Bums, Trust Fund Brats and Bart Bad Boys....Mr. Ed

So, on the eve of the Thanksgiving Holiday time for a snarky rant or three! 

Brats:

First, let me go off on the trust fund brats at the UC Berkeley.  It seems that the laws of the economy don't apply to you if you go to school there.  If you were not aware, California is a state the subsidizes college tuition for the kiddies who are residents going to state schools.  A pretty cool deal for the residents of California.  Until the economy went south.  Currently, if the state of California were a company, it would be bankrupt and out of business.  State government slack jaws have decided to tax businesses out of the state...but that is a different story. 

Anyways, the state has had to reduce some services, cut some classes (Story Link Here)  and the like to try to make up for the budget deficits.  Included in these cuts have been a reduction in custodial services at UCB.  So, this week the news has been filled with pictures of our future doctors, engineers, lawyers and leaders protesting, dumping garbage and damaging the school they go to.  Trust fund brats who hop into BMWs and Mercedes to go home have decided that the economy does not apply to them and are protesting.  Knuckle heads.


Bums:

Christine got an eye full today.  Apparently a 19 year old female meth head decided to empty both tanks (if you get my drift) on the side walk right in front of Christine about three blocks from our house.  Nice.  San Francisco is a beautiful place...but a little less so on the side walk between our Condo and Costcos!


Bad Boys on the BART:

BART is the train system between downtown and most of the burbs of San Francisco.  It is a great system, but as you are sharing it with all sorts of folks you get a slice of humanity cut in every direction.   When the news took a break from the brats at UCB, they focused ad nauseum on the poor police officer who had to drag a knucklehead off of BART over the weekend. 

Apparently, a guy (probably a UCB grad!) that had been arrested earlier in the day for public disturbance decided he needed to catch a train home.  You guessed it...he decided to cause a disturbance on the train, prompting the train conductor to contact the police.  The officer met the train at a station and attempted to talk to the bonehead like a rational adult.  Said bonehead decided that yelling at the cop was a good idea.   The officer grabbed the guy and yanked him off the train and out the door.  The crowd on the train gives the cop an ovation as he takes the jerk off the train.   Apparently, they had to put up with this numbskull for miles. 

It is hard to see exactly what happened on the video (BART Story) but as the cop puts him off the train the guy falls and breaks a window with his head.  It did not look agressive or excessive to me, but of course every citizen's group in San Fran is decrying the excessive force.  I say shut up already!  First, the idiot would not have been tossed off the train if he was not violating everyone elses rights.  Second, the officer gave him a chance to act like a responsible adult and get off the train (he chose to yell at the cop).  Finally, the officer did not beat the guy up or go over the top.  He took him off the train and unfortunately a window got broken.

I cannot imagine what it must be like to be a good honest law enforcement officer these days.  With cell phones, YouTube and a component of society that believes they have the right to act like fools it must be hard to do the job they do.  Hats off to them!

A ride in the car...Ms. Pepper and Mr. Wendell

Saturday, my mom and dad took us for a ride in the car.  Usually this means we are going to visit the vet, so we were a little nervous and annoyed.  I mean who wants to deal with a rectal thermometer, muzzles and yappy little misbreeds like Yorkie-doodles.  Yorkie-doodles?  They are dog breeding science fair experiments gone bad, in my opinion.  Give me a break.

My dad took us over the Golden Gate Bridge and into what they call the Marin Headlands.  The Marin Headlands, I guess, are part of the Golden Gate National Park.  It is a beautiful, commercially undeveloped area of land about 7 miles from downtown San Francisco featuring spectacular bay and ocean views.  My sister and I were amazed that even though we were so close to downtown there were hardly any cars.  There are some buildings as the US Government during World War II decided that they wanted to fortify the west coast after Pearl Harbor.

Here are a couple pictures of the area...

My mom and dad took us for a walk around the beach area and up through some of the hills.  It was a fun walk.  At least I thought so.  There were hardly any people, a cool little trail and plenty of things to pee on!

You can see that my sister, the always adventurous Miss Pepper, was not happy with the clean air, sun and scenery.  She is never happy.  She needs a pet therapist...or pet exorcist...or a good whack on the butt with a rolled up Wall Street Journal.

(Miss Pepper...in my defense, I was bundled in a warm blanket, enjoying the sun coming in the window when my chocalate dipped expresso bean chomping excuse for a father decides he needed "family time".  Dad, next time you want to enjoy family time leave me out of it.)

Mr Wendell.  Oh yeah, my dad is signed up for yet another Ironman.  He is scheduled for an Ironman Lousville Rematch in August of 2010.  Pepper says he is eating too much pizza and other things and will not be in shape for it.  She is so supportive.

Finally, Pep and I want to give a shout out to Aunt Nola!  We miss you a lot.  My mom and dad said that maybe we can have you come stay with us for a few days next year when they go for thier annual gambling binge in Las Vegas.  Part work, fun and part visit your old friends! 

Two paws up!  Mr. Wendell!

Bad Boys, bad boys, what cha going to do? By Pepper and Wendell

Today's morning started off like a Cops! episode. 

All my brother and I wanted to do was go outside, take a leak, sniff a few trees and maybe catch up with a few of our dog friends.  Instead, we found ourselves apparently in the middle of a drug bust.

So, we were doing our normal walk around the Civic Center, Ballet and City Hall.  (Picture below.)

There was a sketchy looking kid standing right about where the steps can be viewed on the picture.  My mom was nervous because he had his hood wrapped around his head.  She made sure he saw that she was aware of him and kept walking.  Sketchy looking people are not out of place here, but for some reason my mom thought he was sketchier than most!

I was not worried.  Mr. Wendell and I are trained lethal attack Chihuahuas and we would have gone ninja on his ass if he tried anything!  We would have bit his ankles til they bled!

Anyways...we started walking towards the condo which is about two blocks away.  All of a sudden we heard a commotion and then the kid came tearing by us.  He was looking over his shoulder like someone was chasing him.  Probably, because there was!  My mom was not sure if he was running from a gang or what...

Seconds after the kid ran by, my mom's sleeve got brushed by a big guy in chase of the kid.  He caught up with the kid quickly.  Tackling him while pulling his gun and cuffs out at about the same time!  My mom was amazed.  7:00 in the morning is too early for this kind of stuff.

The oddest part of this?  There was an old, badly dressed drag queen sitting on the steps reading right in front of the tackling and cuffing site.  The guy (?)  did not even look up...as if this kind of thing happens every day.  In contrast, my mom had a "What the ****?" expression on her face!!!

Just another day in urban paradise!  The rest of the day was boring in contrast!

My Mom and Dad are bankrupting Red Robin Restaurants...By Mr. Wendell

None of you had any idea I am an active stock trader.  Somehow, I managed to hide this talent well.  Don't let my mild mannered demeanor and apparent lack of discretionary investable funds fool you.  I am a four legged version of Warren Buffett. 
In fact, if you look closely, we even look alike!

Here is a stock tip for all of my dedicated readers. 

Short Red Robin Restuarant Stock!
Check out the chart  Red Robin's Stock Chart NASDAQ:RRGB  the picture does not lie!

Now, I will let you all know why the stock is down.  Analysts blame the economy...giving you the notion that people are not eating burgers and fries in the down turn.  Bully-sticks I say!

The real is reason can be traced back to my mom and dad. 

Until August 1st of this year, my mom and dad ate at Red Robin's at least once a week.  Typically, they would each eat a burger and have two or three margharitas served up by the Amazing Linda, the best bartender in the universe.  Do the math folks.  My mom and dad were a major sales revenue channel for Red Robin that has disappeared.

Now that they have moved, the average amount of beef and tequila moved by Red Robin has been reduced greatly...resulting in the restuarant missing sales figures.  Hence, the stock price getting slammed. 

There are no Red Robins near our new house.  If Red Robin wants to move the stock, then they need to move more Burning Love Burgers or Jamaican Jerk Chicken Sandwiches.  How they would do that is by putting a Red Robin on the corner of Van Ness and Market Street!

For those of you who want to make some money, until RR wakes up and smells the french fries, short the stock!

Mr. Wendell

City People, by Wendell and Pepper

My dad wanted us to post this stupid picture.  Apparently, some marketing lame brain thought a name for a linen cabinet should be "Edland".  If he were here, I would raise my right leg up and let him know what I think of this name on his pant leg.

Pepper and I have been debating whether we want to talk about some of the people we meet on our daily walks around our new home.  I did not want to as some people may think this sounds mean.  However, Pepper said we should tell people about our neighborhood and that we can do it and still be nice.  So, here goes....

The majority of the people here seem to be pretty normal.  Normal, but in a hurry always.  We have never seen so many people in such a hurry to get places.  If they were dogs attached to a snow sled, they could win the Iditarod. 

However, this would be a boring posting if Pep and I talked about normal every day Joe's and Jills.  Pepper and I are going to talk about four types of special people we seem to meet on a daily basis.

"Screamers".

Screamers come in all shapes and sizes.  Screamers can be male, female, white, black, Asian, short and tall.  Common to all Screamers is that they yell , red faced, at no one in particular.  Apparently, "no one" is not listening because they usually repeat the same sentence over and over.  Yesterday, one of these folks must have decided he liked something. 

"I like it!!!!"  he shouted. 

Ten seconds later..."I like it!!!!" 

A breif pause..."I like it!!!"  "I like it!!!!" 

Apparently, he liked it.  Pepper and I could not see what he was liking but he sure did!  We hope we get us a bone that tastes that good.

About a week ago, Pepper and I saw a man in the courtyard at the Opera house looking at the garbage bins.  He had a raggedy old red beach towel tucked into the back of his collar.  Every 15 seconds or would look around and shout at the top of his lungs "I AM BAT-MAN!"  "I AM BAT-MAN".  Bruce Wayne must have hit a rough spot in this bad economy because he was dumpster diving.  "I...AM...BAT-MAN!!!"

Secondly, we notice people like to nap on the street here a lot.  (Pepper, take over typing please!)

Mr. Wendell and I are no strangers to spinning three times and plopping down whereever we are for a little beauty snooze.  We view this as healthy and encourage everyone to sleep more during the day.  So, when we see people laying on the sidewalk or in doorways or on benches in the park, we just wag our tales and walk on by. 


Apparently, shopping tires people out.  Many of the nappers look like they were coming home from SafeWay.  I am not sure SafeWay appreciates them taking the shopping carts home with them, but I guess the SafeWay SuprSavr card has its privledges.  Mr. Wendell thinks they smell funny, but I think he smells funny so he shouldn't talk.

Thirdly, the people who go through garbage cans are so polite! 

Two or three times a week, Mr. Wendell and I walk by people who are going through the neighborhood garbage cans.  Two paws up and a tail wag for them!!!!  They appear to be environmentalists as they always pull recycleable cans and bottles out that careless humans have thrown away.  Also, they seem to be very polite.  They always greet people..."Good morning Ma'am!"  or "Have a nice day".  My mom tries not to be rude but she usually does not say much.  Sometimes she says Good Morning! back.  Mr. Wendell growls at them.  He is a cranky young man.  There is no use being so mean Wendell! 

Finally, old men dance in the street here! 

Today as an example, my mom, Wendell and I watched a man dancing for nearly ten minutes.  The man was dancing in front of car that was being worked on by a locksmith.  A nicely dressed man was talking with the locksmith as it looked like he may have left his keys in the car.  Apparently, Dancing Bob (my nickname for him) was doing something like an old fashioned Native American Indian rain dance in hopes that the locksmith who was working hard on the lock would be successful.  He was dancing, pointing his fingers to the sky, disco dancing, River Dancing and folding his hands in prayer as he danced.  His dancing must have been the edge...the door popped open after about ten minutes of his dancing.  Dancing must make people thirsty as this man had some white Gatorade in a brown paper bag that he was swigging from.  He was so happy when the door popped open. 

These people don't seem to pay a lot of attention to us.  Probably because Mr. Wendell growls at them.