If you want to buy booze, Bend is a good place to do it, with over 60% of the local businesses failing in the latest OLCC sting. Full Story.
Category: Local
Bootleg RSS Feeds
I’m thinking of paying the $10 (or whatever it costs) to get the Bulletin an RSS feed, since they probably won’t ever do one themselves. Bend.com has one, but there are some stories that Barney just can’t get — he is just a one-man show, after all (but when he gets a story, he does it far better than they do up on Chandler Drive).
“The fewer people in town, the more time I have to screw off.”
The guy that runs the Craine Prairie Resort here in Central Oregon is a hoot. There was a health advisory issued for his resort and the lake saying that because of the blue-green algae blooms in the water, it is unsafe for you to come into contact with the water. The owner of the resort really doesn’t see too much of a problem with it.
Extreme Unicyclists in Central Oregon
I use NetNews Tracker to run daily Usenet searches to find news of interest. Generally, what it comes across it completely irrelevant, but today it sent me to a post that linked to a local company that makes and sells some pretty damn cool extreme, unicycles frames, and parts. Looking at the pictures of what these guys do I think I can safely say that they are absolutely nuts — in that “Man, I was I was talented enough to pull that of” sort of way.
Anybody else know of Bend (or Central Oregon) companies that are cool or interesting? It’s always amazing to me the way people make money around here.
UO Frat Beats Up Local Home
The Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oregon is getting sued by a couple of Sunriver homeowners for a cool $500,000 after they threw a massive party and trashed the house.
This happens far too often out here. I work at a vacation rental company that manages several homes larger than the one in the article, and you’d be amazed how often, this time of year, these houses will get totally trashed. We always are trying to be careful who we rent to, and while we have houses that sleep about 16 people, we’ll only advertise them as 12 so this doesn’t happen.
My worry is that the guy that rented the house will also get in trouble. The frat obviously over-occupied the house, probably violating county occupancy guidelines for nightly rentals, but the homeowner, if they truly are renting the home on a nightly basis, is required to pay Deschutes County a room tax (7%). The county is trying to crack down on private homeowners who rent their homes out privately but don’t pay the tax, and this may end up opening another can of worms for the homeowner if they haven’t been clean and clear with their taxes. If I were the lawyer for SAE, I’d be sure to bring that up — after I beat the living tar out of my clients for being jackasses.
Greyhound Leaves Bend
Like Jon, I remember when there was a bus station downtown. The last few years, the station’s moved around, mostly situated in the back of Gas stations — the now non-existent 76 station on the North End of town, and the current location at Hwy 97 Gas, across from the Red Oak Square, come to mind — or in small little stops like on the East side of Bend in a little strip mall plaza across from a car dealership. But those big buses with the big shiny Greyhounds on the side won’t be coming through Bend anymore.
I’ve used Greyhound several times — a few times in Bend — but I used it a lot when I was trying to court my then-girlfriend (now wife) as she lived in Monmouth, I lived in Eugene, and I had no car. When I wanted to surprise her with a visit, I’d take Greyhound to Salem and hitchhike into her college. The bus was just nasty and dirty, but I met some fascinating folks on that bus — fascinating in that “if this white-trash redneck sitting next to me spouts off any more anti-Hispanic racial slurs as loud as he is, I’m going to be in the middle of a serious ass-kicking” kind of way.
In the grand scheme of things, it probably won’t hurt our tourism-driven economy too much, as the people that traveled via Greyhound didn’t generally make too much of a dent in the local economy with their spending. I’m just hoping Hwy 97 Gas doesn’t close, because they have really cheap gas.
Gotta Love Central Oregon Life
Where else could you just be minding your own business at the post office and suddenly you’re getting selected for jury duty?
Wi-Fi hits Redmond Airport
If I actually flew as much as I used to, I’d be even happier about this, but I just got wind from Barney, who got a note from Carrie Novick, manager at Redmond’s airport, that the terminal has been outfitted with Wi-Fi access. She said that as soon as they got it up, people were using it at the airport.
Barney said he may not have time to write a story about it, but if he does, it will be linked here. Update: Barney got a story up about it.
Now all they need is some Wi-Fi Wallpaper to keep the network from wandering on to the run way.
Try Flapping Your Arms Next Time
A local crook thought he could jump from his 2nd-floor window to elude police, only to find out that the ground hurts. He was treated and released at the hospital, and subsequently thrown in Deschutes County Jail.
Thanks Ronald Reagan?
Either this guy was able to predict the future, or this guy’s always had a thing for Ronald Reagan (click on the image, read the plates):
Drive-by-shooting Barney took this picture while driving on the West-side of Bend. He said in an e-mail to me: “Is the timing coincidental? I mean, it DOES take some time to order license plates, right? That DOES mean ‘Thanks, Ronald Reagan,’ right?”
Thanks Ronald on a gas-guzzling SUV? Whatever. Needless to say, he’s got an e-mail into some local folks who are good at producing owner information on license plates. I’ll update this post if I hear more.