Those of you that have passed by the Howe Avenue or Arden Way editions of the Steve’s Pizza franchise have surely assumed they went the way of the dodo. The SP Web site indicates they are “Closed temporarily for renovations” which seemed fishy to me. Emails were sent and responses received and from all accounts both locations will be back up and running in the new year. Howe Avenue in January and Arden Way “in the next 90 days.”

This was good news to me. I hope it is to you as well.

The obligatory weekend trip for groceries means for me to hit the Costco. As an Elk Groover, the closest location to me is the South Sacramento store. Yep yep y’all, we’re going to South Sac.

Unfortunately, the only thing this store has going for it is that it’s a Costco that’s closest to those of us in the south side of the county but north of the cattle.

The staff are very friendly, but the store itself is wrought with overcrowding, rude customers and people who line up for free samples of orange juice and bacon, and then loiter in the middle of the aisles like they’re partaking of a United Nations relief mission. When you’ve finally navigated through the Dixie Cup buffet, you get stuck in a horrible feeder line system at the check out that also falls smack in a major thoroughfare in the store, so people with arms full of Christmas ornaments are running crosscurrent through the lines to get through.

The indoor food court is just as overcrowded as it is unsanitary. The time it takes to wait in line for the $1.50 hot dog and soda while you study the story told by the tattoo on the back of the neck in front of you, is worth more than the $1.50 you’ll spend. And, because people have had too much of a good thing back in the store, people also loiter around the soda vending machines refilling their cups of soda after every sip and making the rest of us wait for sweet flavourless bubbly. You also do not want your food to touch the picnic tables (complete with umbrellas) in the indoor sitting area, lest you disturb the flies. Besides, good luck pulling your food off the table once it’s been placed there and permanently affixed by old ketchup.

To top it off, last weekend, as I was browsing in an aisle, someone jacked my half full shopping cart and disappeared into the crowds. My bad. I forgot to padlock my cart to the shelf when I turned to browse.

My recommendation: go to another location. It might take longer to drive but you’ll save that time in the store, with a more pleasant experience.

Costco South Sacramento
7981 East Stockton Boulevard
Sacramento, California 95823
Rating: *

Better use the ATM.

You proposition 8 debaters should enjoy this one from CBS13.com.

All Golden One Banks in our area are enforcing a new dress code: no hats…”Typically, they have a hood pulled up, they have sunglasses on or they have a hat with a visor pulled down,” says Teresa Halleck, President and CEO of Golden One Credit Union.

“They” of course are the bad guys. And they have a uniform. Without this uniform their super powers are lost.

I kid the Golden One. However, pay close attention to the sign posted at the front of the bank. The forward and backward hat positions are included in this policy.

Today is Sacramento’s first “Stage 1 - No Burn” residential wood burning restriction. This means that “…burning is prohibited when air quality is forecast to be 36-40 micrograms per cubic meter unless EPA certified fireplace inserts or stoves, or pellet stoves are used. First time violations will result in a $50 fine or a requirement to attend compliance school, fines for subsequent violations will be higher.”

The funny thing about this policy is that the Spare The Air site states “Sacramento County Only” as the area affected by this law. But, when you scroll down a bit you find this detail:

Check Before You Burn is in effect in Sacramento County and its cities: Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton, Rancho Cordova, and Sacramento.

Does “Sacramento” mean anyone with a Sacramento, CA mailing address? Folks who are normally under the City umbrella can burn away? I checked the FAQ document and still couldn’t find anything concrete. Granted, I am not the brightest bulb so if I am missing this important detail, please comment.

I was in the Natomas/Truxel area the other day and noticed that the new Sonic/T.G.I. Friday’s construction had all but stopped. Fast forward a few days and the Computer Pages once again come to my rescue.

Via KCRA.com

At the intersection of Truxel Road and Gateway Park Boulevard, construction has been halted for a Sonic drive-thru and a T.G.I. Friday’s, which were scheduled to open two years ago.

Sonic blames the slowing economy for not completing the project. It plans to finish its Lincoln location first.

Two years ago! Man, brutal. I think we can do without another chain restaurant (Hear that, Guy?), but I’ve always wondered what the Sonic was all about. Well, apart from those irritating commercials.

Ah, sweet decisions.

This weekend, you have the choice between the Suds on the Green and the Midtown Community Festival.

Both are for children’s charities, both feature fine brews, each has interesting stuff to do besides drinking. Enjoy!

Via the Bee’s Sacto 9-1-1 program I discovered an interesting feature called the Crime Q & A by Ryan Lillis. Ryan tracks down information related to area crimes in response to reader queries. No question is too small either:

Coming home last night in the Tahoe Park area, 65th street between 14th and 21st was blocked by cop cars. This morning nothing in the paper or other news. Do you know what happened? Where can a neighbor find information about incidents area quickly after the fact?

Give it a read, it’s not as fun as learning how much money your neighbor makes, but it’s informative just the same.

As a nine-year Pocket area dweller, I grew accustomed to having my 95831 brethren say “hello” or give a smile and a wave as our paths crossed while I was out running and they were running, walking dogs, or pushing kids in strollers. One of my Pocket “friends” sits in a folding chair in his garage and watches the activities at Garcia Bend Park as his American and USMC flags billow in the Delta Breeze. I’d worry when I didn’t see him out there, and we always exchanged pleasantries as I trotted by. I have no idea what his name is, nor he mine, but it feels like we’ve known each other forever just from our ever-so-brief exchanges.

I feel the same way about the people who work at Bel Air on Rush River Drive — it was sad to leave, as many of them have worked there the entire time I’d lived there. Everyday was like the “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland, complete with the line of, “There is just one moon and one shining sun, and a smile means friendship to everyone.”

Now that I’m living and running in a new ‘hood, I’m disenchanted that the people aren’t nearly as friendly.
Continue reading “Who are the people in your neighborhood?” »

Our local traffic reporters have endured many beatings here on the Sac Rag, but I’d like to pile on a bit — not for their lack of timely information, but for the varied pronunciations of our region’s roadways. Please give your input on your preferred pronunciation of these streets and locales:

Seamas Avenue: Most reporters say “See-mus,” but the actual pronuciation is “Shay-mus.” Then again, if we all used the proper ethnic pronunciations, people living 300 or so miles to our south would be inhabitants of “Lohs Ahn-heh-lays.”

Goethe Park: For years I thought this was named after the 18th-19th century German poet/dramatist, but then I read a book on local history, and it’s really named after a Gold Rush-era land speculator.
Continue reading “How to pronounce “Goethe”” »

Plant a Tree, Be a Hero

Over in the Arden/Arcade side of town local folks have been promoting a tree planting program for quite some time. Adopted from the popular program in the oh so popular Arden Park, the Arden/Arcade extension has gone door to door with flyers asking for volunteers to help. This might sound all well and good, but much like a “boo gram” there is a little something else at play. This time, something a bit offensive.

For example, on their website their tag line reads (with photos of streets with and without trees, sure hope you don’t live on of those “belows”:

“Trees Define A Neighborhood. What street would you like to live on?

Another example (#2 on What You Can Do To Help):

ENCOURAGE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO PLANT- If you want to be a hero on your block, give away free trees

Continue reading “What defines you?” »