It is back to school season once again in Merced. Today is the second day that students are back in school. Even though it is August, many students will not report until after the first week of September. Classes are filled to the brim. Some students will start the year sitting on the floor. There ware some nostalgia pieces. Merced finally has a new school that will open up to all of its 9-12th grades. There are no more portables in the two other in town schools. Faculty has been reasigned and students are no longer Cougars or Bears they could also be Gauchos.
I will have to admit that there are some feelings of disconnect. After a career of 35 years in the public schools as a speech and language Specialist I know that this is the time of the year that caseloads are examined. Schedules are made. Contacts with the students are established and established from over the Summer break. There is a myriad of things that need to be done to get the school year on the road.
It just doesn't happen when you are retired. Many retirees use this time to travel. One of my retired friends is off doing a Great Britain-Scandinavian cruise. Looks like they are having a great time.
Some of my working friends look at me in envious manner as their next school day is tomorrow. They are onstage with a couple of dozen (at least) eyes on their every move. They have some concerns regarding Common Core, the latest of an era after era of marching reforms that education will have to endure. No profession is so vulnerable to public scrutiny as public education. It is so easy to think that education would be better if it did xxxx model. We have lived through many of these. The principal administrators that foist these great visions soon move on and the district is left in the dust by good intentions and usually not enough money to see the plan through. Thirty plus years of being messaged into one plan or another is enough. It still gets right down to what retires miss about teaching... the student and the teacher. The teacher brings some content and a methodology for thinking and learning and the student brings a willingness to take this and think and act and learn in a new way. When it works, which it almost always does, there is nothing more rewarding to the teacher than to see this happen.
Teachers have to revitalize themselves and challenge the way they teach at least every five years. They need to be adding something new, recreating their teaching methods or develop something that will challenge them in the classroom. There has been no way that the school as a institution has been successful in developing this in teacher. The last contract that I negotiated had provisions for professional development included. This is a start... but really the answer is deep inside the teacher It has to come from within and it there has to be some realization and check points to discover that it is personally necessary.
I think that what I miss most is the interaction with my colleagues. Even though they may be working in different content areas, and this job is decidedly solitary, there is nothing like adult interaction that makes the day complete. Sometimes reform objectives isolate rather than consolidate peer thinking. Many of my colleagues have retired too. Just going back to teach would not bring back the peers and fun that we had being on the staff of a high school campus. We have been replaced by a new crop of teachers that have different expectations of their students and their job. You cannot go home... although some teachers try to do this through substitute teacher. Some need to do it to survive.
I do not miss having to find a place to work each year. Except for the last two years of my career I had to find a place to work to see pull out kids. This was often on the benches outside of their classrooms. Testing materials were always problematic. There was little support for professional conferences. If you happened to go to a conference, you were channeled all the students that could be diagnosed with the conference's them for the next couple of years.
So yes, I feel the prangs of not going to work... my life's work. But no, I do not miss the challenges of educational reform and the logistics of the job especially this time of the year.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Meeting with the Thursday Morning Guys
Every Thursday morning I try to meet with a group of men teachers that have been meeting for about 20 years. They are all retired, as I am. Most are between 70 and 80 years old. A friend of mind very close to my age also meets with this group.
It is an interesting group. Everyone pays their own way and usually there is no comment about what anyone orders unless it is significantly different that what he usually orders. A couple of guys order oatmeal with all the additions, (fruit raisins, walnuts, brown sugar (don't tell their wives) and milk. A couple of the guys only order fruit, but once those has taken to ordering a half waffle with his fruit. He gets a take out container to drag home the waffle to his wife (I suspect). A couple of guys order country potatoes and scrambled eggs. My order varies on the whim but it is usually a half waffle, a couple eggs and a small meat portion. It could be ham (my latest choice) or sausage(two) and the eggs can vary from scrambled to poached.
The purpose of the meetings is conversation. Politics are usually avoided as some of the folks tend to listen to or watch the inflammatory channels and after the intial statement from these sources there is really not much to discuss. In other contexts my discussions with a right wind set seems to crumble after the shock headline to a simple statement that goes something like this..... but isn't true that we will lose status in the eyes of other governments for all the things we have done. It all wraps up in their imagination that the US is dependent upon other nations for our status by what we do or do not do. I guess I am over that. Or status can by screwed up so easily.
So with politics off the table what is there to talk about. Today one guy was talking about the concept of how the new houses were being built in his neighborhood. One of them was 2600 sq feet with a three car garage out in front that allowed two cars to be slotted. So actually you have a 4 car garage. He was amazed that there was a significant slope sliding from the back car to the font car which would allow for easy conversion to a new room if wanted later. The lot that this house was on was pretty small. They were asking 394K for it.
Today we heard the horrors of putting your 403K into your trust. One guy said that when a death occured the trust is bound by the state to cash out the 403K directly. This brings up taxation issues that wouldn't occur if the 403K were maintained outside of the trust.
Another guy was excited because his driver won the NASCAR race at Indianapolis this weekend. Jeff Gordon has won more NASCAR races there than any other driver in its 20th year. He was pretty excited that he won because he was given the key to the city earlier and was predicted by his crew chief that he would win prior to the race. He did not have the pole position to start, just a mighty fine car for that race on that day.
One guy had tales of his father running accountancy for the Fresno boxing events in the old days including a brush with Don King. Everything was cash. I entered into the conversation with a tale about my boss who sold his house in Livingston to a drug dealer that paid him off in cash, and then was hauled in to the courts to describe how his was paid for his real estate and whether or not he received a discount for his cash payment. The courts found fault with the realtor for the transaction.
The credit union board member had a tale about getting paid 4300 dollars for a used car on a weekend. He arranged payment in the lobby of the open credit union and when she finished counting out the 20s told him it was a stick up....ha ha... he had to admonish them that it was not a good place for a joke of that kind with the cameras used for security in the lobby.
We heard the foils of a to do list from a landlord that came just after a tenant had caught up with her rent. It was just a laundry list of little things.
There were some reminiscences of times in the classroom but it seems that these guys are living more in the prospect of the future than the glories of the past. It is a very good group to see each Thursday morning.
It is an interesting group. Everyone pays their own way and usually there is no comment about what anyone orders unless it is significantly different that what he usually orders. A couple of guys order oatmeal with all the additions, (fruit raisins, walnuts, brown sugar (don't tell their wives) and milk. A couple of the guys only order fruit, but once those has taken to ordering a half waffle with his fruit. He gets a take out container to drag home the waffle to his wife (I suspect). A couple of guys order country potatoes and scrambled eggs. My order varies on the whim but it is usually a half waffle, a couple eggs and a small meat portion. It could be ham (my latest choice) or sausage(two) and the eggs can vary from scrambled to poached.
The purpose of the meetings is conversation. Politics are usually avoided as some of the folks tend to listen to or watch the inflammatory channels and after the intial statement from these sources there is really not much to discuss. In other contexts my discussions with a right wind set seems to crumble after the shock headline to a simple statement that goes something like this..... but isn't true that we will lose status in the eyes of other governments for all the things we have done. It all wraps up in their imagination that the US is dependent upon other nations for our status by what we do or do not do. I guess I am over that. Or status can by screwed up so easily.
So with politics off the table what is there to talk about. Today one guy was talking about the concept of how the new houses were being built in his neighborhood. One of them was 2600 sq feet with a three car garage out in front that allowed two cars to be slotted. So actually you have a 4 car garage. He was amazed that there was a significant slope sliding from the back car to the font car which would allow for easy conversion to a new room if wanted later. The lot that this house was on was pretty small. They were asking 394K for it.
Today we heard the horrors of putting your 403K into your trust. One guy said that when a death occured the trust is bound by the state to cash out the 403K directly. This brings up taxation issues that wouldn't occur if the 403K were maintained outside of the trust.
Another guy was excited because his driver won the NASCAR race at Indianapolis this weekend. Jeff Gordon has won more NASCAR races there than any other driver in its 20th year. He was pretty excited that he won because he was given the key to the city earlier and was predicted by his crew chief that he would win prior to the race. He did not have the pole position to start, just a mighty fine car for that race on that day.
One guy had tales of his father running accountancy for the Fresno boxing events in the old days including a brush with Don King. Everything was cash. I entered into the conversation with a tale about my boss who sold his house in Livingston to a drug dealer that paid him off in cash, and then was hauled in to the courts to describe how his was paid for his real estate and whether or not he received a discount for his cash payment. The courts found fault with the realtor for the transaction.
The credit union board member had a tale about getting paid 4300 dollars for a used car on a weekend. He arranged payment in the lobby of the open credit union and when she finished counting out the 20s told him it was a stick up....ha ha... he had to admonish them that it was not a good place for a joke of that kind with the cameras used for security in the lobby.
We heard the foils of a to do list from a landlord that came just after a tenant had caught up with her rent. It was just a laundry list of little things.
There were some reminiscences of times in the classroom but it seems that these guys are living more in the prospect of the future than the glories of the past. It is a very good group to see each Thursday morning.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Whole House Fans and the Central Valley
I have been in pursuit of a whole house fan for almost a year.
My coffee drinking buddy had two installed in his house over a year ago. But his house has got more square feet than ours by quite a bit.
My mother and father-in-law had one in their Ft Collins, Colorado home. It replaced the ubiquitous 20 inch fans they brought out each evening to eat dinner beside and watch the news. They worked reasonably well and my wife was completely sold for them in the Colorado climate. Their temperature, a good dry heat most of the time was completely abrogated by the afternoon cloud cover and the by 3:30 there was no more build up to the heat and most people endured their summer weather without air conditioning. The whole house fan was installed to reduce the evening heat build up in the attic and to draw cool air in from the windows especially when it came time to bed time. The 20 inch fans worked wonders in drawing cool air into the living spaces and making the evenings pleasant indoors but they failed to address the issue of very hot attics that returned the heat to the living space after the fans were turned off. My mother and father-in-law would have the whole house fan work just an hour or two and summer evening and could come indoors away from the pesky mosquitoes that tortured outdoor living.
The central valley summer night heat is another animal. Our heat generally continues to fire through the afternoon and into the evening until the sun goes down. Then in a couple of hours 10 to 15 degrees are dropped out of the 90 plus degree temperatures reaching our coolest temperature about 2 am sometimes in the 60's. From 11am through to the evening we live under the air and the the attic even though vented with 3 turbines and end cap releases still harbor air most of the night. Our "cool" water at the sink doesn't get cool without running quite a bit of it as the attic temperature heats the copper pipes as the water makes it way to the various spots it is used in the house.
So how would a whole house fan work in that environment? Using outside air that is warmer than what you have cool using air conditioning doesn't make sense. Our inside air is set at 78 degrees. The air needs to be below that temperature to be affective. The use of the whole house fan before 9 am is when the most effective use of the fan is noted. On many weeks we have days that the temperature does not reach 90 degrees. Those days can be very effective for evening use of the fan.
The fan takes the outside air from windows that are opened and doors that are opened and shoots the indoor air up into the attic and eventually in less than 30 minutes the outside air into the attic too. The house stays cooler longer with realistic attic temperatures. Windows need to opened to allow the air to come inside. The wider the window is opened the more air flows into the room. At least 3 windows need to opened or the fan could crack your windows.
This year at the fair there was vendor that was selling the fan and installation. They would provide a 300 dollar discount if you signed up at the fair. They had a booth at the Merced county fair but Sue wasn't with me when I went in to find out the particulars. So it got set aside. At the Stanislaus County Fair they were there too. Sue was with me and we signed up. One week later and 1600 dollars later it was installed in our main hall.
A member of the two man install team crawled up into my attic at 7:30 am. He pulled away from the attic floor the insulation and sunk four holes into my ceiling wallboard with nails. From those four nails, after carefully measuring from down below, a saws-all type saw cut the hole that they mounted the frame for the louvers. Out in the front 2x6 wooden framing was fabricated and lifted into place and supported by my ceiling truss. The fan was positioned and and secured in place. Electrical was found and attached to the dead doorbell connection. The wall mounted control area was located just under the programmable thermostat. No exposed wires were needed. It also came with a thin remote control. The louvers were installed on the outside of the frame and a stopper peg was installed so that the louvers would not stay open. A quick run through and check was made of the remote and the various positions on the device. The two guys brought in a power vac and cleaned up after themselves and were out the door with my check in hand in just under 2 hours.
Sue was not too happy about where it was installed. She thinks that she will end up staring at from the living room way too often. I reminded her that she could have had a say in where it was going to be but opted out. That didn't win me any friends. She thinks that she will get used to its location eventually.
Right now we are using it almost every night to get the house under its 78 degree cooling temp. Most nights it can drop the temperature in the house to under 72 degrees... as far as comfort ... it is yummy. Yesterday was the first night that we did not use it. The outside temperature did not drop to under 78 until after 2:30. We kind of missed out cool breeze. It still worked pretty nicely when I fired it up this morning at 7:00 and shut it down to let the air conditioning take its place at 10:30.
The company works out of Sacramento and Fresno sending installation teams all over the valley. The installer said that he had put in over 200 of them last year. This year he seems to be doing more. The Sacramento team was doing about the same.
My coffee drinking buddy had two installed in his house over a year ago. But his house has got more square feet than ours by quite a bit.
My mother and father-in-law had one in their Ft Collins, Colorado home. It replaced the ubiquitous 20 inch fans they brought out each evening to eat dinner beside and watch the news. They worked reasonably well and my wife was completely sold for them in the Colorado climate. Their temperature, a good dry heat most of the time was completely abrogated by the afternoon cloud cover and the by 3:30 there was no more build up to the heat and most people endured their summer weather without air conditioning. The whole house fan was installed to reduce the evening heat build up in the attic and to draw cool air in from the windows especially when it came time to bed time. The 20 inch fans worked wonders in drawing cool air into the living spaces and making the evenings pleasant indoors but they failed to address the issue of very hot attics that returned the heat to the living space after the fans were turned off. My mother and father-in-law would have the whole house fan work just an hour or two and summer evening and could come indoors away from the pesky mosquitoes that tortured outdoor living.
The central valley summer night heat is another animal. Our heat generally continues to fire through the afternoon and into the evening until the sun goes down. Then in a couple of hours 10 to 15 degrees are dropped out of the 90 plus degree temperatures reaching our coolest temperature about 2 am sometimes in the 60's. From 11am through to the evening we live under the air and the the attic even though vented with 3 turbines and end cap releases still harbor air most of the night. Our "cool" water at the sink doesn't get cool without running quite a bit of it as the attic temperature heats the copper pipes as the water makes it way to the various spots it is used in the house.
So how would a whole house fan work in that environment? Using outside air that is warmer than what you have cool using air conditioning doesn't make sense. Our inside air is set at 78 degrees. The air needs to be below that temperature to be affective. The use of the whole house fan before 9 am is when the most effective use of the fan is noted. On many weeks we have days that the temperature does not reach 90 degrees. Those days can be very effective for evening use of the fan.
The fan takes the outside air from windows that are opened and doors that are opened and shoots the indoor air up into the attic and eventually in less than 30 minutes the outside air into the attic too. The house stays cooler longer with realistic attic temperatures. Windows need to opened to allow the air to come inside. The wider the window is opened the more air flows into the room. At least 3 windows need to opened or the fan could crack your windows.
This year at the fair there was vendor that was selling the fan and installation. They would provide a 300 dollar discount if you signed up at the fair. They had a booth at the Merced county fair but Sue wasn't with me when I went in to find out the particulars. So it got set aside. At the Stanislaus County Fair they were there too. Sue was with me and we signed up. One week later and 1600 dollars later it was installed in our main hall.
A member of the two man install team crawled up into my attic at 7:30 am. He pulled away from the attic floor the insulation and sunk four holes into my ceiling wallboard with nails. From those four nails, after carefully measuring from down below, a saws-all type saw cut the hole that they mounted the frame for the louvers. Out in the front 2x6 wooden framing was fabricated and lifted into place and supported by my ceiling truss. The fan was positioned and and secured in place. Electrical was found and attached to the dead doorbell connection. The wall mounted control area was located just under the programmable thermostat. No exposed wires were needed. It also came with a thin remote control. The louvers were installed on the outside of the frame and a stopper peg was installed so that the louvers would not stay open. A quick run through and check was made of the remote and the various positions on the device. The two guys brought in a power vac and cleaned up after themselves and were out the door with my check in hand in just under 2 hours.
Sue was not too happy about where it was installed. She thinks that she will end up staring at from the living room way too often. I reminded her that she could have had a say in where it was going to be but opted out. That didn't win me any friends. She thinks that she will get used to its location eventually.
Right now we are using it almost every night to get the house under its 78 degree cooling temp. Most nights it can drop the temperature in the house to under 72 degrees... as far as comfort ... it is yummy. Yesterday was the first night that we did not use it. The outside temperature did not drop to under 78 until after 2:30. We kind of missed out cool breeze. It still worked pretty nicely when I fired it up this morning at 7:00 and shut it down to let the air conditioning take its place at 10:30.
The company works out of Sacramento and Fresno sending installation teams all over the valley. The installer said that he had put in over 200 of them last year. This year he seems to be doing more. The Sacramento team was doing about the same.
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
Post Forth of July
It is just after the forth of July in Merced. It can now be hot... although it has been pretty hot in the valley all Summer.
We are going through what the meteorologists call a Monsoon weather pattern. This often occurs this time of the year. It is what gives Western Mexico its yearly rain accumulation numbers. It also brings "weather" to places like Las Vegas. Massive cloud cover has been the order for the day in Merced, but not a drop of rain has fallen. It has been much to hot for rain. You smell rain in the air but it evaporates before it hits the ground.
We are supposed to reach 106 today and would have been that hot if we didn't have that cover of clouds yesterday. It only reached 97. It was one of those rare days when you could say... it is hot really hot but it is a dry heat.... no it wasn't a dry heat and surely wasn't going to be either. Today started somewhat the same way. The clouds, however broke and scurried to the mountains before noon so the earth could heat up.
We are down to watering lawns just two days a week. In past years even in drought years, we have been allowed to water for three days as a part of our not having water meters. This city has some ancient water rights even though our city water comes from wells deep below the surface. water is not supposed to end up in the gutters. As it is now, if water ends up in the gutters it is quickly dissipated by evaporation.
It has been estimated by some scientists that it takes 35 years for the water to peculate from the surface to underground reserves that we use on a daily basis. All around Merced and many other valley communities have huge evaporation areas areas around development so that excess water is allowed to get into the ground water during winter storms.
This year was particularly parched around here. Merced had the lowest rainfall in many years. We had just 4.5 inches of rain for the entire season. The average for this region is about 12-14 inches of rain. Water and water rights in the west have always been an issue of contention. In the future it will be even more important as we balance interests of Ag and their need to support their businesses with water and the needs of a growing population that needs water for domestic needs as well as recreation.
We are going through what the meteorologists call a Monsoon weather pattern. This often occurs this time of the year. It is what gives Western Mexico its yearly rain accumulation numbers. It also brings "weather" to places like Las Vegas. Massive cloud cover has been the order for the day in Merced, but not a drop of rain has fallen. It has been much to hot for rain. You smell rain in the air but it evaporates before it hits the ground.
We are supposed to reach 106 today and would have been that hot if we didn't have that cover of clouds yesterday. It only reached 97. It was one of those rare days when you could say... it is hot really hot but it is a dry heat.... no it wasn't a dry heat and surely wasn't going to be either. Today started somewhat the same way. The clouds, however broke and scurried to the mountains before noon so the earth could heat up.
We are down to watering lawns just two days a week. In past years even in drought years, we have been allowed to water for three days as a part of our not having water meters. This city has some ancient water rights even though our city water comes from wells deep below the surface. water is not supposed to end up in the gutters. As it is now, if water ends up in the gutters it is quickly dissipated by evaporation.
It has been estimated by some scientists that it takes 35 years for the water to peculate from the surface to underground reserves that we use on a daily basis. All around Merced and many other valley communities have huge evaporation areas areas around development so that excess water is allowed to get into the ground water during winter storms.
This year was particularly parched around here. Merced had the lowest rainfall in many years. We had just 4.5 inches of rain for the entire season. The average for this region is about 12-14 inches of rain. Water and water rights in the west have always been an issue of contention. In the future it will be even more important as we balance interests of Ag and their need to support their businesses with water and the needs of a growing population that needs water for domestic needs as well as recreation.
Friday, June 13, 2014
Merced Fair Time 2014
The temperature outside has finally cooled down a bit from the highs last week. Anything over 100 and we all are major sissies. This week the fair came to town. The Marshall Tucker Band played last night. It was the premier act of the entertainment.
It seems that we are in the predicted drought of live entertainers. When Rap became a major player in the music scene, we old timers that could not understand its appeal spoke often of its lack of nostalgic elements. The quote goes something like this,"What will these kids remember when they are our age about their music?"
We had years as we grew up, a rich heritage of doo wap, folk and funk. Jazz translates and so do good casino entertainment. All fairs had a local "big band" that sorted out and supported the performers as they made it up and down the valley to the various county fairs. Rock bands even continued when their might be just one member left to carry on the franchise. Most of that is gone. Rap and modern country needs a different environment to be successful. Their are no "old Rap singers" hitting the county fair trails.
To be fair (no pun indended) are shorter and are trying to make it without the support of the an endangered activity, the horse race. All the fairs used to have a horse race component. The gambling taxes supported the fairs and their entertainment budgets. Not so much anymore.
In the commercial building, the small out of town hucksters with their miked up demos can now be seen monthly at your local Costco as they ply the same waters and hook the same customers... er fish. Public service booths are still there. They raffle away cool pocket prizes with a spin of the lucky wheel... clack clack clack. We have a winner here. The politics are still here with lots of buttons to push out.
Its kind of funny, the latest bit of news on the vendor front, is that Budweiser refused to pony up its $25k to be one of two beer vendors so with Coors jumping in with their 25K they have an exclusive. The cinnamon roll franchise always does better in the evening as the night air cools... just a little.
There are still lots of 4h and FFA exhibits both animals and mechanical. Fear is still generated by the carnival rides and the crane bungee jumps. Merced has a bring your entry to the fair at a given time and free admission will be offered to generate interest in their cooking contests... almonds, salsa and ribs in consecutive days.
Some art, but nothing compared to Alameda or Stanislaus County's fairs.
Still its local interest and something to do in Merced. And everyone knows that Merced needs someplace to go and something to do in the summertime. A local bullriding company is putting up its local bulls on Saturday night. Some of bulls have been used in the pro bull riding circuit. If its like last year, the bulls are better than the riders.... so it will be fun to see who stays on.
: ) Pat
It seems that we are in the predicted drought of live entertainers. When Rap became a major player in the music scene, we old timers that could not understand its appeal spoke often of its lack of nostalgic elements. The quote goes something like this,"What will these kids remember when they are our age about their music?"
We had years as we grew up, a rich heritage of doo wap, folk and funk. Jazz translates and so do good casino entertainment. All fairs had a local "big band" that sorted out and supported the performers as they made it up and down the valley to the various county fairs. Rock bands even continued when their might be just one member left to carry on the franchise. Most of that is gone. Rap and modern country needs a different environment to be successful. Their are no "old Rap singers" hitting the county fair trails.
To be fair (no pun indended) are shorter and are trying to make it without the support of the an endangered activity, the horse race. All the fairs used to have a horse race component. The gambling taxes supported the fairs and their entertainment budgets. Not so much anymore.
In the commercial building, the small out of town hucksters with their miked up demos can now be seen monthly at your local Costco as they ply the same waters and hook the same customers... er fish. Public service booths are still there. They raffle away cool pocket prizes with a spin of the lucky wheel... clack clack clack. We have a winner here. The politics are still here with lots of buttons to push out.
Its kind of funny, the latest bit of news on the vendor front, is that Budweiser refused to pony up its $25k to be one of two beer vendors so with Coors jumping in with their 25K they have an exclusive. The cinnamon roll franchise always does better in the evening as the night air cools... just a little.
There are still lots of 4h and FFA exhibits both animals and mechanical. Fear is still generated by the carnival rides and the crane bungee jumps. Merced has a bring your entry to the fair at a given time and free admission will be offered to generate interest in their cooking contests... almonds, salsa and ribs in consecutive days.
Some art, but nothing compared to Alameda or Stanislaus County's fairs.
Still its local interest and something to do in Merced. And everyone knows that Merced needs someplace to go and something to do in the summertime. A local bullriding company is putting up its local bulls on Saturday night. Some of bulls have been used in the pro bull riding circuit. If its like last year, the bulls are better than the riders.... so it will be fun to see who stays on.
: ) Pat
Monday, May 26, 2014
The Suite Life
Two Suite Selections
Suites in the Bay Area and Sacramento were what we got in our latest Hotwire.com encounters. We usually use hotwire to pick our hotels. This weekend Hotwire choose a couple of suite hotels for our use.
Variables in Hotwire.com
My variables in picking the selection in Hotwire measures off stars, all hotels are rated by stars, customer satisfaction rating and price. In Hotwire, hotels are offered by price and stars but not by name. Each hotel while not named has a customer satisfaction percentage that allows a judgement to be made on what percentage of the people who chose this accommodation were satisfied. My desired percentage is 80 percent or higher. Once a choice is made and paid for by paypal, the hotel name is revealed.
Amenities are also listed and may factor into the choice. If breakfast is included, that can save the traveler between 8 and 15 dollars per person. This is also critical if your stay is in a industrial setting where options for breakfast require getting in a car and traveling as well as finding your way back. Many of the business hotels in quasi-industrial areas have some very good deals because their usual business, the business expense traveler, is back at home on the weekends and these businesses do not look good in the occupancy ratings if they are left to languish on the weekends.
Particulars on a Lead up to a Memorial Day Vacation
Which brings us to our travel this last weekend. We were after an overnight in the San Francisco area on the Thursday before the Memorial Day Weekend. Sue and I were driving over to drop off a neighbor at the airport, see our daughter, look in on the museum and stay overnight. Transport into the city and back was provided by our truck so location in the city was not so important and we were not dependent upon an airport connection either. The best deals in the San Francisco Bay Area if the criteria we live in are met usually occur in the Oyster Point Area of San Francisco. It is important to pick a spot that doesn't require the traveler to pay for parking if possible. This can add up to 18 dollars to the final tote. These charges are somewhat mitigated in the Anaheim area in their resort fees as the hotels have shuttles that can save you 18 dollars plus in Disneyland parking fees.
Larkspur Landing in South San Francisco
This weekend we just happened to get two suites in the industrial areas selected as our overnight choices. Each had full kitchens and dining areas provided. Both were had parking lot views. One had flat sceeen tvs in both rooms while the other a flat screen tv in the kitchen living room area. Both were represented as handicapped accessible, and both were on the third floor.
In South San Francisco we spent the night at a Larkspur Landing Suites hotel. It is a Stash hotel. It comes with a great 50+ flat screen tv with a DVD player and selections of check out DVDs at the front desk. It had a very nice feather bed topper style bed that was very comfortable.
Accessible features in this one was a pull down shower chair in the tub with a removable shower head. An 18in toilet also is a nice addition. This one passes.
The art in the halls showed some taste. There were prints from Georgia O'Keef and a fly fishing print from one of the Taos collectives, Walter Ufer.
Overall this place has the look and feel of an upscale extended stay place.There was even a grocery store gofer service. You leave a list in the morning and they would have your groceries for you in the afternoon.
The night was quiet, and nestled inside the South San Francisco Industrial complex on the east side of 101 there didn't seem to be much going on in the cubicle jungles of buildings around us. Starbucks was not within walking distance. Breakfast was strictly continental with a healthy theme of a couple of oatmeal types and toasters brought into the business area off of the small check in lobby.
We used a smart phone app to get us to the site off of Gateway which is an extension of Grand Ave. with a whoops si doodle overpass for the freeway and the train tracks.
We used our truck to get some burritos from El Faro on El Camino. This happens to be Sue's favorite burrito spot.
Hawthorne Suites Inn Sacramento
The Friday night we were staying in Sacramento. Later I discovered that this weekend was Sacramento's famous Music Festival weekend. It used to be strictly Dixeland. It now has broken off and become Blues and Dixieland and Jazz. I think overall the downtown spots were reserved way before we did our hotwire search.
Our usual search leaves us with a Holiday Inn Express just blocks from the center of town for about 54 dollars a night. When you factor in breakfast it is a great deal. This night's deal was a 59 dollar selection that also claimed to be downtown.. but that was a stretch. Those people headed up to Redding on I 5 would recognize the Richardson turnoff as the last turnoff to the city before it becomes suburban.
There was just a removable shower head for their idea of accessibility. We were in the top floor which was near the mainlobby.
This is a semi industrial area of Sacramento. There are low level office buildings all around this campus looking complex.
The Hawthorne Inn is Wydham hotel. It looks a little dated in its current form, although it worked out for us. It looks like it is set up for a large conference, with everyone getting a work area in their room. We were on the top floor, the third with very tall ceilings. The coffee maker had single basket Seattle's best in it. The breakfast was super. sausage, eggs, three waffle makers, juice bar, yogurt refridge, hard boiled eggs on ice, loose fruit, packaged danish.
The lobby area was expansive. Some people were waiting across the way for a shuttle bus to take them to the festival and several that were eating breakfast had on their festival buttons ready to go. It looked like everyone was counting on the breakfast and took decent advantage. There were all sorts of people staying. Some young families, and some extended families were also there. There were just a couple of couples in their 25-30's in the mix.
The road home took us over the Old Sacramento area. Sue looked down and saw that the streets were blocked from vehicular traffic and the people were crowded on the streets. The temperature was starting to climb into the upper 80's even a 12:30.
Overall it was a nice experience to see the difference in the Suite accommodations from both settings. There was a difference but overall unless you were going to spend serious time in either the upgrade from the100 dollar a night Larkspur Landing from the Hawthorne would not be worth it.
Suites in the Bay Area and Sacramento were what we got in our latest Hotwire.com encounters. We usually use hotwire to pick our hotels. This weekend Hotwire choose a couple of suite hotels for our use.
Variables in Hotwire.com
My variables in picking the selection in Hotwire measures off stars, all hotels are rated by stars, customer satisfaction rating and price. In Hotwire, hotels are offered by price and stars but not by name. Each hotel while not named has a customer satisfaction percentage that allows a judgement to be made on what percentage of the people who chose this accommodation were satisfied. My desired percentage is 80 percent or higher. Once a choice is made and paid for by paypal, the hotel name is revealed.
Amenities are also listed and may factor into the choice. If breakfast is included, that can save the traveler between 8 and 15 dollars per person. This is also critical if your stay is in a industrial setting where options for breakfast require getting in a car and traveling as well as finding your way back. Many of the business hotels in quasi-industrial areas have some very good deals because their usual business, the business expense traveler, is back at home on the weekends and these businesses do not look good in the occupancy ratings if they are left to languish on the weekends.
Particulars on a Lead up to a Memorial Day Vacation
Which brings us to our travel this last weekend. We were after an overnight in the San Francisco area on the Thursday before the Memorial Day Weekend. Sue and I were driving over to drop off a neighbor at the airport, see our daughter, look in on the museum and stay overnight. Transport into the city and back was provided by our truck so location in the city was not so important and we were not dependent upon an airport connection either. The best deals in the San Francisco Bay Area if the criteria we live in are met usually occur in the Oyster Point Area of San Francisco. It is important to pick a spot that doesn't require the traveler to pay for parking if possible. This can add up to 18 dollars to the final tote. These charges are somewhat mitigated in the Anaheim area in their resort fees as the hotels have shuttles that can save you 18 dollars plus in Disneyland parking fees.
Larkspur Landing in South San Francisco
This weekend we just happened to get two suites in the industrial areas selected as our overnight choices. Each had full kitchens and dining areas provided. Both were had parking lot views. One had flat sceeen tvs in both rooms while the other a flat screen tv in the kitchen living room area. Both were represented as handicapped accessible, and both were on the third floor.
In South San Francisco we spent the night at a Larkspur Landing Suites hotel. It is a Stash hotel. It comes with a great 50+ flat screen tv with a DVD player and selections of check out DVDs at the front desk. It had a very nice feather bed topper style bed that was very comfortable.
Accessible features in this one was a pull down shower chair in the tub with a removable shower head. An 18in toilet also is a nice addition. This one passes.
The art in the halls showed some taste. There were prints from Georgia O'Keef and a fly fishing print from one of the Taos collectives, Walter Ufer.
Overall this place has the look and feel of an upscale extended stay place.There was even a grocery store gofer service. You leave a list in the morning and they would have your groceries for you in the afternoon.
The night was quiet, and nestled inside the South San Francisco Industrial complex on the east side of 101 there didn't seem to be much going on in the cubicle jungles of buildings around us. Starbucks was not within walking distance. Breakfast was strictly continental with a healthy theme of a couple of oatmeal types and toasters brought into the business area off of the small check in lobby.
We used a smart phone app to get us to the site off of Gateway which is an extension of Grand Ave. with a whoops si doodle overpass for the freeway and the train tracks.
We used our truck to get some burritos from El Faro on El Camino. This happens to be Sue's favorite burrito spot.
Hawthorne Suites Inn Sacramento
The Friday night we were staying in Sacramento. Later I discovered that this weekend was Sacramento's famous Music Festival weekend. It used to be strictly Dixeland. It now has broken off and become Blues and Dixieland and Jazz. I think overall the downtown spots were reserved way before we did our hotwire search.
Our usual search leaves us with a Holiday Inn Express just blocks from the center of town for about 54 dollars a night. When you factor in breakfast it is a great deal. This night's deal was a 59 dollar selection that also claimed to be downtown.. but that was a stretch. Those people headed up to Redding on I 5 would recognize the Richardson turnoff as the last turnoff to the city before it becomes suburban.
There was just a removable shower head for their idea of accessibility. We were in the top floor which was near the mainlobby.
This is a semi industrial area of Sacramento. There are low level office buildings all around this campus looking complex.
The Hawthorne Inn is Wydham hotel. It looks a little dated in its current form, although it worked out for us. It looks like it is set up for a large conference, with everyone getting a work area in their room. We were on the top floor, the third with very tall ceilings. The coffee maker had single basket Seattle's best in it. The breakfast was super. sausage, eggs, three waffle makers, juice bar, yogurt refridge, hard boiled eggs on ice, loose fruit, packaged danish.
The lobby area was expansive. Some people were waiting across the way for a shuttle bus to take them to the festival and several that were eating breakfast had on their festival buttons ready to go. It looked like everyone was counting on the breakfast and took decent advantage. There were all sorts of people staying. Some young families, and some extended families were also there. There were just a couple of couples in their 25-30's in the mix.
The road home took us over the Old Sacramento area. Sue looked down and saw that the streets were blocked from vehicular traffic and the people were crowded on the streets. The temperature was starting to climb into the upper 80's even a 12:30.
Overall it was a nice experience to see the difference in the Suite accommodations from both settings. There was a difference but overall unless you were going to spend serious time in either the upgrade from the100 dollar a night Larkspur Landing from the Hawthorne would not be worth it.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Day 6 Solvang to Merced
California Land Form Diversity Solvang to Merced
The Reputation
California to the rest of the world is something of a mythology. In the mind of those who have not traveled to and through California, it is a place of Hollywood Stars on every corner. It is busy, it is urban and pretty noisy. To those who have taken some time to travel within its borders, California is full of contrasts both physically in the land forms and emotionally in the form of quiet out of the way places that allow one to recharge their batteries and get a grip of the life as well as those .
Contrasts in the Scenery
Our last day of vacation was full of both of these contrasts. The land forms around Solvang are simply beautiful. Its farmland that would approach the quiet surrender that one finds around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the East. Today we also traveled to a part of California that not even a scrap of vegetation volunteers to grow, yet provides California with a huge jolt of economic power. I am bit intrigued by writing such verses.
Solvang and its surrounds is quiet. My local Starbucks barista told me that her parents go there to get a way from a frenetic lifestyle in Ventura. It is easy to sit on the many provided benches and enjoy the quietness of the day. The town has a definite laid back style and its easy to get caught up in it. Sue loves to pause and see what is seasonally available at the old fashion hardware store near the end of the main street. Many residents meet and carry on social conversations as they meet their neighbors who stop to pick up a pony pack of annuals for their gardens or talk to their friends about an upcoming gathering. Life rolls on in this town on a Monday morning. The residents in the hardware store get a resident discount on all that they buy. In the other stores it is amazing to see that the ubiquitous UPC labels that are read by point of sale computers are not present. The young retail clerks in one souvenir gift shop, the middle aged lady that took my money for some cards at Rassmusens and the retired and back to work owner clerk at the on sale costume jewlery store all carefully wrote down on a receipt book what was purchased, added up the total with a calculator and entered the price paid at the bottom of the list. It has been along time since I have seen that happen in a retail store.
Solvang Charms
The clerks were happy to talk about their lives as they completed their sales. Sue talked to an older guy that owned a costume jewelry out let that told her all about running two bakeries before "retiring to sell jewelry 3 for 5 dollars. Sue found a handful that she could not walk away from for the price. While Sue was looking at the scarves at another boutique, I talked to a Las Vegas escapee that was running a souvenir shop. She had quite a tale about working in the casinos for 32 years before coming to Solvang to run this little shop beside the bakery. Sue found a couple of treasures and again she dutifully wrote them down and took my money.
I let Sue pick the choices for the bakery to go box. She picked me out some choices that I would probably not pick but were fabulous. She chose for herself a napoleon and a cream puff. For me she picked out a couple of macaroons. She knows I have a weakness for coconut. They were fabulous but I probably would have picked a danish sweet roll if given a choice. But the macaroons were the best I have ever tasted and they showcased their coconut magnificently.
Solvang is set up for a wine tasting. This was not something that I cared to do with the 5 hour driving trip ahead but it is one of those things that people do since the popularity that the wines of the Santa Ynez valley received in the Oscar winning movie, Sideways. About 35 wineries have set up tasting rooms in Solvang. On a Monday morning they were all pretty empty as we walked by.
Solvang is set up for the tourist buses. There are major parking lots next to the city parks in the middle of the town with massive restroom facilities provided by the city so as to lure in the highway 101 travelers on the crawl. We had done the shops and were on the road to Paso Robles by 11:00. Paso Robles is the spot on 101 that we veer off and take the inland route to get to the Central Valley.
Back on the Road up the Coast
As we were trucking up the road I got a call from my sister and her husband that suggested that we find a place in Solvang to meet up and have some lunch together. At that time we were in San Luis Obispo about 70 miles north. It was a great idea.. but we were pretty intent upon moving up the road and getting home soon.
The road up the coast takes an inland jog as land on the coast is reserved for Vandenburg Air Force Base. It is the place on the west coast that the military launches missiles. When ever there is a UFO "sighting" it usually is not a UFO at all but rather a missile has been launched and lights up the evening sky. The launches are from this spot on the California coast.
Highway 101 rejoins the coast at Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo where on this day the breezes coming in from the ocean were about 30 knots. The road follows up a canyon where there are exits for the Cal Poly campus. Eventually it reaches exits for Pismo Beach, Avilla Beach and Shell Beach. Paseo Robles is further inland and is the home of the mid valley fair and rodeo each year. All the big stars in country music make this fair for a stop on their road trip. There are also many winery tasting rooms in this area too.
We made the turn at Peso Robles and at first the road is pretty scenic as it rolls through the rolling vinyards. Then another junction and suddenly we are in a ghost like land form. There are many layers of sandstone that drop off into other layers of sandstone as we travel through the oil rich California region known as Lost Hills. Not a house in sight for miles and miles. Not a stick of a tree or a wild grass of any kind lives in this area. It is desolate. I make the choice to angle a little North as we come through the area that the legendary movie star, James Dean lost his young life in the late 50's. It is also the area that a coffee drinking retired teacher friend of mine got nailed for traveling 7 miles over the speed limit and had to pay 350 dollar fine and attend a traffic school. You can bet that I was watching my speed as we headed for Buttonwillow a wide spot on interstate 5. We stopped there and found and IN and Out burger joint and were ready to head north.
My navigation program has a time estimate feature. We could save 25 minutes by angling North on highway 41 from Buttonwillow. It would leave us in Fresno which is about 59 miles away from Merced. We took that direction even though our usual way would be to head up interstate at 70miles per hour and scoot over at Mercy Hot Springs road to the road that would take us through the valley past Dos Palos and into Merced.
The Buttonwillow Road to Fresno was a great road. It followed a couple of canals and rolled us through Lemore, a naval air base in the middle of the valley. suddenly out of seemingly nowhere, a freeway overpass appeared and we were trucking through Lemore. As we got near Fresno the highway became separated and there were a couple of traffic light the two lanes became four lanes Sure to its estimate we were in Fresno and headed home right on schedule.
The cats were very happy to see us and were were happy to see them.
A Great Vacation was had by all!
The Reputation
California to the rest of the world is something of a mythology. In the mind of those who have not traveled to and through California, it is a place of Hollywood Stars on every corner. It is busy, it is urban and pretty noisy. To those who have taken some time to travel within its borders, California is full of contrasts both physically in the land forms and emotionally in the form of quiet out of the way places that allow one to recharge their batteries and get a grip of the life as well as those .
Contrasts in the Scenery
Our last day of vacation was full of both of these contrasts. The land forms around Solvang are simply beautiful. Its farmland that would approach the quiet surrender that one finds around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the East. Today we also traveled to a part of California that not even a scrap of vegetation volunteers to grow, yet provides California with a huge jolt of economic power. I am bit intrigued by writing such verses.
Solvang and its surrounds is quiet. My local Starbucks barista told me that her parents go there to get a way from a frenetic lifestyle in Ventura. It is easy to sit on the many provided benches and enjoy the quietness of the day. The town has a definite laid back style and its easy to get caught up in it. Sue loves to pause and see what is seasonally available at the old fashion hardware store near the end of the main street. Many residents meet and carry on social conversations as they meet their neighbors who stop to pick up a pony pack of annuals for their gardens or talk to their friends about an upcoming gathering. Life rolls on in this town on a Monday morning. The residents in the hardware store get a resident discount on all that they buy. In the other stores it is amazing to see that the ubiquitous UPC labels that are read by point of sale computers are not present. The young retail clerks in one souvenir gift shop, the middle aged lady that took my money for some cards at Rassmusens and the retired and back to work owner clerk at the on sale costume jewlery store all carefully wrote down on a receipt book what was purchased, added up the total with a calculator and entered the price paid at the bottom of the list. It has been along time since I have seen that happen in a retail store.
Solvang Charms
The clerks were happy to talk about their lives as they completed their sales. Sue talked to an older guy that owned a costume jewelry out let that told her all about running two bakeries before "retiring to sell jewelry 3 for 5 dollars. Sue found a handful that she could not walk away from for the price. While Sue was looking at the scarves at another boutique, I talked to a Las Vegas escapee that was running a souvenir shop. She had quite a tale about working in the casinos for 32 years before coming to Solvang to run this little shop beside the bakery. Sue found a couple of treasures and again she dutifully wrote them down and took my money.
I let Sue pick the choices for the bakery to go box. She picked me out some choices that I would probably not pick but were fabulous. She chose for herself a napoleon and a cream puff. For me she picked out a couple of macaroons. She knows I have a weakness for coconut. They were fabulous but I probably would have picked a danish sweet roll if given a choice. But the macaroons were the best I have ever tasted and they showcased their coconut magnificently.
Solvang is set up for a wine tasting. This was not something that I cared to do with the 5 hour driving trip ahead but it is one of those things that people do since the popularity that the wines of the Santa Ynez valley received in the Oscar winning movie, Sideways. About 35 wineries have set up tasting rooms in Solvang. On a Monday morning they were all pretty empty as we walked by.
Solvang is set up for the tourist buses. There are major parking lots next to the city parks in the middle of the town with massive restroom facilities provided by the city so as to lure in the highway 101 travelers on the crawl. We had done the shops and were on the road to Paso Robles by 11:00. Paso Robles is the spot on 101 that we veer off and take the inland route to get to the Central Valley.
Back on the Road up the Coast
As we were trucking up the road I got a call from my sister and her husband that suggested that we find a place in Solvang to meet up and have some lunch together. At that time we were in San Luis Obispo about 70 miles north. It was a great idea.. but we were pretty intent upon moving up the road and getting home soon.
The road up the coast takes an inland jog as land on the coast is reserved for Vandenburg Air Force Base. It is the place on the west coast that the military launches missiles. When ever there is a UFO "sighting" it usually is not a UFO at all but rather a missile has been launched and lights up the evening sky. The launches are from this spot on the California coast.
Highway 101 rejoins the coast at Santa Maria and San Luis Obispo where on this day the breezes coming in from the ocean were about 30 knots. The road follows up a canyon where there are exits for the Cal Poly campus. Eventually it reaches exits for Pismo Beach, Avilla Beach and Shell Beach. Paseo Robles is further inland and is the home of the mid valley fair and rodeo each year. All the big stars in country music make this fair for a stop on their road trip. There are also many winery tasting rooms in this area too.
We made the turn at Peso Robles and at first the road is pretty scenic as it rolls through the rolling vinyards. Then another junction and suddenly we are in a ghost like land form. There are many layers of sandstone that drop off into other layers of sandstone as we travel through the oil rich California region known as Lost Hills. Not a house in sight for miles and miles. Not a stick of a tree or a wild grass of any kind lives in this area. It is desolate. I make the choice to angle a little North as we come through the area that the legendary movie star, James Dean lost his young life in the late 50's. It is also the area that a coffee drinking retired teacher friend of mine got nailed for traveling 7 miles over the speed limit and had to pay 350 dollar fine and attend a traffic school. You can bet that I was watching my speed as we headed for Buttonwillow a wide spot on interstate 5. We stopped there and found and IN and Out burger joint and were ready to head north.
My navigation program has a time estimate feature. We could save 25 minutes by angling North on highway 41 from Buttonwillow. It would leave us in Fresno which is about 59 miles away from Merced. We took that direction even though our usual way would be to head up interstate at 70miles per hour and scoot over at Mercy Hot Springs road to the road that would take us through the valley past Dos Palos and into Merced.
The Buttonwillow Road to Fresno was a great road. It followed a couple of canals and rolled us through Lemore, a naval air base in the middle of the valley. suddenly out of seemingly nowhere, a freeway overpass appeared and we were trucking through Lemore. As we got near Fresno the highway became separated and there were a couple of traffic light the two lanes became four lanes Sure to its estimate we were in Fresno and headed home right on schedule.
The cats were very happy to see us and were were happy to see them.
A Great Vacation was had by all!
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