A Mini-Disaster In My Neighborhood

This morning, as the third and most powerful in a series of Pacific storms buffeted the Central Coast, my power went out shortly before church. Later I discovered it was caused by a massive tree death in my neighborhood 3-1/2 blocks north and one full block east of my house. A giant oak tree crashed down in the alley between 18th and 19th Streets and bounded by Spring and Oak Streets. The power was back on by mid-afternoon after a re-routing job by P.G.& E. Repairs to the poles and lines will take days due to four blocks worth of bent or snapped poles along the alleyway and given all the other repair work going on all over the Central Coast in the aftermath of the recent series of Pacific storms. Indeed, it is so bad around here that repair crews are being brought in from other parts of California. 

View north from the rear of Kuehl-Nicolay Funeral Home.

Zoomed in view from previously-mentioned location.

View behind Christian Life Center.

View north from 18th Street between Oak and Spring Streets.
All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Trespassation & Transgression

Today I realized that in the previous day somebody had stolen two barrels filled with recyclable cans and bottles I was about to redeem this weekend. The barrels were in the carport separating my little house from my landlord's larger home. The carport is accessed from a north-south trending alley which connects the east-west street south of me from the one north of me. Whomever did this took not just my recyclables but the two cans which contained them. This is a theft not worth making a report over but it is in keeping with a trend in Paso Robles of late that has even forced the police department to send out an email informing the citizenry that this is happening (theft in general) and to be on guard. This is a minor thing on a practical level but I feel a sinking sense of being violated and disrespected. Somebody felt entitled to what was not their's and entered my sphere while I was at school. This leaves me with a vague sense of unease and disquiet.

Picture of the Day - Cyclist Down Tonite

This was the scene less than an hour ago out in front of the house in front of my house (I live down an alley in back). I was next door at my buddy Mark's place watching old episodes of the original British TV series The Office (to which I have become addicted) when I heard an air brake engage outside on the street in front.  I immediately associated it with a fire apparatus and got up and stepped out the front door to look. I noticed Paso Robles Engine 8191 engaged in a medical aid on the side of the street along with a Paso Robles police officer and his car. Within a minute or two Medic 21 arrived and pulled up behind the engine. On the radio in route to Twin Cities Hospital the medics reported this as a 55 year-old cyclist who had fallen off his bike as opposed to a car versus cyclist. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

A Gentle Giant

Still-frame of security camera footage of the harmless, big lug Michael Brown playfully robbing a convenience store a short time before Brown earned the prestigious Darwin Award for his inspired performance assaulting a white police officer (which is code for "racist"). As I type this, parts of Ferguson, MO, are being spiritedly burned in exhuberant protest of the  injustice dealt to the zero, er, hero Michael Brown for whom his killer repeatedly smashed his face (the cop's own)  into Brown's fist.

Murder He Wrote

Yesterday I took a Sunday drive out to the Adelaida area about 20 miles west of Paso Robles in some of the most beautiful countryside in California. Ostensibly I was picking up a chain saw from my friend Marybeth. However, I elected to make a bit of an adventure out of it and check on the old digs of my late friend David Brooks a.k.a. "Studibaker Dave" who for the better part of two decades was the caretaker of the Klau/Buena Vista Mine complex. I also revisited the Adelaida Cemetery which I shared here last night. The Klau/Buena Vista Mine caretaker's residence picture below was where I found my friend Dave's body in 2010 and it was also the scene of a murder last month of someone known to Dave who had moved in after his decease.

Billy Law had actually been a source of hindrance to efforts by Dave's friends to settle Dave's affairs to his satisfaction at the time of his demise. Billy was no friend of mine and although what I know of him is through friends of Dave I know with certainty that he was not a good person and what happened was both criminal and karmic.

Back in the 1990's a young man was murdered around the corner from this house up Cypress Mountain Road about a mile from here. The late Dave Brooks, caretaker of the mine complex found that body shotgunned and run over in the road just down the road from the mine. There is a bad vibe out there I can sense although I have not directly experienced anything "paranormal" in the immediate vicinity.

I spent the night in the house in question a few different times during the Studibaker Dave Administration. I was never able to sleep well there but never felt immediately threatened or directly endangered. However, I was never comfortable there overnight. After dark the place took on a menacing personality despite the fact I am utterly unafraid of the dark and thrive in it with great natural night vision even at age 43.

This locality and the various morbid events that have happened there were the inspiration for a short story I wrote earlier this month for my creative writing class. I got an "A" on it and my PhD instructor strongly suggests I polish it some more and submit it for publication to various literary journals including Tellus, the Cuesta College literary journal. Before doing that rewrite I desired to revisit my muse of a mine complex.

Billy Law died in the front doorway of this house whereas Dave died on the sofa across the room over three years before.

The presence of a woman in this house has caused it to look more nested in than in Studibaker Dave's time when it looked like Sanford & Son's stockyard.

The barn in back used to be covered by a much larger corrugated steel structure which I was surprised to find gone.

Note the gun target to the left of the barn and further back by the base of the dirt pile... ironic given Billy Law was shot with a 9mm at point blank range with the magazine being emptied into him for emphasis by his old lady's big brat.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved)

The Best Cop Stop Ever

The youthful, candy-assed, know-it-all, know-nothing polyannas (Shane, Blake, & Warren) who hoped to be the stars of this recording ended up being thoroughly owned by this most gracious and professional police officer whom they had hoped to provoke into a viral video incident.

Kudos to Albany, Oregon, Police Officer Jim Estes who displayed not only class and intelligence but dare I say a great bit of leadership as well?

Additional assessments of this video can be found HERE and HERE.

Breaking Bad Behavior Breaking In Camera

Tonight I was next door watching the movie "Adaptation" with Nicholas Cage when I began to hear many sirens across town. I tried to ignore it for awhile, but then gave in and went next door to my house and checked my scanner and computer. There I discovered that there was a vehicle accident with injuries and the need for extrication at 13th Street and Chestnut Street which is only a few blocks southwest of my location. Having just purchased a new camera with my Christmas gift money from mom I took the new camera down to the accident scene and captured these images. Talking to the bystanders I discovered that this vehicle had been being pursued by the CHP at the time of the crash and ate it on this hillside at the end of 13th Street.

This pursuit began earlier in conjunction with another incident in town earlier. One couple I talked told me the driver nearly ran into them as it sped by them with the CHP hot on its tail. From these images it is clear this driver launched from the end of 13th and perhaps even went airborne a bit over Chestnut Street and went up the hill ultimately landing on the rocks which used to be part of the historic house being remodeled on that property. The driver took out the chain link fence that cordoned off the construction area.

Note: beneath the images below is the CHP CAD report of this incident. Clearly, it is a rather long, convoluted, and rather bizarre sequence of events that is still being disentangled at this hour.

Note the SUV up on the rock pile on the hillside. 

Note the Heavy Rescue unit at right. I do not know the unit designator for it.

The neighborhood turned out in force to check out the spectacle.

All photos by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Incident:  00175   Type:    Trfc Collision-Minor Inj   Location:   Crg14 / Nacimiento Lake Dr  Loc Desc:  1 MILE BEFORE    Lat/Lon:  35.640664 -120.699465

8:44 PM	25	[50] B9-004B 98 SOLO VEH 1181 - COP - PTY TRANS TO TCH - PGandE WILL BE DOING OWN 1184 WHEN TIME TO REPLACE THE POLE
7:32 PM	24	[48] UPDATED ETA FOR PGE 15-20
7:30 PM	23	[28] [Appended, 19:31:03] [19] 1039 PRPD
7:30 PM	22	[30] [Appended, 19:31:03] [17] 1B ROLL 1141
7:29 PM	21	[31] [Appended, 19:31:03] [16] 1B 13TH / CHESTNUT - VEH TC'D ROLL 1141
7:29 PM	20	[32] [Appended, 19:31:03] [15] 1039 AIROPS-NO PILOT AVAIL
7:28 PM	19	[35] [Appended, 19:31:03] [12] 1039 PRPD
7:26 PM	18	[41] [Appended, 19:31:03] [6] B9-001B CODE 4 - CRESTON / GOLDEN HILL OUT W/ VEH
7:26 PM	17	[42] [Appended, 19:31:03] [5] B9-008B 1B BEHIND VEH ON GOLDEN HILL - 7AMU421
7:25 PM	16	[43] [Appended, 19:31:03] [4] B9-008B OTHER VEH THAT TC'D TOOK OFF SV - DBL FORD EPD 7AMU421 - WENT SB GOLDEN HILL - 1B BEHIND HIM
7:21 PM	15	[44] [Appended, 19:31:03] [3] B9-008B WHILE ON STOP - A VEH PULLED OVER ON RHS AND BACKED INTO THE BMW 8B HAD STOPPED
7:01 PM	14	[27] ETA FOR PGE - 60 MIN
6:48 PM	13	[26] 1039 PG/E, WILL CB W/ ETA
6:43 PM	12	[25] B9-004B NEG LINES DOWN - POLE SHEARED OFF BUT STILL UPRIGHT
6:43 PM	11	[24] B9-004B PGandE POLE
6:43 PM	10	[23] B9-004B POLE SHEARED OFF - POLE #110517090
6:38 PM	9	[20] [Rotation Request Comment] 1039 ALLIANCE 805-226-9099
6:36 PM	8	[18] B9-004B ROLL 1185 FB TO HAUL - AND REG RIG TO GET IT OUT - 25 FT OTS
6:23 PM	7	[16] [Notification] [CHP]-PER ANOTHER RP, VEH HIT AND SHEARED OFF A PHONE POLE
6:18 PM	6	[13] VEH IN A DITCH OFF RDWY, XRAY CONSCIOUS and BREATHING, TRAPPED IN VEH
6:17 PM	5	[11] 1039 SLSO
6:17 PM	4	[9] [Notification] [CHP]-Problem changed from 1183-Trfc Collision-Unkn Inj to 1179-Trfc Collision-1141 Enrt by CHP
6:16 PM	3	[8] XRAY STILL IN VEH
6:16 PM	2	[7] VEH ON ITS ROOF
6:12 PM	1	[1] VEH OFF RDWY

Picture of the Day - Atascabama Untermensch

I drove past this scene in the apartment complex part of Atascadero at the intersection of Pueblo and Santa Ysabel Avenues. Four carts stolen from the Vons parking lot a third of a mile north of here were brought down and unceremoniously deposited on the grass grounds of this apartment complex. Some aspects and elements of the town are changing for the worse, especially as it pertains to the homeless and other forms of rabble. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Vine Street Flashing Lights

For the second time today there has been a minor stir in my "hood" here in Old Town Paso Robles. This time it was tonight on Vine Street southbound between 15th Street and 14th Street. Does this location sound familiar? This morning's bit of excitement was a block due east of tonite's bit of stir. The above scene lasted the better part of an hour and a half and ended without a tow truck so presumably no felony was detected but given the thorough search of the car that I observed this was probably a drug stop. On an aesthetic note, I particularly liked the play of blue light reflected on the houses adjacent to the two police vehicles. Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).

Picture of the Day - Oak Street Accident

This morning while working on my car parked in my carport I heard a series of terrible collisions somewhere in the neighborhood nearby. I quickly walked down my alley to 15th Street and then followed where I saw neighbors coming out of their homes and looking concernedly towards. I found an old man, shaken and stirred, but whom was otherwise physically fine, looking in shock and horror at all the parked cars he hit on both sides of Oak Street between 15th Street and 14th Street. He apparently had experienced some sort of episode of grand mal senior moment. Driving the red pickup seen above he struck a total of two parked vehicles (one on each side of Oak Street) and one of them he slammed into the car parked in front of it (for a grand total of three parked vehicular victims). Note: yes, that is four police vehicles you see in the photo (one for each damaged vehicle). Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).