Another Dubious Distinction for Bakersfield

Not only are we like in the top ten for the worst air quality in the country, we are also now the stupidest city in the country. Whoo hoo!

We have been ranked number one for illiteracy. Which doesn't surprise me at all, seeing as how every day I see people driving down the road who don't seem to be able to read the word STOP on a big red sign.

We are also the fattest city, as any trip to our local Walmart can attest to. Not that I should talk.

Why are we so fat and stupid? Some of our fatness is probably caused because it's not safe to go out and get any exercise, remember the illiterate drivers who can't read the stop signs? Then there are the neighborhoods where shootings happen on a daily basis, so best to just stay inside because not even your front yard is safe. The other part of the fatness could be the fact that fattening food is way cheaper than healthy food. Let's see, I paid $1.98 for a bunch of celery at Winco the other day but if I'd gone across the store to the frozen foods section I could have gotten a whole package of microwave burritos for the same $1.98 and really, which one tastes better? Then there are the numerous fast food 'restaurants' on every street where you can get fifty chicken nuggets complete with dipping sauce for five bucks.

Speaking of fast food, Keith had been wanting to try the new grilled fish sandwich from Carls' Jr, you know, the sandwich that the half naked model is eating while cavorting on the beach? The one that if the model actually ate the sandwich on a regular basis she wouldn't look quite so good half naked on the beach? The one that tricks men into thinking that if they ate that fish sandwich the model might give them that same look she is giving the sandwich?

Anyway, yesterday we drove over to Carl's so he could try the fish sandwich, he got one of those and I got a hamburger, and it was a big waste of money because I don't know what's happened to Carl's Jr. but their food has gotten really bad. Really. Bad. Yuck. Serves us right for eating fast food I guess.

Tomorrow Keith goes for his testing and hopefully an interview for the Union Pacific job, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that something good comes out of it. Like a good job. Hopefully.

We Did It Again!

Holla! Once again Bakersfield is Number One!!

1 Bakersfield-Delano, CA Population: 800,000
Year-round particulate pollution rank: 1
Short-term particulate pollution rank: 1
Ozone pollution rank: 2

Bakersfield, CA Photo: iStock

Hot, dusty and surrounded by California's biggest oil fields, Bakersfield has all the ingredients for the worst air in the nation.

This is copied from the latest report on the who's got the worst air in America. Out of the top ten, seven cities are in California. We Rule!!

Today we should be able to breathe a little easier although we do need to break out the winter parkas. Thursday was a beautiful day, on Wednesday high winds blew all the bad air somewhere else and Thursday was sunny and the high was 78. Not bad for November. Then yesterday the promised rain arrived and the high was 54. Today is supposed to also be about 54 and more rain is coming for tomorrow. But at least the rain will wash away some of the dirt.

Nacho Cheese Doritos and Taco Bell Tacos

Here is another great reason to move to Bakersfield (or Fresno), besides the wonderful weather and clean air and crime free neighborhoods, now you can go to Taco Bell, but only the Taco Bells here in this wonderful city and that other wonderful city, Fresno, and get a supreme taco where the shell is MADE OUT OF NACHO CHEESE DORITOS!

Yum!

I'm thinking that the reason they picked Bakersfield and Fresno to debut the new NACHO CHEESE DORITOS taco shells, is that they know that the average Bakersfield (and Fresno) resident is probably really poor and the only thing they can afford to eat is Taco Bell, or really fat and the only thing they eat is Taco Bell, or really lazy and the only thing they eat is Taco Bell, or a combination of all three with a little hillbilly/redneck thrown in there, so what better to make a palate pleasing taco shell out of than NACHO CHEESE DORITOS!

Again, yum!

Let's make our Taco Bell tacos even more appetizing with NACHO CHEESE DORITO shells! I wonder if a Mountain Dew comes with it?

So, everybody, come to Bakersfield (or Fresno) because that's the only place you're going to be able to get a NACHO CHEESE DORITOS supreme taco! Doesn't it look delicious?

We're Famous!

Once again, Bakersfield is in the news. This time it's not for being the most polluted city in the nation (that was a few weeks ago) but for being the home of ARNOLD'S LOVE CHILD!

It was all over the news reports last night, our local channels covering the national channels covering the breaking news that the woman that Arnold cheated on Maria with (and had a child with) lives right here in good old Bakersfield. And this is important news because? Is it really necessary for 25 news trucks to be camping out in a formerly quiet neighborhood hoping to catch a glimpse of the woman, or better yet, THE LOVE CHILD? Of course it is! We all love scandal, now don't we?

Other than that excitement, and yes, it's tempting to drive around town looking for the cul-de-sac where all of the news trucks are parked, it's just another rather dull week around here.

It did rain some this week which totally surprised me since I really thought summer was here what with temps at almost 90 last Friday. The good thing about clouds and rain rolling in is that the air gets cleaned up and you can see the mountains. I drove up to the post office yesterday afternoon and you could see from one side of the valley to the other, with a canopy of sky and clouds. It was really kind of pretty.

Sales are so very slow this month, I don't know what's going on with that. I've seen numerous complaints about it on the Etsy forums, so it's not just me that it's happening to. Nobody knows what the problem is or has a solution, though. It is very discouraging and I certainly don't feel like making or listing anything because really, what's the point? Rack up those listing fees but nothing in return for it.

I do have a few new things, though. I took some of the painted brass charm necklaces and decoupaged words onto them.

Flutter Butterfly


Rose in Bloom


And Sang Swallow Bird

We're Number Four!

An online article about the top ten cities where the economy will probably get even worse caught my eye the other day. California made the top six, with Riverside the worst, then Stockton, Los Angeles, BAKERSFIELD AT NUMBER FOUR!, San Francisco, and Sacramento. Who cares what states the other cities were in, California RULES!

Yep, here in Bakersfield the unemployment rate still hovers around 12%, with the smaller agricultural towns around here coming in at 35% and 40%. So, despite all the so called good news about the recovery and how 200,000 new jobs were created last month or whatever, we've still got a long long way to go.

The same news report bragging about all the new jobs showed people going back to work. At a Bloomingdale's outlet store. Where they are probably making minimum wage. Yeah.

New post on Festival O Felines here! http://festivalofelines.blogspot.com/2011/04/hairbrushes-and-hairballs.html

I'm stalling this morning because I don't really feel like going and cleaning the shower that really needs to be cleaned. And the rest of the bathroom that really needs to be cleaned.

I've been keeping busy with Keith gone, working on gift bags and painting some new charms and doing some new little wood pins. Like these:




Available here and only $4.00 each!

One More Resolution

I'm going to try and blog about something every day. But I'm sure it will be boring. And I'm going to list what I get done each day, too. Which will also be boring.

First off, I can't wait until Brian Williams comes back to the Nightly News next week. How dare he take a two week vacation!!

And, speaking of the nightly news, they had a story tonight about Pilots n Paws, an organization that matches up private pilots and rescue or shelter dogs that need transportation to other states, whether to go to an interim shelter while waiting to be adopted or to new forever homes. I love stories like that, they kind of counteract the news of war and economic woes.

Oh, and Merle Haggard got his very own star on the Walk of Fame. No, not the one in Hollywood, but the one right here in Bakersfield in front of the historic Fox Theatre. What, you didn't know that Bakersfield has a Walk of Fame? Neither did Merle, and when he asked who else had a star, they told him that he was the first one! I'm sure Buck Owens will get a posthumous one here soon. And maybe even Dwight Yoakum, who played the New Year's Eve show at Buck Owens Crystal Palace. Someday we're going to go eat at the Crystal Palace, I can't believe we've been here five years and haven't done that yet.

So, what did I get done today?

I washed the sheets and EVEN PUT THEM BACK ON THE BED!
I vacuumed the bedroom and EVEN CLEANED THE TOILET!
I made dinner.
I took my walk.
I ate my apple.

That's all. Don't know what I did the rest of the day.
What did I do the rest of the day?

From The Streets of Bakersfield

Here's a bizarre story that was in the news last night:

Some Bakersfield residents were cleaning out a storage locker on Tuesday and had brought a bunch of containers home and saw a decomposed hand while going through a trash can that didn't belong to them. Apparently they share the space with other people and why they brought the trash can home that doesn't belong to them I don't know. So, homicide detectives went through the rest of the trash can and found an entire decomposed body attached to the hand.

And, then they find a whole other decomposed body in another trash can at the storage facility. The news story doesn't say if the second body was in the same storage locker as the first, and they are trying to determine how many people have access to the storage locker. The two bodies have been decomposing for several years.

Quoted from the story in the newspaper: The Sheriff's Commander doesn't believe that there was a serial killer at work or anything else to cause alarm.

Here's my theory.

It costs a lot to bury your dead up here in Bakersfield and almost every weekend there is a car wash or two or three somewhere in town trying to earn money to put on a funeral for a loved one. I'm thinking that they didn't earn quite enough money at the car wash to bury Grandma and Grandpa so they just stuffed them in trash cans and stored them away. And then just kinda forgot about them.

Christians

Invaded Bakersfield yesterday.

We went across town last night to go have dinner at Mimi's Cafe which is conveniently located next to Barnes and Noble-makes for a nice dinner out when you can stop in at the bookstore after your meal. Well, the line at Mimi's was out the door with all kinds of well dressed churchy looking people waiting for a table, all wearing some sort of name tags. I didn't want to stare directly at people's chests trying to figure out what the name tags said, so I used my peripheral vision to try and make them out, and it was something about Church and Jesus. I guess there was a Christian convention going on somewhere nearby.

We didn't want to wait for a table at Mimi's, being the impatient people that we are, so we walked over to Marie Callenders which is conveniently located on the other side of Barnes and Noble, and it was the same thing-well dressed Christians waiting for a table. We didn't want to wait there either.

So, we went into Barnes and Noble for a few minutes, then down the street to El Torito, where the Christian invasion hadn't happened yet, and were able to get a table. As we ate, Christians began to fill up the nearby tables.

Seated nearby was a very large very well endowed young woman in a spaghetti strap dress with a Superman tattoo on her left breast-something about her told me that she was not with the rest of the Christians.

Dinner tasted funny to me and so did the iced tea-I think it was mango iced tea or something, and I prefer my iced tea to be just plain iced tea. I think El Torito is trying to be more continental or upscale because they are just getting a little too fancy with their food and sorry, it just all tasted odd. Even the fried ice cream had chipotle chocolate sauce on it-which tasted funny. Don't mess with chocolate sauce, it's fine just as it is!

And now, Keith has just left for his trip to Salt Lake, so I'm home alone until Wednesday night. Feels strange to be here by myself. He almost took a cat or two with him, they were trying to stow away in his luggage.


I wanna go too, Dad!!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Don't know when I'll be back again....

No, I'm not going anywhere, but Keith is getting ready to fly out of Bakersfield International Airport tomorrow to go to Salt Lake City for a safety specialist training seminar at his company's headquarters. We went over to the airport yesterday to check out the lay of the land so to speak-neither of us have flown anywhere in a long long time.

Well, Bakersfield airport or BAX or whatever it's called is nothing like the airports in the big city, let me tell you. It was just a small town airport for small planes until just recently, so there is a now a brand new terminal with maybe four airlines that fly out of there.

The parking lot was relatively empty and so was the terminal, with just a few people sitting around, one employee at the Delta counter, and three employees looking kind of bored at some airline I've never heard of's counter. There is a little coffee/convenience store with one employee sitting behind the counter reading a magazine. The baggage claim is one carousel. I guess you wouldn't get lost looking for your gate in this airport.

It would be so easy to fly somewhere from here!

We were surprised that they actually have a direct flight from here to Salt Lake, one of the guys at his work had to first fly to LA-opposite direction of Salt Lake-and then sit at LAX for 2 hours waiting for his flight to Salt Lake-he could have just driven down to LAX in the same amount of time.

So, when Keith gets back on Wednesday night, really late, he will be a bona fide safety specialist but of course will not be monetarily compensated for the extra work he will have to do as said safety specialist.

From The Streets of Bakersfield

Yesterday in the news was the story of an 82 year old woman who died after being hit by a car while crossing the street in the crosswalk at an intersection. Happens all the time up here in Bakersfield, I noticed when we first moved here that to make an attempt to cross the street was quite literally taking your life into your own hands.

I don't know if it's the long straight wide streets with 50mph speed limits or the general attitude of drivers in Bakersfield or if everyone is just incredibly impatient and in a huge hurry to get wherever it is that they are going to in such a huge hurry, but drivers in this town do not like to have to:
a/ stop
b/ slow down
c/ pull over to the right for ambulances
d/ put down that cell phone
e/ wait until someone finishes crossing the street

At the same time that this accident happened, the sheriff's department was doing a crackdown on drivers who failed to yield for pedestrians in the crosswalk. The news story showed a Sherrif's Deputy-in full uniform mind you-crossing a crosswalk while cars whizzed right by him. Not just one car, but cars on both sides of him as he was walking across the crosswalk. In broad daylight. In full uniform.

My jaw was hanging open in disbelief as I was watching this.

Then the girl doing the news story decided to walk across the crosswalk to see what would happen. She had to stop a couple of times because of cars going by her WHILE IN THE CROSSWALK as she was crossing the street. Again, cars whizzed right by on both sides of her as she was attempting to walk across the street IN THE FREAKING CROSSWALK!! They didn't even slow down.

My solution would be to put those flashing lights on every street corner in Bakersfield, along with huge signs that state the fines for failing to yield to a pedestrian, and also arm everyone who attempts to cross the street with one of those hand held stop signs.

Nah, probably wouldn't make any difference at all.

The Oilfields of Bakersfield

Last Sunday when we went to the zoo, we passed through the lovely town of Oildale which got it's name from the-you guessed it-oilfields of Bakersfield. I forget how huge these oilfields are and how ugly ugly ugly they are.

Most of Bakersfield is flat as a pancake, but there is a part of town that is built on the bluffs overlooking the river. The street on top of the bluff is appropriately called Panorama Drive, and it's a nice street with houses and trees on one side and a strip of park and walkways on the bluff side. The view is spectacular, but it's mostly oilfields, which as I said are ugly ugly ugly unless of course you OWN those oilfields and then I guess you see lots of green when you look at them.
The pictures look way better than the actual scenery here-the thousands of oilwells are just little specks off in the distance here. You can see the river with actual water running in it in the foreground, plus a canal that diverts some of the water.
We were looking at this view and imagining the first settlers who came to Bakersfield looking at this same view back before all the oilwells went up. In the spring when the hills were green and the river was running wild it must have been really pretty.

From The Streets of Bakersfield

Last night at 12:15 am the ringing of our doorbell woke us up out of a sound sleep. What the....?

Keith goes to the door in his skivvies to hear 'Police!!'

Aaackk! They found us! You'll never take us alive!

The officer said there was a cat stuck in our gate on the side of the house, and is it ours? Keith comes back in to put some clothes on and goes out to find poor little Cali Cat from next door hanging by one leg off of the gate. She was facing out so couldn't claw her way out of her predicament and was yowling away. He saw that her back leg was stuck in between the very narrow spaces between the fence pickets and didn't want to try to squeeze her leg back out, so he had the officer break the picket that was trapping her leg and got her down. Her leg was obviously broken and was just hanging by skin with the bone sticking out. I'm amazed that Cali wasn't biting and scratching him, she must have been in a lot of pain.

The other officer went to wake up Cali's owners, Keith telling them that her leg was broken and there is an emergency pet clinic downtown. Mr. Neighbor of course says 'Hell, no, I'm not spending any money on that cat!' So, Keith said for them to get a box to put her in and keep her comfortable until the morning when they could decide what to do with her.

The policemen said they had been cruising the neighborhood because they had gotten two complaints about loud music and heard poor Cali yowling away, none of us had heard a thing, loud music or cat yowling. If they hadn't been in the neighborhood, she would have hung there all night or until her leg actually ripped off.

Another good reason to keep your cats safe indoors.

And also in the news:

A man with a gun robbed a fireworks stand shortly before the holiday, then shot himself in the leg as he was fleeing. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Your criminal career got off to a great start, didn't it! Yes, we do have what seems to be an extraordinary amount of stupid people in this town.

Old Time Peddler's Fair

Today we went to the Old Time Peddlers Fair that is held at the Kern County outdoor museum each year. We used to sell crafts at this show, never made much money but it was kind of a fun show to do. I'm SO GLAD we decided to not do this (or any other) show anymore. This weekend we are having the first heat wave of the summer with temps getting up into the 100's. It would be miserable to have to sit out there all weekend. We went early in an effort to beat the heat, which really didn't work cause it was already getting HOT out there. The museum is made up of all kinds of old buildings from the early days here in Bakersfield all laid out on little dirt paths with lots of trees, kind of like an actual little town. They just moved an old house from our end of town out there to fix up. The houses and buildings are done like dioramas where you can look in the windows and see what it might have looked like way back when.
This is the first house you see as you come into the museum. The vendors at the show set up in front of all the buildings.
Obviously this is the General Store.
The five star hotel.
And the courthouse with the jail conveniently located underneath.

We didn't buy a whole lot, I was mainly looking for old books to cut up for pendants and collages, and scored with a few good ones. I found a 1932 childrens music book with some cute illustrations in it for $1.00.
We almost bought a drive in theatre speaker stand, complete with two speakers, but thought $75.00 was a bit much for something that really wouldn't go with our house and we really wouldn't have any place to put.

This is new since we were last here. An old gas station complete with pumps and an old market sign
And this used to be on an old Chinese restaurant downtown. We had noticed that the sign had been taken down and were so glad to see it at the museum.

Now I'm tired from the heat and Keith is taking one of the many naps that I'm sure he'll indulge in this weekend. So, the rest of the day will be a lazy one, I'm not even going to clean the kitchen. Not that I clean it that often anyway.

We're In The Top Five!!

This just in! I heard on the radio that Bakersfield is in the top five in the nation...for cities with the worst air pollution!!
Now, isn't that an accomplishment? I'm so glad we decided to move from a nice coastal town with nice fresh ocean breezes to a city that's in the top five for air pollution. Makes me proud to be an American! Cough, cough.

More Random Stuff

I was reading theblackapple.etsy.com's blog the other day and I just don't know how this girl does it. Her shop is probably the most successful shop on etsy, with over 12000 items sold. Yes, 12000! And she keeps up with her blog and is always busy with new things for her shop. Maybe because she is only 24 and still has lots of energy.
I sometimes feel overwhelmed with just my 2 little shops what with trying to keep up with shipping and finding time to create, photograph, and list new things. But, it sure beats the heck out of going to a 'real' job each day.

So, I saw Merle Haggard on the news last night for the dedication of his newly named street. The ceremonies were held at the new Harley Davidson bike shop. He looks like he's been rode hard and put away wet all his life, that's for sure. Apparently he is a native son of Oildale. Oildale is our 'wrong side of the tracks' part of town.

Why can't Keith put a new trash bag in the trash can after he takes the trash out? They are kept only about 12" away from the trash can. And why can't he put the food back where it belongs after he makes a snack? I guess it's that old 'just don't see the milk sitting there on the counter' thing.

And why can't I get my ass in gear and clean the bathroom? I am so tempted to hire someone to come in once a week and clean this house for me.

Our kittens seem to have finally grown out of the sucking on each others bellies thing. They would root around in each others bellies and suck up a flap of belly skin and just suck away. Kind of like a kitty version of a pacifier, I guess. You'd pick up one of the girls and her belly would be all wet and sticky. And every time I pick up Buddy I'm just amazed at how big and solid that kitten has gotten. When we first rescued him his whole body was about the size that his head is now!

We are actually taking a very short vacation this weekend. Sister Heather and her husband Jim are moving to La Paz-I think that's the right place, anyway. They live on a boat and are sailing away to Mexico here in a few weeks and are having an open boat/dock party this weekend. We are staying at a nice hotel Saturday night and visiting with Keith's kids the next morning before heading back home. Our last trip to Ventura was when we stayed at the horrible motel 6 and then had our car break down on the way home so we're hoping we have better luck this time.

I'm still re-working my shop, trying to take new pictures and re-list everything so the shop looks fresher. So, back to work!

Random Stuff

So, they are naming a street after Merle Haggard tomorrow here in Bakersfield, and apparently he will be in town, too. Funny, I thought he was dead. No, wait, that's Buck Owens, and we already have Buck Owens Blvd here. Plus Buck Owens Crystal Palace. And we have Peanut Street here on my end of town, that's one of my favorite street names.

I have an order for 100 pins for lapinandme which is a UK website with lots of cool stuff. She started buying these pins from me almost a year ago and apparently they are popular over there in the UK. They call them badges, not pins.



This is what the brooch looks like on the website. Cool, huh?

Let's see, what else.

Oh, I took this picture of Lucy tonight in this odd sleeping position:






















She looks like the headless cat.

It got up to 72 degrees here today. Then tonight I watched the news of all the snow and ice in the midwest. I don't think I could live where it gets so so cold.

Some kid got shot at an Oxnard school today, the town next to my home town of Ventura. The news said he was in 8th grade. That's what, like 12 or 13 years old? Unbelievable. Or maybe not, considering the gang activity that town is so well known for. A kid was shot to death right in front of my mother in laws house in Oxnard a few years back. And her neighborhood was not exactly the ghetto.

Bakersfield is just about as bad, it's unusual to have a day go by without someone getting shot somewhere in this town.

I bought some drawer organizers to organize my kitchen drawers yesterday. They are sitting on top of the washing machine.
And the load of laundry from yesterday is still in the dryer.
But I did clean the toilet today. But not the rest of the bathroom.

Wedgies

Friday night we went to one of our local 'minor league' -or whatever they call it in basketball- Bakersfield Jam basketball games. One of the local businesses was having a sponsor night and gave away free tickets to other local businesses so Keith got free tickets at work. It was a really good game with our team, the Jam, behind by a few points all night. They almost had it at the end, but ended up losing by 2 points. They even have their own version of the Laker girls, a bunch of cute girls that looked to me like they were in high school who danced and pom-pommmed throughout the game. A few drawings and basketball toss games were thrown in during time outs and ends of quarters. One of the prizes was a 25.00 gift certificate to Goodwill. Only in Bakersfield would you win a gift certificate to a thrift store.

The best part of the night was the half time entertainment-a troupe of ballet/modern dance kids who put on a circus themed dance. The littlest girls were in gauzy costumes that suggested lions and tigers, some were in ringmaster type costumes, and some had bright orange tutus. The little lions and tigers were in cages at first and then escaped to do their dance. One of the little ones must have had a serious wedgie-as she awaited her cue, she did some major digging of that leotard out of her bottom. I could just imagine her proud mother on the sidelines catching that moment on video!

And since I don't have a picture of the game, here's a circus themed pendant!