Fair Enough

So, the fair is pretty fair this year. I actually greatly enjoyed my day at the fair this week. They’ve revamped a number of items and restored a few that were missing from last year’s festivities. The animals were cute as always (why do they have to be so tasty?), and the mullets were out in force. One major disappointment though came from the bobsled ride. This is the ride where you go around in a circle crushing the person on the outside while ridiculously loud classic rock shatters your eardrums. Well, times are changing my friends. The basic ride hasn’t changed much, other than a paint job that now suggests a surfing theme rather than a bobsled theme, but the atmospere has completely been ruined. Rather than the Ratt and Scorpion and G&R that we were looking forward to, our musical selections were “Over My Head” by The Fray and “Stars are Blind” by Paris Hilton. Let’s just say that sound of Paris Hilton’s highly modified voice at 150 db is not my idea of “Big Fun.” But that’s not what you want to know; you want to know where to get the best lard infused, grease forward, atery hardening goodies that you’ve been waiting all year for. Well, here you go:
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Where’s the Big Fun?

I haven’t been to The State Fair yet, but I think my two girls will go crazy for the livestock stuff so I think we’re going to make it this year, eventually. I have to ask, however: is it just me or does attendance seem way down? Where is the traffic snarl backing up from Expo to the WX? Over the weekend I was able to drive in to the Arden Fair parking lot and grab a sweet spot outside Nordys and get out with no delay. Last night we drove past the fairgrounds at 6:30, prime fair dining time, and the lot seemed about half full.

I know my evidence is entirely anecdotal, but those are 3 major indicators that the Fair is in town and they are non-factors thus far. What gives? Discuss.

Embrace your fellow man

In many posts, we’ve shared our own experiences with people becoming more distant with each other — whether it’s not making eye contact; not returning a “hello”; or failing to say basic phrases such as “I’m sorry,” “excuse me,” “thank you,” and “yes, please.” I know this is not limited to Sacramento, but is there anything we can do about it?
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Look before you march

Kudos to the Bee for burying in the middle of Metro this story about a protest outside its doors regarding its coverage of local theater. Among organizer’s Jackie Schultz’s beefs was that the paper lacked a forum for readers to respond to its coverage of local arts. As you probably know, reader, the Bee has had comments on articles now for several weeks. Luckily Schultz had a few understudy arguments ready to go.

Sac housing goes ironical

All right, it’s officially time to stop building new houses in the Sacramento region, now that I’ve discovered that there is a subdivision in Rocklin called Wisteria. That’s actually all I want to say about that. There is another subdivision called Fiddyment Farm which sounds like a neighborhood out of Dr. Seuss and is one letter away from being pronounced “Fiddy Cent Farm,” which is hilarious.

Who are the people in your neighborhood?

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.
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Library adds downloads

Speaking of our city’s habit of combining old and new web technologies, the Sacramento Public Library today unveiled its Digital Download Catalog. You can now download e-books and audiobooks if you have a library card. Note, however, that the audiobook files are not compatible with Macs or with the popular iPod device–PC or Mac (take that, guy from “Ed”).

Homeowner refunds

If you’re a homeowner in city limits (on or before 1/1/06), make sure to check the Assessment District Refunds page at the city’s Website to see if you’ve got a refund coming your way. The county assessor’s site has a parcel viewer tool to look up your parcel number (if’n you ain’t got that memorizized. Something about dealing with the local gub’mint makes me want to talk like a hillbilly.) so you can look up your refund on a PDF document. (Ahh, technology–a super high tech asp.net web app to look up your number, but for the refunds info you need to Control-F on a PDF file.)

I didn’t get one, but there’s some pretty sweet government cheese to be had.

Free Starbuck’s iced coffee TOMORROW

Sometime Ragger Stickie sent me a tip that your friendly neighborhood Starbucks is offering “free iced coffee or iced cafe con leche” today from 1-3 pm. I can’t find independent confirmation but this seems to have gone on in other locales very recently so it’s probably legit.

UPDATE: Thanks to CSI Sac we now have independent confirmation that tomorrow is the free iced coffee day.