Author: RonTopofIt

RonTopofIt is a complex personality, as are most of the small breed of modern day renaissance millionaires. He wishes more people were like him and yet believes that it takes all kinds. You've met RonTopofIt many times, you just don't remember him.

Oprahbucks

Good news! … sort of … maybe … Cbs13.com & sacbee.com report that two Sacramento homeless programs have been flooded with donations since they were featured on Oprah Winfrey’s show last week (yes, last week, I know this story is old news, not trying to scoop here, and stop looking at me like that).

CBS13 also profiled St. John’s Shelter shortly before the story ran on the Oprah show. John’s Shelter for women and children is filled to capacity, thanks to the economy. Executive Director Michele Steeb says the shelter turned away 25 women and children a day in 2007, but that number jumped to 80 in 2008 and is now 130 per day in 2009.

“Thanks to the economy“. Nice.

And from the Oprah article:

Tent cities are illegal in Sacramento, but Lisa says that may change soon. “So many people are seeking out shelter because all of the homeless shelters are filled beyond capacity, that they’re actually thinking about legalizing tent communities, and the city is actually thinking about providing services,” she says. “Surprisingly, the community has been extremely sympathetic because so many people in Sacramento have gone into foreclosure. … The shelters say that people have actually been donating more because the attitude is ‘I’d rather spend money so that people can have shelter than buy new material stuff.'”

If you are actually interested in learning more, watch the video of Lisa visiting Tent City.

Fairytale Town celebrates 50

Folks may be surprised to learn that Fairytale Town opened its doors on August 29, 1959!

Of course you already know that…

Fairytale Town is a nonprofit family park with more than twenty three-dimensional child-size play sets based on favorite fairytales and nursery rhymes. A family of friendly animals and children’s gardens nestle in this safe and colorful place. Fairytale Town’s mission is to promote the imagination, creativity and education of children.

Yesterday they kicked off a two-week book drive.

…families bringing in a new book to Fairytale Town March 2 – March 16 will receive one free child with a paid adult admission. All books will be donated to Woodbine Elementary School here in Sacramento.

Be sure to check out their calendar as they are celebrating all year long (with a new site on the way, too!)

Congratulations!

25 Random Things…(State Budget Edition)

Those of you who are down with the book of faces will know what this article is about from the Santa Barbara Independent newspaper.

Playing off Facebook’s “25 Things About Me” meme [I’ll save you the trouble: “a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation)”].

A few favorites…

3) The Assembly and Senate both passed 34 separate pieces of legislation to enact the budget.

4) These included five separate ballot measures that require voter approval in a May 19 special election; if any is defeated, the budget deal unravels.

12) Governor Terminator, who drove Gray Davis from office by bashing him for hiking the Vehicle License Fee for car registration, last week doubled the VLF to balance the budget.

20) At least three separate ballot initiatives are in the works to get rid of the two-thirds vote requirement for passing a budget.

Which ones do you find especially noteworthy?

The Ace-man leaveth

Fans of the Adam Carolla show were greeted with some bummer news today as Adam announced that Friday will be his last show on terrestrial radio. The show’s home station, KLSX (97.1) in Los Angeles will switch to the oh-so-popular “Top 40/Contemproary Hit Radio” format on February 20th.

From latimes.com:

“Beginning next week, new episodes of Carolla’s show will no longer broadcast in any market, although it is believed that “best of” shows may air in some territories.”

The good news is that the show will continue via podcast starting Monday at adamcarolla.com.

The show was heard locally on 106.5 (KWOD).

Becoming Detroit(s)

I found some time to catch up on the latest news regarding the California budget crisis. If ever there was a reason to tag a post in the “ugh.” files…

Both legislative houses were pondering 27 hastily drafted bills that cover state budgets for two fiscal years: the current one that ends June 30 and the next one that begins July 1.

Should the words “hastily” and “budget” ever be used the in the same sentence?

In the Senate, the debate included cliff-hanging metaphors and disparaging references to Detroit.

“California is on the edge of a financial cliff, and some would say we’re just about over the cliff, hanging on by our fingernails,” Steinberg said. “We are running out of cash, and the situation is getting worse.”

But state Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, said that if the package were approved, Feb. 14, 2009, would be remembered as “the Valentine’s massacre on California taxpayers.”

“If we pass this budget,” he said, “Los Angeles and San Francisco will become the Detroit(s) of the West.”

You sports fans will recall the incident with the Kings and the Pistons from 2005. Damn you, Karma.

Continue reading “Becoming Detroit(s)”

Watts out at KCRA

Local news is a fickle game. We’ve always tried to follow the action along the way and provide you with our observations and updates. In fact, these observations and updates have been one of the main reasons people find themselves on this here web log.

In this tradition we must begin our paper trail for Julie Watts who was recently “laid off” from KCRA (btw, I’ve always thought the term “laid off” was for seasonal workers like lumberjacks or carpenters…)

While I am on the subject of annoying terms and euphemisms, here’s a blurb from the Sacramento Business Journal article:

“We’ve had some staff reductions,” said KCRA general manager Elliott Troshinsky. “These are challenging economic times and we needed to scale our business accordingly.”

“Staff reductions” eh? “Challenging economic times”? Why didn’t you say so. Well, who is going to pick up the weather reporting slack in Julie’s absence? You know, cause times is tough all over in case you haven’t heard.

Wait, what’s this? Hello, Byron Miranda, what’s going on? What are you doing here? Oh, you were recently hired to forecast the weather at KCRA? How odd. They just recently reduced staff, you know…I did catch him on his first day when he made a joking reference to his ex-wife. Make yourself at home, BM.

Good luck, Julie. Hope the blogging thing works out for you. Let us know if you need any help.

Only happy when it rains

Please to allow me to continue the rant I started before Christmas.

So the results of a survey about the employment outlook for 2009 in Sacramento were released on Wednesday. Check out the headlines from the Google News feed:

Super…Great…Grand. Did I mention that we get it? No one is saying that these are the days, but come on. Report different.

Continue reading “Only happy when it rains”

Sacramento rallies around Grant High

By now, you’ve heard that Grant High won the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division State Football Championship Bowl Game on Saturday night in Carson, CA. Fox 40 took the lead with their extensive coverage of the game. Watch the kids arrive in Northern California from cbs13.com. Ah, to be young again…

What’s really exciting here is how quickly the community gathered around to schedule a parade to celebrate the victory.

Twin Rivers School District officials, and city officials, are scrambling to lock down speakers, publicize the event, and make other preparations. “We got a permit rushed right though and every one is very excited to celebrate some good news,” said school district spokeswoman Trinette Marquis…Marquis said the Sacramento police and fire departments have chipped in by handing out fliers in addition to their normal crowd control and safety duties. The district’s automated phone system will be making more than 25,000 phone calls to invite district students, parents and staff to the parade and rally.

That’s good stuff right there. *rant* Seriously, how many more news stories about how things haven’t begun to suck yet can we all take? We get it! */rant*

The parade (great use of umapper.com, btw) is set to start at 1 p.m. at Grant High School and end with a 3:30 p.m. rally at the City Hall at 9th and I streets.

An unsatisfying journey


Make a U-turn, if possible

I don’t know why this story of folks getting lost trying to get to the new Red Hawk casino using their GPS devices makes me chuckle. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve been in the same situation before trying to decide if I should use my common sense or hand my faith over to a talking box when driving to a new destination.

I have such a love/hate relationship with my Garmin Nuvi. On one hand, it’s been a life saver when I’m forced to take side roads or alternate routes due to a traffic accident or construction. On the other hand it, it’s caused many delays especially when I approach forks in the road or subtle turns. Hard right or soft right? Veer right or stay to the right which is actually straight with no turn at all?

Back to the Bee story…

Continue reading “An unsatisfying journey”

Steve’s Pizza Update

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.