Notes from here and there

Hello all:

It has been an eventful last few days. 

A guy decided that he hated every car parked on the street behind our building and right outside our loft and rammed rocks through the windows of around 10 cars at 8am on Monday, December 10. Multiple rocks through each car's window. 

THB called 911 as soon as he figured out what was going on and took a few pics as 5 E-ville squad cars and one ambulance showed up.

Notice anything about the contents of his backpack

Clean cut and clean shaven

This could be our suspect's Serbian cousin. Recognize him? One guy throws rocks, the other rackets. Now go back and look at the hood of the car pic: there's a passport lying there

This is a "fake" patrol car behind the old Sherwin-Williams building with all it's windows smashed in and doors left ajar

Now on to story number 2: 

Fire & Gas Leak from Vehicle Collision shuts down Arizmendi Bakery

Yep, a terrorist attack (okay, THB is making this part up) on a local bakery occurred today, December 11, 2018. 

Yep, an elderly woman drove her Volvo into the back of the Arizmendi down the street and basically destroyed the place: sprinklers filled the bakery with several inches of water, fire destroyed the back of the building, and the collision probably knocked the place off its foundation. 

You can read more here as related by another local blogger (very local, he lives in our building and only covers E-ville, all 1 square mile of it). 

Rob Arias, The E-ville Eye

Department of Same-Same But Different: THB's grandmother, a long long long time ago, drove her car up over a sidewalk and into the front of a building on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Good news: she wasn't hurt. Unfortunately the store she drove the car into was the one owned by my grandfather.  UH OH! 

Elsewhere...

THB, as you all know, is a big, big, big baseball fan and follows his local team, the Oakland A's in person and on TV and radio.

The A's have announced a new ticket plan complete with perks. One of those is a season-ticket ID card. This is THB's pic that will go on the "access" card. Hmmmm....really? Also, most fans will be showing their tickets and access cards via the smart phones. THB is not smart. Why is he wearing 2 t-shirts?

The A's have also announcedthat they hope to have a new ballpark up and running for the 2023 season. In the meantime they have managed to abandon their radio station. Announcers were terrible so no big loss. And THB usually watches games on TV on mute. 

And the new ballpark will feature access (with your ID card?) by gondola from downtown Oakland over a huge freeway. THB and LB have agreed to a pact: we'll be among the first to try the gondola. Otherwise, the new park is around 3.5 miles easy bike riding from the loft. THB should be 74 or 75 when the park opens. Maybe a road too far?

Rendering of new park without gondola landing place shown

It's been cold here lately...how cold you might ask:

Okay, there has not been snow on the kayaks at the beach; the other day we had lunch on the deck and it was toooooooooo hot to sit outside for very long

It's a different story inside the loft: our buffs are out on loan, otherwise how do you think we look walking around the loft in skirts?

THB would be remiss if he didn't highlight the latest and greatest: the twins celebrating the season:

Times have changed: now Santa uses a motorcycle to get the goodies to the kiddies. This Santa is hoping the girls age out soon or he'll need a helper or two  

Grandparents take the twins to the park; this is one of the few times the girls are near enough to each other that one of us can handle them because most of the time they were headed in opposite directions 

No, Cecily (or it Jasmine) you don't get to blow out these candles