Every day I drive to work, I take the 55 south and see – between Edinger & Dyer – a big sign that says, “Jesus Christ is the reason for the season”

Merry Christmas from all of us at Orange County Metroblogging to all of you. May the new year be the best yet.

If you pay any attention to the local news, which I hardly do, I’m sure you have heard of about the two men who were stabbed because of road rage. I must say, I’m not surprised something like this happened, I have seen the way people have been driving lately and seen how short tempered they have been, something like this was bound to happen.

Last Sunday, driving north on the 55, just about to the 5 interchange, a car changes lanes without looking, nearly running into an SUV which luckily swerved into the next lane to avoid an accident. Then, without pausing to look, the car changed lanes again, forcing the SUV into the carpool lane. The SUV driver, half in the carpool lane, half on the double yellow line, sped up and pulled in front of the car that had nearly run into it twice. The car jumps over the double yellow into the carpool lane, speeds past the SUV, cuts it off and then slams on its breaks coming to a complete stop while the rest of the freeway is going 80. Jill and I, suck behind this drama, had no choice but to get on the breaks and the horn, hoping nobody rear ended us.

Monday, within a few minutes of one another, I saw two near accidents because people weren’t paying attention. The first, a car stopped in the turn lane pulled across two lanes of traffic, in front of oncoming cars, because they decided to turn the other way. Everybody, of course, had to slam on their breaks to avoid hitting this car. Then, not a mile down the road, I witness a van pull out of a gas station parking lot without stopping or looking, which was only narrowly missed by oncoming traffic.

Then, yesterday, I was leaving Target’s parking lot and a man couldn’t decide which way to turn. He sat there for a minute trying to figure it out while a half dozen cars waited for him. The man in the car behind him honked, just to say ‘let’s go’, and this ass put his car in park, opened his door, got out and was ready to fight the guy behind him. WTF is with that?

Anybody else have good/scary stories to share about road rage and road stupidity this holiday season? People have gotten way out of control, I’m a bit scared to get in my car. I can’t wait till this holiday season is over.

Things have been pretty dry in this Metroblogging neighborhood for the past couple days

What in the #$%#$ is Moreno doing to the ANAHEIM Angels?

In a recent interview with the Orange County Register Moreno attempted to explain his reason for changing the name of the Angels from the Anaheim Angels to the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.” In the full page diatribe Moreno claimed his goal when he purchased the Angels was to make them a large market team and appeal to a region with 161.5 million people, instead of the 300,000 people who end up paying taxes for the extra security, traffic, and matinence costs on Angel Stadium. After he argued his point on expanding the brand, Moreno claimed the stadium has reached its satuation point and that the only way to get more fans to buy more gear and watch the team is through a lucrative television contract.

Well, Arte you screwed up on this one. KCAL 9 (owned by CBS) backed out of negotiations with the Angels and choose to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers in an exclusive deal. After next season the Angels will no longer have a home on the Southern California television market, except for the occasional games on KDOC and those on the spanish language televisions stations. Good job on the Television deal, you went from having a market to no market.
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Doc Searls has a nice round-up on Sunday’s plane crash into the KFI tower in La Mirada. There hasn’t been a lot of media coverage [local or otherwise] on this incident but there’s plenty of reasons why it’s an important incident – which Doc covers.

When I finally heard about the crash, it sort of hit home for me. You see, I’ve spent pretty much all of my existance in La Mirada. It’s always been this insular sort of community that felt claustrophobic at times. A five mile blot on the landscape bordering Norwalk, Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, Buena Park, La Habra, La Palma and Fullerton. Most residents under 30 tell everyone they’re from either Fullerton or Whitter so they don’t have to explain where exactly La Mirada is.

But I digress. As I said, I’ve got sort of a connection to the area…

• My mom went to Neff High [blocks away from where the tower stood] before it was shut down and the area was turned into an industrial park.
• Since KFI was cranking out 50,000 watts, anyone in the immediate area could get the station by doing as little as picking up their phone. Our neighbors – who hailed from Missouri – fondly called it their “hold music”.
• When I was in high school the gearheads would take their cars out to Trojan Way [the drag where Neff used to be] to race. It ended up being a competition between the greasers and the ricers most weekends, but we had fun.
• When I had my first job [At Knott’s Berry Farm] I got in the habit of running down Trojan Way – mostly because I knew I could get away with doing 80 down it. My car radio could only pick up AM, so there were plenty of nights where I’d get a closing shift and I’d cruise home to KFI. The signal would always be strongest once I pulled onto Firestone and cleared the Nabisco Factory. The smell of snickerdoodles in the air and Art Bell on the radio will always bring me back to 1997.

For the past four years I’ve passed the tower on an almost daily basis while heading into work. My AM radio has been replaced by an iPod, but I sort of took it for granted until it wasn’t there this morning. Since the Nabisco factory is closing down too, that bit of my life feels bare now.

Here’s to hoping they bring the tower back up soon. When they do, I also hope they make it a little safer for airplanes coming into Fullerton Airport.