The lovely San Lorenzo Valley, which is at the northern end of Santa Cruz County has gotten a page in the AAA's March 2008 magazine.  The magazine, which gives drivers helpful automotive information on things to be concerned of, as well as things to do, has some interesting articles of places off the beaten path. Just as millions of people flock to Santa Cruz and Capitola from the bay area and beyond, we locals go to others back yards for enjoyment as well. The old grass is greener on the other side of the fence, I guess. Well, come on and visit one of our local gems.

Well I don't go out as much, and as far as green goes, the San Lorenzo Valley is about as green as it gets. The lush mountains, with their towering redwoods, and quaint little communities…

The City of Santa Cruz Water Department is about to have a grand opening of their joint project for a desalinaization plant on the west side of Santa Cruz. This project has been in the works with the Soquel Creek Water Department to provide water supplies to meet growing needs and to supply water during drought years.

After a year of testing the facility, the two water agencies will join in constructing a permanent $40-50 million desalination plant expected to be built by 2012. While the present plant is a small one at present,costing about $4M,it expected to process 50 gallons per minute.

Soquel Creek Water District currently supplies approximately 5,400 acre feet of water annually, approximately 1.8 billion gallons of water,  from two groundwater…

"Proposals for a taxpayer-funded government intervention in the U.S. housing market would essentially reward people for taking excessive risks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Monday."

The above seems to iterate what the administration thinks of a government ( that's you and me the tax payer )bail out. Frankly, I kind of agree in part. People made stupid speculative decisions and so did banks. We all make mistakes, and like most things in life, pay a price to learn. The banks should pay, the CEO's should not get a golden parachute,they should get booted out on their a$$ with no money, and a letter or admonishment. American corporate pays is ridiculous and way out of line, IMHO.

In an editorial the other day on PBS, they were  talking of a…

Unwanted Loan Solicitations…. You’re next, but here's how to avoid them.

 
In this day and age one would think ones' privacy would be taken for granted when applying for a loan. Not only do you bare you soul, you also have your credit report run by the 3 national credit reporting agencies. From the resulting FICO you will have a numerical rating that will help banks and mortgage brokers determine your quality score. There are a number of a factors used in determining your creditworthiness, especially now.

The usual factors of good credit, good employment, and good income, are all important. With today’s lending guidelines’ tightening up and business shrinking, the quality buyer or borrower is highly sought after.

One of the dirty tricks that…

A gift in hindsight to Santa Cruz County Seniors

Locally a woman has bequeathed money to the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department. This gift from the estate of Margaret W Nielsen was for the benefit of senior residents of Santa Cruz County. Ms Nielsen left funds in the amount of $75,000 for the improvement of the Simpkins Family Swim Center. The swim center is located behind the Shoreline Middle School buildings, in the Live Oak area of Santa Cruz, Ca.. The well regarded swim center project was spearheaded by Brigid Simpkins with plenty of assistance from Edie Rittenhouse and many private donors. It took many years and lots of work to bring it to fruition in 1998. This gift will help the center.

The Simpkins Swim Center is a much needed,…

The Federal Stimulus Package and some things you can do with the money

Now that the Federal Stimulus Package is slated for passage, what are you going to do with all your new found wealth? While I think it is a waste of money, the politicians need to seem like they are doing something, I guess. With the huge deficit that the current administration had saddled us the tax payer with, a bit more debt is not needed. The current state of presidential affairs, while different because the offending politician, George Bush, isn’t running, reminds me of the saying “to the victor goes the spoils.” Whoever is elected will have a debt deficit mess of titanic proportions. That being coupled with a still unsolved health care issue and a messy war to wind down, I wish…

The Santa Cruz County Migration Festival is scheduled for it's annual event this year on February 9th, 2008. The event will be held from 11AM to 4PM, with a band, and cake after 3:15. Bring your lunchables and make it an educational day with a picnic and make learning fun for your kids. You can migrate from event to event. It should be a day of fun and cheap too, in this age of economic challenges.

The annual event is to be held at 4 local State Parks. The focus of this event will be different at each park. In the north at Henry Cowell State Park, which is located between Santa Cruz and Felton,they will focus on the diminishing steelhead trout and newts. The habitats for these oceangoing trout have been in severe decline in this county for years as have…

UCSC, Santa Cruz, California professor Jose Renau is to give a talk at the College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on February 11th.

The talk is on methods to reduce heat build up and efficiency of computer chips. By employing cameras and thermal imaging this work is proposed to better enable detection of hot spots and power leakage in chips. He seeks to increase the efficiencies by reducing extraneous functionality. By determining where the problems lie, the designers and programmer are better able to make the computer chips more efficient. Jose Renau is an assistant professor of computer engineering at UC Santa Cruz.

The University of Santa Cruz is located in Santa Cruz, California. The university has a wide range of…