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This past weekend I flew Teri to Camarillo for a surprise trip to Santa Rosa Island. The island lies 40 miles off the coast of Ventura and I had signed us up for a tour with Channel Islands Aviation who would fly us there, and arrange for a guide.

The self-flying was fun, including a return trip with only one working brake, and you can read about it on my flying blog if you wish.

I can heartily recommend the tour. The island feels quite isolated and is beautiful with untouched beaches and rolling hills, just beware the high winds and the hunters (though hopefully they will be gone in 2011). We had a great guide, Inge, a volunteer with the National Park service who had a great passion and knowledge for the island. The trip across the sea to the island was also fun, our pilot Curtis skilfully brought the plane down on the dirt strip in very high winds and thanks to several people not showing up he was able to join us for the tour.

To the pictures I took, click on the photo above or go to this link to my flickr photoset.

Today is Day Without An Immigrant day, where people in support of illegal aliens and other criminals will try to hurt the country by not going to work and not buying anything. Well, I’ve decided to show my support by, today, not buying anything from a store that is run by anyone with ties to an illegal alien. Not sure how I will determine that but I am sure they will appreciate my effort.

It struck me this evening that almost every Hot Dog on a Stick vendor I’ve ever seen has babes working behind the counter. I don’t think that its neccessarily that employ above-average looking girls, I think its the uniforms that at once glance are pretty gaudy and dorky, but on closer inspection seem to do a lot for the wearer. Or maybe its just the idea of meat on a stick.

(Ok, I can’t get the image to reduce in size no matter what I try)

It seems that the idea just won’t go away, some states want to introduce a tax on the miles you drive. It seems that by encouraging people to drive more efficient vehicles, the state is losing revenue and needs ways to make that up. So… here’s a tax on how many miles of road you use. The article talks also about the price per mile being different depending on time of day, location etc. I think its a dumb idea, why not just increase the tax on gas which will keep revenues up and continue to discourage buying gas guzzling cars. And if we really have to have a per-mile tax, why not just have the odometer read on a regualr basis? Putting a GPS in each car is just a recipie for abuse.

We’ve had so much rain in the last couple of months that the desert floor is a sea of green right now, I’ve never seen it look anything but barren (excepting the ocotillos and cacti). This has also meant the desert wildflowers are blooming like never before. This weekend, Teri and I went out to the Anza Borrego State Park to have a look see and we were amazed at the colour and volume of the flowers that are out. Snapped a few pictures that you can see at my photo website but here’s a pretty dune evening primrose to tempt ya to go see for yourself.

Make sure you head for Coyote Canyon and Henderson Canyon for the best sightings. And be sure to stop at the park headquarters for a wildflower identification map that can be had for the princely sum of just one United States dollar.

This morning on the way to San Diego, the area near the border patrol station was buzzing. For about a mile I was paralleled by a helicopter and I saw many border patrol vehicles off the freeway, parked in various ‘ready to go’ locations. At the station everyone was being stopped and officers were having a very good look in the windows and, in some cases, the boot too. However, when I pulled up in the MINI I was waved straight on – I guess they knew the people they were looking for couldn’t possibly be hiding anywhere in my car. One more benefit of driving a small car.

I always thought that the penny slots were great for killing time – your money goes a long way – but never for winning anything worthwhile. However, on Monday, a man won $2,065,685 on the “Twilight Zone” penny slot machine at Viejas Casino. So maybe I should play the penny machines after all? Although with such a big win, maybe I need to wait a while for the jackpot to build back up….

According to this article at CNN.com :

Twice as many walkers die in traffic accidents in New Orleans, San Diego and Phoenix than in Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Boston.

Apparantly the USA is getting less and less friendly to pedestrians. Well, duh. It always amazes me that there are places you simply can’t get to without a vehicle. When the oil runs out, how will we get from A to B?

Get the full skinny here.

Prop B is a California proposition appearing on next week’s ballot. At stake is whether a landfill at Gregory Canyon gets built or not. Like most propositions, both sides have numerous television spots contradicting each other, confusing the issues and making it difficult to take an opinion. However, the really confusing thing is that a yes vote for prop B is a no vote for the landfill. If people in Florida can’t manage to follow an arrow on a ballot to know which box to put their ‘X’ in, how will people understand that if they don’t want the landfill than they have to vote yes? Or if they want the landfill they have to vote no?

No single of the week this week. Instead, I’m picking an anti-single of the week. William Shatner has covered Pulp’s Common People and its really scary. You can check it out here if you dare.