”
Hey Red Phone, there are helicopters flying just above treetop
level every morning about 6:30 a.m. heading from San Martin, I
think, over to the foothills west of us. Looks like they are moving
things back and forth on lines below them. This has been going on
since before the fires. They look similar to the ones that have
been running off U.S 101 recently up by Bernal doing PG
&
amp;E work, so that is what I think is going on with these too.I
suspect it won’t be much longer, but flying over residential areas
that low, every morning, is a little annoying.
”
Helicopters are cleaning PG&E power lines from soot and ash
“Hey Red Phone, there are helicopters flying just above treetop level every morning about 6:30 a.m. heading from San Martin, I think, over to the foothills west of us. Looks like they are moving things back and forth on lines below them. This has been going on since before the fires. They look similar to the ones that have been running off U.S 101 recently up by Bernal doing PG&E work, so that is what I think is going on with these too.I suspect it won’t be much longer, but flying over residential areas that low, every morning, is a little annoying.
Dear Annoyed,
Red Phone contacted PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson, who said you are correct. Crews were cleaning the towers when the fires struck and are now cleaning them of soot and ash from the fires. It shouldn’t be much longer, he said, but couldn’t say when the flights would cease.
Some haven’t gotten the message
“Red Phone, you’d think the message would be clear, in 100-plus degree weather, you don’t leave your kids or pets in cars. Can you please reprint the stats about how hot it gets in a car, even with the windows cracked? I came out of Johnny Carino’s Sunday at 5 p.m. to find a frantic dog scratching to get out of a minivan. I called the Gilroy police, who responded quickly, and talked to the stupid owners when they came out from the air conditioned restaurant. I wanted to thank the officer for his calm, professional manner; I was quite upset watching the animal in distress.”
Dear Duh,
Red Phone just visited this issue last week and heartily agrees. Anyone who leaves a pet in a car while he or she runs errands or eats is just asking for trouble.
A recent study by the Stanford University School of Medicine showed that temperatures inside cars can rise dramatically even on mild days. With outside temperatures as low as 72 degrees, researchers found that a car’s interior temperature can heat up by an average of 40 degrees within an hour, with 80 percent of that increase in the first 30 minutes. A cracked window provides little relief from this oven effect. The Stanford researchers found that a cracked window had an insignificant effect on both the rate of heating and the final temperature after an hour.
Last week, Red Phone contacted San Martin veterinarian and Dispatch columnist Pete Keesling, who wrote about the issue in March. To read the entire column, go to the lifestyles section at www.gilroydispatch.com/lifestyles.
Special ‘thanks’ to the council
“The fireworks this year have been so enjoyable, especially on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and now 6th of July. I am particularly enjoying the M-80s and other heavy duty illegal munitions that always accompany the ‘safe and sane’ fireworks here. I am just waiting for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and, oh, let’s not forget New Years Eve when another load of leftover illegal munitions can be enjoyed by all. And special thanks to the city council for allowing yet another year of ‘ways to mask the illegal fireworks by pretending to shoot off the legal one’s’ festival. I have friends currently serving in Bal’ad and Kirkut who don’t deal with this much action in a week.”
Dear Bothered,
Red Phone believes in individual freedoms and the right to celebrate the Independence Day with legal fireworks if desired, but other than dressing up on Halloween, Red Phone can’t find another holiday tradition more useless than blowing things up and making a mess to celebrate our Nation’s independence. Sure it was started hundreds of years ago and is a tradition, but so was shooting guns into the air before that has been outlawed. Firework celebrations have gotten out of hand in a state that is a tinderbox waiting to ignite.
The problem lies with the irresponsible few who ruin things for law abiding citizens who want to entertain their children with sparklers and the like.
Though Red Phone would like to ban the useless noisemakers, passing a law outlawing yet another of our freedoms goes against what this country was founded on. So good caller, looks like we’ll just have to get our hoses ready and plug our ears.
