Happy New Year
Best Wishes for 2008
and always

Well, I gave you a sad song below so how about something which sounds a little more upbeat. I still wish I knew what the words were saying.

Happy New Year...oops, wait a minute...I am a day early. Let me try this again tomorrow...lol

I wish I knew the Thail language so I would know what is being sung about here. As is, it is a very beautiful sounding song.

This incident at the SF Zoo with the tiger mauling three people and killing one of them continues to bother me. This is so unusual that I cannot help think that the guys were taunting the tiger in some fashion. No matter what the depth of the moat or the horizontal distance across the moat, she must have been every angered by something one of the guys did in order to muster up enough energy and force to made that leap out of her space and onto the grounds. It is a sad and regretable incident but one which could be made worse if the parents of that numbskull (the one who died) decide to sue the zoo.

Anyway, here we are in the final weekend of 2007 and New Year's Eve approaches. Looks like it will be a dry evening so celebrations will not get rained on. We might freeze our asses off that night but what the heck, with enough alcohol we may not feel the cold that much anyay. Ha!

If you do drive, however, please leave the driving to someone else.

After a very chilly day in San Francisco, I am finally warming up. Of course, it hasn't been easy as I had to crank up the main heater to 70 degrees and turn on a portable heater to 7 (10 is high setting). Now I am feeling better but while I was downtown today I was miserable and I froze my buns off. Even the weather person on TV tonight indicated that it was very cold for the date. I think it was in the mid-forties and there was a breeze so the wind chill factor was too much.

Now I learn that while New Year's Eve will be dry, there are some major storms headed this way which are currently scheduled to arrive next weekend. Oh great...how will they effect my departure from SFO to Taipei. Will that 12:15 AM flight be able to take off in the rain? I hope so as I will have people waiting for me in Bangkok to take me to Pattaya. At this rate I might start singing "Oh the weather outside is frightful...." (again). Yuck!

Did you survive Christmas? Ha! I had no trouble with shopping before Christmas but when I went down to Macy's this morning to buy something for a friend in Thailand, I had to wait and wait and wait. No, there were not that many people in line but there were not enough clerks and those that were working were having to deal with people returning items or exchanging things. At one cash register one clerk was tied up by a customer who was paying off (with cash) several accounts. Yep, that's right. He had several statement sheets for several accounts and the clerk kept asking him how much he wanted to pay on each account. Sort of reminded me of the old days of "lay-away" plans. Then when I finished shopping I went to Boudin's in the food court at Macy's only to get stuck in another line behind people who did not know what they wanted. Grrr....

Anyway, I finished my post-Christmas shopping and got home without too much hassle. Now I am ready to go on vacation to Thailand in a few weeks. With this chilly weather we are having in San Francisco right now, that will be very welcome. Right now it is 49F/10C at 2:20 PM here where as the high temperatures in Pattaya these days are around 91F/32C which will be very welcome as I lounge on a deck check under an umbrella on Jomtien(Dong Tan) Beach. Ah, thoughts of just sitting there in the shade with a slight breeze off the Gulf of Thailand, food vendors coming around with various things of interest, the "scenery", etc., etc., really warms me up with warm fuzzies even whilw trying to stay warm here at home. Before I go however, there is New Year's Eve at my favorite club down the street where I like to stay in touch with many of my friends.

The only thing I don't like about travel is the preparation and the getting there. I sort of have packing down to a routine but I still get nervous and fear that I will forget something. No, this will not be like to going to the middle of the Sahara Desert where I would have to be self-sustaining for three weeks but still, I could forget something of a personal nature. I do, however, have a check-list but I am not sure if I have remembered to put everything onto that list that should be there. Ha! Anyway, in Thailand there is a 7-Eleven on practically every corner and a Starbucks on every other corner so I am will not be too far from the creature comforts of home.
What I can't do anything about however is the thirteen hours flying time from San Francisco to Taipei. That is where I change planes. It is another two hours or so from there down to Bangkok (that includes another change in time zones). By that time, however, I am all hyped up and ready to hit the beach running. LOL

So now I will rest up for the final big bash of the year here in SF and then will get ready for my flights.

Cheers...

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

My, my, my...a newly discovered asteroid. What if this were aiming for Earth and not Mars. Would the scientific community be embarrassed by their oversight or error in this matter? How many people would be panicking at this time? Can you imagine a direct hit on New York City or London or some other city? Wow!

"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."

Well, at least it is not snowing in San Francisco but it is fairly chilly especially in the mornings. As I write this it is only 42F at 10:20 AM in the city and might reach the mid-fifties this afternoon. No rain in the forecast for now. But now it is party season. In fact, I have canceled one event on my calendar for tonight as I can't do it two nights in a row (No, not THAT.) anymore. lol Too much eating and drinking during this holiday time but what the heck, it only comes once a year. Right? So what's on your schedule for the holidays?

Christmas in San Francisco

Paragraph 10, section E of my apartment lease states: Tenant shall not make or permit any noise which will disturb other tenants. Tenant is responsible for insuring that disturbing noises are not caused by Tenant's family or guests. When the nut case moved in next door in apartment # 202 and I tried to talk to him about his excessively loud music, he replied that he could do what he pleased as long as it was not late at night. I reminded him about this section of the lease and he said he new nothing about that and told me to "buzz off" or words to that effect.

The guy is basket case. Strange noises in addition to the loud music continue to exists. Sometimes it sounds like a war is going on in that apartment and the explosions and other loud noises cause the wall to vibrate. I cannot talk with him. He is totally unreasonable. What can I do?

I am trying to play it cool during the holiday season and until I return from vacation at the end of January but I am afraid my patience will wear out in February if he continues to do as he has been recently.

I can only hope that he suddenly decides to move or is otherwise evicted during the next six weeks. If not, February 2008 could be very unpleasant here.

And one final question...isn't there any sort of ordinance in San Francisco about noisy neighbors and one that has some teeth in it?????????

What is it about the Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy" that drives so many people up the wall. Am I the only one who likes it anymore? Even this morning Alan Jones, Dean of Grace Cathedral mentioned in his sermon that if he hears it one more time he might be driven to violence. (laugher) The thing that drives me up the wall these days is a commercial on TV that shows a large gathering of family and friends for Christmas and the song starts "Are you having any fun...are you getting any lovin'...". The commercial is a total failure because I cannot remember what is being touted here and the song drives me up the wall to boot. Another thing I dislike very much is religious music of Christmas being turned into rock music or jazz or soul music and sung by unqualified singers. That is as bad as turning the National Anthem at sporting events into some sort of rock number, something people in other countries would never think of doing to their respective National Anthems. In fact, in Thailand one might lose their freedom or life for doing so. Maybe we need similar penalties here???

The planet Mars in an image courtesy of NASA. On spring days on Mars, powerful geysers sometimes spew carbon dioxide 'steam' and dust to great heights, a phenomenon unlike anything ever seen on earth, scientists said on Tuesday.

NASA has really gotten some great images of the planets in recent years. This is one of my favorites.

What's this, an e-mail from Walgreens on Saturday Dec. 8th for a seven hour sale on Friday Nov. 23rd? Uh, hello, is there anyone home there???

San Franciscan's Behaving Badly

This excellent letter to the editor caught my eye this morning and I feel should be read by everyone.

"Editor - It's amazing to me that when something goes wrong in this town, it's always the fault of the government. I'm no fan of Mayor Newsom, and our supervisors don't inspire much respect, either. However, whether it's litter on our streets or the murder rate, it's not the fault of our leaders as much as it is our people. Our reputation for tolerance is sorely abused. Worse, too many of those who come here think they can engage in behavior that wouldn't be acceptable in most civilized settings, and that we should put up with it. Compounding this selfishness is an inability of people here to stand up to bad behavior. I once watched two kids deface a bus, with not one other adult willing to accost them. On the Muni Metro, I saw a man who was about to get off put his cup behind the seat. I politely suggested that he take it with him, and not only did he let loose a stream of vulgarity, but two other folks (not with him) lit into me as well! Decent people who stand by and do nothing in the face of such behavior aren't much better than the offenders. When a society makes excuses for, and defends, bad behavior, it is not a big jump to the point where arguments are ended with bullets and knives.

We only get the government we deserve, and in a selfish, childish society like ours we really can't expect any better than what we have.

PAUL TOMINAC San Francisco"

Personal comment in conclusion: It is this sort of thing that really discourages and depresses me at times and make me feel like this planet is ready for a complete re-do. That is, a huge asteroid should crash into the planet and wipe out the human race as it did the dinosaurs millions of years ago and let the planet start all over again. I cannot see the human doing anything to make it better.