Category: Grapevine

Ok, now that’s kind of cool

I weary of all the death, terror and destruction in the news these days. In fact, I don’t really read newspapers. I glance at them online, skip the bad stuff and look for interesting opinion pieces, celeb trash or “feel good” stories.

Today’s San Francisco Chronicle has one of them thar “feel good” stories today.

Let me break it down.

It’s 1976. Palo Alto, California. A guy named Ronald Leung owns a car repair business. And he owns a sweet 1956 Ford Thunderbird with just 24,979 on the odometer.

Some yo-yo steals it. He files the report. No luck, it’s gone.

In the time since it’s been stolen, he’s had a couple kids, worked a job, retired and often thought about his car.

Fast forward to this week. Ronald gets a call yesterday. They found his car. And he gets to have it back!

Whoa.

Long story short, a lady in Ventura bought it on eBay and when she tried to register it, they found the true VIN and linked it back to Ronald, a car enthusiast, who filed all the right reports some 31 years ago.

Dude gets to go to So. Cal this weekend to get it. And it’s been fully restored and is in *cherry* condition.

What a fine drive home that’s going to be!

Yeah! That ROCKS! Getting to drive a machine like that makes even the nasty Grapevine seem like a lot of fun.

Enjoy the ride, Ronald!

To everyone else, have a great weekend!

(it’s a beaut)




Cell Tower Obfuscation

Look at me using a quarter word outta my nickel brain!

Just read an article in the Albuquerque Tribune about Albuquerque adopting those “hidden” cell phone towers.

City Councilor Councilor Don Harris plans to introduce a bill this month requiring the city’s cell towers to be of this new variety.

While I like the idea, and I do think it looks better on the landscape, I can’t quite get to the mental place of local recording studio owner John Wagner who said, “You just forget about it after a while,” in reference to a nearby tree cell tower.

We’ve been using these towers here in the Bay Area for quite some time and I have to say, they are not that natural. In fact, they tend to draw my eye MORE than the regular tower because my brain says, “something’s outta whack over there” and you look…and look longer.

One of the “pine” versions is installed way up on a hill as you go through the Grapevine on I5 approaching LA. I tried to see if there was a photo of that one online somewhere because, you know, you can find everything online. I struck out. This thing is perched way up on a hill, all alone, no other trees in sight. Every time I drive through there (which has been far too frequently lately), my eyes are magnetically drawn to that damn odd looking tree slash cell tower standing alone on top of a hill. I actually look at it MORE than I would if it was just a stupid silver metal tower.

I find them odd and no less an eyesore and I always think to myself “they aren’t fooling ANYONE with these things”.

That being said, I guess as one gazes out on the horizon, even though EVERYONE knows it is a fake tree it still looks a lot better than metal towers poking up everywhere. I don’t know.

A couple samples photos I found online are here. See what you think…..