Monthly Archives: January 2008

Pacific Grove Is Going To The Dogs

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Professor Toro, Monterey’s original blogger writes:

On a recent Sunday, Conover retrieved her Labrador, Tuly, from her father’s house when a couple of German shepherds attacked and mauled them.

Conover jumped on her dog and tried to protect it from the dogs and, said her father, Kelley, “screamed bloody murder.”

Given a recent high-profile dog incident, the brutal attack of KION-TV news anchor Olga Ospina’s 2-year-old Maltese in front of the Pacific Grove post office, it appears that sleepy little P.G. might have a dog problem.

More like P.G. has a dog owner problem. Where oh where is Prof’s companion Pilon? Has Pilon been replaced by a dog?

Dogd Adam Ah

Pacific Grove Is Going To The dogs

Coastal Commission Busters!

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By the end of the day, the cleanup operation over a 300-foot cliff just south of Hurricane Point hauled off the car’s transmission, part of the frame and a few parts from the beach on Blain Deaton’s property.

For a few weeks after the crash, Deaton said he heard unusual sounds that a psychic acquaintance ascribed to the dead man’s spirit expressing thanks for his help that day.

One day while working his way down the cliff, Deaton said, he heard the crystal-clear sound of a car horn and then the sound of a hood or trunk being slammed shut. A few days later, he and his brother approached the wreckage and heard the sound of wind chimes.

“He said, ‘What is that?’ and I said, ‘You tell me,'” Deaton said.

After that, there were no more eerie sounds, just the long effort to get the wreckage removed, he said. Half of the car, which split in two during the crash, washed into the ocean during the long wait.

“I’m happy to see it taken care of … but half of that car is in the Pacific,” he said.

Half of it is still down there. . stay tuned for the sequel.

Ghostbusters2

Who Ya Gonna Call? Coastal Commission Busters!

Sam The Sham’s Staff

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* Addis, Reed
* Allen, Amber
* Arago, Alec J
* Ayala, Claudia
* Barry, Pamela Ann
* Bellavia, Frank S
* Butler, Lyndsay M
* Chacon, Julian S
* Chavez, Carina
* Crockwell, Geoffrey Glyn
* Dann, Rachel
* DeSerpa, Nancy H
* Dominguez, Gabriel
* Dornatt, Rochelle Suzanne
* Epstein, Justin L
* Fields, Amy L
* Godinez, Julie
* Goold, J William
* Gressel, Gal
* Hanson, Marc B
* Henderson, Brian G
* Hess, Moira C
* Hotelwala, Mufaddal
* Keller-Likins, Sarah C
* Lara, Cesar
* Le, Ricky Xuan
* Leavandosky, Stacey E
* Lipsky, Joshua S
* Lordan, Elizabeth F
* Maher, Jessica A
* Mentzer, Thomas
* Merrill, Deborah J
* Miller, Jessica K
* Munoz-Hernandez, Bertha
* Norris, Lauren Ashley
* O’Donnell, Craig Hall
* Phillips, Troy S
* Pinto, Mildred
* Plymale, Anna L
* Powers, Eric B
* Riley, Kathryn R
* Robles, Daisy
* Romanski, Kelly Shannon
* Rosen, Sarah
* Sandman, Dana M
* Schafer, Jessica
* Slaby, Kimberly K
* Smith, David A
* Soto, Marcos A
* Steiner, Edward
* Stencel, Kara L
* Tucker, Tom
* Uribe, Marie J
* Van Hise, Bonnie J
* Vaughan, Ann
* Violante, Allyson M

Sam The Sham’s Staff

More Phone Scams Hit P.G.

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Last Month P.G. residents were getting calls saying they had won a sweepstakes and to send “processing fees”. This month they are getting calls again, now from a phony government agent that is again asking for processing fees. Why is it that P.G. is always the target? Do the thieves go out and look for areas of rich white Democrats?

Pacific Grove Police are warning resident to beware of a telephone scam that has already hit some residents of the Central Coast. Pacific Grove Police commander, Tom Uretsky, says the call starts with a caller clamming to be an agent with the U.S. Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security. The “Agent” then tells the victim that they have received cash funds from the arrest of seven people who were attempting to defraud others.

The “Agent” then explains that they would like to send out a certified cashiers check to the victim that was recovered in his/her name for 8.5 million dollars. The scammer then informs the victim that he/she needs to pay a recovery fee of $1,450.00 made payable to the Merchant Bank of Jamaica. The scammer tells the victim that they need to wire or send a money gram to an address overseas to Jamaica.

More Phone Scams Hit P.G.

Meters To Feat

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Moe – you can drive the shoppers away, but the owners and employees will still be there, taking up all the choice parking. Get busy and woo some commerce to the town that people will flock to meters or no meters.

1/8/08, Town Hall meeting agenda

James Becklenberg, city director of management and budget, said the budget needs to be pared by $2.6 million to keep the city solvent. Its financial reserves in December were down to $800,000, and the city should maintain a reserve of $2.6 million to cover emergencies.

Becklenberg has proposed expanding parking meters on Central Avenue, Ocean View Boulevard, Lovers Point and city parking lots in the downtown area, reaping an estimated $495,000 in extra revenue, and discontinuing the annual card rate at the golf course, which Becklenberg said would add $40,000 this fiscal year and $190,000 during the 2008-09 fiscal year. He also suggested increasing permit and planning fees.

But the Chamber-Of_Moe begs:

At 6 p.m. on Jan. 23, the Pacific Grove City Council will consider installation of parking meters or pay stations downtown and on Central Avenue. Meters increase the cost of doing business, create an inconvenience to shoppers and drive customers to free parking destinations. More important, meters affect adjacent residential neighborhoods and change the character of the town. Small businesses have to compete with the big-box operations, corporate shopping centers and the Internet, where there are no obstacles such as meters.

No Meters

Meters To Feat

Show Kristin Hughes Some Potential Pain

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On the day the U.S. Supreme Court heard lawyers argue over the potential pain caused by the drug cocktail used in lethal injections, McMahan was thinking about the way her daughter died.

On Sept. 7, 1989, 31-year-old Kim Hickman was moving out of her Pacific Grove apartment when she was attacked and sexually assaulted by Kristin William Hughes, then 28.

At Hughes’ trial the next year, McMahan suffered through evidence showing that her “absolutely vibrant, beautiful daughter” survived 11 stabs to the chest and neck and died only after Hughes strangled her with his hands and suspenders.

Nineteen years – too long.

Show Kristin Hughes Some Potential Pain

Nature’s Fury

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Clouds And Waves

Biggest northern storm to pass through in a long time. Many are still without electricity. LHAcom’s estate was eerily quiet without the hummings of machinery, electronics and other distractions. Totally hated it. Though it did not keep the cement-obsessed neighbors with gas powered leaf blowers away. Guess they needed something to occupy themselves with. How did we stay sane? Think camping.

Propane camp stove & lanterns. Those small propane bottles are 2 pounds when full, 1 pound when empty. Postal scale told me so. Don’t wait until dark to find them. Get them out before you need to read the labels.

Ground coffee. After a fling with whole bean coffee and a preference for French roast, no powered coffee mill could keep up. I now grind it at the store, and use it within a week. With that and the above stove I had coffee in the blackout.

Flashlights. I keep several in a picnic basket by the fireplace.

Candles. Be extra careful. Don’t leave a candle alone in any room.

Radios. Recommend the GE Superradio series. It is a sensitive radio with an old fashioned analog tuner. That means it can hear many distant stations and the batteries last a long time. Listen to KPIG FM 105.7 or KSCO AM 1080. There is little in the way of public information on Monterey’s local stations. There’s also a police scanner to snoop for hints of what those sirens a block away are, ours is a Radio Shack Pro97.

Cell phone. Call your loved ones, see if they are ok.

That’s about it. It’s not the maniac with the 10,000 watt gas generator and satellite phone, but it’s enough to get by with and not have to maintain.

Some pictures taken Sunday afternoon.

Broken poles in beach tract. Never touch low or downed wires.
Broken Pole 1 Broken Pole 4 Broken Pole 3 Broken Pole 2

Falling pine tree cuts through middle of house. (No one was hurt)
Tree On House 2 Tree On House 1

Tree At 60 Degree

Breaker Snack Hut

Trees Downroad Closed

Add to the storm some exceptionally high tides and there was evidence of waves breaking over Ocean View Boulevard.

Kelp on Road

Waves flipped the ice plant neatly combed over like JW.
Iceplant Combed

Surf And Turf!
Kelp and grass

Crespi Pond now looks like a Monterey Bay Aquarium kelp exhibit.
Crespi Pond Seaweed Crespi Pond Seaweed2

Men’s Tee, Ladies Tee and Hermit Crab Tee
Kelp tee

The Fog Horn turnout was full of seaweed washed up by waves.
Kelp at Fog Horn1 Kelp at Fog Horn4 Kelp at Fog Horn3 Kelp at Fog Horn2

Nature’s Fury

Moth Spraying Complaints To Be Presented

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And who better to complain than our own David Dilworth.

Dilworth Warning

The report’s authors acknowledge that an unknown number of the complaints may be duplicates because several agencies collected the information. But the report also suggests that many residents with symptoms have not reported them.

David Dilworth, executive director of HOPE, said the groups plan to present the nearly 200-page report to legislators Tuesday.

Will they include all the reports that were called in by fakers the day after the scheduled spraying was called off?

Moth Spraying Complaints To Be Presented