First post of the year

It's been awhile since my last post. Yeah, I know. It seems like I blog once every few months. I'll try to do it more often. Christmas has been good, but unfortunately I spent New Year's at home. It's been a good 2009 so far, although I've been skipping out on the gym lately. I got to get back into it. Finally, my kitchen is finally getting remodeled! It's 30 years old it's about time. I'm so excited. Well that's it for now. I joined Twitter recently, so if you want to follow me, I'm at twitter.com/eckoboy6679.

Election Day

Yup, I voted. I hope you did too. Then I went over to Starbucks to get my free tall-sized coffee. Can't argue with that.

Smokin' Aces

Man, I love this movie! Even though it came out over a year ago, I'm still hooked on watching it over and over again. The Tremor Brothers (played by Chris Pine as Darwin, Kevin Durand as Jeeves and Maury Sterling as Lester) and Georgia Sykes (played by Alicia Keys) are tied as my favorite characters in the movie. Here's a funny video of the Tremors discussing their roles in the movie:

Halloween

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. I didn't really do anything that day. If I did, I'd probably wanted to go as either Venom from the Spider-Man 3 movie or Darwin Tremor of the Tremor Brothers from the Smokin' Aces movie. I don't know... I just seem to like some villain characters in some movies nowadays.

Happy belated 4th of July

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I pretty much spent a nice quiet time home (with the exception of the fireworks going on outside) watching the fireworks on TV. I didn't really want to go out that night anyway.

In another subject, the smoke from the wildfires here in California really took a toll on everyone wanting to go out to do just about anything. Fortunately, it's clearing up a little bit, which is a good thing. The Delta Breeze pretty much had something to do with the clearing, which is also a good thing.

The past few weeks

Nothing out of the ordinary has came out these past few weeks, although lately I've been wanting to rearrange my bedroom and make it a little more modern for my own taste, but it's kind of impossible when I have very limited space to accomplish it. So I put up a couple of wall shelves and added some hardware touches throughout my room, all from IKEA. I just love that store, especially when you can get stuff for cheap.

Oh yeah, my birthday was last week. I didn't do anything special. I just went out to dinner with my parents. Got myself a few presents and some birthday greetings and I was happy.

Father's Day is tomorrow. Remember to wish your dad a Happy Father's Day.

What are you in a hurry for?

Yesterday after bring my mom to the hospital, we were driving home and two cars were just speeding down the street at about I would say about 70 miles per hour in a 40 mph zone. One dumb ass was in a Chevrolet Cobalt i believe and another dumb ass was in a 60s model Ford Mustang. Both tailgated me and other poor suspecting motorists. I've managed to get them to stay back for awhile until they finally got ahead of everybody by way of cutting people off on the street part of a road that was 50 mph, with the two dumb asses still maintaining a speed of about 70 mph. The driver in the Chevy Colbalt continued to speed and weave in and out of traffic. Surprisingly, the dumb driver signaled. The other fool in the old Mustang never signaled and guess what -- he lived in the same neighborhood as me! I can't believe this. Hurrying to get home for no reason at all. This goes to show that there will always be dumb asses on the road. Everyone are generally good people, but some just make dumb decisions.

A senseless accident on Highway 70 in Sutter County, California

Here another story about the dangers of Highways 70 and 99 between Sacramento and Marysville/Yuba City:

South Sutter traffic tragedy
By Rob Young/Appeal-Democrat
May 9, 2008 - 2:33PM

A San Jose woman was killed and at least four other people were injured Friday in a Highway 70 collision involving an Amtrak California bus, two vans and two cars.

The accident occurred at 1:29 p.m. about one-quarter mile south of Marcum Road and closed Highway 70.

The driver of a 1995 Acura Integra, Vang Yang, 22, of Sacramento, apparently caused the collision by trying to pass the northbound bus on the busy, two-lane road, said Capt. Jim Young of the California Highway Patrol, who credited the bus driver with avoiding more casualties.

The bus remained upright in a shallow ditch on the east side of the highway.

"That says a lot right there," said Young.

"I avoided everything I could, but it was impossible," the bus driver, Terry Campbell, 54, of Shasta Lake City, said.

Two passengers were taken to Rideout Memorial Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

The dead woman, Rosa Mendoza, 40, was removed from the remains of her 1993 Nissan van more than 90 minutes after the collision.

After apparently striking the left front corner of the bus, the Acura hit the van head-on, said Young.

Celeste Hewitt was following the southbound van in her subcompact car, two vehicles back. She was on her way home to Santa Cruz County after visiting her mother in Oregon.

The disintegrating van "looked like foil rolling back at me, lighter than air," said Hewitt.

"It's senseless to pass with bumper-to-bumper traffic. People just died because someone was in a hurry," said Hewitt.

Hewitt tried to avoid the van but the front of her car had front-end damage. She was uninjured.

"It was terrible," she said, shaken.

"My angels were flying with me," she said.

One occupant of the Acura was airlifted to a hospital and another transported by ambulance. Their names were not immediately available.

Capt. Dave Samson of the Sutter County Sheriff's Department said Mendoza had been in the Yuba-Sutter area before the accident.

I've known about the dangers driving on Highway 70 between Highway 99 and the Plumas Lake area, especially since it's currently a two-lane highway. Even I get pissed when someone passes me because they want to show off and hurry to the mini-mart or some waste-of-time activity. I've driven that highway many times. It's scary. Sometimes I take the backroads, which is less busier.

That poor woman who died didn't have to because some young dumb ass in a speedy Acura Integra was impatient. Just another case of plain stupidity. My heart goes out to her family. She would've been alive and well had not this young 22 year-old fool caused this collision. I hope the Acura driver is charged with vehicular manslaughter charges or even a harder charge and I hope it haunts him for the rest of his life.

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Caltrans is trying to get the remaining two-lane Highway 70 between Highway 99 and the Plumas Lake area turned into a four-lane freeway, including a bypass around the very small town of East Nicolaus with a interchange at Nicolaus Road. The future exit is already numbered exit 4. There would also be an interchange with Feather River Boulevard in Plumas Lake (currently it's a traffic signal). They allocated $126 million for this project and construction has started, though its in it's infancy. Their projected completion is somewhere in 2010 or 2011, a mere 2-3 years away.