Cranky Greg's View

Almond Trees in Fresno

Cranky Greg took some photos of almond trees in Fresno this morning.

Saturday Morning Ramblings

It's gonna be so damn hot today in Fresno that Cranky Greg's gonna even be crankier.  Cranky had plans to work outside in some flower beds and in the yard but those plans have been canceled.  Cranky Greg will stay inside all day, except he might go jump in the pool which may be more like a hot tub than a refreshing dip.

Maybe Cranky Greg should take his boat to Shaver Lake?!  Just thought of that!  Maybe another plan change!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is determined to build nuclear weapons so he can destroy Israel.  He says it all the time.  But that doesn't bother the fine folks at the United Nations.  Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a "ball of fire" and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear program.

And Cranky Greg supposes that genius believes everything will be peaceful in the Middle East if Iran gets nuclear weapons!  What a gas bag!

Cranky Greg always thought it was kinda a corny idea to think that fuel made from corn - ethanol - is a panacea to our energy problems.  The floods in Iowa have shown what a bad idea it is since the supply is easily disruptable due to weather.  Bad weather, Al Gore claims, that is caused by humans burning fuels, such as ethanol.  Even though ethanol's a "greener gas."

Not only is it hot in Fresno, it's hot in the Bay Area and in the Southland.  Hell, San Luis Obispo was 108 degrees yesterday!  In a state that is home to Silicon Valley, one might think that California is on the cutting edge of damn near everything.  But not when comes to such basics as providing electricity.  According to this story in The Los Angeles Times, some 20,000 customers lost electricity for a time yesterday.  And there were some minor brownouts in Clovis.  Cranky always laughs at BIGMEDIAPRESS when it gets hot because they tell people to drink lots of water and to stay cool.  Like this advice from the L.A. Times:  Take advantage of shade and air conditioning.  Thanks for the advice, man.

Just because abortions are legal doesn't mean that the back-alley abortion business has been stamped out.  Bertha Pinedo Bugarin has been accused of performing abortions for $500, even though she is not a physician.  She operated six clinics in Southern California, and she wasn't even successful at killing all of the babies.  In one case, she failed to kill the targeted child, but the child was later born prematurely and died three hours later.  Sounds like a murder or manslaughter charge would be appropriate here.

Sprawling Fresno and Clovis

Cranky Greg loves Fresno and the Central Valley.  It's an agricultural region situated on the east side of the Central Valley next to the Sierra Nevada mountain Range.

The Fresno area is surrounded by agriculture - orange groves, almond orchards, vineyards and other crops.  Cranky Greg loves driving through rows and rows of olive trees or orange groves.  Nothing beats driving through orange groves in April with the scent of orange blossoms in the air!

But the Fresno area is growing and is gobbling up the farmland.  This orange grove, near Cranky Greg's neck of the woods east of Clovis, is being destroyed.  Cranky guesses some houses will be built there, as if Fresno needs more new houses.

Cranky Greg realizes this is progress, but it is still kinda sad to see these groves plowed up.

Fresno Doesn't Need The Donald!

The City of Fresno, behind the efforts of Mayor Alan Autry, are busy cooking up plans to buy a failed golf course, Running Horse, so they can turn around and sell it to Donald Trump.

The only reason the City of Fresno would do this is to use the power of eminent domain to seize property from owners and then transfer it to a billionaire businessman who could care less about Fresno but could make some more cash.

Outrageous!!

Cranky Greg is going to follow this story very closely and will report back later.