show for the 2012 Dance Class at Van Nuys, and the final show that our daughter would be in. As such, it was a bittersweet moment. It brought back memories of the first time we came to Van Nuys HS in 2009 to first see their performing arts program. It’s been a journey, and we thank all the teachers that brought our daughter and her friends this far–especially Marque Coy in the technical theatre program, Mike Nakauchi in the dance program, and Randy Olea in the drama program.

On to the show… the show had three acts: a senior spotlight, followed by two normal Dance Production acts. I’m not going to comment on all the performances, just a select few that I particularly remember.

Senior Spotlight. Of course, the highlight of the senior spotlight to me was the program “Georgia”, which Erin choreographed and danced. It is hard to describe — it was a modern interpretive dance — almost primitive. I’ll edit this to add a link to the you-tube of it once it is uploaded. The other performance that I liked was “I Can Be Anything You Like!” by Mayra Martinez and Myelle Bossett (probably because I really liked the music).

Act I. A number of really good performances here. Ones I liked (and remembered) included “Time”, choreographed by Mike Nakauchi and performed by the Jazz Dance Team, “Classical Ballet”, choreogrpahy by Natalya Shoaf and performed by Layla Chatthoranongsak, Tatyana Saldana, and Natalya Shoaf, “Pure Imagination”, choreographed and performed by Layla Chatthoranongsak, “Glad to Go” choreographed and performed by Quest Sky Zeidler, “Transatlanticism” choreographed and performed by Erin Geronimi, “Love Sprung” choreographed and performed by Ronamae Septimo and Kevin Garcia, and a nice version of “Cell Block Tango”, choreographed by Tatyana Saldana and performed by Arielle Bell, Tatyana Saldana, Natalya Shoaf, Stephanie Cabrillo, Asha Morris, May Povoorian, Alex Genorilla, and Layla Chatthoranongsak.

Act II. Numbers I liked in Act II included the Senior Dance, cheoreographed by the Jazz and Hip Hop Team Officers and danced by a large number of seniors, “Pink Panther”, choreographed by Jayy Rodriquez, JDT and performed by Alex Geronilla, Layla Chatthoranongsak, Tatyana Saldana, and Natalya Shoaf, “Candy” choreographed by Joseph Cayanan, Aliam Jiles, Diane, Ronamae Septimo and performed by the Hip Hop Dance Team, and the finale “Pure Rock You”, choreographed by Mike Nakauchi and performed by everyone. This act also had another song from Chicago which was performed reasonably well, but I would have preferred if they had done “Hot Honey Rag” and had stronger tap. But that’s just me being a Chicago geek.

Upcoming Theatre, Concerts, and Dance: The remainder of May brings the Spring Railfest at Orange Empire, “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” at REP East, and it may also bring “Follies” at the Ahmanson. Oh, and May also has my daughter’s HS graduation. June is more open, but does feature both “Addams Family” and “Million Dollar Quartet” at the Pantages. July I”ve been keepling light until we know the orientation schedule at UC Berkeley and our vacation schedule. As always, open dates are subject to be filled in with productions that have yet to appear on the RADAR of Goldstar or LA Stage Alliance.

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

I’m running scared. Why, you may ask. The answer is simple: My daughter is going off to college in a few months. She graduates in two weeks. That means there is one thing, and only one thing, on my mind: How the hell am I going to pay for college?

This is the reason that a number of articles today related to student loans and college costs have caught my eye. First, there was a long article from MSNBC on how soaring college costs have hobbled a decade. The essence of this article is that the next loan bubble to “pop” will be the student loan bubble, and that college costs have gotten out of control. Another article from USA Today talks about how student’s lament the total amount of debt, while Congress fiddles debates how to address the problem. Then there’s the article in the LA Times about the student loan blues, about how students lament taking on so many loans for college. Lastly, Friday’s Planet Money (which I haven’t listened to yet) is on the subject of figuring out the real cost of college: the “sticker price” is often not what families pay. (and of course, for those attending state colleges, this all ties into the state budget woes I’ve previously written about).

So, as this week’s bills are paid, it is time for another rant.

College costs have gotten to be ridiculous, but even more ridiculous is our system of “financial aid”. From the point of view of someone who is solidly middle class, this system seems to be designed to provide little help. If you really can’t afford college — that is, you have true financial need with nothing saved — you’ll get loads of need-based aid. College will be cheap. If you are truly rich, you don’t care what college costs. If you are middle-class? If you are in the position of having a good salary, but a large mortgage and not enough saved? Many private universities offer what are referred to as “merit” scholarships — supposedly academic, based on essays and such. Are they? It is odd that all the colleges seem to offer just about the same amount of “merit” aid. Further, that “merit” aid is reduced if you get other scholarships. I’ve come to a belief that this “merit” aid is just a fancy coupon: a way of reducing the sticker costs for those that take the effort to apply for it.

The financial aid letters don’t help. They convince a parent that college is all paid for! But when you read the letters, you see that the bulk of that payment is expected to be student loans… and even more expensive parent loans. This is the loan bubble. Colleges push the loans, and students taken them on and parents take them on. Student loans are unique among loans: there no requirement to have the ability to pay (unlike a car loan, where if you don’t have the income, you can’t buy that $300K car).  There needs to be some form of caps on the loans, based on the intended career of the student, so they don’t get into a position where they owe more than they could make in a reasonable time.

Am I arguing that student loans shouldn’t exist? No. Low-interest and interest deferred loans for students are reasonable, with caps. I’m inclined to use those for Erin, even if we pay them off for her. Helps her credit rating, and if they approve the 3.x% interest rates, the pricing is reasonable. If one doesn’t overextend, possibly using HELOC (home equity loans) may make sense as well, especially if combined with a refinance, as the interest is deductable. But normal parent loans at 7+% are ridiculous, as are private student loans at equally high rates. Further, as I noted above, there needs to be a cap on student loans based on the expected career annual earnings five years after eventual graduation with the final degree. You shouldn’t be able to borrow more than you can reasonably pay back. That’s what created the housing bubble; that’s what’s creating the scholarship bubble.

We also need to address the pricing side of the issue. I think colleges have gotten off track with their pricing, and need to learn to have “everyday low prices”. Much as one complains about the high costs of public colleges, for the middle class, often a UC education at full ride is cheaper than a private education with scholarships. We need to use the money we’re setting aside for scholarships to lower the price for everyone, and make “merit” and “need-based” scholarships in place for the truly merited and truly needy.

We also need to simplify the private scholarship process. Just as we’ve gone to a combined financial aid application, there should be a combined scholarship application where you indicate all the relevant aspects (ethinicity, club membership, and all the other special factors), submit standard letters of rec, submit a standard essay, submit transcripts to one place and it farms it out to all the applicable organizations… who can then follow up with additional questions after doing their triage. It would help them award money to qualified candidates, and help candidates find organizations.

We also need to fix the community college problem. Community colleges can be a great choice to save money. There are, however, two problems (which are related). First, there is the peer problem: all your friends are going to prestigious universities, and you are going to Podunk Community College. The pressure (and the college counselors) force you to apply to the more expensive school for the earlier years. There’s also the problem that there’s no guarantee of transferring into a prestiguous college from a community college. The answer is to having a binding transfer program: a joint application to 4-year institution and a community college, where there is clear coordination and agreement that if a particular program plan is met with appropriate grades, the student can transfer after the general education portion (first two years) is satisfied and can complete at the 4-year institution. This doesn’t exist yet, and would go a long way to reducing education costs.

With respect to general education, colleges also need to pool resources to eliminate redundancy. Again, community colleges can work as a resource here. There’s no reason that general education courses should not be combined across universities that are close to each other. This is what industry does when it does time sharing, and it maximizes effectiveness.

Of course, I haven’t addressed the question of whether most students that go to college belong in college. That’s because I do believe college is important. It teaches critical thinking; it provides a skill base that will serve the student well in the future. Although college is no guarantee of success, surveys have shown that having an AA or BS degree does make someone more likely to be employed than someone lacking a degree, and to be employed in a job that will pay better. The question is: does the increase in pay offset the cost of the education? I think the jury is still out on that one, and the answer changes as college costs rise.

I know I’ve been ranty this morning. One of the reasons I love blogging is that it allows me to work out issues by writing about them, and to share my concerns (which reduces my stress). I thank you for reading, and welcome your opinions.

Music: Emotion (Barbra Streisand): Time Machine

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been reading more (LA Times) and more (SF Chronicle) news articles about California’s deficit. This is something of great concern to me. What infuriates me even more, however, are the comments to those articles, which are so misinformed and filled with rage and hate. So, instead of jumping into that pointless arena, I’d like to share my thoughts here.

The reasons for California’s deficit are structural and many. There are large mandates written into the state constitution — often by voters — and there are other mandates that are imposed by the courts. This limits what the legislators can do. There is also the notion different pots of money — that is, money that is legislatively allocated for a particular purpose that cannot be used for other purposes. These aspects are often not know by most people. I’ve heard (although I haven’t verified) that the only real discretionary spending is about 9% of the budget, and that goes to prisons and schools. If that’s the case, it is scary, as right now people seem to be willing to spend more on prisoners than students.

So let’s look at some of the comments that infuriate me..

Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for this idiot !!!!!

• This is a common complaint. It’s the governor’s fault. Why did we reelect governor moonbeam? And so on. The reality is that the governor can do very little by himself (this is true for Obama as well). He can propose ideas (which he has done). He can use executive orders. He can exploit the bully pulpit. But the real onus for doing something is on the state legislature, who has proven themselves loath to cut in certain areas. They cut schools because they believe the money can be made up with tuition. But that doesn’t work for prisons or social services, so the schools bear the brunt of the burden. The culprit here is the undue financial influence of lobbyists, and the unintended side effect of term limits: that politicians are always running for office, and thus need to raise reelection funds.

Answer: National Guard, fix bayonets, march every non english speaking parasite across the Mexican border. Let THEM pay for their own citizens.

• Illegal immigration. This is often blaimed as the root cause for California problems. The “illegals” (which is often a code word for the hispanic who is different from me — I never see complains against Canadians) are costing our schools, are filling our welfare roles, are filling our prisons. Rarely do I see facts, and when I do, often they are from biased sources. Snopes refutes a lot of common claims, But there are costs that cannot be denied. The question is: what can the state do about it. Many costs (such as AFDC) are Federal programs administered and paid for by the state: thus the state has their hands tied. Often, the problem is not due to the laws on the books (after all, we all agree it is illegal), but lax enforcement of those laws–often due to the cost of law enforcement and deportation. So what is the answer here? In reality, the answer is not “deportation”, it is legalization. Remove the fear of deportation, make them legal, get folks paying taxes and helping support the services they use. But mention any notion of this, and a large conservative lobby flies up in rage. Illegal immigration is like Marijuana: the answer is to legalize and tax, not keep it illegal and pay through the nose to enforce policies. That, however, is a Federal-level decision.

Let’s just spend another billion or two on High Speed Rail.

• High speed rail is a common whipping boy. However, what the people complaining about High Speed Rail forget is that it is being paid for with funds that were exclusively authorized for that purpose. We have the choice of not spending them, but we can’t take that money and use it for something else.

Were tired of hearing the sky is falling, meanwhile California is locked into these high paying union agreement with the Prison, Guards and others. If California declares bankruptcy, they will free themselves from the shackles of these lucrative union obligations and pensions and will have breathing room to begin again.

• Well, first and foremost, states are not legally permitted to declare bankrupcy. Let’s talk about those union agreements and the prison guards. I’ll agree that the pension arrangements in these agreements are often egregious, and that unions have often moved beyond their original purpose. The problem is, however, that the governor cannot change them alone.  He has made proposals to deal with the pension mess–and the legislature has let those proposals die. We do need to fix the pension problem. Ideally, the approach should be to have a stronger tie to length of service to the state: I have much less of a problem paying a full pension to a 20 year employee than a 5 year employee. We also need to address ridiculous provisions in union deals that are more protectionist than cost effective. But I rarely see the discussion at that level. Further, such actions often require long-term negotiations and don’t solve the problem immediately.

California needs to get the Socialists out of office but the people who don’t care, people who work for the state and those on welfare all vote for these idiots.

• Many commentors seem to believe “socialists” are running the government, without knowing what socialism is. According to Wikipedia, “Socialism is an economic system characterised by social ownership and/or control of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy, and a political philosophy advocating such a system. ” I have yet to see California (as a state) owing the means of production, or having the workers making the decision of what and how to produce. Rather, we seem to have the opposite, where there is excessive influence of for-profit companies and concerns.

YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY AND SPEND IT!  NO MORE TAXES…CUT SPENDING!

• This is a common complaint. No more taxes. The answer is cutting. It’s not. If you have a household and you’ve cut your expenses, what do you do? You don’t solve the problem by cutting more. You get your family members to go out and get jobs: in other words, you bring in more income. Solving the deficit problem means addressing both sides of the equation: reducing expenses where you can, and bringing in more income where you can. That means enforcing laws on the books (pay your use tax folks on those online purchases), as well as raising taxes. It is foolish to look only at cutting as the solution to the problem.

You guys can spend thousands of dollars per week on fancy shoes that you might wear once ,but you can’t afford to provide the people who do the work that provides you with your excessive income with even basic services.

• There’s a lot of class warfare here at work. We hate the rich “politicians”, we hate the rich “union bosses”. Yet, these same people want to vote for a group that wants to further intrench the power of the “rich” — but this is the rich of private industry that they like. Why is one acceptable and the other not? Note that I’m not saying both are acceptable. I think we need a part-time legislature — they spend far too much time on pointless and costly bills just to show they are useful. I also agree that many union leaders often line their pockets at the expense of their members. But we also need to increase taxes on the very wealthy so that they can do their share as well.

These are just some examples. Everytime I read comments (which I must stop doing), I have to remind myself that comments often reflect the 10% radical lunatic fringe, and many people get their jollies by commenting and being critical, instead of doing something.

California does have problems. They aren’t easy to fix, because they are all defended by special interests who often have more sway than the individual voters. We need to fix Prop 13 — not to change the tax rates, but to do a periodic reset so that people are paying taxes on a realistic valuation of their properties… and businesses pay taxes on the value of their properties. This might actually result in a reduction of overall rates. We need to fix the pension system (and more importantly, pension abuse and union rule abuse). We need to increase state funding. We need to address the illegal immigration problem in a cost effective way, but this is more of a Federal problem than one under state control, other than enforcing rules on the books. Most importantly, we have to realize this isn’t a “liberal vs. conservative’ problem–we need to realize that the problem is politicians (of whatever party) working more for particular interests than the good of the state as a whole.

Music: Dear Edwina (Original Cast): Put It In The Piggy

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Well, it’s Friday at lunch, and that means it’s time to clear out those links…

• What Did You Say You Were Eating? No, I’m not talking about Meat Glue, and how the American Meat Institute says it is safe and natural. Nor am I talking about eating at the boob, although I would think standing up to do it would be uncomfortable. I’m not even talking about eating your own placenta, although that is a little squicky. What caught my eye this week was an article about how South Korean officials have captured capsules containing human remains: specifically, human flesh, most likely extracted from aborted fetuses or stillborn babies. That’s just plain wrong. According to Chinese officials, the pills, which were marketed as “health tonics”, were composed of “ground stillborn fetus or babies that had been cut into small pieces and dried in gas ranges for two days, then made into powders and encapsulated,” the report said. Ooh. Ick.
• Weird Things About Our Pets. A few pet related items. An interesting article from The Week relates to a new trend: getting tattoos for your pets. No, your pet doesn’t go under the needle. Rather, they are air-brushing designs onto your pets. Of course, PETA is against it. Me, I just find it wierd. Now, if you want something fun about pets, I suggest listening to Act I of this weeks “This American Life”, where David Sederis has a great piece called “The Youth In Asia”.
• Because It Is Really Better Not To Know the Facts. Of course, with in a lead in like that, you know I’m talking about something politicians did. This time, it is voting to cut a census survey that has been done since the 1800s that has provided useful information to guide this country.
• …but I’m not sure you need to know them all. In the useless facts column, more information than you never needed to know about the Animaniacs. However, potentially useful might be information about a class action suit against Apple over the iPod Classic and similar devices.

Music: Streisand Superman (Barbra Streisand): Cabin Fever

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

My lunchtime reading has also highlighted a number of articles related to colleges (particularly UC) and finances. Hopefully, they won’t ruin your lunch.

• UC Fees Increasing… maybe. Well, that “maybe” is a highly-likely (sigh). If the state doesn’t increase funding by $125 million, it is likely the 10-campus UC system would raise tuition by 6% this fall. Further, if the initiative in November doesn’t pass, we’re looking at a mid-year tuition increase in the “range of double digits” or drastic cuts to campus programs and staffing. With the 6% increase, tuition for in-state undergraduates would rise $731 to $12,923. Sigh. I just keep reminding myself that it is still a lot less than private school tuition, even with merit scholarships. One side effect of the increasing tuition, though, is that more and more California students are going out of state. There are a number of factors that are fallout of that: some are taking advantage of a special program that gives in-state tuition to some out of state students, others are depending more on merit/need scholarships from out of state private schools (which increases their costs, and thus tuition), and it creates more space for out of state students to attend UC/CSU (bringing in out of state resident fees).
• Paying for College. When you think about paying for college, there are a number of ways to do it. One is scholarships. The other is to reduce parental costs, freeing up cash for college. Erin’s exploring the former, and we’re doing the latter. This includes shopping for the best auto insurance quotes, and exploring refinancing. Alas, since the last ReFi, values had dropped more. This is why I’m pleased to read about the streamlining of HARP. We’re not underwater, but we’re now under 20% equity. Doing a HARP ReFi will go a large way towards making college more affordable. We won’t be able to take advantage of the other program to reduce loan balances because we’re not underwater–but that’s OK.
• Bright College Days. Thinking about Erin going off to college has me wistfully looking back at my days at UCLA. I uncovered a few articles looking at the history of buildings in Westwood, including the buildings that used to be the Bratskeller and the BofA and the buildings that used to be Maria’s and Bullocks. Ah, the days when Westwood was a real college town…
• Value of College. Is college worth it? That’s the on-going debate these days. A recent study shows the effect of a college degree: Only about half are working full-time, with the majority starting with less pay than expected while also dealing with huge student debts. Nearly six in 10 think they’ll end up less financially successful than their elders. Workers who graduated during the recession – from 2009 through last year – earned a median starting salary of $27,000 – or $3,000 less annually than earlier graduates. Nearly a quarter of all respondents said their current job pays much less than they’d anticipated.Female graduates earned $2,000 less than their male counterparts. Most fresh college grads said their first jobs didn’t help them advance along a career path – and that the positions didn’t even require a four-year degree. Four in 10 said they took the work just to get by. So does it pay to go to college? Is it worth between $150K-$300K over a lifetime? Well, a survey from 2011 showed that people with a bachelor’s degree make 84% more over a lifetime than high school graduates. In 1999, the premium was 75%. How much do they make? The 2011 survey showed that, on average, a doctoral degree-holder will earn $3.3 million over a lifetime, compared to $2.3 million for a college graduate and $1.3 million for those with a high school diploma. That said, people with less education in high-paying occupations can out-earn their counterparts with advanced degrees, yet within the same industry, workers with more schooling usually earn more. What is unknown is how that changed between 2011 and 2012. Still, these are important things to keep in mind when trying to decide if college is worth what you pay. Lastly, it is important to remember that college is often more than just what you learn: it is the ability to network with alumni that might open the door for you, make the connections to recommend you, or provide you with contacts. Often these are much more valuable in the end run.

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

With President Obama’s announcement yesterday and the North Carolina vote the day before, the subject of gay marriage has been in the news. You can find a good analysis of it here. My thoughts, essentially, are “it’s about time” and “what’s the fuss about, anyway”. I thought I would take a few minutes during lunch to elaborate on this:

• The government, in general, has no business dictating what are legal marriages. That goes for “traditional” as well as whatever “non-traditional” groupings you can think of. Essentially, that is the government intruding into religious space. However…
• Given that the government does recognize such “personal corporate entities” (for lack of a better term) for the purposes of visitation, inheritance, etc., that recognition must reflect the attitude of “equal under the law”. That means interracial, interreligious, and samesex must be accepted. If a group files to be recognized by the state, it should be recognized (and yes, I do think there are some groups that should be prohibited, primarily those involving “below the age of legal consent” or “incapable of legal consent”–that is, children and animals).
• Government recognition does not mandate religious recognition, or what is taught in religious schools. The government can’t tell religious leaders they must participate in any ceremony, or that they have to–from the point of view of what a church accepts–accept a particular view. The government can only have a say for those areas where the government provides funds: thus if a church provides a community service funded by the government, that community service must be “equal under the law”.
• [Caveat 1: Now, this might open the can of worms of whether IRS exemptions for churches are government funding. They might be, and arguably, if a church wants to have that exemption, they must recognize same-sex marriages. You might argue that this would make churches suffer. Well, churches have always suffered for the sake of what is "morally right". But I'll agree that this is a muddy water, and I'd be equally happy with looking the other way on this.]
• [Caveat 2: Yes, this extends to abortion as well. The right to abortion should be legal--to do anything else is to have the government impose one religious view on those with a different religious view. Don't want to offer abortions? Fine. You don't have to take government funds.]
• However, the linked article is correct when this is called a cultural war. There are two clear camps: those who believe that the government should not be dictating morals based on a specific religious creed, and those that believe that they have to impose their religious beliefs on those they view as non- or lax-believers so that they will have a better share in the world-to-come. I think the outcome of this “war” will truly dictate the future of this great nation, and determine whether it will hold true to its founding ideals as a place where minority religions and groups are free.

Those are my thoughts. What are yours?

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

One of the big news stories today (and hence, seen in my lunchtime reading) relates to LA Unified mandating the UC/CSU A-G standards for graduating seniors. For those not familiar with these standards, they require a particular number of math, english, science, foreign language, visual/performing arts, and history classes. To be precise, what LA Unified mandated is that students must pass these courses with at least a “D” or better starting this fall, rising to a “C” by 2017. The board also reduced the number of required credits to 210 to graduate, allowing students to use extra periods to get tutoring or do remedial courses.

Lots of people are up in arms about this, believing it is mandating that all students must go to college. Lots of those complaining about this state that going to college is no guarantee of a good job, and that for many students, vocational education is sufficient.

Here are my thoughts:

• Mandating the A-G standards does not mandate that the student go to college. All it mandates is that they have a minimum level of education that includes a reasonable level of math (enough to understand loans and problem solving), a reasonable level of history (so they know what has failed in the past), a foreign language (so they they can deal with people from other cultures), a reasonable knowledge of literature, and a basic understanding of science. It requires they be exposed to the performing arts. I’m sorry, but if we want people who can operate in society, and make intelligent choices during elections, we need this level. I’ll argue that many folks who “poo poo” science and believe much of the junk circulating on the internet are precisely those who have not learned critical thinking.
• For those that are thinking this is something new — it isn’t. LAUSD has supposedly mandated these standards since 2005, although I remember LAUSD pushing the A-G standards when I when to high school, back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, LAUSD had lettered districts, and we were still using mark-sense cards and FORTRAN.
• Jobs are increasingly technical — even if they are vocational education level jobs. Mandating the A-G standards helps to ensure that even those going into vocational jobs will be able to work with the increasingly sophisticated devices and procedures found on those jobs, ensuring them greater success in that environment.
• Critics are correct: college does not guarantee a job. However, those with a college education are statistically more likely to find employment quicker than those with only a high school education. Note that I said “only”. Vocational trade schools provide specialized skills that modify the equation. Further, those with a college degree, if they find a job, will find a better paying job than those with only high school degrees. No guarantees here, but if you go to college, you are more likely to find a better paying job.
• Success of A-G requires good and effective teachers who can excite students. This means focusing on what must be learned, and not the specific path to how it is taught. It means de-emphasizing all the standardized testing that leads to “teach to the test”. It also means making the commitment to pay good and effective teachers what they are worth (and to weed out the poor teachers… and to do both of these based on performance, not seniority), and to have a commitment to have excellent and affordable state universities (UC, CSU) available to these students when they graduate. Alas, I’m not sure we’re going to have this with the way the budgets are going.
• Edited to Add 5/10: Note: I do believe there should be exceptions to this policy for those kids who are incapable of meeting A-G (e.g., special education, developmentally disabled). I also think the point about good and effective teachers must go hand-in-hand with this. If teachers do not have the freedom to adapt the method of teaching these subjects to the particular students, then the goal of A-G will fail. We do need to recognize that every student learns differently–or to put it another way, there must be both “Physics for Blondes” (as we called Physics 6 at UCLA) as well as “Physics for Engineers”, and the equivalent in the humanities.

That said, high schools are failing in teaching student life skills. I believe there must be a mandatory course that teaches basic life skills. These skills would include: (a) basic cooking skills; (b) basic financial skills — balancing a checkbook, understanding common loans, understanding credit; (c) basic electrical — how to replace  a light switch; (d) basic plumbing — how to repair a sink or fix a toilet; and (e) basic technology — how to do backup, how to pick a good password, how to secure data, and understanding privacy.

P. S.: I’m also curious what people think about this quote from Supt. Deasy about whether this new policy will result in more dropouts:

“They will rise to the challenge, as they always do,” Deasy said. He stated that students do not drop out because they are held to higher standards. “Students drop out because they’re bored out of their minds.”

I’d agree. Schools need to challenge. Classes that are too easy or boring are what lead to students skipping the course. If the class is hard, most students want to attend. Those that skip hard classes would be skipping them even without these requirements.

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Yesterday, I promised a post on “gaming the system”, otherwise known as “best abuse of the rules”. I’m familiar with this, going back to some Mark’s entry in 1987 for the Obfusticated C Code Contest.

• Flying Away. What got me thinking about this post was an article in the Sunday LA Times about frequent flyers who flew too much. You see, at one time AAmericaan AAirlines sold lifetime airtravel passes. Naturally, some people decided to abuse them and profit from them, leading American to crack down on them.
• Ron Paul. Yes, that Ron Paul. It appears his strategy is to abuse delegate selection rules to pack delegations with his supporters. If the convention goes past a first voice, they can then vote for Paul and throw things into disarray. Don’t believe me? Read about what Paul has done in Idaho, and in Nevada, and in Maine. Here’s a good analysis of his strategy.
• Congress. Of course, our biggest abuser of the rules is Congress itself. I’m sure you can come up with your own examples, but one of my favorites is the overuse and abuse of the filibuster rules in the Senate. Even the threat of a filibuster kills things. This is all paper and posturing; no “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” here. The latest casualty: attempts in the senate to keep student loan rates low. The Republicans want to respond to their base who want to decimate health services for women and low income people, and would rather do those cuts than tighten some tax loopholes for those making sufficient funds that college is not as expensive an issue. But then again, they are catering to a wing that is sorry women ever got the right to vote. But I digress: Congress is expert at abusing the rules: be it the aforementioned filibuster, campaign finance rules, or other quirks and oddities they can use to their advantage (and this is done by both parties, and it is wrong whomever does it).

Music: Hot Jazz and Dixieland (Louis Armstrong): Struttin’ with some Barbeque

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

This morning, while skimming the LA Times before leaving for work, I noticed a familiar name in the obituaries: Digby Wolfe. My parents had an accounting office, and Digby was one of their long-time clients. Digby’s death has been floating around my head, so I wanted to write a quick post remembering Digby.

Now, I think I only met Digby in person a few times. But he did create memories. Thanks to Digby, I remember going to tapings of Cher (which he was a writer on) and the 2nd version of Laugh-In (I think this one had Robin Williams or Jim Carrey on it). I remember my folks talking about Digby all the time. I got the impression (remember, I was a teen here) that he was a nice, caring man.

In Digby’s memory, I want to share something he wrote in the 1980s for a Goldie Hawn TV Special:

Here’s to the kids who are different,
The kids who don’t always get A’s,
The kids who have ears twice the size of their peers
And noses that go on for days…
Here’s to the kids who are different,
The kids they call crazy or dumb,
The kids who don’t fit,
with the guts and the grit,
Who dance to a different drum…
Here’s to the kids who are different,
The kids with the mischievous streak,
For when they have grown, as history’s shown,
It’s their difference that makes them unique.

Rest in peace, Digby.

(Note: Completing the death trifecta, we have George Lindsey (“Goober”) and Maurice Sendak. Both men understood kids who were different: Lindsey, from all his work for Special Olympics, and Sendak, well, from his books.)

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

Today’s lunch time news chum brings together a collection of articles all having to do with games and amusements (as opposed to gaming the system — I may have an article on that tomorrow):

• A Granddaddy of Gaming. One of my many hobbies is the history of Las Vegas–especially the early days of the strip. Thus I was interested to see an article in the Las Vegas Sun about Jackie Gaughan. While not one of the founders, he’s one of the few people from the early days still arounds. He’s owned numerous casinos on and off the strip, and has been a vital element in the revitalization of downtown Vegas as the long time owner of the El Cortez. Fascinating article, well worth reading.
• Behind the Scenes. An interesting profile piece in the LA Times this weekend looked at a key player in the amusement park industry that you rarely hear about: Bud Hurlbut. Hurlbut operated a workshop in Buena Park that built and refurbished carousels, miniature train rides, antique car rides and countless accessories destined for amusement parks around the world–including rides at Knotts. Hurlbut died recently, and his shop is being sold off so that the city can build on the property. It is fascinating to read about all that this craftsman built.
• Chess. As we’re talking about pieces built for parks, it is worth noting that the world’s largest chess piece has gone on display in St. Louis MO. It is of a king, it is 14.5 feet high, and weighs 2,280 pounds. It has been installed in front of the World Chess Hall of Fame, which is also in St. Louis for what I’m sure must be a good reason.

P.S.: Appropos of nothing, simply because a like it: A recipe for avgolomono soup.

Music: Dixieland Cajun Style (Red Nichols): My Melancholy Baby

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_20552860/649-5-million-bid-replace-gerald-desmond-bridge

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

For the last few days, I’ve had an odd sore throat. Negligible hoarseness, but a little pain when swallowing, especially after a sneeze or yawn. However, getting to the doctor is a problem: I’m the only driver on the vanpool next week (meaning if I’m not on, the van doesn’t run and all the regular riders are inconvenienced, plus it raises the costs for all). So I decided to try a local Minute Clinic at the CVS in Reseda. I must say, I came away impressed.

When you need to check something medically on the weekend, it is usually a pain. ERs weren’t designed for that purpose–they take forever and cost lots and lots. The few times I’ve tried the local urgent care, I wasn’t impressed. The Minute Clinic was clean, there was no line, and they had a nice automated check in. From the time we arrived to the time we left was under an hour. They did a strep test — no strep, so it is likely a virus. It should go away in a week; if not, I’ll work in a visit to the doctor on Friday when I was going to be off the van anyway.

I also must comment on this CVS. When Walgreens stopped accepting ExpressScript, we had to switch to the CVS across the street (this is the Northridge CVS at Reseda and Devonshire). The store is old and crowded, and their pharmacy is backed up. Prescriptions are not ready when promised, and it takes forever for them to call the doctor. The CVS we were at today (Tampa and Victory), in contrast, was clean. The pharmacy was prompt. I left with a positive impression. It really showed the difference that different stores–even in the same chain–can give.

Music: Elton John (Elton John): Your Song

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).