What, not Trinkle Brothers?

On Saturday, I saw a plane spraying crops north of the 205, to the east of McArthur. It was a regular kind of ag plane, an Air Tractor or something. The strange part is, we have our local aerial application outfit, Trinkle, based near the Kasson road now (if I got that right - I mean the road which leads beyond the Dueler prison).

Trinkle operate a large yellow Schweitzer biplane, which is pictured below at Tracy Airport Open House in 2002:



Maybe I should call them and ask if they got a new plane, or have some difficulties.

[update 2006/02/06 12:30] Saw them flying N of Tracy and I-205, so they're fine.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

Yes, it's the Garden Waste week to the west of Tracy Boulevard.

Rental house

Renters finally moved into a house across from street from me. The house was on the rental market no less than 6 months. I have no idea if this was an exception or Tracy in general is not a good place for amateur landlords.

Beautiful weather today

Morning was shrouded in a beutiful fog, not too dense. My unmowed lawn was all covered in silver webs of grass spiders. The for lifted by eleven, leaving sunny skies, 60F warmth, calm winds. It is a tad chilly in a shirt, but all right in a jacket.

TRASH @West: Recycling

West of Tracy Blvd - Recycling

Sports, you say

I collected a "free" Tracy Press newspaper from my driveway (why do we let these people to litter on our properties, I wonder). Exactly half of the material, outside of classifieds, deals with sports. Since I do not care about sports at all, this blog does not touch it either. I suppose I could have done a conscious effort and tracked a team or two, then posted things like "Lady Mustangs Steamroll the Opposition on the Way to the State". But I just cannot bring myself to care. Perhaps it makes me an atypical resident of Tracy, California.

Starbucks 6

I counted 5 Starbucks locations in May. Now we have 6th: inside the Albertson's at Schulte Road and Tracy Boulevard.

Dave Parker's Tracy-Mountainhouse.com

I just noticed that Dave Parker started the Tracy-Mountainhouse.com. It appears to be essentially the same thing I am doing here, but with a bigger swing: Dave got a real domain instead of pathetic Blogspot. Running an operation of this nature is tough, unless you spend a lot of time gathering the info. For now Dave populates pages with linkage to our most excellent Tracy Press. It is an easy way out and I understand how tempting it is, but I try to link to them only when something catches my fancy, or for big-ticket journalism, such as the case of sheriff Dunn's bribery scandal.

I am sure Dave will work to find the firm footing for the site in coming weeks. For now the site does not even have permalinks on articles - they are cunningly hidden in a sidebar :-) I wish him all the best, and who knows, we may join forces some time in the future.

By the way, Dave gave thumbs up to the strange eatery adjunct to the Tracy Bowl. I visit it from time to time when I play DDR in the bowl's arcade, and I have to say, their food does look and smell good. But I only get drinks there. I called them "strange", because their menu defies classification. It seems like a mix of a burger joint, mexican place, and a chinese corner.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

This week:
West - Garden Waste,
East - Recycling.

Street Sweeper

Tracy Public Works got a new street sweeping contractor sometime in 2005, who brings a new street sweeper (pictured). It is a better looking vehicle, not to mention much more robust than the old vacuum on top of an ancient Toyota pickup chassis.

Taxing the "rich"

Winds of Change posts an article on the proposal to tax "rich" more. It repeats all the truisms how basically "rich" pay for everything for everyone already, but also has interesing data on the red flight, with a reference on Franchise Tax Board's Annual Report for 2003:

The numbers of returns reporting incomes of $200,000 and above also declined between taxable year 2000 and 2002, as illustrated by the following table:

2000 = 414,746
2001 = 371,369
2002 = 349,845

Yikes! And that is happening while the overall population grows. Taxable people flee, and the greater the squeeze, the faster they run.

The 200K zone is right above my income area, and I live in a typical cardboard shack in Tracy, because it is all I can afford. I drive a 1997 American economy car. If I am "rich", I don't want to know how the members of "middle class" live.

I am seriously considering moving, actually. I work from my home, for a company headquartered in North Carolina, and my manager is in Boston. I can live anywhere. You just wait, as soon as kids stand on their feet, I'm outta here.

Mouse in the house

Apparently, a rodent somehow manages to get into the attic of my house. I found the droppings. I went around trying to find a hole into a wall, but saw nothing. So, how does it do it? Mystery.

Pizza Factory

We hit the Pizza Factory today. The overall result is inconclusive, because were weren't familiar with the menu.

The franchize seems like an also-ran, which offers a bewildering array of pizza class foods: from pasta to calzone. The tracy location was served by a lone lady employee who prepared our feeds with professionalizm. I didn't have the typical post-pizza hearburn.

Next time, have to specify thick crust and try Rocky's. Then we'll see.

TRASH @West: Recycling

West - Recycling
East - Garden Waste

Sacramento Museum of Women, Arts, and Leftism

I am just back from the Women museum at 1016 O St. in Sacramento. Their second floor is dedicated to women, and the first floor to (in effect) leftist propaganda. The exposition is so lopsided, that it's funny. To pick just one example, they have about half of a stand dedicated to Reagan, next to an enormous expanse of "Pat" Brown. But it is the same in every section. Shameful.

I'm pretty sure the museum draws quite a bit of government money.

Altamont Raceway

Tracy Press again
http://www.tracypress.com/sports/2006-01-06-raceway.php

As a spectator, I think that the Altamont Raceway would benefit from a freeway exit from Tracy side. Getting there now is somewhat complicated.

DDR

I went to the Fun Factory (in the mall) yesterday, and to the Bowl just now. I have to say, the Fun Factory machine does have a nicer feel. In the bowl, I can see that my freeze arrows blink sometimes, from the smallest motion when holding. Also, they turned the volume down, which does not help. But dealing with tokens in the mall is just too annoying. I haven't had a chance to check out the new place in the mall theaters yet.

I keep failing Colors in Standard mode.

Homeschooling

By a link from Instapundit: a homeschooling linkfest.

We homeschool, although we are not religious. The reason we had to do it was that public school taught anything and everything except academic excellency: teamwork, sensitivity, diversity, mult-culti, and all the good things. The trouble is, they only help to succeed in the political arena. Children are reared to dominate each other and bend them to their will (which was called "leadership"). Those who were not interested in these games are branded "losers" and put down. It's hardly surprising that U.S. has to import her scientists.

Homeschooling is an enormous ordeal and a great load on the parents. We weren't unduly harassed by the State, except for normal bureaucratic interference with H-4 affidavits. It simply was, and is, and enormous work. We would not do it if schools in California were up to any sort of standards, and we would not do it if we were wealthy enough to afford a private school.

If gigantic state bureaucracies continue to suck our money and give us no education, numbers of homeschoolers are bound to continue to grow.

TRASH @West: Garden Waste

West - Garden Waste
East - Recycling