Everquote, new insurance comparison site, is NOT COMPETITIVE,,total waste of time.

Good drivers , try non-profit Nationwide.
Then AAA.

Costco sold "CHARISMA COMFOREL SILKYSOFT" PILLOWS,,,Strongly Not Recommended, as the 'US Fill' went flat in under a Year !!

Pillow had rectangular box construction.
Regardless, this rather expensive pillow, I had 4, failed too early.

Hope Costco hears this...

Hyphenated tv channels: BOOO !! I hate them and see no advantage to the Consumer/User !! Same for foreign-turn car door locks, HATE THEM !!

So why do we have to put up with it !?
This IS NOT a "technological advance" !!
If the Nerds can't fix this, We must get the politicians to Regulate it !!

Also car door locks and shower valves !!
The American tradition is " righty tighty" and there is no logical reason to change.

This is just lazy non-conforming foreign manufacturers not Respecting the US market !! If the Japanese or Chinese want some bizarre other way in their country that is fine.
But dammit, this is the USA !!
I am so tired of this that when I buy my next car, this year, I will DEMAND and PAY to have the door locks changed to the US tradition of "righty tighty".

This is a daily frustration !!
This is Not Japan or China !! Or France !!
If those foreign manufacturers won't respect the US market, then we traditionalists and logical users of car locks, door locks and water valves MUST get our lazy politicians to Regulate this !!

I did not vote for hyphenated TV channels or locks that turn the wrong way !!
And I certain do not approve of these stupid changes in the international marketplace !!
So what if a foreign manufacturers is too lazy and disrespectful to make door locks and shower valves the way we have used them for decades, logically.
WE SHOULD NOT BUY THEM.

Feb.2017, In the last election, most of the recent Mayors and most of the City Council candidates admitted to being "put.up for office by Real Estate industry", so why would we trust or believe anything they say ?

That is why there is a law in Burlingame against rent control !!

That is why they exaggerated and lied to defeat the Rent Stabilization measure put on the recent ballot by many signatures of many renters.
And why the measure lost 2 to 1 !!

Most of the residents and most of the registered voters in Burlingame are renters/leases and not owners.
So this behavior by our elected city government was not "for the good of Burlingame" as so many candidates stated, but first and foremost for the Real Estate Industry !!

There should be a law against such double-dealing and misrepresentation.
Don't you poor honest people agree?

You know what the Bible says about " trying to serve two Masters", right?

This is a massive decades long Scandal !!

Thus it is not surprising that the Sacramento state Capitol also passed a law against more rent control with so many state resentatives on the take ," campaign contributions".
So how can they work for us if they are bought so cheaply "$10-20k" per vote by rich special interests ?

Even the 4 term Governor,Jerry Brown, has recently come under media attention and derision for dirty Oil Industry dealing$ for himself and his sister.
Will we be able to find an honest and hard working Governor candidate to replace him, after so many terrible (grey Davis) and dishonest, and cruel (Ronald Reagan)
2 master Governor's going back decades?

I thought we had an anti-corruption law in California, a "sunshine law".
So how do we clean up California politics at every level, if the electorate is ignorant and lied to constantly and the media fails often to do its job of reporting, like the total annual rainfall and the Oct. 1st "rain year" totals for all regions of this sorry state that are currently someone's big secrets?

California is what, the "6th largest economy in the World" yet Our State is riddled with corruption !!
And not just the Mafia getting away in Silicon Valley etc. with selling hard drugs to our children and well paid workers. Why do you think Caltrans is constantly giving rich contracts to incompetent companies ,like the Highway 87 elevated roadway failure, last winter repaving of highway 101 sf-sj failure by just rain, and especially "over $6 billion misspent on the new Oakland Bay Bridge", that the Governor left the state for on Opening Day !?
Our state politicians are too busy getting personally Rich to be bothered doing their Oath, elected jobs for such Fools as us.

When that malfeasance and corruption are in the Murders and Assassinations by our police and sheriff's, the Grand Jury system, and every level of the Courts from Small Claims all the way up, isn't it time to wake up, do the hard work, and say "Enough!"?

When will the dirty dishonesty tide turn for California ?

School teachers and their TSAs/403b's investments: As a 'college sducated' group, they Stink at studying and Understanding QUARTERLY STATEMENTS. So they don't.

Then, years later, when they have lost over $100,000 in something so simple as (-) declining funds, then and only then ,as a Group, they get Upset and blame Someone else.

Did it for years.
For a very low commish=high quality product.
Not all these slick suit 'sharks' selling high commish front and flow junk !!
Very scary how teachers and nurses and some office workers are afraid of their ignorance on such an easy subject and thus ignore it.
A true trajedy.

Costco item # 982859, "LING LING Asian Kitchen all natural POTSTICKERS chicken and vegetable dumplings" ,,, tend to stick together in the plastic bag and freezer becoming a big frozen BLOB.

Maybe try some PAM veg oil spray in the next bag, BEFORE I put it in the frig freezer !!

Don Miguel burritos from a grocery cold door: Unsat., Not Recommended, You'll be Sorry !!

Bought the 12" BOMB today,,, and could not finish it. Into trash !

Then bought shorter 8-10" "steak and bean chimichanga",,, in brown paper wrapper,,, the tortilla had flaked apart,,, and I would call it bean bean bean, and a few tiny bits not "strips" of maybe steak.
Ick.

Hope I learned a lesson today about dingy roadside markets and low end $2.50-$3 burritos.

Montezuma, spare me!

Our Founding Fathers must have been so Brave and idealistic to think that 'free speech' would work , even in a new democratic republic !! Look at how weak our Whistleblower laws ,in govt!, are. And i mistakenly thought Google Blog was about that very same, very important 'free speech' , not some crassness of 'make more $ with ads on your blig!'

It is a very sad day.

The promise to "do no harm" has been broken.

Google Blog is not about 'free speech'.  But writers making $.
And then there is Martin's Beach.

Google Map doesn't have REVIEWS option for new sf van-bus company,,, so will do it here.

The trend in your buses seems to still be doubledeckers ,open top, hop on and hop off in San Francisco.
I only recommend 'Big Bus', with some reservations, as some of the other doubledeckers bus companies are still using London very old buses instead of new ones !!

Otherwise, there is a new big bus, 45ft, 50+ seats with restroom bus company in Frisco, STORER from Modesto.
Again, not nearly as good as that Seattle company that folded, but trying to do good, along with Mercury and a few others.

Lots of medium and large bus companies have specialized.
Minibus 'MyWay' seems to only have Japanese drivers hauling Japanese guests, very briefly to and from Yosemite Valley on day trips.
Lassen bus has mostly asian drivers.
Kings has mostly asian drivers.
Japanese-Am. Coach 21 hauls a lot of Japanese with mostly asian drivers.

The other bus trend I see in SF is the shift from full size buses, 45fters, some with front and rear steering to get around the City, to much smaller buses and vans.
Great Pacific has been a leader in quality tours in English and many foreign languages for many years with excellent driver-guides able to drive almost anywhere in central California.
A new company is the Love Bus, with old VW vans and fantastic hippie cheerful paint jobs and very good driver-guides.
Another new 15 passenger(1 driver and 14 guests) Ford Transit van charter bus company is Chariot, who I work for. Their vans are better than Mercedes standard Sprinters and some are twin turbo!! Ford just bought Chariot so I hope it continues to grow very fast.

I wish I could recommend a bicycle tour company for sf as bicycling is Booming due to our Mayor and his safer new multicolor wide bike lanes to the super-famous Golden Gate Bridge or the very large and daytime only!, wonderfully varied, Golden Gate Park, but I don't know them well.

This is just one person's opinion, mine. I love love love Lake Tahoe.

If you come to SF this year ,2017, after a very wet Winter , it should be a good year for Yosemite Valley waterfalls !!  And the 70 pax, open air ,slow tram, the Wonderful $25 ,2 hr 'Valley Tour Tram' !!
Best wishes, and Enjoy !!

"Napa Valley, on a Summer weekend, is #1". For all of you who like to sit in bumper to bumper traffic, deal with over crowded wineries, and have to take 'the Worst' Vallejo ferry service back to Frisco to make $$$$$ dinner resys, maybe.

I am at Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, in Sonoma, today just West over the Mayacama low mountains.
Napa has nothing like this.

Next door is new La Crema, winery, with a 'fab' pool.
Napa has nothing even close to this!

Few miles away is Francis Ford Coppola's other than Napa Inglenook-Rubicon-Inglenook winery, with a 'popular' pool for those dry heat of 90F Summer Days.
Napa has nothing to compare.

I'm just a driver-guide out of Frisco for over 30 years, and if your future travel plans just include Napa,,,
Tsk-tsk, on hot dry crowded traffic jam Summer weekends, you Will regret it !

Oh, and the View from Copain Winery,,, oh,,, my,,, Lord !!

Also recommend 'Santa inez' area, down by SLO , not as far as SB.

Enjoy !!

Being victimized for training purppses by the BayAtea CHP is no fun !!

I was in SJ, traveling N. at midnight at 55 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone. Very little traffic. Badly made elevated roadway with rollercoaster ride vs level and a very bad bump in the slow lane going under 280 that has not been fixed in years.

I had worked all day in the warm sweaty sun doing yard work for my parents in Lincoln Glen.
I was exhausted dirty with bloodshot eyes from all the salty sweat dripping into my eyes.
I had hoed weeds, raked leaves, cleaned out rain gutters, fertilized 2 lawns, spread brown gypsum all over both yards, been on my hands and knee pad moving dirt under the 9 Camilla trees by hand and burying alfalfa pellets for the worms.
Ate dinner and watched some TV.

And here comes this CHP 'christmas lights' cop car on my tail !
I carefully pulled over and parked on the shoulder of 87N in SJ and waited for the officer while digging out my registration and insurance letter from the glove box.

CHP officer comes up and shines his powerful flashlight IN MY EYES!!
That is so rude and uncalled for !!
"License and registration,please."
I handed them thru the window.

"We noticed you going slow,55 , in a 65 mph zone with little traffic and driving a high performance sports car. Have you been drinking, Sir ?"
I had a glass of red wine with dinner.
That's all. And I am very dirty sore and tired from doing yard work at my parents, all day in the sun. My eyes are bloodshot from the salty sweat dripping into my eyes. I just want to carefully drive home to BG, take a shower, and go to bed."

Then I noticed there were 2 CHPs, an very old guy and a young guy.
Oh, great!! Rookie training ,on me!!
The young cop said" You were not always in the middle of the lane but swerving or moving from side to side, why?"
Many potholes and rough patches to avoid in my light little car. My car's tires are not SUVs and can not take all this poorly maintained, rough road highway surface.
"Well, we think you are DUI and want to do a field sobriety test. Please keeps your hands out the window and slowly step out of the car."

Great !!
So sore and tired I can not get up from my low car seat without using my hands, and now this brass rookie wants me to contortion and get out with my hands out the window !!
Both over eager officers had their hands on their guns. Didn't they read I have an ABCD commercial driving license, so very hard to get these days in California?
I have 5 years college.
I am a Vietnam Veteran.
I do not have a criminal record.
I have no speeding tickets in over 30 years.
Didn't they read about their 'suspect'!?

More strong bright white light flashlight right in my eyes, pure harassment !!
Should be red light at night.
"We want you to walk in a straight line, heel toe."
Did it.
More bright white flashlight right into my eyes!!
"Do it again."
Did it well, again.
"We think you are drunk.
Do it again".
"And again".

I was so tired and pissed I said," if you think I am DUI then arrest me !!
And I will sue CHP from training harassment and false arrest !!"
More bright white flashlight right in my eyes, so unnecessary and arrogantly rude.
"Well, we have decided to let you go.
Drive carefully (faster and straighter?) home."
Thank God !!

If this CHP or city cop harassment has happened to you, report it.

Redwood City is a rat's nest of rude, self-serving 'civil servants' who treat peoplr like livestock.

Today I stood outside for an hour at Traffic Court, with wet concrete benches to sit on.

The public is Not "guilty, until proven innocent !!"

Every authority structure , from the military to the state legislature, has a wary eye to outsiders , like the public. And these regimes are Not self-correcting. So why treat the public, cited and supoena-ed, any better !?!

The public ,grassroots, will eventually have to demand greater respect and consideration.
Like Seniors standing outside in the cold and rain.
Like any airport, there were not enough seats in the lobby.
Old,security-first, bad design buildings abound...

POTHOLE BLOWOUTS all over 1yr resufaced 101-sf-sj, but CALTRANS CLAIMS Will take your Many tire cost,tow, damage CLAIMS, something you will not hear or very seldom hear on the tv "news" stations. Why??

I called Caltrans.
Go to their long web address for SUBMITTING YOUR MANY MANY CLAIMS.

Red light cameras, with Mandatory $200-300 fines!!, should have large ,highly visible warning SIGNS !!

The goal is to stop red-light runners, not make the courts and sorry judge's Rich, right ?

And let's make countdown yellow traffic lights the new standard, so you aren't guessing when a long yellow light is going to turn red. All yellows are not of the same time duration; Pretty sneaky, eh !?

Lord knows, sfpd and sjpd cops are under-worked and overpaid enough!!

PASTA POMODORO got too greedy, raised prices instead of staying 'AFFORDABLE',,, and QUIT. I warned them, often.

First Huge mistake the owners made was charging per glass for lemonade.
Dumb.  The loss of good will.
Just plain stupid.
Oh,well, businesses and people learn maybe by their mistakes.

The famous Senor Pico's of Old Town San Diego has not been copied or repeated.

Nor has the wonderful and fabulous Spice Rack of Pacific Beach, San Diego.

Both were Outstanding affordable, money making restaurants.
But everyone wants to reinvent the wheel, their way.

The Redwood Inn, of Wawona, Yosemite National Park could be copied and done so well again, from a really low rent location like that private property inside the National Park.

But then most people seem to like plastic IHOP, and little taste SUBWAY, and fried greasy TACO BELL, and unhealthy , low on lettuce pickle and red tomatoes McD's.
Mediocre food.
Boy oh boy, the public at large doesn't know or get much good-Great food.
Sooo sad.
In America.
2017.

Google, the popular reference book KILLER.

Google bought  Zagat Restaurant Guide,,, and  Zagat Nightlife Guide for various popular cities, very successful and reliable, right?

Then stopped publishing in,,, 2014?

BART in sfbayarea is so substandard in every way. Now they want all new cars and all new rails. Why do ee settle for such an expensive, bad design, mismanaged Mass Transit System !?

After 50 years of failure, by MTC, the SFBayArea needs a totally new ,self funded competitive modern system we can be proud of !!

Stop all the leaching of car drivers with increased bridge tolls !!

Another Waste of Money! ( Costco sold this!?): Lysol No Mess Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner handing large tablets for you bowl rim. They don't work well.

Blue multi-pack , plastic container.
Save your money instead !!

Costco item #41212, "RAVIOLI x LASAGNA WITH BEEF & PORK BOLOGNESE SAUCE" ,finally brave enuf to pull out of freezer and cook for an hour, NOT RECOMMENDED.

Less than 2" thick, and what a mess for $15.36.

Another problem with Waze: 3 minibuses cross the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito, and pass by Alexander, go thru the new Robin Williams double rainbow tunnel, and Waze says "turn R. on Spencer to get down to Bar Bocce."

For minibuses, these are Terrible directions !!

Best to drive more North to bottom of hill and then turn R,L,R. onto Bridgewater main drag to get 'downtown' to Bar Bocce.

Or Alexander ,second choice, Right turn just after the bridge. Lots of turns, so if a newbie, take N. side access.

Waze!!
Ha.

The SFPD has been totally out of control by the OCC, the Mayor, the Chief of Police , the lazy Board of Supes ,,, for decades.

The OCC, office of citizen complaints, will not even reply to a written complaint against the infamous history SFPD.

Seldom do you see a uniformed SFPD cop/ police officer walking the streets of any neighborhood in Frisco.

How will this all end?
The Grand Jury is too afraid to investigate...
The District Attorney has not investigated well enough...

Of course, SF is not the only City in major police peril from big pay-little work cop syndrome.
San Jose is in very very Very Big Trouble, being blackmailed by its own police.
Can you imagine a Police Union that corrupt and dishonorable ?

SHOPPERS BEWARE: The "DEBBIE MEYER GENIUSVAC BAGS food saver system of vacuum food, ziplock bags and noisy vacuum pump are,,,NOT RECOMMENDED.

The DEBBIE MEYER GENIUS VAC BAGS system, rather,  is unsatisfactory.

The hand held vacuum is very noisy.

The small vacuum does not seal well with the special valve on the ziplock food bag.

The ziplock does not stay locked sometimes.

I can put up with this.
But my 98 yr old ,spry, retired Home Ec. public school teacher Mom can not.

I bought a set for me to try.
And Mom.
And Sis.
Now it is all going to Goodwill.
Or return to Debbie Meyer, HSN / QVC.

Had the same problem with other food containers:

Pyrex was too heavy with glass cubes and glass lids in various sizes.

Tried Debbie Meyer's green plastic containers, but just one small ear was too hard for Mom to open.

Tried various plastic containers.
All to Goodwill.

Even found glass boxes with easy light green lids.
Mom said, "Too heavy."
So I have that set too.

Finally found , think it is Rubbermaid, clear plastic boxes in different sizes . And clear lids to see the food. But with Wide rubber red  rim that is so easy to open or close.
Dishwasher safe.
Easy to use.
Mom actually can use these!!
Problem solved!!
(I don't like plastic, but trust Rubbermaid.)

Trial and error error error.
;)

SF Hilton "Financial" in Chinatown is infamous for very slow elevator service.

Lots of complaints about thin walls, terrible wi-fi and rude asian front desk staff, and very slow elevators.
Was a ,,,Holiday Inn?

Beware !!

2017 and Still have problems with Google Map Nav. on long drives self-deleting when i make a phone call, text chat, or answer an email. Why such a 'quiter' software attitude way before i reach my destination??

No USB multiple power ports on dash of new Ford's. The cig lighter option has serious durability flaws. So I have lots of juice cabled to a big ANKER backup battery.

So, 'Quiter' software developers at Google, what's up ?

A lot of 'Just Pretty Faces' like Gavin Newsom think they can just wink at the Voters and get Elected to Public Office. Doing next to nothing as Lieutenant Governor doesn't recommend him for Governor, tho California has had a lot of Bad or mediocre leaders put up by the hidden politic machine.

There are serious issues, like Realtors remaining in the Dark Ages with their "right" to no-fault evictions of even old widows. Rent control not just for a few, but for None!! Or All, maybe.
A nice smile may gloss over that.

The maximum fine of $3M for PG&E's carelessness in killing 8 people and blowing up 38 homes just doesn't seem like justice. Especially when corrupt Sacramento let the pig pass on the fine cost to customers in two approved rate increases, enough for even more profit, kind of like a reward for Killing 8 of any of us.
"Smile!"

The too powerful and too little taxed oil industry has been rather secretly poisoning our California ground water areas, fracking, toxic poisons that will last for centuries and millenniums. Just to get the very last oil.
"Smile!"

And the too powerful Ag industry will not have their pesticides and other poison tested for efficiency and safety first. Even if your daughter turns out to be sterile and can not have any children and your son is extremely anti-social and just likes to blow up people and buildings, "gaming" on his private tv.
"Smile!"

We have been taking too much for too long. 96% of N.coast redwoods logged and clear-cutting continues.
The Sacramento's huge king salmon commercial fishery is almost completely gone ,also the Sport fishery. Abalone commercially overfished so that sf-sd is Permanently Closed.  Fishing stocks right off our coast are still severely overfished, so much so that seal pups were starving on the beach. We have not had the usual 8ft of snowpack at Donner Pass 7000ft elevation in so so long. And Governor Jerry wants to channel even more water South; Good thing he and his Sister were busted for unethical oil deals, or whatever. As a big populous State and the 6th largest economy in the World, we Californians are in for Big Trouble; Heard of the coming Debt Crisis? All we really seem capable of doing is making the very few extremely rich. Tired of seeing the lengthening soup lines yet of your fellow citizens?
"Smile!", you spineless political Candidates.

Why is it so darn difficult to make good leaders !!