Tag Archives: San Jose

November 13, 2010 · 1:22 am

“Unstoppable” Improbable

John and Paul and I went to the movies tonight with San Jose’s Silicon Valley Lines Model Railroad Club to the opening showing of “Unstoppable” with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as a Railroad Engineer and Conductor trying to stop a runaway train. This movie is fun and very pretty – especially if you love fast trains and handsome men. However, the large number of unreasonable behaviors and professional errors in the story is highly improbable.

Here is the original story: “Pennsylvania man lived the drama that inspired ‘Unstoppable'”. Somewhat incensed by the reckless and bumbling behavior of the train handling personnel who caused the runaway in the movie, John came home and read to me from the “General Code of Operating Rules” of West Coast US railways:

1.0 General Responsibilities

1.1 Safety
Safety is the most important element in performing duties. Obeying the rules is essential to job safety and continued employment.

1.1.1 Maintaining a Safe Course
In case of doubt or uncertainty, take the safe course.

I think the club was rooting for the train to win.

Leave a comment

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, News & Reviews

Tagged as John, Paul, San Jose

November 6, 2010 · 10:11 pm

Homework Club Party

Communications got messed up, so John and Rev. Stephenie Cooper and Rev. Lawrence Robles and I held the Halloween party for the SMUM Studio after school program a week late. The kids wore their costumes on 28 October but we did not have the pizza celebration until 4 November. Twenty kids and two moms came – everyone had a good time and enjoyed their special treat.

I took the shells and sea glass all of the kids gathered during our Lover’s Cove field trip last summer and glued them to a frame. On the day of the party, I gave the Studio kids the frame with a picture of themselves standing in front of the ocean. It is now on the wall of the SMUM computer room.

We had planned to take the kids on three field trips last summer but the final trip had to be canceled. When I had to go to China on a business trip, there weren’t enough adults to supervise a swim trip to Raging Waters. After much discussion and voting by kids and teachers, we decided either to go ice skating in San Jose or on a trip to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. We held the final vote on Thursday and we are going to Alcatraz! We are still working details but we want to go before the new year.

Leave a comment

Filed under Church, News & Reviews

Tagged as John, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Maria Urban Ministry, SMUM

October 30, 2010 · 12:18 pm

Trick-or-Treat Trail Crossing Guard

Yesterday, I was one of the Willow Glen Lions who were volunteer crossing guards for the Trick-or-Treat Trail put on by the Willow Glen Business Association. This is our Lions Club’s second year serving our community through this school-day-before-Halloween safety project. It was fun but I have much increased respect for the difficult job of a crossing guard. I was last a crossing guard when I was in 6th grade. As John Plocher wrote:

What’s scarier than vampires, ghosts and dragons? Drivers on cell phones making left turns and jockeying for parking spots as thousands of kids and their parents descend on downtown Willow Glen for the WGBA’s annual Halloween trick-or-treat event!

The children and families and school groups paraded around Lincoln Avenue in two two-hour shifts (10 am – 12 pm for little kids, 2 pm – 4 pm for bigger kids), collecting candy from businesses. There were clear categories of costumes:

Super heroes (Iron Man, Buzz Lightyear, Spider Man, Superman and Supergirl, Wonder Woman, Mario Brothers, Batman, ninjas, Star Wars)
Fantasy characters (Dragons, fairies, elves, wizards or sorceresses, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Tigger, jack-o-lanterns, clowns, cowboys and cowgirls, pirates, knights and medieval ladies, Roman soldiers and ladies, aliens, robots, devils, Disney princesses)
Storybook characters (Dorothy and the Witch from Oz, Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Cat in the Hat with Thing One and Thing Two, kings and queens and princesses, Alice in Wonderland with the Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter)
TV characters (Sponge Bob, Rust-eze Cars, Power Rangers, Sesame Street)
Animals (Cats, Dogs, Dinosaurs, Tigers, Zebras, Giraffes, Lions, Bugs, Cows, Skunks, Monkeys, Rabbits, and one small elephant)
Food and plants (pumpkins, grapes, bananas, hot dogs, flowers)
Horror (ghosts, witches, vampires, murderers, zombies, skeletons, werewolves, Munch’s Scream, Death)
Unique costumes (a marionette puppet, outfits on real dogs, hippies, a Lego block, Mustard, a mime)
Sports costumes (Giants, Raiders, Sharks)
Work costumes (police, firefighters, army and navy, ballerinas, prisoners)

Some costumes were store-bought, some were home-made, many were a combination. My favorite pair costume was a big sister with ghastly bloody-looking makeup on her neck and face walking with a smaller boy all in black. When I asked what they were, she pointed and said: “He murdered me!” at which he smiled happily.

2 Comments

Filed under Lions, News & Reviews

Tagged as John, San Jose, Willow Glen

October 30, 2010 · 10:50 am

Our Own Personal Flood

After my several blogs about not wanting flood insurance, it would be ironic if my home were flooded now that I finally don’t have to buy it. Our “flood” was only in the back yard, fortunately, and resulted from a cracked garden pipe. This was not the flood of Gilgamesh…

Like pieces of a broken pot lay the pieces of land among the spreading water.
So high did the water go that even the gods scrambled for mountain so high
And cringed like rain whipped dogs in the storm.

This was not the flood of Noah…

The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered;
the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.

But it did make a big mess and cost us $500 to fix. What you see in the photo at the left above are the roots and pipe that caused the problem. We think a root from one of our big ash trees cracked the PVC pipe which connects to the hose bib or water spigot. I noticed that there was mud for several days in the walkway near WP 668, our backyard caboose where I have my office. My husband looked at it, dug a hole from which shot up a spout of water, found he could not turn it off, then called Polo’s Landscaping (408-597-5214) to come help.

It turns out that a previous owner of our Willow Glen house had put in a garden water line upstream of the house and garden water shut off valves. So, the only way we could turn off that particular pipe was to turn off the water service to the whole property. We ended up with two large muddy holes – one near the caboose, and the other near the valves in the front yard. After much digging around in my (former) iris bed, Polo found the pipe that should have had the shut off valve on it, buried two feet down. He and his team did a good job. By the end of the day, we had a new shut off valve and a fixed water pipe. The brick walkway sank a little but once the ground dries out some, I will lift the bricks and add some more sand.

Leave a comment

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as garden, San Jose, Willow Glen, WP668

October 27, 2010 · 8:45 pm

Willow Glen Lions Visit San Jose City Hall

Five officers of the Willow Glen Lions Club went to visit Council Member for District 6, Pierluigi Oliverio, this afternoon at City Hall. Willow Glen’s representative was a judge in our High School Speakers’ Contest last year and has sometimes visited our booth at the Farmer’s Market. Club President Rick Loek, with Sami Asfour, Robert Cortez, Katy Dickinson, and Myra Talavera wanted to ask Pierluigi’s advice on what more our new club could do for our community.

The Mayor and City Council offices are on the 18th floor at the top of the impressive City Hall tower. Our conference room had distractingly interesting wrap around views of the Silicon Valley. Pierluigi said how much he appreciated the community work done by San Jose’s service clubs. We had a good meeting and hope that Pierluigi will again be a judge in next year’s Willow Glen Lions speaking contest.

In the lobby on the way out, I saw the controversial Christopher Columbus statue which was smashed in 2001 by a Native American activist. Despite all of the discussion, the 1958 statue has been repaired and seems to be generally ignored.

1 Comment

Filed under Lions

Tagged as San Jose, Willow Glen

October 24, 2010 · 2:53 pm

Dead Elvis Stolen

Halloween is a big celebration here in Willow Glen, California. A month in advance, otherwise stylish houses start growing nasty encrustations of orange and purple lights, plastic bats, black birds, and hairy spiders. Formerly well-kept lawns sprout tombstones and coffins, and spooky sounds drift from artfully concealed loudspeakers behind the well-trimmed bushes.

The Trick or Treat Trail is hosted by the Willow Glen Business Association (with the Willow Glen Lions among the volunteer safety monitors). Thousands of kids show off their costumes parading up and down Lincoln Avenue while collecting treats from local businesses. This event will be 10 am – noon and 2 pm – 4 pm on Friday, 29 October. Many of the costumes and decorations are shown off as-bought but some of the scariest are home made.

But there is a dark side to Halloween in Willow Glen… Someone has been collecting other people’s scary displays from unattended lawns. One of the protest signs in a temporary graveyard reads

TO THE THIEVING LOSERS
WHO STOLE OUR ZOMBIE
AND DEAD ELVIS….
RETURN THEM OR
BE FOREVER
CURSED BY
THE UNDEAD!

Leave a comment

Filed under Lions, News & Reviews

Tagged as San Jose, Willow Glen

October 20, 2010 · 4:09 pm

Willow Glen Lions Projects

I am in my second year as the Secretary to the Willow Glen Lions Club in San Jose, California. A Lions Club Secretary is the administrative officer – making monthly membership and program reports to Lions Clubs International, managing the club roster, keeping minutes of meetings, serving on the Board, etc.

Our club was chartered just over a year ago and we have made good progress. Willow Glen Lions is now in our second year of community service projects which include:

Backpacks for Kids (for Grammar School – working with the Almaden Super Lions Club)
Blanket Drive (working with the Almaden Super Lions Club)
High School Speakers’ Contest
Hot San Jose Nights – Pancake Breakfast and other activities (our club’s signature charity fundraising project). In 2010, we used our charity funds to sponsor scholarships for kids going to the Diabetes Society camps.
Peace Poster Contest (for Middle School artists)
Trick or Treat Trail monitors and crossing guards (29 October, Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen, working with the Willow Glen Business Association)
Used Eyeglasses Recycling (for distribution to the needy in Mexico and elsewhere)

Last night, the Club Board voted funding to begin a new Leos Club for teens in Willow Glen. My husband John and I just created the club’s first business card – preparing for our club’s second Fall Mixer (at Chase Bank on Lincoln Avenue at Minnesota in Willow Glen, 6:30-8 pm on 10 November), and other upcoming activities. It arrived today!