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.

Now for Some *Dry* Humor

Not to break up the comment frenzy with CoolDMZ’s post on the dispute in Franklin (kudos, btw, to all those that really know a lot about CC&Rs…who knew?), but I had to comment on this News10.net article regarding alcohol at CSUC.

As reported here in August (well, sort of), Chico State not only implemented the online, two-and-half hour alcohol awareness course, they went ahead and just banned the substance they were educating the kids on! Now that’s progressive.

That sound you’re hearing right now is the stampede of 2,000 young adults making their way down highway 5 to transfer to Sac State.

The Not-So-Friendly Skies

Had an opportunity to fly this weekend and discovered a few things that seemed to be sacrocentric (can we start using this new non-word? I kind of dig it). Air travel in general is a stressful experience. Between the delays, the security checks, the tight quarters, it can all wear thin on one’s temper. But at what point do people just flat out give up and start being absolute nut jobs? And do they only lose it in the 916?

My wife and I board our plane from Sacramento to Denver. Everything has gone swimmingly so far and I was actually very impressed by the ease in getting to our terminal from the parking lot. However, this ease was quickly worsened when we attempted to find our seats. Now I have to make some assumptions here. That the folks boarding this plane were from the Sacramento area and not making a connecting flight from some other town. I also have to assume that, being a Saturday morning, these folks were not traveling on business and/or were not otherwise anxious to get to where they were going. That is, I was experiencing people at their best.
Continue reading “The Not-So-Friendly Skies”

Hurricane, Shmurricane

Following CoolDMZ’s post from a few weeks back, I had to comment on this article from News10.net.

It’s a disaster experts know is coming, and it could dwarf the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

We live in earthquake country…sure, we knew that. Is it important to discuss earthquake preparedness? I think so. Is it necessary to bring down the victims of hurricane Katrina along the way? Even if you don’t watch the news regularly, or read the paper, or browse the internet, I think it is safe to say that most Americans, especially those of us out west pretty much get what happened in the gulf coast. There’s no need to “bring it home” by attempting to scare the bejeezus out of us with this doom and gloom, might as well not go to work in the morning, earthquake prediction crap.

Not to mention that it’s pretty insulting to those who have directly suffered from this disaster. You think you have it rough in New Orleans? You ain’t seen nothing yet, in the next 20 years we’re gonna have a tremor that will blow the socks off your little storm…maybe, we think, well, we predict. We’re two for three so far!

Is Nothing *Safe*?

Stories like this just warm your heart, don’t they?. What is especially noteworthy about this theft is that the church’s pastor THINKS there were at least two thieves because the safe weighed between 200 and 300 pounds. I smell an inside job. An alarm goes off at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. The guard “didn’t notice” anything missing. Hmmm. Then Monday morning at 1:30 a.m. one of the credit cards was used. So we are to believe that the alarm was triggered on accident at 10:30, nothing was the matter, the guard goes back to, uh, guarding. Then “thieves” break in to the church and steal the safe without triggering the alarm and make off with a 200-300 pound safe?

And lastly, as if this whole incident wasn’t enough to turn your stomach, they end it with:

Cummins says the church will take another collection next week for hurricane victims.

I’m sure folks will dig really deep into their pocketbooks for this one. Here’s a tip Bear Creek Community Church goers, take your chances at www.redcross.org.

U.C. Merced opens its doors

When I was in high school (oh so long ago) there was talk of a new UC in Merced. There were banners and celebrations and I remember thinking that this was a good thing for the otherwise faceless San Joaquin Valley (faceless to us who lived large in the facemore booming foothills of California’s Mother Lode). At any rate, a few years went by and the talk died down and the news started to dwindle, or perhaps my interest in it did.

Well what do you know? The new U.C. Merced is up and running and ready to take on Turkey Tech…err, the world! I was wondering what sort of aspiring, young high school grads will have their eyes set on UCM when I came across this quote from an article at News10.net:
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Spray now, we’ll discuss the details later

Wanted to follow up on the WNV epidemic from a few weeks ago. It turns out that it is going to be very difficult to determine whether or not the abrupt spraying of pesticide over our homes even worked! According to a sacbee.com article, “it may be impossible ever to draw firm scientific conclusions on how much the pesticide treatments helped to stem the West Nile virus.” Apparently, this has a lot to do with budget restraints on the vector control agency.

I don’t want to go off on a rant here, but aren’t budgets the sort of thing you work out in advance? Like, maybe a year or so? Perhaps when we were told last year that this virus was out there and potentially could hit us hard if we didn’t wear long sleeved shirts, spray on the DEET, and stay inside during peak skeeter hours, the powers that be could have also been preparing themselves fiscally. Realizing that this could get to a point where mass spraying of potentially cancer causing chemicals would be required.

I don’t know, just seems a little Bush league (pun intended) to drop this stuff on us with no real, shall we say, exit strategy? (hey, we’re kicking it up a notch here at the rag so work with me!)

Ok, seriously…

Browsing the ol’ News10.net this morning when I came across these three headlines in succession:

  • Lodi Fire Captain Convicted on Child Pornography Charges
  • Placerville Man Charged with Child Sex Abuse
  • Folsom Teacher Arrested for Forcing Student into Sex Act

Granted this could be a coincidence and every city is sure to have its share of whack jobs, but whiskey tango foxtrot is going on? A fire captain, an english teacher…this is not what our fair city needs.
Continue reading “Ok, seriously…”

The so-called “Cheesecake” effect

So it appears that Sacramento opens it arms, err, wings today to a new Hooters restaurant on Challenge Way, at the former Monterey Bay Canners restaurant site. Can’t wait to see the lines for this place. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love themselves some cheesecake, but these are buffalo wings, man, buffalo wings! I put in my application months ago to be a server, not sure why they never got back to me, but I digress.

Bob Shallit over at the Bee did a piece on something I noticed myself this weekend. There were signs advertising the new Hooters as “now open by Cal Expo” which is vague on several fronts. Lots of stuff is by Cal Expo and “now open” assumes that if you were to go there during regular business hours, it would be, like, open, right? Well, well, well.
Continue reading “The so-called “Cheesecake” effect”