bugz and such

some pictures of our released male Anise swallowtail, and rescued larva. AND pollination of the first open Vanilla flower of the season.

El Cerrito DADT

Exactly what I meant. Don't ask, Don't tell. It's how you have to live here in El Cerrito. There's no way around it. The very second you live openly, your neighbors turn on you, turn you in, and ruin your life. Sometimes right in front of your small children. The unmitigated meanness and greed of the people here. And the either elected officials or hired city staff who relishes the meanness and greed and ultimately takes a sadistic pleasure in both supporting it as well as encouraging it. This week watching a wonderful family up the street have to tear up their childrens hopes and happiness because of their "neighbor's" parisitism.

Not always Furious with El Cerrito......

As an example: an anise swallowtail form last summer eclosed this morning, Mothers' Day. AND a vanilla flower is blooming on my rambling Vanilla plant and I hope to pollinate it today if my ole shakey hands allow me to. Besides that the garden is partially in with tomatoes, corn, peas, green beans, cucumbers, acorn squash, swiss chard, and collards. Ther are actually some apples on the Pink Pearl! BUT the lack of bees is hugely apparent this year. Hoping to remedy that soon.

when will Sarah Palin go away?

that pretty much speaks for itself. Heidi and i have lived frugally and fiscally responsibly all the entire time we've been together. Why, then are we in the same basket as those who didnt. Also enjoying the feeding frenzy of the car companies versus the very banks they depend on , but dont like the way it's working people who get shat on. In China they take out corrupt elected officials and corporate jackoffs and shoot them. Works for me any was as I've been a communist my entire adult life. Marx predicted the implosion, it was just a matter of when.

More from the stoopid front: why BART is stoopid

below is a cut and paste of an email response about this stupid need to turn BART parking lots into expensive commercial/residential developments at the total expense of the people who use BART, ACTUALLY USE BART as a means of getting around this pathetic excuse for a community we call the San Francisco Bay Area. After reading my posts you may ask, hey numbshull, if you hate it here so much, why do you live here. The answer quite frankly is that this was the furthest I could get away from Boston without actually leaving the continental United States. And the only reason I stay is because I got lucky living here and married the most wonderful woman in the world. that said and I hate it when people say "that said", see my response below:

Day before yesterday I had two auditions in SF.One on 1st and Mission( Embarcadero BART) and the second on Treat (16th BART). Aud #1 was at 10:10. Second one was anytime between 10 and 1 PM. Drove down to Del Norte BART. 9 am. Spent over 15 minutes scouring the lots to find a space to park.ZERO. had to park on Cutting at Key which has a four hour limit. With the day time schedule of BART and the walking to and fro from Emb. BART to 1st and Mission, Back to Emb BART to 16th and Mission and the walk from there to Treat and then back to 16th BART to EC Del Norte. This seemingly simple transit experience got me back to EC with no dilly dallying with 20 minutes to spare before being issued a parking ticket. Almost four hours!!!!! that's half a work day to do keep two very simple in and out appointments!!!!!!! When are the idiotic morons in charge of the system going to realize the system DOES NOT ENCOURAGE people to use public transit. In fact it does the exact opposite. AS I have said to the deaf ears for the 26 years I have lived here, public transit outside of San Francisco is a pathetic ridiculous joke!!!!!! Until the idiots here realize that it will only work when all the transit districts of which there are what 20 of them or something are under the same umbrella where I can get a local bus to Bart instead of having to drive, because the local buses add tremendous cost to the transit experience,and now in oh so modern 21st century, instead of expanding transbay buses A/C transit only operates them during "rush hours" as well as having no reliable schedule with drivers who drive safely instead of terrifying you and where you can feel comfortable with the hordes of adolescent monsters making nearly each and every ride an experience from hell itself. it will be completely stupid to pursue this moronic idea of transit villages. The TRUTH behind the Villages is this: flat property is of tremendous monetary value. Developers who care only about their predatory profit making at the expense of community just want to get in and out with their money, and the elected officials who get elected with their money have to comply in order to return the favor of their elected positions. The rest of us can go to hell. It does nothing to stem the tide of urban sprawl, because again it's the developers who are predating the old farmers and ranchers with visions of sugar plums in Palm Springs retirement homes. Preying on the American dream of if only I had a back yard pool and a place to set up my gas Webber my wife would love me and my kids would talk to me....
That's not how I see it, it's how it is. None of these idiots actually use public transit. The BART officials drive to work, and as you may have noticed there is parking provided for the BART station agents so they don't have to experience their own incompetence. Any one want to think about banning cars???? whoa! Now I must be crazy!!!! How about this novel idea: you wanna stop urban sprawl how about curbing population growth, by encouraging people to either have less kids or none at all!! Or maybe having foreign/ economic policies that provide a life worth living in their home countries where the tired and unwashed wont be so desperate to come here in the first place. Or distributing industry whether rust belt or high tech in other states besides California so again our very own unwashed and very tired wont be compelled to flee Mississippi or northern Indiana or what's left of poor tired horribly beaten to death Connecticut for the land of milk and honey.
Nah, forget it. I must be really off my meds!

I better stop now.....

Love

George

Sweet wednesday March 16,2005

For the first time in nearly 7 years it is good to live in El Cerrito. There is the smell of victory in the air. The little guy went up against Goliath and we think won! In 1991 or 92 El Cerrito imposed an illegal tax, the property transfer tax. On of the recent propositions passed by California voters amd subsequent supreme court decisions declared the tax illegal, yet the city of El Cerrito continued to impose and collect the tax even though they knew it was illegal. In fact the city council made a secret decision to not go public about the illegality of the tax and to continue to collect. The El Cerrito citizens alliance in May of 2003 after investigating went to the city council and openly told them they knew what they were up to and that money was owed.
Well it wasnt until July 4 2003(independence day!) that the local paper , The Journal, published an article about it. Well Cyrill Wyatt-Donelly and her husband who had purchased ther home in El Cerrito in April 2002 thought they ought to apply for a refund of their money. They filed a claim, the claim was rejected. THey went to court and sued. They won their suit and the City appealed the decision, and today in Superior court Cyrill looks like she won! The city claimed there was no disputing the fact that they had collected the money illegally but what the substance of their case was the statute of limitations. claiming their ordinance was superior to California State Law. Well the judge didnt agree! The fun part was also the fact that the city attorney who first claims there is no dispute as to the actions of the city then says it was adjucated as illegal. nevertheless it was certainly wonderful to watch them look stupid. And even more so the claim is only for $3k, and the city attorney has probably billed the city $50K for the work .Nice Job! The sun is shining, the air is sweet and we won a small but vitally important victory.

Welcome to my version of the world!

March comes in like a lamb. Its finally a nice day. If you are visiting this blog you will get my own personal and personally skewed look at what I believe. the stoopid elected officials of El Cerrito, Ca ( Hell Cerrito, Dull Cerrito, what the fuck is this all about Cerrito..) and my personal and emotional release from the continuing stoopidness of my Family of Birth. So as far as today is concerned its enough to get this thing started. Subject of rant I live on a street where the speed limit is 25mph. Not 35. Not 30. Its 25. and the morons in the city government refuse to enforce it. hello idiot 25 is 25. You know why its 25? Because people made it 25 who are smarter than we are. If you are driving faster than 25 on my street then you are a danger to me and my family and my neighbors and I will protect me and my family's safety. this is my home so go somewhere and please die. Just quietly go and die. You are taking up too much room anyway and probably some sort of Chriatian fanatic all wrapped up in Jesus too stupid think. Nice start to my blog dont you think?