Category: Local

The Cascade Winds Concert Band (of which my dad and I are a part of) is playing two FREE concerts this weekend. Tickets are not needed, just head on up to COCC and enjoy the show!

The concerts are:

– Sunday, March 13th at 3:00PM at the Pickney Center for the Arts, COCC Campus

– Monday, March 14th at 7:30PM at the Pickney Center for the Arts, COCC Campus

For those of you who don’t know your way around the COCC Campus, there’s a PDF map here.

The music is high-energy and high intensity concert band music (read the extended entry for full information on the pieces we’ll be playing). We’re also featuring the percussion section in a rendition of “Sabre Dance.” You might not recognize the name, but listen to this sample of the song here and you’ll recognize the tune, I’m sure. There’s also going to be a rocking trombone solo piece that is one of the most impressive things I’ve heard in a long time. This, along with a pile of other great music, and one of the most entertaining-to-watch conductors (super high energy), I can guarantee you’ll have a good time.

And besides, it’s free, so who cares if you don’t?

Contact me if you have any questions, or read on below for full information on the concert. If you do end up coming, please do introduce yourself.

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Been meaning to post a link here about this, but will get around to it now, especially since Jon beat me to it (he points out a great headline on their site: “League Of Women Voters against Toxic Discharge“). Bend.com has debuted a new site design that looks about 1000 times better than it did before. The site design is still in its infancy with their home-grown CMS as it still has some issues like some oddball SQL and link bugs I found around the site. I’m sure are being worked out, however (they’ve already squashed one bug I ran into yesterday with story links not working).

But a good design is useless without good content. Since Barney’s departure, the content there — other than the professionally-written press releases that were mostly written by large PR firms — has been less than stellar.

Observe…

When you first see the tall, lithe figure stride into the Sunrise Lodge at Mt. Bachelor; long blonde hair flowing and dark glasses on her high sculptured cheekbones, you might think there just may be a model shoot or maybe even a movie being shot up at the mountain.

Boy, does that read like a teeny-bopper magazine to anybody else?

How about this one — a nice hard news story about a meth bust:

There had been evidence that he was selling methamphetamine fast and furiously.

This is from (yes, a bad headline) “Another one bites the meth dust.” I’m sure “fast and furiously” wasn’t on the official press release from the police department. That’s the kind of story you just stick to the facts, and don’t sugar coat it.

I’m sure the content will only get better as these kinds of things are said, but Barney, let me be one to say that we miss you! Hurry up and get the Z21 site up and running.

Nothing like a Valentine’s Day marriage at your local 24-hour-diner to make you feel all warm and sappy inside. Some fun little excerpts:

The restaurant is also a safe haven for Dot (Morrow), who’s eaten breakfast and dinner there every day the past 12 years [Jake Note: That can’t be cheap] — ever since her first husband died. Denny’s staff call her a dear friend who quells the restaurant’s grouchy customers and imbues it with cheer.

[…]

When the Tumalo resident, who works the night shift at a local hotel, doesn’t show up for a meal, staff call her house to make sure she’s OK. And when Dot’s doctor told her she needed to lose weight because her health was in jeopardy, Denny’s staff cheered her on every step of the way. Over the past year, she’s lost 145 pounds frequenting a diner where at least half the meals are deep-fried.

[…]

The couple will now share Dot’s Tumalo home, where they like to watch WWF wrestling matches every Monday night.

Isn’t that sweet? Full Story.

I’m in the process of getting a better catalog together of Central Oregon bloggers (including aggregating some content — stay tuned), but in the meanwhile, a couple more local bloggers have popped up on orblogs.com:

The Grumpy Forester

VOIP Now

Forester is based in LaPine, and VOIP Now has GeoURL tags that put it in Bend. However, it appears, looking at their WhoIs, it’s a project of DotMarketer (as they’ve started blogs before), so I don’t know if they’re actually based in Bend or not. Can somebody from that company contact me or comment here to clear it all up?

Regardless, welcome to both of you! Once we start having more get-togethers, you guys are welcome to come (and that goes to any local blogger). Sign up for our mailing list, as we usually discuss that type of stuff there (note that all subscriptions are moderated, so expect a reply back from me before you get on the list).

My daily commute takes me up and down U.S. Highway 97 between Bend and Sunriver. Probably the most dangerous stretch of this popular highway (referred to those who drive it as “I-97”), it’s especially nasty this time of year. The worst part of it is the narrow little stretch of highway south of Lava Butte, where it narrows down to two lanes (from four) and the highway shoulder narrow significantly. It’s a very dangerous stretch of road, especially this time of year where the heavily shaded road gets more ice and snow than most areas.

And then once I make it through that section just past Lava Butte, the area where you turn off to go to Sunriver is equally as dangerous. Sunriver, especially this time of year, is a very popular resort destination, so there’s a heavy amount of traffic that goes on and off Hwy. 97 at that intersection. Prior to the curbs being installed on the turn, people were regularly exiting the highway too fast (they still do), sliding and losing control, and clobbering cars waiting to get onto the highway. And trying to get on the highway from Sunriver there is a nightmare I face every day, too.

They’ve been talking for years about how they’re going to fix that intersection, and it’s finally becoming a little closer to reality. It’s been taking a long time because of all the government entities that are involved in the decision, complicated by the fact that the intersection is surround by National Forest and National Monument land.

But considering how many accidents that stretch of highway has had recently, the improvements they’re doing to that area will not come soon enough.

Related story from the Bulletin.

I doubt your day was as bad as this Bend contractor’s:

A Bend-area construction worker learned a painful lesson the hard way Monday morning: When you stop off on the way to work for the morning cup of brew, don’t leave your keys in the rig ? especially if there’s a trailer and Bobcat on the back. They just might not be there when you return.

One suspect in the pickup and trailer theft was arrested a short time later, but the other fled police in the stolen pickup ? from which the trailer hauling the construction equipment already had been unhooked ? and eventually lost the officers on gravel roads east of town.

Moral of the story? Don’t leave your keys in your car, even for a minute.