Another workweek behind us. So much to say. But not now.

Survivor is about to come on.

Ken

710 Freeway

Pasadena Star-News - 710 Backers Suffer Setback

The 710 Long Beach Freeway, which runs from near the shore in Long Beach north to Alhambra, has long been left "unfinished" because it was supposed to cut through the middle of the small city of South Pasadena and connect to the 110 Pasadena Freeway and then the 210 Foothill Freeway and the 134.

I grew up in South Pasadena, and a lot of us opposed this "completion", because it would have radically changed and nature of our suburban small city. You have to understand that South Pasadena, CA started with a spirit of protection and isolation. It was one of the earliest cities to incorporate in the County of Los Angeles, and part of the reason to keep the town "dry" instead of booze-selling, like Pasadena. It has long had its own school district, fire department, and police department.

Anyway, having driven on the 710 Freeway fairly regularly for my entire adult life, I know full well that "completing" the freeway will NOT solve traffic woes. This is quite apparent as I get on the northern end of the freeway in Alhambra and head south. Since the freeway just started up from a surface street, it shouldn't have heavy traffic, right? WRONG! The 710 soon crosses the 10 Freeway and the 60 Freeway, and regularly backs up to a crawl. How would having 110, 210, and 134 traffic from the north help that at all? It would make it worse!

As for the northbound side, many trucks head northbound on the 710 from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, because the 710 crosses the 405, the 91, is the terminus of the 105, then crosses I-5 before it gets to the 60 and 10. The trucks can transition to all of those freeways. If they could keeo going straight to the 210, many would.

Quotes:
>>ROSEMEAD - A committee of San Gabriel Valley cities has rejected a call to rank the Long Beach (710) Freeway extension as the top priority for the region.

Instead, committee members voted to continue a policy of listing all unfunded transportation projects without rank, rather than risk further dividing the region over the controversial project.
[snip]
The decision was a major setback for officials from Alhambra, Rosemead and Monterey Park, who had lobbied to place the 4.5-mile extension at the head of the line for any funds that flow from a public works plan proposed by the governor.
[snip]
Opposition to the freeway extension is strongest in South Pasadena, the city through which it would run. There are also interest groups in Pasadena and several foothill cities that have fought the project out of fear it will draw truck traffic from the Long Beach port onto the Foothill (210) Freeway.

One possible solution to the impasse is an underground road that prohibits truck traffic. Longtime freeway opponents have agreed to consider the proposal.<<

Ken

ABC News: Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse

ABC News: Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse
Army's New 'Rules of Engagement' Teach Troops How to Pick the Right Spouse
By PAULINE JELINEK
The Associated Press

Quotes:
>>U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called "How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk."

The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 in the Army active, National Guard and Reserve have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001.

Officials partly blame long and repeated deployments which started after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and stretched the service thin.

Troops also are coming home with life-altering injuries.

Many come back better people, others worse-off but either way, very changed from who they were when they wed.<<

Marrying the right person is good for military strength! Yet another reason to choose a spouse wisely.

>>The "no jerks" program is also called "P.I.C.K. a Partner," for Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge.

It advises the marriage-bound to study a partner's F.A.C.E.S. family background, attitudes, compatibility, experiences in previous relationships and skills they'd bring to the union.<<

Hmmmm... have they talked to eHarmony.com? It worked well for us!

>>It teaches the lovestruck to pace themselves with a R.A.M. chart the Relationship Attachment Model which basically says don't let your sexual involvement exceed your level of commitment or level of knowledge about the other person.<<

I can see negative reactions now... "How dare we spend taxpayer money on pushing morality!" But this should be common sense.

>>Though the acronyms and salute make it sound like something the Pentagon would come up with, the program was created by former minister John Van Epp of Ohio, who has a doctorate in psychology and a private counseling practice. He teaches it to Army chaplains, who in turn teach it to troops.

It also is used by social service agencies, prisons, churches and other civilian groups.<<

Shelby Is Progressing

There was a time when Shelby would simply watch as someone else's flea-covered cat calmly walked in through the tiny doggie door, walked over to Shelby's food and water bowl, refreshed herself, and then walked back out the doggie door.

Mind you, when any human walked by our front door, posing no threat whatsoever, Shelby would run over and back and growl something fierce.

So imagine our surprise when Shelby was barking by the doggie door this afternoon. Sure enough, there was a cat in the back yard. It took a little prompting, but Shelby did venture outside to scare off the feline.

I guess our previous laughs about her reluctance to protect her domain paid off.

Tried Out the New AP

We got out to the Disneyland Resort tonight... the first trip under Kori's new Premium Annual Passport that I bought her for her birthday. We went into Disney's California Adventure first to ride the new Monsters, Inc. attraction. It's an overlay of the previous attraction, which was a poorly recieved cartoonish take on being a celebrity, called Superstar Limo. I pretty much knew what to expect, but Kori was disappointed that the characters in the attraction didn't even move their mouths when they talked.

After that, we went on to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, then went over to the Disneyland Park side. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, checked out of the stores, and that was about it.

Shelby was happy to see us come home.

Ken

The Dog Ate My Gum

Shelby is quite the smart cookie and stong-willed one, but she isn't very good at hiding when she has done something wrong.

She knows when she's been bad.

She knows she's not supposed to eat gum, or candy, or dollar bills, or garlic pills.

But she tries it anyway. Often, this defiance happens when we've slipped away.

We find her out.

She acts like everything's fine, but we know better. We notice the change in her behavior. She doth protest too much.

Well, that's it for now. Welcome to our blog.

-Ken