Re: Happy Winter Solstice!

[Michael Thome <http://www..us/~mike>]

Rather late on the reply - my baysian classifier flagged you as spam and 
I've been on vacation since the day before the solstice...

Happy solstice to you, too!

Robert wrote:

>  * Money
>    * It's your money.  It took 3 months to get our full tax refund.
>      Apparently, a Robert who lived on  in  had
>      piled up $300 in parking tickets in Oakland.
>
Heh - I recently had a slightly similar issue - we got an "overdue 
parking ticket fee" from the Boston parking office threatening all sorts 
of dire consequences... only we've never parked where the ticket was 
issued, we weren't in Boston at all that day, and the registration 
number was missing a digit.  Turns out that there is someone with 
apparently perfectly legal plates living in boston with a plate number 
which was incorrectly assigned to us for a year after 
we transferred the plates to our new car.  They occasionally get parking 
tickets and (usually) pay them on time... and the city of boston has no 
clue how to find them. Real-life pointer corruption.

>    * Buses
>      * You get what you pay for.  I've been slowly discovering that despite
>        San Francisco (MUNI) buses being only $1, they are chronically late
>        and slow.  When using http://transit.511.org, I think you have to
>        assume that bus trips will take about 3 times longer than it reports.
>        Account accordingly.


I'm continuously frustrated that public transportation is infeasible for 
me, but it takes at least double the time and requires a pass to be 
economical (daily commute would be 4 bus and 4 train rides for fastest 
option, even with transfers it is rather more expensive than gas).  Sigh.

>    * Nothing changes on New Year's Eve Day.  My friend in  invited
>      us for an Ethiopean Feast on New Year's Eve.  It was interesting and
>      good ('though quite crowded).


Ethiopean food, yum...

>  * Radio
>    * A commercial alternative.  The one thing that makes the marginalization
>      of NOW (see above) tolerable is Air America Radio.  They finally started
>      broadcasting it here in the Bay Area (a Clearchannel Communications
>      station, unfortunately) and we especially like The Majority Report with
>      Janeane Garofalo.  We tolerate the ads, but it's programming that we
>      can't get anywhere else, not even Pacifica (KPFA) nor PBS/NPR (KQED).


I listen to Morning Sedition myself, though Kelly and I were actually in 
the audience for the 11/2 Al Franken show... of course, it only added to 
the agony of the rest of the day.  Oh well, dailykos keeps the cold fury 
stoked...

cheers,
    -mik