California crazy daze of summer!
It’s that time of the year again.
Although it was was a cool, wet spring, two days ago, Livermore hit a high temperature of 102 degrees F (38.9 degrees C), our first day of the year to hit triple digits. Today, the high was 90 F (32.2 C) and a “sea breeze” is starting to kick in, although another warmup is scheduled for the weekend. (Oh, for you visitors, it can be over 30 degrees F COOLER on the coast in summer. Microclimates are that crazy!)
In the governor’s race, Meg Whitman says that Jerry Brown is a failure, and a nurses’ union says that Meg is a bully. More importantly, on July 1, a state budget is due that addresses the $19.1 billion 
deficit (not bad for a STATE, huh?), and guess what! Our State Legislature is going to miss the deadline, yet again! But don’t worry! The Democratic legislative leaders say that members will be allowed to go back to their home districts for their month-long break and remain on call until a budget deal is reached. Incompetence has its privileges!
And what’s up with Santa Cruz…? Wednesday evening is the “Truth Movement” concert and “The Lost Boys” screening with Corey Feldman on the Santa Cruz Beach. Today, a bicycle-riding man robbed a female pizza deliverer in a car stopped at an intersection, at knifepoint, and got away with a whopping $1. Meanwhile, another guy, a serial bank robber, whom I will call the “Bicycle Bandit,” robbed a Santa Cruz bank in bicycle helmet and gloves, with messenger bag, and got away on his bike. No news from the “Geezer Bandit” (1, 2) in San Diego, who probably isn’t due to hit again until early-to-mid-July. Back in May, the Geezer Bandit had over 500 fans on two different fan pages on Facebook, much to the chagrin of the FBI. (Note added July 5, 2010: Oops! I missed this one! The Geezer Bandit struck again on June 24!)
Palo Alto-based Tesla Motors raised $266 million in its IPO today, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol TSLA. If you want FAST and ELECTRIC, you want Tesla.
Google “blinked” in China today, so instead of “automagically” redirecting folks who visit its Chinese search site, google.cn to its Hong Kong search engine, google.com.hk, “it has begun to display a ‘landing page’ on google.cn for some users, which requires users to click on an image that links to the Hong Kong site.” Meanwhile, gutless financial dweebs let stocks tumble BECAUSE THEY ARE AFRAID of a global slowdown, in part fueled by a slowdown in China.
Leaks about Windows 8 (hard to believe it made it this far) shows that Microsoft is trying to emulate some of the moves made by Apple, which I referred to many years ago as “Microsoft Research.”
Coming to Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium: Cheech and Chong, who will perform on November 5, three days after an election to decide whether marijuana should be legal in California. Tickets are on sale now.
How do I know that “regular folks” in California are staying “balanced?” There is increased traffic to several of my most popular blogs about BEACHES! When life gets tough or crazy, the beach just ISN’T! Helpful links are here.
Californians, stay cool!
(This just in – last night, a special investigations team of the El Monte Police Department raided a Los Angeles home packed with a TON [literally, 2,000 pounds; 907.2 kg] of fireworks worth about $120,000. Wooooooooo hooooooooooo! What were they THINKING? Police refused to release the address [how many homes packed with 2,000 pounds of fireworks can there be?] because arrests have not yet been made. Meanwhile, firefighters took the fireworks to a remote location “to be disposed of.” [Do firefighters have all the fun?] Yeah, California gets CRAZY in the summertime!)
-Bill at
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