Ho Chi Me!

The Fukien Pagoda. Hoi An, Central Vietnam.

There’s a new shopping center opening soon. No, it’s not another strip mall cluttered with chain stores way out on the corner of White and Flight. It’s the Little Saigon Plaza and it’s on Union Avenue! There have been some very slow efforts to revive the area ever since Vidal’s closed down and everything really went to pot. I’m thinking this plaza sounds pretty cool. The mall will include a supermarket, restaurant, other various businesses, a beef noodle shop (what’s that?) and Vietnamese and Filipino fast food joints.

If I’m not too lazy, I’ll try to get out of bed and go to the ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow at 10:00. Anything for a little excitement.

In the news

Thomas Cahill a respected atmospheric scientist at UC Davis theorizes that pollution from the Bay Area is blown toward the Sierra Nevadas where it piles up, then gets pushed in the central valley. It’s all those Northern Cal people making us sick. No wonder we hate them so much. J

There is a group called “The Shafer-based Association of Irritated Residents.” (I sure would hate to sit in on one of their meetings.) They’re p.o.ed over the whole dairy farm thing going on. Can’t say as I blame them. I’m not too excited about having a jillion more cows stinking up the air.

The landlord of a mobile home park in Arvin has had his state permit to operate suspended for not taking care of business around the place. The trailers are run-down, roach infested, missing windows and doors and leaking. How awful!! Those poor people! Can you imagine paying rent on a run down mobile home in Arvin? Makes you appreciate what you have.

There was an article a couple of days ago about the rapist that was briefly my neighbor. He’s back behind bars. Again I almost find myself feeling sorry for the guy. He was placed in a Christian home for men on the outskirts of town and was told he did not have to participate in any of the religious stuff if he did not want to. Apparently he did not find the spirit when he was locked up in prison for those 12 ½ years, so he opted out. The Jesus Loves Brethren (so something like that) did not appreciate this and now he’s screaming his civil rights have been violated. Just send him back to Hawaii from which he came and be done with him!!

The man who opened fire downtown one night and shot 5 people, killing one, was convicted of one murder and one attempted murder but acquitted of assault with a firearm on two other men. I just happen to know one of those two other men. He was shot in the eye and lost his sight. I think that sucks.

A missing man was found in the foothills Tuesday. He was taken to KMC “where nurses said he has asked that no information about his condition be released.” Oops. No information on his condition besides that he is alive and talking. Okay. Got it.

Oh yeah.. and history was made in Kern County yesterday! Up, up & away!!

I feel the earth move

In case you’re wondering what happened to me yesterday, I cut the crap out of my finger Tuesday night and it hurt like the dickens all day, so I stayed away from the keyboard. I guess it’s better cuz I’m typing today, but it still hurts.

So…all Tuesday people were asking “Did you feel the earthquake?” Regrettably I did not. But I sure did feel the one here yesterday. I was sitting in my car with the engine running when all the sudden my car was lurching and bobbing around all weird. I thought there as something wrong with the engine at first. Right about the time I realized it was an earthquake it was over. That’s the cool thing about earthquakes. They’re usually over before you have the chance to get really scared. Anyway, I’m convinced “it’s the end of the world as we know it” (gotta love REM) what with all the hurricanes, volcanoes and earthquakes. What’s next?

I don’t wanna know.

Sambo's anyone?

Help us settle a debate. Amy in NY found the above postcard on ebay. She thinks it was the Sambo’s on Ming Ave by Zody’s. I don’t there was a Sambo’s there. The only Sambo’s I remember was on the corner of Oak & Palm. Crazy to think there ever was a restaurant named Sambo’s with a little black boy mascot. It’s good to see some things have changed.

What do y’all think?

Clean Air? What's that?

A few weeks ago the Californian printed an article saying that Central Valley teens have a smaller lung capacity due to growing up breathing bad air. Today, they tell us it’s not quite as bad as we thought. I suspected as much. For the past 2 summers I have asking people if they noticed that we can see the mountains better lately. Several of my friends agreed. I kept wondering why considering all we ever hear about is how bad the air is here. An article in the paper today explains that over the past 30 years “the valley has violated the federal hourly ozone standard an average of 45 days every year.” This year we only violated it nine times! Wow! I know it can’t be because people around here are doing anything to help. According to the paper its because of the mild summer weather we had – the average high was only 95°! You can’t even fry an egg on the sidewalk with temps that low!

So, go ahead Feildians, ignore all those “unhealthy air day” warnings. Breathe deep and enjoy while you can – lord knows it won’t last.

Bake Town Baby

I spent the day with the above infant, and may I just say she is the cute-est! She is 6 days old today. I am so glad my friends have babies so I don’t have to.

Time to get busy Flo!

Vegas Baby!

I was told “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” so you’re not going to get any dirty details here, but I will share a few pictures with y’all. I didn’t take any pics the first night because we were too busy running around shouting ‘cocktail’ and stuffing dollars into machines. I played craps for the first time and nearly put an eye out – that was cool. I also sat and played Blackjack and won money thanks to the nice dealer who told me when to hit and the nice man sitting next to me who added for me. From there we headed to the old strip – downtown. This is a pic of what it looks like during the day.

They have closed off the street and covered it with some fancy roof on which they play short, colorful and very loud movies (mostly about how wonderful America is.) People wander around oooing and ahhhing and bumping into each other since every one is looking up. We kept commenting on how it was like Disneyland, except for the booze and the naked ladies, it was just like Disneyland! I took this pic of the famous Cowgirl on the last day.

The next day we went to The Venetian. Oh wow. Beautiful. You just have to go and see it – amazing. They even have a mini Guggenheim. My pics didn’t come out too good cuz it was kinda dark, but here’s one of the ceiling when you first walk in.

We headed straight for the Gondolas. As you pass through the Casino you enter this magical world of Renaissance Italy. More oooing and aahhhing. Now this really, really looks like Disneyland!



They even had people all dressed up performing on the streets.

We wandered though the expensive gift shops searching for the place to buy tickets for the Gondola ride. This was no easy task. Rides are $15 dollars, and do not believe the sign that says you can get into the Guggenheim for just $5 more. This is the bride to be and her family getting onto their Gondola.

This is a view from our Gondola.

And this is our Gondola driver. His name is Bruno and he sang “O Sole Mio” really, really good.

After the boat ride, some of us went to the Guggeheim, some went to shopping and some went gambling. Flo wanted to bet on the ponies, and 6 of us clustered around 2 seats trying to chose a horse and then screaming at the TV screen. We drove the man next to us insane and he had to be taken away. It was sad. I posted that picture yesterday.

I don’t have pics of the rest of the night cuz I was using my other camera, but I will try to post them later. I will say Saturday night was the best part of the whole trip. We got all dolled up and took a limo ride to The Mirage for dinner. We ate at a Brazilian place, Sambas and it was too good to be true. There was so much food and it was all so, so good. If you like to eat meat, this is the place to be.

After dinner we went to the Jay Leno show and he was very funny. And he mentioned Bakersfield, of course. That’s about it. We went back and crashed after the show and woke up the next day and got ready to go. I took this pic at a gift shop we stopped into just because I thought it was funny.


b.t.w. In case you’re wondering, there are no dirty details to share. We’re a pretty tame crowd.

Come on Dover, come on!!

E.T. & Flo develop strategies for how to pick the ponies.
Like which one has the funniest name, or which one has the prettiest mane.

Well, I made it home safe and mostly sound but I’m pretty tuckered out from the mad, mad, mad, mad, weekend. Flo (the beautiful bride to be) had fun, as did we all, and no animals were hurt in the process, so overall I’d have to say the whole thing was a success. Thanks to E.T.!More details & pics to come. For now I leave you with this… the view of Bake Town as we returned home today. The blue stuff on top is the sky. The brown stuff on the bottom is the air we breathe.

It’s good to be home.

Oooohhhh Yeaaahhhh....

I spent yesterday trying to help my friend attach her teeny tiny baby to her boob. It was not easy. The little sucker kept dozing off. The ghetto rats next door finally quieted down, so I was able to get a good nights sleep. It’s a good thing, cuz I’m leaving in a few hours for Vegas Baby! Me and about ten of my closest girl friends are going to celebrate the fact that one of is soon to be married. I’m not much of a gambler, so I don’t care about that, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of fun. I will be back on Sunday, and I’ll try to catch up on all the stuff I wanted to blog about then. Like the fact that some genius decided it would be better to have the high speed train connecting California to go around Bakersfield instead of through it. And that some psycho from here and now in Oregon was sentenced to life. See Waist High for that one.

Please keep sending me your requests and have a great weekend y’all!

How I feel today

Well, I finally did call the cops last night, around 11:00. The dude was pounding less frequently, but every now and then there would be a big round of clanging. I just couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe it wasn’t that bad, decibel level wise, but he had being out there banging since the time I got home around 5:00. Plus, the weather is great I want to open all my windows. Plus, my brand new TV took a dump on me out of the blue, so I had nothing to drown out the noise and distract me. I’m not sure if the cops showed up or if he just finally got tired, but the clanking stopped. Around 3:30 the noise was replaced with the sound of those screaming ladies.

You should see the bags under my eyes.

Baby Doll!

A new Native Fieldian has been born. At 1:30 this morning my friend pushed out a 6lbs. 15 oz. baby girl, increasing Bakersfield's population by one. Woo hoo!

The Neighboor Hood

I could use some advice. I live in a nice place. I live in a nice town and I live in a nice home. There are, however, some not so nice places nearby me – which is fine, as long as they’re quiet. When they get loud however, I don’t like it. There is a ghetto apartment building right next door to where I live and the tenats are driving me nuts. They play music with a very deep, thumping bass line. It drives me completely crazy. Today they have decided to bang the piece of crap remnant of a car they have with a hammer. All day. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! I want very much to run outside and scream at them but I think they’re in a gang and I don’t want them shoot me. I could go outside and try to ask them very nicely to stop banging on the crappy car and save my sanity, but I have a feeling they would be unresponsive. I can call the cops, but I don’t want to be one of “those” neighbors. Besides, what exactly is the cut off point for it’s too late to be banging on a crappy car?

Your thoughts, please! I need help.

Fair 'nuff

Taken directly from the front page of the local section and just for Amy Sue, “The Kern County Fair opens its gates at 3 pm Wednesday. Kids can start off at Picasso’s Kiddie Karaoke at the Calico Corner and those looking for a unique experience can mosey on over to the Diary Birthing Center at the Dairy Pavilion.”

Yee haw! I can’t wait for this one.

It's about time

photo taken at Hart Park

Last week it was in the 90’s all week. It felt like summer would never end. It finally did. Yesterdays high was 74°. Last night was downright chilly. Autumn is finally here and I’m lovin’ it. It’s the best time of year in Bake Town and I’m heading outside to enjoy it.

just because

I stepped outside to throw my trash away and this is what I saw. Cool, eh? Shortly after snapping the photo my neighbor with the monster truck roared up and shouted through the opened window, "I promise not to run you over on purpose!." Okay... great. Funny.

I feel so safe now.

Hilarious Heather

Bake Town is beautiful. Maybe not breath-taking, jaw dropping beautiful like some Pacific-Northwestern city, but when the wind blows all the crap out of the air and the sun shines warmly (not hot) and you can see the mountains all around, you begin to understand why the original inhabitants settled here. You’d think I’d be out for a walk in the park or possibly a hike in the canyon. But no. I am holed up in my bedroom reading the best blog ever. I’ve been reading it since around 8:00 this morning. I came across it from a link on Waist High’s website and I’ve been engrossed ever since. The first post I read made me laugh so hard I literally cried. This woman is genius. I was almost chased away by the interminable thumping bass line coming from my next door neighbor’s boom box, but I stood strong.

I strongly suggest that you check it out.

Boo Hoo

Front page of the local section, “a Hooters restaurant may be coming to town in the next couple of years.” Apparently we need to start worrying about it now. Just in case someday something happens.

Too funny!

This has nothing to do with me or Bake Town, but its the funniest thing I've ever seen on ebay and you must go to this site immediately.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4174&item=2267858598&rd\=1

Another good site if you like to talk like a pirate. (Thanks for the tip Amy!)

http://homepage.mac.com/crabola/PirateGlossary/Menu22.html

Wild West?

Other than the occasional gang related drive by, Bakersfield seems pretty tame. Every now and then someone goes a little nuts and starts shooting – like that dude that opened fire downtown one night and shot bunch of bystanders. But this past weekend all hell broke lose. According to today’s paper, who ever shot all those kids at Taco Bell used a high-powered rifle and shot off 10-15 rounds snipers style into the crowd. Six teens were injured, one critically. Police say the shooting was unrelated to the football game that had just ended. They also say that the guy shot three times on the other side of town just two hours later was unrelated. Oh yeah, then there’s the dead guy they found in an abandoned factory – that’s unrelated too.

These cases may have nothing to do with each other, but from my stand point when you’ve got people being randomly shot at all over town that’s all the relation I need.

Wise Guy

My son makes me laugh. He makes me laugh because he is smart and he has a great sense of humor and he’s such a teenager. Today he questioned my “uneasy obsession with death” in response to my enthusiasm for watching Cold Case Files. Later I stopped at the store to buy some snacks for us and he became irritated with having to go into the store. I said fine – you stay here, I’ll go in and you can’t have any of the food I buy. He agreed, remarking that he didn’t want anything anyway. I returned with a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper. My son loves DP more than anything. As I placed the humungous box of soda into the car he looked over, raised an eyebrow and asked in a patient tone “Did you buy that to mock me?”

All I could do was laugh.

Another Bake Blog

The Big Bakerfield Blog

Look what I found! This blog may look a little fancier and may cover important political issues, but you're not going to find any of the stuff you really need to know. Like what's going on with my neighbor and his monster truck or who I saw stumbling around drunk at the Cat last week.

Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted.

Boo Bonds

giants.com

Barry Bonds is a steroid filled egomaniac and I hate him. I poo poo his 700 home runs.

Taco Terror

www.tacobell.com

The Vikings beat the Trojans last night 33-24. Happy teens filed into Taco Bell after the game just as they have been doing for generations. At about 10:30 a car pulled into the parking lot and opened fire. It is not clear how many were shot, but one witness said it may have been as many as five.

Clearly this generation is different.

Pretty Movie

I was going to go to Flics tonight – but then I got sucked in to watching Pretty Woman. For the 59th time. I do not know a woman alive (who is anywhere near my age) that does not LOVE THIS MOVIE! It just never gets old.

After that I watched Joey on Tivo and then went to bed.

Pescados Fantásticos

A view from outside.

My friend (who used to be my neighbor and is now my hairdresser) took me to dinner tonight. La Fonda is directly across from the parking lot of BHS and it would be a great place for the kids to go IF it did not take them so long to produce 2 tacos. I’m not complaining the food es muy bueno. I had a fish taco and a shrimp taco and I was unable to finish them both. I feel like I just left my parents house after Thanksgiving Day. My friend had 4 fish tacos and had to be removed by stretcher.

6 yummy tacos and 2 Pepsis – total cost $8.00.
Listening to Norteña Música while swatting away flies and gorging on Mexican food – priceless.


A view from inside.

Catch-up anyone?

The owner of Cool Pools hard at work.

Sorry about going M.I.A – it has been crazy. Today I agreed to accompany a local businessman and owner of “Cool Pools” on his rounds. I actually scrubbed black algae for free because I was bored. It wasn’t bad and I did get a free lunch out of it.

I haven’t had any luck getting tickets to see Tears for Fears (I hate Waist High) so I’ve pretty much given up on that idea. Tonight I was thinking about going to the historic Fox Theater for Flics. Flics are international films screened every Friday night @ 7:30. Basically it’s the only way to see the movies that would otherwise not be shown in Bake Town.

It is possible I may go see another local band after the movie at a new venue called The Dome. I have never been there and know nothing about it but the name is stupid and I’m sure it’ll be full of under-age annoying wanna-be-cool kids. I’m not going there.

In the news… A fly infestation is driving horses crazy in Oildale and another cougar has been spotted, this time in East Bakersfield not far from Foothill. Children are warned not to “roam out in the field.” Local politicians Dean Gardner (R) and Nicole Para (D) have been doing some mad mud slinging in the papers. I did not realize that being an Assemblyperson for the 30th District was such a big deal.

On the home front… the urban sprawl will continue and the white flighters will continue to build bigger and better homes farther and farther away. McMillin Homes had asked the Bakersfield planning commissioners to approve smaller lots out on Snow Road (way North East of town) but their idea got the kibosh. “Livestock smells and single-family homes don’t mix.”

Just ask those horses in Oildale.

R.I.P.

www.ramones.com

This is a day of great sadness. Another Ramone is dead. Johnny passed away yesterday at the age of 55! If you have never been to see The Ramones, you missed out.

Gabba, Gabba, we accept you, we accept you – one of us!

Update

So much to blog about, so little time. Just wanted to give y’all a heads up – I am not dead in a ditch and I have not burned out on the blog. I’ve just been busy, busy, busy. I should find time to post some today – if not I promise to make for lost time tomorrow.

Until then - rock-n-roll hoochie coo.

Seat Belt Safety

The Deputy that was killed the other day was not wearing his seat belt. Hey, wait a minute.... Haven’t I been hearing all kinds of dorky ads on the radio warning us that the cops are going to start pulling us over and ticketing us for not wearing our seat belts? What gives?? Sheriff Mack Wimbish said they are supossed to but are allowed not to wear their seat belts if they need to make a quick exit. Mmmm…this guy was going to a fight in Tupman (and he wasn't even there yet) - how quick of an exit was he going to need to make?

Wimbish said encouraging seat belt use would be added to a deputy safety training program.

No rest for the weary

The inhabitants of this house are reason I was unable to wake up before 11:00 today. It’s some sorta half-way house for women. I don’t really know, but I didn't think it would be very prudent for me to march right up and ask. I just see groups of women sitting around picknic tables smoking cigarettes day and night, so I assumed it’s a half-way house.

Anyway, last night at least two of the women got into a fight. A very loud fight. I don’t even live very near this house, but I could hear them clearly. One called the other a “white cracker bleep” to which she relpyed “F-you you N-word bleep.” Kinda hard to drift off into a blissful slumber with that going on.

So I lay awake and listened with mild alarm and wicked amusement waiting for the police to come and haul them both away. Time passes, more yelling. Surely someone had called the police. More time passes, a little more yelling. Maybe I should call the police. Things seem to quite down then pick back up again – will it ever end? I finally got up and shut my window.

I’ll be glad when they shut that place down.

The Streets of Bakersfield

I had to do some running around town today so I took my camera to capture some pics of the Streets of Bakersfield for y’all. Most of these places should look familiar.

I start out at Oak St. & Rosedale Hwy. There is a used car lot on the corner.

As I head down the road I notice the traffic is backed onto the freeway (again.) We have some seriously messed up on & off ramps in this city.

A view from my car as I head toward Rosedale.

Rosedale has become the epitome of urban sprawl.

And White Flight.

This is a long road with many, many tract home developments beyond its brick walls.

Waiting a red light I wonder once again who actually orders from “Schwan’s” and why?

I had to pull over for this pic – it was just too perfect. On the next corner over there was a poster nailed to pole advertising a Gun show on September 11th.

Heading East on Hageman Rd. A pretty typical view around here, the mountains just barely visible in the distance.

I thought this was funny. A pick-up with a couple of dirt bikes and R.I.P. Vinny painted on the window.

Another view of Rosedale Hwy.

Just off Highway 99.

Beach Park, where all the homosexuals used to hang out.

Also home to our Visitors Center.

Next I take the freeway to save time.

Our one big bridge is covered in gang tags.

California Ave and school has just let out - hence all the buses.

Heading East on Truxtun Ave.

A couple of views of some of the nicer streets in town.


I find my son walking home and stop to pick him up.

The End