Veterans North Coast Stand Down Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow at the Ferndale County Fair Grounds the annual North Coast Stand Down takes place. It is a 3 day event for veterans to get hooked up with services and networking. For the homeless veteran it means three days with a roof, cot, showers, food, haircuts, and evenLlive music entertainment. Others camp out in tents and have a fire at night.


I get most of my veterans affairs info from Carl Young and the Humboldt Herald has all the particulars from him.

U.S. 101 Central Ave. On Ramp To Close On Monday

If Caltrans stays on schedule, the southbound on ramp from McKinleyville Avenue  make that, Central Avenue, will close on this Monday night, Oct. 4th.

The northbound off ramp to McKinleyville Avenue  Central Avenue will remain open.

According to the McKinleyville Press, the closure will allow Caltrans to construct new freeway approaches to the new southbound bridge over the Mad River..

People heading south from McKinleyville will have have to use Murry Rd. or School Rd. for U.S. 101 southbound access unless they want to take North Bank Rd.

Southbound 101 traffic will soon be rerouted to the new bridge in the right of the photo. The middle bridge will be torn down and rebuilt. A concrete column is already at the base of where the next bridge will be built and can be seen it the photo between the current southbound bridge and new bridge.

The project is scheduled to be done by the Winter of 2012.

A meeting was scheduled at Azalea Hall tonight to discuss the closure but I didn't make it. I have heard that the final project will leave the old metal bridge to the left but have been unable to confirm that as of tonight.

Update: I spoke to Caltrans Project Manager Richard Mullen today. He told me that the old metal bridge will be removed.. Mullen said that the new bridges will have 8 foot wide shoulders and the new northbound bridge will have an extra 8 foot median separated with a concrete wall. This will be for bikes and pedestrians and will connect the North Bank Rd./Central Ave. intersection to the frontage road on south side of the freeway. That road goes all the way to Valley West. He also said the 101/200 intersection will be reworked for safety reasons. The County is considering widening the shoulder on Central Ave. and that would connect McKinleyville to Valley West in a safer, bike friendly way.

Gallegos and Jackson Debate The DA's Office

District Attorney Paul Gallegos and Deputy District Attorney Allison Jackson went at it in a debate tonight at the Eureka Inn. The theme was domestic violence. I had to work late and caught the whole thing on


KHUM. They had a live broadcast of the two hour debate. They have the equipment to do such broadcasts and no one else in the market has tried to compete with them on that issue.

Allison Jackson made many attacks against the way Gallegos was running the office of District Attorney and Paul fought back. I was surprised that Gallegos did as well as he did in answering Jacksons attacks concerning the way he has run his office as District Attorney. Gallegos is not know for his public speaking abilities but was able to put together many full sentences to explained the complex nature of running a DA's office. Jackson nailed Gallegos about the need for domestic violence courts. Gallegos just said that he was in agreement with her. Then she made reference to the fact that the DA's office has had a million dollars more than a previous budget and still has many problems. Gallegos countered that the additional money was from grants and that the office had actually had funding cut just like everything else in the county. He had found a way to bring more money into the office by being creative with applying for grants.

It was a good debate and both sides scored some points. Allison Jackson knows her stuff but Paul Gallegos did one of the best jobs he has ever done in describing the way things really work in the DA's office.

I almost expected Jackson to kick his ass but that didn't happen. Gallegos held his own and was even at times, articulate. I thought the debate was his to loose but I don't thing he lost it. We'll find out at the polls in November.

107 Degrees in Fullerton at 5 PM Tonight

I got a call from a family member that lives in Fullerton Ca. and they said it was 107 degrees at 5 pm. at their house tonight.

They, were all wishing they were here in Humboldt.  What a nice weekend it has been here.

On a side note, did anyone see the crazy contrail over McKinleyville this afternoon (Sunday) at about 3:15 pm? I was at the dump and didn't have my camera. It wouldn't have done any good because it was directly overhead and made a big circle/horse shoe kind of turn.  I don't have a wide angle lense. Just asking...

Earth/Rain Dance 2010

The weather was forecast to rain all 3 days of this years Earthdance in Laytonville Ca. Rain fell Friday afternoon as we were setting up camp but stopped before nightfall. Friday night and all day Saturday were fantastic weather and good times. The skies opened up near midnight into Sunday morning and things got exciting. Things cleared up in the late morning and it was another nice day at the last Earthdance to be held in Laytonville.

Next year Earthdance will be held in Vallejo Ca. in the San Francisco Bay area. Black Oak Ranch near Laytonville will hold a different festival in celebration of mother earth next year.
I'll have more info on that festival when I get it.

Below are some more pictures of this years Rain/Earthdance.
Here's my pick for best RV

Best Shrine

Best hand painted slogan written in large, friendly letters

Best camp mascot

Earthdance 2010

This is the last year for Earthdance at the Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville Ca. Word has it, the event has outgrown the venue.

I have been going to the Black Oak Ranch since I moved from the south to the north of California. It was called Hog Farm the first 3 years I went and became Earthdance about 9 years ago.

Earthdance is a celebration of life and peace on the earth. There are several stages that include speakers, entertainers and musicians. The crowd is fun, friendly, and eco-conscious. Those that aren't are shown the light and offered another chance to be peaceful or they can leave with the authorities that are waiting just outside the gates on US Highway 101.

When the main stage goes dark, the Dome lights up and things are a bit different. I shot some grainy video of the decadence but It doesn't do it justice.

See Photos From Last Year

Including Wavy Gravy and The Dragonfly Girl

New Study: State and Local Workers Earn Less than Private Sector, Even Factoring in Benefits

"Critics of public workers sometimes claim that the real pot of gold is in the benefits packages-that public workers receive far more generous insurance, leave, and retirement benefits than private workers. And while state and local workers on average do indeed receive more valuable benefits than private-sector workers, the difference only reduces the wage penalty for the average state and local government worker. The better benefits packages are not better enough to offset the lower base pay."

Click to read the whole story
Click for study only

It Is A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.

I woke up today and decided to go out and about rather that watch TV and all of the 9/11 coverage and remembrance. If someone wants' to talk 9/11 I refer them to my last post. I just wanted to share something beautiful today.

Feel free to use as a screen saver or to enjoy in a non commercial way.

Former senator, engineers offer ‘proof’ of 9/11 controlled demolitions

RawStory.com exclusive:
"The nine-year-old body of 9/11 conspiracy theories includes many improbable (and sometimes contradictory) claims, everything from remote-controlled planes flying into the World Trade Center, to a missile hitting the Pentagon, to mass kidnappings of air passengers.

But a group of more than 1,200 architects and engineers is building what it hopes is a scientifically sound argument about one 9/11 claim: That the World Trade Center buildings were destroyed not by fires caused by the airplane collisions, but by a controlled demolition."

Read more.

Interesting Skies

I think you can blow out a camera trying to get pictures like this if you don't have the right filters. I guess it depends on the camera. The colors from the contrails back lit by the sun seemed incredible. In real life there was a rainbow sheen of sorts. Taken the afternoon of August 31, 2010.

Looking south framed by Hoff's Hut, a tower that sends espn and music out to transmitters from the building and in the distance is the 1480 am tower in Eureka.

After College Radio I went Into The Music Business

A long, long time ago in a county far, far away... While wraping up my stint in college radio, I bought the studios that my band used to rehearse at. I was lucky to have a band as a customer that had some members that did video. We worked out a deal and produced our own TV commercials to run late night on Duck Man and Bevis and Butthead and other like shows on cable. This video was an actual commercial we ran for a few months back in the 1990's.

Don't call the number on the screen.  It hasn't been in service for 13 years.