The Arboretum

More properly called the San Francisco Botanical Garden, most people in San Francisco still call it the Arboretum. It actually is very big garden, but that doesn’t really cover the place. Within 10 minutes you can walk from Australia to Chile to Japan. It represents plants from all over the world and is a really nice place to take a long walk.

The best part about it is that if you are a San Francisco resident you get in for free. Great idea when you’re looking for something to do on the cheap. One of the secrets to getting decent parking is to park at the east end of Stowe Lake if you can’t find parking and walk down the steps and you’re there. I don’t know why, but hardly anyone ever parks at the east end of Stowe lake.

We decided to take our daughter there because we now have two weeks off before she starts her summer school so we need to find things to entertain her with. We weren’t sure how she would like it, but she seemed to get a real kick out of having so much open space to run around in. We also figured she’d have fun by the lake that has the swans and ducks which were noticeably absent, but around the lake the place is over run with squirrels. We used to bring nuts to feed the squirrels, but apparently you’re not supposed to do that. Which was pretty obviously ignored by all the peanut shells you would find lying around. The squirrels can be a bit aggressive and will even climb up you leg sometimes if you stand still long enough.

We noticed there was a Children’s Garden which is as far away from either entrance as you can get. That was the only thing I wasn’t really impressed with. It was pretty disorganized and I’m not sure if that’s because kids were doing the gardening work or it’s just a new thing that they’re working on. It was filled with lots of cut up stumps that had been brightly painted so our daughter was at least happy with that.

On the way back we did go through the succulents area which to me is one of the more impressive looking parts of the place. If you want to green up your backyard, these are what you need and they rarely need watering. I don’t think ours in the backyard have been watered in over six months.

If you go be sure to bring comfortable walking shoes because you’ll get a good work out walking around the place. They do give tours and also have lectures frequently. There is also a bookstore where you can get lots of gardening books or if you become a member you get access to their library. If you cheap, just ask any one of the gardeners you find. If you’re not from the city you’ll have to pay $7 to get in unless you can find a friend in SF who will give you a copy of their PG&E bill which they’ll accept as proof of residency.

Check out the little gallery below.

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Beach Chalet Soccer Fields

OK, I know I’m going to take some heat from this, but I actually believe that the soccer fields would be better replaced by the artificial turf than keeping the grassy gopher community that’s there now. To me it is a sound safe move that will only affect a very small amount of Golden Gate Park.

I know I sound like a blasphemer for making these statements, but this isn’t the old astroturf. This is fake grass that’s made from 100% recycled materials that doesn’t require the maintenance  a true grass field would require and already isn’t getting. First off, grass as we grow in lawns and for playing fields is unnatural. The strains of grass that we grow today are all genetically modified [GMO?] to produce a given result. Golf courses use bent grass which works best at a very short height. You can see what happens when it grows too tall by driving down Sunset Boulevard to see the newly planted patches that haven’t been mown yet. It turns a sickly yellowish brown. Bent grass also requires more frequent mowing and fertilizing which it’s not getting on Sunset Boulevard. There are taller grasses such as fescue and Kentucky blue, but those less water, but more care. Neither of these are suitable for a playing field.

There you have the gopher problem. Pocket gophers and moles are running rampant in the city which is part of the reason you have the predatory birds over the current soccer fields. Those same birds can be found all over the park or any other park in the city because we have such an overabundance of gophers. I was at my daughter’s school yesterday helping take care of the garden area while school is out. they’ve pretty much given up on the lawn because of all the gopher holes. I was finding one every foot. I actually tripped when my foot hit a hole I missed. There are kids who have been playing at the soccer field who have had to be rushed to the hospital because of falls caused by the gopher holes.

The artificial grass is pretty nice looking and is very comfortable to walk across. I have neighbors across the street who have it installed and they don’t have to water it or do anything to it. There is also a soccer/baseball field at South Sunset Playground [with lights and there are houses right across the streets, but no one mentions problems with that] that has the same grass and I would take my young daughter there so she could run around and even when she did fall [she was 2 at the time] there was a bit of a cushiony effect from the turf.

The way it is installed is that first you dig out the dirt and install a barrier that keeps gophers from digging up through it. Then you lay down the grass followed by common sand as a stabilizer and then small rubber pellets made from recycled tires. The grass itself is made from recycled plastic. It’s been such a hit that San Jose has installed in around Santana Row.

Now people have addressed concerns regarding the lighting that’s going in. From the rendition the lights will be facing east/west. The field is roughly 1000′ from the north end of the park and about 600′ from the south end. Most of what is close to it are commercial businesses. Yes, if you have a home nearby there might be a little light leakage, but it wouldn’t be anything like having a spotlight shining in your living room window like I did when Saint Ignatius had there night football game that with the drapes open we didn’t need to turn on the lights in our living room and dining room and we could still hear the noise of the generator because it was so big. The lights at the chalet won’t even be above the trees and wouldn’t need generators because they can be powered off the grid. They could even install solar panels on top to make them more efficient.

Here are some of the environmental concerns I’ve seen stated and I’ll address each one.

  • Loss of over 55 trees, tall shrubs, and the current grass meadow: 55 trees and shrubs is nothing compared to the number of trees in the park. The added amenities like picnic tables, children’s play structure and new ADA bathrooms are a plus side.
  • Loss of wildlife habitat: Gophers are the only thing you’ll lose. The hawks will not be affected because there’s lots of gophers available at the polo fields, speedway meadow and the rest of the park.
  • Installation of artificial turf = compacted soil, gravel, plastic carpet, and waste tires and sand infill: They’re leaving out that the plastic carpet [i.e. artificial grass] and waste tires are recycled and if sand infill is a problem then we need to do away with Ocean Beach because you’ll find more sand infill there than anywhere else in the city. Compacted soil just means no gophers which is a plus in my book.
  • Increased paving for sidewalks and parking: There already exists sidewalks and a parking lot. Maybe they’ll make the lot bigger, but from what I’ve seen and read that’s not in the plan.
  • Increased lighting for the sidewalks and parking: I actually see this as a good thing. There would be less mugging and rapes occurring in the park if it had better lighting at night. Hell, the whole Sunset and Richmond districts could use more lighting.
  • An increase in traffic in the Park and the neighborhoods: If that were to happen, I’m sure the local businesses would welcome that. We’re in the USA, Soccer isn’t as big a sport here as our version of Football. It’s mostly a high school thing.
  • Decreased available parking at Ocean Beach: See above. The parking at Ocean Beach is only heavy on a hot weekend. I usually see more parking in the park, but that’s usually because of the people who can’t find parking in the Beach Chalet’s parking lot.
  • Decreased night sky darkness: This is called Light Polution and being a major metropolitan city we already produce so much light pollution that soccer field would be barely noticeable.
  • Infringement on the wild nature of Ocean Beach: This won’t have any effect on Ocean beach except maybe make the gophers move there. I’ve rarely even seen the soccer field and the night time lights won’t have any effect on Ocean Beach wildlife because aside from the odd bat you don’t have anything out there at night. If anything it’ll keep the coyotes that have moved here a little farther away.
  • Infringement on the historic context for the Beach Chalet, the Dutch Windmill and the Murphy Windmill: The only thing historic out there is the entrance to the Beach Chalet. Everything else has had a complete makeover. The Murphy Windmill if you look at it on google maps is shown in a torn down state. It’s recently had a complete rebuild and looks very nice. That won’t be affected at all.
  • Contrary to the Golden Gate Park Master Plan: Technically, according to those who built Golden Gate Park a soccer field is against the GGP Master Plan. I found nothing to support this on their website. There are many things, such as major overhauls that the California Academy of Sciences, DeYoung Museum and Music Concourse received that destroyed the history of that area, but that was fine right? Oh wait, that area makes more money for the city.

Converting to the artificial turf will rid the soccer fields of the pesky gopher pests and make it a safer place for our kids to play soccer. The lighting will add a little bit of night glow to the skies and won’t be a problem for local residents because I don’t know many people who sit looking out their windows at night. There will also be the addition of site amenities such as a children’s climbing structure, picnic tables, benches, bleachers, drinking fountains and trash receptacles. The existing restrooms will also be renovated with new interior fixtures in compliance with ADA requirements. That doesn’t sound like a bad thing now does it? I might actually have a reason to see the soccer fields.

My Dad, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini and Memorial Day

I don’t talk about my Dad much. Once I turned 13 something changed and we kind of became enemies at times. There were good times when he told me stories, but they were mostly war stories because that was so much of his life and if even half of what he said was true he was not a guy to piss off in a fight.

My Dad was 15 when my Grandfather divorced my Grandmother. His sister stayed with her Mom and my Dad got to go with my Grandfather. I never met anyone on that side of the family, but my Grandfather had the brilliant idea to move from Philadelphia back to his native city of Riga, Latvia. 1930 was not a very good time for this because shortly there after Latvia was at war with Russia in the takeover of the Baltic states.

My Dad always laughed at how he and his friends would blow up train tracks the Russians used and steal their barrels of vodka and bury them in their backyards so no one could find them. How many punk ass teens would go around blowing up trains for the vodka just to get a buzz on over the weekend. This went on for awhile until the Russians started wondering why the train tracks all around a certain area were getting blown up. One of his friends got shot because when you bury vodka in the ground you have to dig it up and you usually spilled some when you’re trying to get it out of the barrel. My Dad’s friend and family were shot on site by the Russians.

My Grandfather was so furious with what my Dad had been doing that he tossed him on a boat at 18 to send him back to the U.S. He didn’t get along to well with his mother and sister and he decided to join up with the Merchant Marines because it seemed like a safe bet for him at the time. Well, it wasn’t 1941 yet so he was pretty safe. Until Pearl Harbor  and then he was a Merchant Marine during wartime. That meant he wasn’t a civilian, but now a soldier.

He was sent off to supply the ground troops in Europe along with moving troops to Europe and shooting at anything hostile in between. His ship was stationed in Italy that was safe at the time. It was Northern Italy I believe and when Germany finished with Austria they came to start talking with the Italians and my Dad was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Seeing the Germans approaching while he was on shore out of uniform they were suspicious of him. Luckily he spoke German and convinced them he was one of them. Great. The Germans took him back with them and now he was fighting for Germany by being sent on Operation Barbarossa to help dig trenches for the attack on Stalin.

While on the front line Russian soldiers caught him and told them he was merely a Russian peasant farmer who was capture by the Nazi’s and put to work. He spoke Russian as well so he managed to keep a bullet out of his head and now was serving for the Russian military.

He somehow managed to escape one night and I’m sure there was lots of vodka involved. He worked his way back to Italy to a part of Italy that wasn’t so friendly to Americans. So now he’s wearing the uniform of Il Duce’s army. He was stationed on the coast in Southern Italy which oddly enough a passing Merchant Marine ship became the target of the coastal forces.

As my Dad always said the Italian Army was so corrupt that they weren’t worth shit in a fight. He managed to get out of the way and hide and when the Merchant Marines send scout teams ashore his perfect English came back and he convinced them that he was one of them. He got back on ship and they checked him out and found him to be who said he was. He was back to safety by then and the war was almost over.

He went through hell during WWII, but he was always a survivor. The war was not kind to him and they didn’t talk about PTSD back then. They just gave you more cigarettes and beer. Towards the end of his life before the hear disease set in he was smoking a pack of Pall Mall non-filtered and drinking a 12 pack of Budweiser a day. I can see now it was to help him forget the memories of WWII. It didn’t always work. I would always see him go off and cry around the holidays because they were never fun for him. We don’t have many pictures of my Dad for some reason. I guess he only liked to be photographed with me when I was a kid. I did manage to find one and that was the day I came home from the hospital. It’s probably one of the few pics of him where he has even close to a smile on his face.

Happy Birthday Golden Gate Bridge!

Today was the official opening day of the new plaza for the Golden Gate Bridge falling in line with it’s 75th anniversary being this Sunday, May 27th. So I had to take a trip out and see it for myself.

WOW, it’s actually a pretty nice place. It reminded me a bit of Lands End Lookout, a lot actually. Which is probably because after talking with one of the nice gentlemen who worked there who told me all about the bridge like I was a tourist I found out that apparently that’s the way the Parks Conservancy does things. Pretty much same shape just a bit bigger, but still nice to walk around in. Not as much information or displays regarding the bridge inside, but lots of books and DVD’s you can purchase to learn more.

The real place to learn about the bridge is by walking around outside the pavilion. That is where you’ll find lots of open air exhibits about the building of the bridge. The cafe that is across from the cafe is definitely set up to fuel people talking a walk across the bridge. I wish I had known that on my first trip across the bridge, but at least I know enough now if I decide to do it a second time.

The Golden Gate Bridge Roundhouse which used to be a restaurant for traveling motorists has changed now to be a place where you can book tours or if you’re feeling brave have a picture of yourself taken against a green screen that will make you look like you’re walking up the bridges cables or you can have a family shot as if you’re standing on top all for the low price of $20. Of course now that I’ve written this article I can’t do it because I would have liked to have told people I knew someone on the inside who let me take a walk up the cables.

For those of you who aren’t in the best shape it’s not so bad a trip. Not too much walking and the what I believe are newly installed bike lanes look pretty good. A note to those of you who don’t like bikers, these lanes are separate from the pedestrian walking areas and it’s pretty obvious.

If you want to make a breath taking outing some day you should do both the Golden Gate Bridge Pavilion and  the Lands End Lookout because you’ll have to drive along Lincoln Boulevard. Not the Lincoln Boulevard that runs next to the park, but the one that runs through the Presidio. You will get views that you just can’t see anywhere else. I’ve made another little gallery of the pictures I took for you. Enjoy!

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Remembering Playland

I got a surprise the other day when someone told me that the documentary Remembering Playland At The Beach was available on DVD and at the library. I thought I really didn’t have much to remember about Playland because the only time I got to go was the day it closed, September 7, 1972, which means it was a probably my parents giving in to me wanting to go that they finally agreed that I could go as a birthday present since my birthday was the day before.

Well, it turns out there was a lot to remember that I had forgotten. While I only got to go on the last day and most of the rides were closed by then, I did remember the Funhouse the most, but seeing actual video footage of it made it even more memorable. I loved the slide in there, but never realized that it was actually five stories high. Running through the spinning barrel was a piece of cake and the turntable my Dad and I did a few times just because the idea of sitting on a well polished spinning wooden disc and being flung at the padded wall at high speed just sounded like a lot of fun to a 10 year old kid. One of the people they interview mentioned that OSHA would  even let a place like that be built today which is probably true when you see the footage. The trick on the turntable was for everyone to lock arms so it would spin faster before you got thrown.

There were the dodger cars which would give you whiplash when the large metal cars would smash into each other while sparks from the pole leading up to the ceiling to power the car dropped down on your head. Yep, another OSHA cringe moment. It was so large that they could have 80 cars running at once.

I didn’t get to go on the Diving Bell which is what I had always wanted to do, but after seeing the footage and some pictures it probably was a good thing I didn’t. One of the people said that when the bell was yanked back up out of the water everyone felt like they were going to die and from the looks of it, I’m surprised no one did.

The Big Dipper was gone by then, but replaced by the Alpine Racer which was closed down by then. The urban legend that a sailor stood up on the Big Dipper to show off to the girl he was with and got hit by a cross beam getting his head torn off is actually kind of true. He did get hit in the head, but landed in the lap of his girlfriend dead with a crushed skull. Oh and there were no seat belts of any kind back then. Not on most of the rides. I can kind of see why my Mom never wanted me to go there.

Dark Mystery was the only other ride I got to go on that day and I jumped a few times with things popped up and the screams played. I do remember there was one box we passed where cheap aluminum figures of a boy and naked girl popped up which didn’t make me jump, but point and yell to my Dad, Did you see that! I told my Mother all about that when we got home and I can remember a glaring eye shot in my Dad’s direction.

What I had forgotten about were all the concession stands out front. As a kid I always remember stopping for It’s-its, but I had forgotten about the Hot House that sold enchiladas and tamales. I remembered that my Mom would send me and Dad out there on the weekends for enchiladas so she didn’t have to cook for one day.

The history of the place was what I found to be amazing. When you think of amusement parks you think of kids, but Playland at the Beach was different. It was mostly adults going on the rides then and there were plenty of pictures and footage of men in suits and fedoras with their women in dresses and white gloves. Something I never expected to see. There was also a place next to it called Fun Tier Town which was for the kids which had some pretty timid rides. It was a big spot for kids to have birthday parties, but I believe it closed down earlier because there was one birthday party I was supposed to go to there and they were already closed  and that was before Playland shut down.

It was the Whitney Bros who made the place the most popular, but after George Whitney died and his son George Whitney, Jr. took his place that there started to be family troubles and Playland was sold to it’s final owner in 1970. This person unfortunately didn’t really know how to run an amusement park, especially one that was fogged in with salt air constantly so the whole place fell apart quickly leading to it’s closure in 1972.

What amazed me in the footage was that they had footage from the early 60’s before the civil rights era started and yet you saw white kids, asian kids and black kids all playing together without a care. It really was just a little bizarre to see.

During it’s heyday Walt Disney was traveling around to all the amusement parks and talking to the owners to see what worked and what didn’t. Walt really liked a lot of what Playland was doing. So much so that Walt hired George Whitney, Jr. to help him build Disneyland. Several of the attractions at Playland were the inspiration for Disneyland rides.

Today, Playland at the Beach is no more, but luckily there were some fools who went in after the closure and stole as much as they could and put together Playland not at the Beach Museum in El Cerrito. Several of the people interviewed run the museum and from what I’ve seen they’ve saved a lot of the old arcade games and maybe added to them as well. I’ll have to put that on my list of places to visit now. The Carousel has been refurbished and is now at Zeum at Yerba Buena Gardens. One Laffing Sal is at the Musee Mecanique at Pier 41, the other is at Playland not at the Beach in El Cerrito.

If you remember Playland, you definitely need to see this video. If you have a love of amusement parks you should see this as well. It wasn’t like Disneyland, but it was definitely a San Francisco landmark.

Reel Mowing

When my Mom was alive she couldn’t mow the lawn and wanted to get rid of the old behemoth electric mower we had. She found a great gardener who was only charging $15 and he’s come and mow the lawn every other week. Then his prices started to go up until they were $30 each time and he’s only show up sometimes once a month. He wasn’t really doing anything else like fertilizing the lawn so there were weeds taking over and we decided to make a change.

I had used the old electric mower, but hated having to deal with the bag after wards and the fact that a lot never made it into the bag and sprayed all over the sidewalk. I had read up on reel mowers and found that if you mowed and just left the cut grass on your grass that it would break down adding more nitrogen to your soil meaning less fertilizer which is one of the things grass needs the most. So we went ahead and plunked down $60 on a low end reel mower by American Lawnmowers. From the reviews they said that if  you have anything growing too tall it won’t cut them and they were right. We have several weeds that are about 8″ long that just got pushed over and not cut so I had to pull those by hand.

We also had some other flat weeds that were the type that you could grab the weeds in hand and twist them around and get the root out. I did that first before starting to mow. Well I have to say that after smoothing out the piles of dirt the gophers dug up and pulling the weeds my wife estimated that it should take me about a half hour. When she says a half hour she always undercuts it expecting me to take longer so she can come out and ask me what I’m doing out there [Kind of like your Mom when you’re a teenager int he bathroom for too long].

Total time was less than 15 minutes and I actually felt a bit of a burn in my arms afterwards and was a little out of breath. Remember, I’m not an athlete and typically work desk jobs so this was a good work out for me. The results weren’t the best, but at the same time the lawn is studded with all kinds of grasses since the sod that was originally laid down wasn’t top shelf stuff and our neighbors have let their lawn turn into a veritable weed factory next door, but I’m suspecting with a little weed and feed and continued effort that within a month things will be looking better. from my research the grass we have is fescue and other cool weather grasses so we should let it grow to about 3″ before cutting it and cut it down to about 2″.  I was a little quick on the cut this time because while there were sections that were 3″, there was a lot that were barely an inch.

Reel mowers are not not known for doing edging very well, but we don’t have a fence on any sides and only have a bout 2′ of brick wall that makes it difficult so that wasn’t really a problem. I found that if I started cross ways and then when lengthwise it was easier, but I think next time I’m going to do cross and lengthwise  all the way across. I’ll get a better work out and then maybe I can pull out an old chaise lounge and a cooler full of beer and sit and talk with the neighbors about our front yard gardening. I also noticed last night that our automatic sprinklers had some wrong heads installed. There are wide and thin shot heads and with our lawn they could have been wide shots installed in the corners instead of wide on the sides and shorts on the ends. I’m going to have to make a trip down to Urban Gardeners nearby and ask them how to fix this since I don’t want to tear up the whole lawn and put new sod down and re-do the sprinkler system. While I can do simple plumbing, when plumbing and landscaping come together count me out.

Why Parking Sucks in San Francisco

My wife and I took a trip to the local produce market and realized something about San Francisco when you go shopping. Parking sucks. After a trip to Costco the other day where they expect you to make large purchases, ergo vans, trucks and SUV’s I understand why now. San Francisco doesn’t understand that cars have gotten bigger.

My Nissan Altima which I love doesn’t have fold in rear view mirrors. I wish it did though because I’d have almost a foot walk between cars. I literally have to suck in my gut which isn’t that big and I still have my butt shoved up against the other persons car.

When we had a Dodge Intrepid [which my wife used to refer to as the U.S.S. Intrepid because it was so huge] we bought it used and I asked the dealer selling the car why some of the inside rubber for waterproofing was a bit worn and he showed me by getting out of the car in a tight space. It’s basically because people are rubbing their butts against the rubber siding trying to get out in a tight space.

While I won’t call myself skinny I’m only a few pounds overweight, but I can’t imagine how some very overweight people can get out of their cars to shop. The obvious thing to do would be to widen the spaces, but unfortunately we have a lot more people in the city which means a lot more cars. Maybe they could angle the non-parallel spots to a full 90°. That would at least allow for extra space, but might make things difficult for people to learn how to do.  For me, that wouldn’t be a big deal because I have to do that every time I pull into my driveway.

Two SUV’s parked next to each other is a real comedy of errors to watch because the people are trying to be very careful getting out of the car without slamming their door into the car next to them and it’s even more fun to watch when there are people in both cars because they end up in a stare down waiting to see who hits the other car first. I’d love to say I have a good answer for this, but that’s not my job. That’s the job of the Board of Supervisors to handle and last time I checked I wasn’t one of them.

Damn Gophers!

I thought I was over it a year ago. Gophers destroyed our lawn as well as our neighbors with tunnels moving 4 houses away. How did I know this? My first line of defense was the gopher bomb which is basically a large smoke bomb that you light and stick down the hole. Smoke started coming out of the grown four houses away in both directions.

We tried to be nice and use all the other ethical humane ways to get rid of them, but the holes kept coming back and back again. They even started to show up in our backyard that a smoke bomb verified that they were so intrenched that they had actually dug under the houses foundation to our back yard over 40 feet away.

None of it worked. So it was time to go all medieval on them because we had lost half our lawn to them.  Most of the pellets never worked and I finally had to resort to seeds that had a cyanide coating on them. These would suggested by one of the several hardware stores who felt my pain and warned me to make sure that they went into the hole and nothing was left out because you didn’t want to start poisoning cats and dogs in the neighborhood. I even asked my dog owning friends if they had any gopher chasers, but that was to no effect.

After a couple of weeks of watching the gophers poke their heads at me from the holes they finally disappeared. I don’t know if it worked or not, but now we had what was our lawn back. We had some extra money and decided to try and reseed the lawn with some patch restoring stuff from Home Depot. I was skeptical because I had used it before and nothing worked. This time it did and what grew back was wonderful. It looked better than the sod that we had installed many years ago that’s gone over to mostly more weeds than grass due to our neighbor who rents his house out and doesn’t give a damn about his lawn and maybe come once every six months to trim the weeds down.

Now the gophers are back or at least one gopher because the damage is not as bad as before as you can see from the picture. Just to give you a little bit of history to go with this, when these homes were built there were two strips of green either side of the walkway into the house. By law you were required to have these areas planted and keep up in a nice neat fashion. This was why Dads would be out mowing the lawns on Sundays and then drinking themselves silly after they finished. That was how the old boys club worked in the Sunset district.

With the water shortage in the 70’s the city lifted several laws to conserve water and several people ripped out their lawns and put in concrete or the even more hideous white dolomite rock. Our neighbor on the corner, Mr. John Mass had the lawn on the block that he was the proudest of. He would manicure that like a golf course and never was a gopher seen on his lawn. Dogs would not even pee or poop on his lawn there was just something magical about how perfect it was. I always wanted a lawn like that.

Now I have the gophers again and I’m thinking of starting to douse the lawn with lots of weed and feed and just kill off as many weeds as possible and hopefully the gophers will go away before I have to get medieval on my end again. Then I’ll find a way to get an even larger bag of that seed mix and start all over again. If any of you out there have some sure fire remedies for getting rid of the gophers let me know [no I will not stand out there and pee down the hole as someone once suggested to me.] I’m willing to try ethical treatments as well as long as you can find one that works.

My Manly Man Experience First Week

So on my first chance I tried the new double edged razor and shaving soap and found them to take a bit more time and needed some help at the end from the fusion razor to get a good close save so I decided to test in various combinations to see which would work out the best.

Next shave was with the 5 blade fusion and shaving soap. It was faster, but just as close a shave as with the double edged razor [probably because I finished up with the fusion]. I can see using these in a hurry, but I’m also used to shaving against the grain with the 5 blade fusion which probably was why it’s faster. In both cases no nicks or blood in either case which in my opinion is good.

Third time is the double edge with fusion gel and shaving against the grain. No problems here. Took a little less amount of time, but I still had to finish off with the fusion in a few places. I’ve been told while reading around that the Dorco blades that came with it are not very aggressive, well now I understand that means they are so sharp, but I did get almost as close with a double edged razor blade than I did with a five bladed razor that cost about $4.87 each as opposed to the double edged blade that I can get for around 8¢.

Four time is the double edge with Col. Conk shaving soap and against the grain. Still not as close a shave. I think I have to get some sharper blades since I once again had to finish off with the five blade fusion, but it was faster. I have a sample pack on order from West Coast Shaving and should have them by Monday. From what I’ve read the Dorco blades that came with the razor aren’t considered very sharp. In the mix of blade is a set of Feather blades which are supposedly not for the timid or untrained in double edged shaving. I think I’ll wait a bit until I’ve had enough practice to try those, but I think I’ll have this down in no time. So far not a single scrape, nick or cut. If anyone out there still uses double edged blades and has some blade recommendations I’d love to hear them.

Sometimes Teacher’s Have To Strike

Members of United Educators of San Francisco on the march

The following is an article I was forwarded about the SFUSD Teachers that are planning a strike. Most of the news seems to focus on teachers wanting a pay increase, but aren’t looking at the full effects of what will happen. I have bolded and italicized a particular section because as many of you know my autistic daughter is in a SDC or Special Day Class. When she started there were only about 8 kids in the class [this was for pre-school] when she starts kindergarten in the fall there will be 12 kids in the class. The increases they want are unthinkable for special needs kids let alone non-special needs kids.

My daughter’s current pre-school teacher had her students raised to 12 this year and it was maddening for her at times. She did not have enough materials or aides to help her out and was only given a funding of $5/student for the entire school year. I am reposting this because sometimes teachers need to put their foot down. These aren’t teachers in the six figure range, but teachers who are lucky to get $50k/year and they’re investing their own money in purchasing school supplies because the SFUSD isn’t providing them enough to use to teach their classes.

Why I’m voting to strike

David Russitano, a member of United Educators of San Francisco and Educators for a Democratic Union, explains why he plans to vote for a teachers’ strike.

May 10, 2012

Members of United Educators of San Francisco on the march

UNITED EDUCATORS of San Francisco (UESF) is mobilizing for the first of two strike votes on May 10. The union was pushed to organize a membership meeting because of a massive assault on educators and public schools.

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) opened contract negotiations by sending out over 500 layoff notices. It tried to split the union by attacking seniority, and then proceeded to demand even larger concessions by, for example, asking to raise class size in K-3 from 22 to 25 stuents.

We already rank highest in the number of K-12 students per teacher, with an estimated 20.5 students per teacher–the rest of the country averages 13.8, according to the California Budget Project. This will make things worse for students and educators trying to work in an already underfunded system.

Not content with raising class size in the early primary grades, SFUSD is also proposing to increase special day class limits from 12 to 17. Special day classes serve students who, because of a disability, can’t function in a standard classroom.

They also want to remove many of the protections for special education teachers to get help from the principal in case of an emergency and limit the ability of regular classroom teachers to give input about students with high needs. Finally, the district wishes to remove the teacher position from a committee that makes decisions about special education.

As Matt Bello, a special day class teacher, noted, “The district is trying to convince us that the proposed special education reforms will be a step forward. How could increased caseloads and class sizes along with the removal of teacher input in district decision making be looked at as progress?”

SFUSD is also asking educators to cover the same material in fewer days by proposing eight furlough days over the next two years if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure passes. If the tax measure doesn’t pass, they want to increase that number to 18 furlough days.

For early childhood education centers, the attack is even more brutal. Regardless of what happens in November’s’ election, 27 days are to be cut from each year. Students at their youngest will be denied some of the basic educational foundations that could help make them successful and ready for kindergarten.

In addition to affecting students, these cuts will bring a huge cost to educators. For paraprofessionals, in particular, the cuts to early childhood education will cost thousands of dollars and take away valuable jobs during the summer when paraprofessionals are unemployed.

Further, the district is going to unilaterally change all of the paraprofessional hours to standardize them at 5.5 hours each day. This is disastrous, as right now, they don’t make a living wage. It means that many will have to give up their second job, while many will also have to scale back their hours. Even worse, these decisions won’t be based on fulfilling students’ needs at a particular school, but rather to meet an arbitrary time requirement.

As Robin Horne, a paraprofessional at Marina Middle School, summed up:

The attacks on paraprofessionals will be devastating to us. We barely make enough money to survive in this city, and we are unemployed during the summer. Many of us are also losing hours, which is a partial layoff. Others will be forced to take on more hours, which will prevent some from holding down a second job. Still other paraprofessionals will be losing their jobs outright.

Paraprofessionals often have a stronger connection to working class communities in San Francisco than teachers, as they are more likely to be San Francisco natives from working class areas in this city. Losing these people will not only be devastating for them, but will also be an attack on working people in San Francisco in general.

Financially, we are looking at a cut in compensation of $10,391 for certificated staff (teachers, psychologists, social workers, nurses and counselors) and up to $3,206 for classified staff (special education assistants, instructional aides, community relations). Substitutes will lose up to $6,983. Those hit the hardest will be early education teachers, who stand to lose $16,307 in compensation.

By any standard, this is the largest attack on our union in the last 20 years. It’s clear that the district is making a major push toward school “reform” at the expense of teachers, students, and communities these schools serve.

To accomplish its goals, SFUSD will stoop to any level, pitting educators against each other by using social justice language as they did around seniority. They are willing to break the law by throwing out whole sections of the contract around special education. It is obvious that they are also going to sidestep collective bargaining, because on May 3, the SFUSD declared an impasse, moving one step closer to imposing these cuts unilaterally.

The district feels confident about pushing its agenda now partially because the union has given into concessions before. Two years ago, UESF took a contract that gave back $39 million during the deepest point of the economic crisis. Most of the money came from eight furlough days and layoffs.

Unfortunately, the union has shown that it is more than willing to share the sacrifice during a recession. However, the district now has enough in reserve to save people’s jobs. It isn’t a question of money; now, it’s a question of will and intention.

To fight against cuts, UESF has taken halting steps towards organizing the membership. It was clear from the start of bargaining that the district was going after a lot. Yet the current leadership hesitated for months in calling for a strike vote.

They continued to rely on their “skills” at the negotiation table to try to beat back the attack long after it became clear that SFUSD was not giving in. The membership was asked to trust that the bargaining team was doing the right thing and to wait until our activity was needed.

Unfortunately, our union leadership seems to be more afraid of active membership than SFUSD. For two months, at each bargaining session, UESF was asked for more and more. Yet the leadership was unclear about organizing for a strike vote until after the April 24 bargaining session.

Now that they are backed into a corner, they finally organized a strike vote for May 10. They are scrambling to make the membership meeting successful–we must have at least 900 people at it for a quorum. We have lost valuable time in preparations.