That Spring Thang'

Is it the weather, sunshine blasting, highly caffeinated spring thang? Partly. It's the idea that those long days return starting tomorrow. Daylight Saving Time arrives mercifully tonight.

This is the third year we'll turn clocks ahead a month earlier than in the past, thanks to The Energy Policy Act of 2005. (Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only states that don't observe DST.) What's not to enjoy with the sun setting later and later. I can hide the knives! You know the feeling fellow winter doldrum haters...dark by 5pm the veil that creeps over your brain like fog because the sun doesn't shine long enough to burn it off?? Lucky you respite is on the way hooray! Throughout the centuries poets have described a sense of sadness, loss and lethargy which can accompany the shortening days of fall and winter. Many cultures and religions have winter festivals associated with candles or fire.

Benjamin Franklin first suggested Daylight Saving Time in 1784, but it was not until World War I, in 1916, when it was adopted by several counties in Europe after they initially rejected the idea. Historically, it’s all about decreasing the time from sunset to when people retire for the evening, therefore reducing household energy consumption. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, energy savings projected through 2020 adds up to $4.4 billion with 10.8 million less metric tons of carbon driven into the air.

But what about our body’s energy? In our sleep-deprived society where every second counts, sleeping one hour less may be more problematic than we realize. From an insomniac standpoint it simply means I read more.

This evening we break out the Rose' (wishflul drinking) aperitif toasting to new freckles and spring!........ Not a moment too soon.

Cross Over To The Darkside

Sometimes the ole adage if you can't beat em join em rings true. Famous people have embraced all the dark side has to offer. Some wear it well, others not so much. Those making the grade in the dark arts: Darth Vader, Karl Rove, Dick Morris (toe fetish, Clinton Strategist) Ruppert Murdoch, Scott McClellan (Bush Tell all author), my husband (switched to a blackberry aka crackberry from the ever elegant iphone.)

Ever been tempted to cross over to the dark side? Me neither..except this past week when I read about an initiative underway seeking Town Council Term limits. My gut is that this is one initiative long overdue, and apt to be welcomed with open arms. The only caveat? The people who brought it to the helm.

On Febuary 11th our town clerk received a check and paperwork from former town councilperson Steve Glickman to start the initiative process. Just in case you fell off the potato truck last week, and are not privy to my own private Idaho like series of events with the a fore mentioned council person here's the recap. It all started with a very public verbal bitch slap in the form of a three minute angst filled shaming of councilperson Glickman due to his crankiness about censure and inappropriate use of power (dark arts thing shining through) then of course sprinkle in a few other public comments about the skatepark platform and self serving nature of it's placement during a re election year. We all know how that panned out.

But the dark side has ...gasp...a point.

Don't look for a big french kiss from me anytime soon Mr. Glickman..but it is a worthy cause to tackle-this time. Term limits would be a good move to unseat bumps (or lumps) like the decidedly un- dynamic duo of Joe Prizinski and McNutt. These two mind melds have the mental weight of a grilled cheese sandwich. The flip side: we loose a star council person of all supernovas' Ms Barbara Spector, and that would be a huge loss. Maybe too huge. Time to turn a new leaf in local politics? Stop teasing!

The last election was an eye opener for me. Smear tactics abound, money thrown around by the crown prince who now sits at the Dias...you remember. Do you think term limits could or would possibly change all of that? Quite possibly YES... Let's not forget the cost involved, in the ballpark of $60k of taxpayer cash to execute this initiative process.

When the weather clears, and you see me at the farmers market with pen in hand and clipboard perched on my hip, don't be surprised. You heard it here first.

Flat Tire

The thing about ruts is that they're so rut like.

Tough to mentally motor out of them. My rut? Not to start a pissing match of my rut's deeper than yours because it's certainly not deeper than the rut GM finds itself in this morning. Looking for some reading to nod off too this evening? Look no further than the annual report prepared by Deloitte & Touche which raised “substantial doubt about the ability of General Motors to continue as a going concern.” Duh. Tell us something we didn't already know before that big cash influx.

It would have been more fun to have taken that taxpayer cash bailout over the ambassador bridge and blown it on strip club fun in Windsor Canada where the dollar still goes a bit far. Tiny bit farther. Shoulda coulda woulda. Dumb white guys.

GM warned last month that its auditors may raise doubts, and industry analysts said auditors’ statements may trigger clauses in some of GM’s loans, placing them in default but the company said in its filing that it has received waivers of the clauses for its $4.5-billion secured revolving credit facility, a $1.5-billion term loan and a $125-million secured credit facility. GM spokeswoman Julie Gibson said there is no clause in the terms of the government loans that places them in default if the auditors raise doubts about GM’s ability to keep operating. “That was not a condition of the loan. It’s not in the agreement,” she said. Nice. Lucky lucky us. Thanks again Bush administration.

Do you remember when Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said at the time of the bailout that the government would be the only place the company could get financing for a Chapter 11 reorganization, because the credit markets were frozen. The worst-case bankruptcy scenario would cost the government $100 billion, Henderson said, because revenue would severely drop due to a lack of sales. GM deserves to be stuck in the mud. I can't imagine any more tax payer cash being thrown under the wheels to create traction. As for me, the sun shining today makes my mental rut that much smaller. Could be worse...we could live in Detroit.

The Dog Ate My Train Ticket

So there's cutting corners at times when you really feel like you wanna tempt fate. Those corners include parking at a meter knowing full well you will never make it back to feed the meter, there's those times you hop in the Fasttrack lane, knowing that the bridge transponder lives somewhere in the cavity of your car, will it chime to debit my account or flag me as a deadbeat?
Ive always envisioned a karmic circle circling back around representing bits and pieces of the goodness we pay into mankind. Social pleasantries. Take pictures of tourists, throwing the extra buck to the Muni bus driver covering the guy behind you..but I need to think that through on a more transcendental level.

Could be a tall order without a magic brownie moment, but I digress.... karma....

Hopping on the VTA train today with my weekly pass (Cinequest) realizing It's not on my person...no worries as I have a handful of those wacky Sacajawea gold dollar coins (only available here, thanks VTA and the post office) apparently the VTA machines that spit those stupid coins out as change don't want to except them back for payment. Same machine, reverse the sequence... So after mentally arm wrestling with the ticket machine and seeing no ticket forth coming and the bell ringing on the train, alerting emanate departure I hop back on.
Likity split right after me the VTA "fare police" steps on board. How do I know it's the fare police? Black trench coats, FARE POLICE imprinted boldly (think DIA style) Always had a thing for policemen but this is a little too goth.

Of all of the trains I have ridden all over the globe, legitly purchasing fare religiously one would think a karmic bank had been built up fort knox sized magnitude putting the IMF to shame.

Today my karma ran out. Mr. Fare Police didn't care about my story, about where my ticket was only to say it was not on my person. No ticket=receive a ticket, ala gift of the magi. So sweet.
Not so much.

The worse part was the scolding- that and knowing I really did have a ticket, I wasn't a deadbeat fare dodger. Just an unorganized under caffeinated loser. Nicely dressed. Didn't matter.

The good news ? The system works. I am double dog sure the next time I step aboard any train, bus, plane, ferry I will double check to see my ticket. Does lightning strike twice? The odds are it will never happen again but be sure if it does I will also purchase a lottery ticket as a hedge to the odds pool.

Can't Contain The Excitement or Is That Contempt?

The wait looks to be over for the General Plan Committee (GPAC). Sitting on their hands for the last nine months has given birth to ta da....a draft of the "new" general plan...but wait that sounds like immaculate conception. I know the question on the tip of your tongue - wasn't the idea of a community committee with diverse view points appointed for this data review. Gather, sift thru and prepare the rough draft that leads to ahem...a final rough draft. Cut straight to the final draft! Magically, as if a magic wand was waved and Poof- no muss no fuss. This draft is available for review and public comment until March 19th when public comments will end.
Huh? My thinly veiled contempt for the process is still an angst to be worked out, so here again I subscribe to the RX dose of what's good for you. Information.
Except information isn't easily disseminated in this supposedly transparent process of collecting data, community member weighing in (where GPAC comes in, in theory of course.) Not to be secret squirrel but another bright, articulate community member shared her angst with me recently about the wasted opportunity and abilities of the community demographic that I like to call kids, furniture, and big mortgage (KFBM)

Wonders of all wonders- GPAC meets, not really, no teasing. They will review this "draft" of which they had very little if any contribution on Friday the 5th..Two days away!

For the community to move ahead, it can't remain the high school musical that best describes the social variety I have come to loath here. The breadth of knowledge that GPAC represents equates to a loss of opportunity. To really embrace change, and give a critical eye to things that need objective. Window dressing aside, GPAC should be allowed to take the reins on this uber important task of General Plan Update...The "draft" prepared by staff that will be discussed needs more that two weeks of public review.

Baa aah bah bah. Are we sheep? Seems like our town government sure thinks so. Let's not let them try to pull the wool over our eyes. Contempt should be a community value in this instance.

Please chime in on this important process.

Where's The Push Back?

For forty six years a hospital had served Los Gatos then in the blink of an eye it was gone. Surprisingly not much news or interest followed. Tenet Healthcare pulled the plug on our community last year without an exit strategy and laid off over 500. Locked the doors and left as a way of protecting it's own bottom line. So much for those "community" values Tenet talked up.
Close that chapter, and begin a new when El Camino Hospital of Mountain View administrators announced in December that they were in escrow with property owner Long Beach-based HCP Inc. a health-care real estate investment firm to buy the Los Gatos Hospital.
Now this potential safety net is in jeopardy.
A petition signed by 121 residents within the public hospital district, which includes Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, most of Sunnyvale, and a small portion of Cupertino is currently being circulated to stop the purchase. (Residents of the district elect the hospital board which approved the acquisition plan.)
During the Feb. 11 th Board of Directors of El Camino Hospital meeting petitioners were given three minutes to comment. Items discussed: concerns of bad timing to buy the $45 million hospital during an economic downturn, and that the facility will cost another $10 million to $20 million to bring it up to seismic standards, and more for start-up costs. Judy Twitchell, El Camino spokesperson is not sure of the cost of the earthquake upgrades, but said the upgrades could be spread out over several years. The hospital, she added, would not comment on initial start-up costs. The purchase would help El Camino meet its strategic plan by expanding services to residents outside its district. El Camino administrators said the hospital currently has $300 million in unrestricted funds generated from profit, and that taxpayer funds would not go toward the new acquisition. The hospital spends about $8 million collected in district taxes each year on community outreach and capital costs.
"El Camino Hospital has been very conservative and well managed over the last several years, and we really are in a good position to do this," Twitchell said. "In a tough economy, it is good to have a strong financial position."El Camino Hospital has the capacity and interest to help meet the health care needs of our neighboring community as administrators began negotiating last summer, but said they could release only limited information due to a strict disclosure agreement.
The closing of the Community Hospital affects property values, but more importantly services and outreach that benefit the entire community. This issue is worthy of your attention. Please consider attending the Wednesday, March 11, 2009 meeting at 5:30 p.m El Camino Hospital, 2500 Grant Road, Mountain View, California 94040

State your opinion for the record. Let's let the Board of Directors of El Camino Hospital know how important and welcome this transition will be. A little push back from our community is needed. Plus it would be nice to see if we have a pulse.

Fun With Ear Plugs

In a household where you can cut the testosterone with a knife (my husband and two man cubs) What to do with all that manliness? Take it to the Monster Truck Jam.

As a transplanted midwesterner, who rode motocross after giving up dressage the love of all things loud has not left me after years of Californication. Suffice to say I have a bit more testosterone than girls are normally supposed to posses. Remember those headlocks from third grade? Still fun especially when you add high heels but that's for another forum. Back to testosterone and the always intimidating Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. Our nosebleed seats= birds eye views of trucks that resembled radio controlled cars in a sandbox. The surprise of the evening, two of the monster trucks [The Monster Mutt Dalmatian and Jurassic Attack] were driven by gasp.... girls... low and behold they drove those big trucks better than the burly crowd.

Surrounded by a sea of facially pierced parents with overweight kids sucking down sodas- what's not to love for a Saturday Night? Olympic gold medal people watching moment: brushed acrylic talons sporting day glow pink polish, gripping a huge hotdog in one beefy mitt and a domestic beer in the other.

Haven't had this much fun people watching since the hay days of Club Trocadero's Bondage- a go-go.

The sucker punch of the evening was the $25 parking fee. Overall evening fell into the opera box seat cost once you figured in the food, ticket price, and parking. Domestic beer still tastes like cold bathwater, but hey- when in Rome. The biggest distraction of the evening was a text message from a friend who was enjoying the Randy Weston show at Yoshi's.

Break with the day to day to embrace the unusual for an unusually great time. Just remember the demographic mix represents the same as the big time wrestling crowd.