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Hi,

I’m sold out this weekend and basically the next four weekends (I have one room left October 8 & 9 and one October 15 & 16).  Derronda’s here doing all the breakfast prep and checking guests in, so I have some free time.  I checked my rankings on the search engines and I dropped from the #1 spot on Google, but I’m still in the top five of Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and AOL.  Also, I always calculate how many visitors I’ve had each day since I last checked my rankings and I’m running on average 75 per day, AWESOME.

I’m taking Tree Tender classes to be a certified City Tree Tender.  The main purpose of this is so I can properly care for the two trees they’re planting in the new sidewalks in front of my Inn and I plan on planting two new trees in my parking lot.  I want to replace the purple plum that was so seriously damaged during Snowmageddon last February and plant a new tree in back of the parking lot by the kitchen window.  The main reason I am bringing this up is at the class, one of the instructors said the Urban Tree Forge is still in operation.  If you remember, I spoke of it several months ago.  John Metzler set up with the City to take trees they needed to cut down and recycle them into flooring, cabinets, sculpture, etc over in the Point Breeze are.  John was tragically killed by a rental truck that broke loose from the one towing it and hit John.  I just assumed Urban Forge was closed, but she said it was still in operation.

On a related note, Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest is having their yearly fund raiser at Guardian Storage Solutions, 2839 Liberty Avenue on October 29th from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m.  It’s $25 in advance and $30 at the door with all proceeds going to Friends of the Pittsburgh Urban Forest.  The space is pretty interesting, it’s a 100 year old building that’s been completely remodeled with the high ceilings, refinished hardwood floors and brick walls.  They’re going to have local food and libations, a silent auction, a cello performance by Gordon Kirkwood, the Mon River Ramblers will be performing and incredible art work made from salvaged wood.  Artwork will be for sale.

Garden updates, the hibiscus I moved once and was doing so good is really stressing out, I think it’s the heat and dryness of this summer has finally gotten to it.  I spoke with my Hort friend Tony and that’s his call on it.  I have been watering them basically twice a week, but maybe that’s not been enough.  The banana that gets a lot of sun is huge, the other is still pretty small.  The white clematis on the arbor is this massive explosion of flowers.  I have a bunch of zucchini and tomato plants growing in my garden from last year’s compost.  Hopefully this year I’ve done better and the composting will be more effective and reduce the seeds down also.  A funny thing is I have grape tomatoes growing in my garden and I never use grape tomatoes.  Seed companies take different strong seed stock and hybrid them, I think this is the seeds reverting back to what they really were.

Well, I’m gonna run, take care,

ed

Hi,

OK Myra, you embarrassed me into dealing with the crystal chandelier in the dining room.  I replaced the burnt out bulb when I saw your comments. I’ve been reluctant to fix the  two unlit bulbs, because I thought I had to rewire the whole chandelier.   I’ve already done that with three others and this chandelier is the biggest, it’s Waterford crystal (the individual crystals have a W stamped on them) and the center piece over my breakfast table.  I didn’t want to get in the middle of fixing it, run into some problem and have to stop leaving my dining room unlit.   So today, I took one of the two that wouldn’t work apart and took the section you screw the bulb into out to Lighting by Eric in Mt Lebanon.  Lighting by Eric has some pretty exotic lighting fixtures, as well as some fairly generic offerings and furnishings.  But hugely, they have Moe.  Moe is their light repair person, he is a wealth of information, expertise and parts.  As soon as Moe looked at what I was holding, he said “That’s European, you just need an adapter”.  European bulbs are metric and so our bulbs don’t fit (Waterford Crystal‘s British).  So I bought four adapters (two for back up) and for the first time since I’ve owned it, all the bulbs are working.  Thanx Myra and good luck Saturday.

I’m a corporate sponsor for the Carnegies (small fish in a big pond), that’s how I get the discounted tickets.  As a corporate sponsor, I also get their quarterly magazine.  I haven’t seen the new dinosaur exhibit that’s just opened, but have been hearing rave reviews (both in the newspaper and my guests that have been there).  What I didn’t realize was that they took a courtyard and enclosed it for the new exhibit.  That should add some architectural interest to the exhibit and the reason I’m even commenting on it is it’s silver LEED certified.  Way to go Carnegies.  Apparently the Sports Works down at the Carnegie Science Center also has an LEED certification and that is the new standard for the Carnegies.

It’s amazing what the Carnegies own.  What you see when you visit the museums is just a fraction of their collections.  Everything you see is just a tiny fraction of other objects just like it they have in storage. Academicians from all over the world come here for research.   From art to fossils to jewelry and clothing.  They’ve pulled out a bunch of stuff on birds and have an exhibit that’s just opened where you pair yourself to a bird.  It’s one of those A vs B personality traits comparisons.  Some people are aggressive raptors and some are meek sparrows.  Must of us fall in between somewhere.  They’ve made this some what permanent in that they can package it up and move it to new locations.

The Warhol has a new exhibit that looks kind of interesting, if not a bit bizarre.  It’s called Ordinary Madness and it’s a whole slew of things from a drain, a stack of broken glass, targets, etc.  It was put together by Dan Byers, Carnegie’s associate curator of contemporary art.  He wants visitors to embrace and enjoy the unease that contemporary art can inspire.  Barry Paris, a long time PGH Post Gazette film critic is assembling an exhibition on Marilyn Monroe that starts the end of October.  Paris has done acclaimed biographies on Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Louise Brooks.

The Science Center’s new movie in the Imax theater will be based on photos taken by the Hubble  Telescope.    The pictures that have in the Fall Carnegie Magazine are pretty incredible.  It’s amazing what’s out there in our universe.

I see my last guests are pulling into the parking lot, so I have to run.  We’ll chat  soon again,

ed

Hi,

I haven’t blogged in awhile, so I thought I’d do a short blog explaining my absence of late and brag a bit.

Why is it I seem to loose employees right before a holiday.  It happened at Memorial Day and now Labor Day.  New hire Alyce actually started on Labor Day and is working in nicely.  She misses some details, but every room she cleans, she walks out of a clean room.  That’s my biggest priority, CLEAN.  So I’m very happy.  The details will come in time.  The Parador isn’t a Marriott, each room is unique and there’s a ton to remember.  So today is her one week anniversary and she’s in the Mansion alone.  I’ll go over shortly to check on her rooms, I’m sure if I find anything, it will be minor.

I use Papua New Guinea fair trade organic coffee.  Iron Star Roaster here in Pittsburgh roasts if for me.  I was running low on the in room coffee packets about a month ago, so I called them and ordered more.  They were out, but supposedly it was in route.  I spoke with Tim a number of times, the coffee was in LA, but held up in customs.  Tim kept calling his supplier for updates, he even started calling around to see if anyone else had the beans.  Finally they arrived last Friday late morning, he roasted them, packaged 50 in room packets, and two five whole been bags for me AND DELIVERED THEM AROUND 5 P.M.  Talk about customer service.  Their web site’s sort of week, but they’re great people and carry great products and they ship anywhere.

Now, to brag, The Parador Inn of Pittsburgh is now 100% HD.  All guest rooms have HDTV.  These new TV’s are so much lighter than the old style.  I replaced Ruellia’s 32″ with a new HDTV and carried the new TV up with one hand and the new DirecTV box in the other.  I really struggled getting the old monster down those stairs (and then down the basement stairs).  Anyone want one or three analog TV’s for free?  Too late, I just donated them and the old style DirecTV boxes to Goodwill.

Busy last couple of weeks.  Two weeks ago we had a Steeler’s home game on Thursday and then Labor Day weekend.  I was sold out for four nights.  This past weekend, the Steelers played Sunday and the few guests room that weren’t booked for three nights, I sold those rooms on the open nights and ended up sold out for three nights this weekend.  Yeah.  🙂  Also, I’m sold out the next five weekends.  Nina & Jeff are getting married this weekend (not here) and are housing their guests here and the following weekend I’m hosting Jamie & Randy’s wedding (they live right over on the Mexican War Streets).  Then there’s two more Steeler home games and the other weekend is just sold out for no particular reason other than everyone loves to come and visit me.  🙂

By the way, I believe I’ve talked about my search engine ranking.  I have been diligently working on improving my ranking.  Most all of my business comes from the web.  When I was in Florida, I was happy with 30 visits a day to my web site.  When I moved up here, I kept my web page.  I went from being The Parador of the Palm Beaches to The Parador of Pittsburgh.  Well, talk about messing with the search engines.  At one point, Google dropped me totally (I did a search “bed breakfast pittsburgh pa” and stopped looking after 1,000 listings).  At the same time, Yahoo had me in the 200’s.  A guest stayed here and he was pretty knowledgeable about web pages and we did a barter thing and he definitely helped.  Kevin brought me to within 100 in Google and Yahoo was around 150.  Then he got me to Google within twenty and Yahoo 60.  I was the half way point between Kevin and his girlfriend.  They’ve since broke up and I haven’t seen him in a year (we E-mail periodically, if you’re reading this Kevin, I still owe you a weekend).  My printer Vollkommen hired this fantastic web guy, Kirk.  Since Kirk and myself reworked my web site, I’ve been in the top five of Google, MSN, ASK and AOL.  PIA Yahoo has kept me between 20 and 30.  Last week when I did my weekly search Google HAD ME IN THE #1 SLOT AND I’VE BEEN THERE SINCE.  Sorry for shouting, I’m just supper excited.  Yahoo has even had me in the top five lately.  If you depend on your web site to drive business, I definitely recommend contacting Joe (owner of Vollkommen) and have them look at your site.

And this was going to be a short blog?

Frustration.  I swear, when I find something I like, they drop it from production.  I’m not against change and improvements, but they seem to drop excellent products and replace them with these new products that don’t live up to the old.  When I was in Florida, there was this lo flo water conservation shower head call Euro Flow sold at HomeDepot, I haven’t seen it in years.  All the ones I see now have all these bells and whistles and don’t give have the added pressure these little babies did (I still have one in my shower, they last).  All of my ceiling fans/lights have two pull chains, one for the fan and one for the light.  I like consistency, I have a dolphin for the fan and a seahorse for the light (get it sea/seehorse).  I can’t find the seahorses anymore.  I’ve had this dust pan on a stick for a number of years.  Two years ago it developed a crack and I started looking for a replacement.  Lots of dust pans you bend over with, lots of lobby pans (the ones that fold up when you lift them from the floor), but for two years I haven’t been able to find a dust pan that doesn’t fold up.  Blankets, I have used the same blankets on my beds for years, I love them.  The cloth is solid and fuzzy with satin borders.  They are long enough that they reach from the pillow to the foot of the bed and can be tucked under the mattress.  The sides drape nicely over the mattress and are comfortably covered by the bed spread.  Out of desperation, I have bought retail micro fiber blankets (that don’t fit properly), blankets that sort of look like bed spreads and other frustrating excuse for blankets.  I went to Atlantic City Delaware last winter to a trade show trying to find what I want.  Did hook up with a commercial distributor, Mills Distributing and thought I had things covered (pun intended).  Well, we’ve been back and forth for months now and I still don’t have my blankets.  One of my watering cans has a small leak, so I was at Lowe’s two weeks ago and the closest thing I could find to what I wanted, I bought.  When I got home and filled it with water, I had to use two hands to carry it because of how the handle was cutely positioned, the weight of the water pulled the nose down and the water would pour out if you grasped it anywhere on the handle with one hand.  I hope it’s looking cute back on Lowe’s shelf.

OK, I’ll quit whining, for now.  With Alcyce, you should be seeing more of me here.

bye,

ed

Have you stayed with us at The Parador Inn?  Let us know what you think!  Use the comments to tell us about your time with Ed, Razor, RJ and the rest of the staff.  We can’t wait to hear from you!

Hi,

Some cool things happening around the City this weekend (besides my wedding which is RSVP).  🙂

Venture Outdoors is having their last Family Outdoor Festival of the season over in Allegheny Commons Park (right down the street from me).  It’s from noon until four tomorrow and is FREE.  They’re going to have kayak rides, rock wall climbing, bicycling, etc.

Over at Soldiers & Sailors Hall in Oakland they’re having the Pittsburgh Craft Collective for it’s second year.  This is from noon until five on Sunday.  The event Crafts N’At will showcase 100 local artists and craftspeople featuring hand made indie crafts.  There is a cover, I don’t know what it is, but part of the cover goes to Animal Friends.

Also, Obscure Games Pittsburgh are having another event this weekend.  They’re a group that tries to get adults out to play games and have some fairly traditional games like ultimate frisbee to things like human pinball and Vikingball.  They don’t seem to have a clear listing of the games this weekend on their web site.  There’s a good article in today’s Tribune Review in the Living Section, page 3.  I tried to do a link to it, but Explorer won’t load the page for some reason.  You’re on your own here.

EZ.  I am so together this weekend, I can’t stand myself.  Melissa & Eric are getting married here, I have all my errands done, all the plants (inside and out) are watered, Betty spent a couple of days visiting and she weeded, I straightened up the beach and raked it, took the recycling out, Derronda’s coming in this afternoon and she’s going to do all the b’fast prep for tomorrow.  (I’m training her to be able to take manager responsibilities of running the Inn in the evenings doing the check-ins and b’fast prep.  And running the Inn in the mornings actually doing the b’fasts.)  I wish I could take credit for being so good, but actually the Inn was very slow the past couple of days that gave me a head start on everything.

We lost another housekeeper last week.  So I ran an ad on Craig’s List and got some very good applicants.  I’ll be calling four of them back next week for a second interview with Derronda and myself.

OMG, Razor is an Olympian.  I’ve gotten over my fear of him and other dogs and broke down and am taking da boiz over to the dog park section of the Commons.  Lake Elizabeth is over in that section and there’s an island with a gradual cobble stone slope into the water (the rest of the lake has a cement lip that he’d have trouble climbing with his arthritis).  And, there’s only two bridges onto the island, so I can monitor when other dogs are coming and going.  Razor has taken to the water like there’s no tomorrow.  I used to sneak him down to the ocean when we lived down in Florida, but I guess the waves bothered him because he really wasn’t in to it then.  He’s like a little kid out there just swimming and swimming.  And Mr Pushover that lets RJ walk all over him with toys on dry land adamantly won’t give an inch with toys in the water.  THEY ARE RAZOR’S, AND HE DOESN’T SHARE.  🙂

Well, everyone’s checked in, D’s making bread and doing the rest for b’fast and I’m taking da boiz down to the park, have a great weekend,

ed

Hi,

Productive week.  Fairly busy with guests, but I still got around to painting the Ballroom.  I had to do a couple of patches and decided it was time for a fresh coat of paint.  It’s amazing how you (rather what I’ve missed) when you don’t look closely at the walls.  Particularly in a “party” room where you have events.  It looks so much fresher now, I’m happy.

I had my first Bar Mitzvah this Saturday and a wedding next Saturday, so the Ballroom paint job will be put to good use.  I was a little nervous about having thirty to forty 13 year old kids.  They were very enthusiastic in the Ballroom with dancing and stuff.  But there were well behaved.  Jay, from Catered Elegance did a real nice job with the food and Steve Lebo did a nice DJ’ing and getting the kids moving and grooving.

Guess what?  My blog has a fan club!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ron & Rosa from Kentucky visited last week.  He belongs to a creative writing club there and liked my blog and has his other club members following me.  I better start watching my grammar closer.  🙂  Ron and Rosa went to Nicky’s Thai Kitchen, one of the restaurants I recommend.  They ran into Marcella & Mike (visiting from Connecticut after dropping their youngest son off at college in Melbourne).  Then, the next day, Ron and Rosa were touring the Cathedral of Learning and who’d they run into?  None less than Marcella and Mike.  Too small of a world.  The next morning at breakfast, Rosa said her camera broke, so Marcella offered to E-mail her the pictures she took of the Cathedral.  The Cathedral is very cool space for anyone coming to visit.

In the 1920’s, the chancellor of the college of Pittsburgh wanted to get kids interested in education.  Back then, as today, many kids don’t want to go to school, they want to quit and do what daddy does.  Well, particularly back then, daddy did very dangerous things like working in steel mills or in coal mines.  So the chancellor decided to build the tallest educational structure in the world, which the Cathedral was for many years, it still is the tallest educational structure in the US.  This way, anywhere in the City kids looked up, they would see this structure and it may inspire them to pursue education.  He then got the kids involved by collecting pennies to actually buy bricks.  He then decided to create the Nationality Rooms.  Pittsburgh was originally settled by the French and British, but when industry came in, the Germanic’s came over.  So the kids could relate more, the chancellor got the German club of America to buy German building materials and use German craftsman to create the German classroom.  The Poles, Czechs and other second wave immigrants did the same.  These first nationality rooms are on the first floor, the third floor has the newer immigrants like the Indians, the Chinese, etc.  These rooms are particularly interesting during the holidays when they have their ethnic holiday trees and decorations.

I only have three passes to the Warhol left, what a popular special that is.  I have to buy more passes, I think that will be the fourth time since I started this.  I can buy passes to the Warhol and the Carnegie in Oakland at basically half price.  Instead of creating a “package” and working that into the price, I just offer the tickets to anyone that want them.  A lot of people miss this special on my Specials Page, always take a peak around web sites when visiting, you never know what you may find.

Something pretty interesting is coming to Pittsburgh, an LST 325 (Landing Ship Tank).  It’s one of the few left from World War II, they were the work horses of the invasion at Normandy.  It’s big enough for two helicopters to land on it’s deck at the same time, and it can hold 20 Sherman tanks and 30 trucks at the same time.  Tours and cruises will be offered September 2 through 7.  Something I didn’t know, Pittsburgh had two shipyards that produced 269 ships during the war, more than any other city.  The LST 325 was actually built in Philly and is permanently docked in Evansville, IL and will be going back after the Pittsburgh stop.

One more thing, I periodically check my page ranking with the major search engines and how many people have visited my web site.  Lately, I’ve been having 55-65 visits a day.  My current average daily hits have been 71 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya Ho!  🙂

Early b’fasts tomorrow, my UK friends are taking a gray hound to Fallingwater and need an early meal,

ed

Hi,

Well, I’m back from the Jersey shore.  Had a great time, visited family and friends, had a nice and relaxing time.  The funniest thing happened on the way to the shore and coming back home.  For any of you not familiar with the Philadelphia area, the Schuylkill Expressway is interstate 76 from the PA Turnpike to Center City Philly.  It’s a two to eight lane high way with right and left entrances and exits, no one goes under 70 miles an hour and everyone goes from lane to lane with no warning.  Basically, it’s legalized bumper cars.  I was driving east with my drivers side window open and I hear “Ed” and there in the next lane was Mark & Denny.  They are regulars that live in Philly.  What are the odds of that?

I got home a couple of hours before my first check-ins.  I got everything together and they arrived.  While giving John & Juliet a tour upon arrival, Juliet said “We saw one of your trucks in Donegal”.  I said “What?” and John said Juliet saw a white Toyota truck with palm trees on it and the name The Parador Inn and said they should follow it.  That was me coming back from Jersey.  Too funny.

OK, I’ve been using those air scents I spoke of a couple of weeks ago.  There’s two ways to go, one is distilled water and vodka with the essential oil and the other is mineral oil with the essential oil.  When I first set them up, I used Johnson’s baby oil (which is mineral oil), but it has that baby oil smell, so I didn’t like it.  Actually, the one I made up with baby oil has sort of dissipated the baby oil smell and just has the lavender scent at this point and the bottle is still full with the fluid.  The one I did with distilled water and vodka totally evaporated.  So my $’s on the mineral oil and essential oil.  I went to Pat Catans, a local craft store that’s probably the biggest and local and they had unscented mineral oil.  Fairly pricey, but what I want.  I’ll go on line and see if I can buy larger bottles at a more reasonable price.  Even if I don’t find mineral oil on line at a better price, I’ll be OK with Pat Catan’s price.

They’ve been filming a movie right over on Beech Avenue, the one that runs parallel to Western, the most intact Victorian Street in the city.  I think it’s that movie staring that guy from the Twilight series, not the main character, one of the male supporting actors.  It’s about CIA, FBI and a hole assortment of covert operatives that are chasing him.  Equipment trucks everywhere.  They haven’t had the groupies they had when filming in Mt Lebanon two weeks ago, that got fairly mobbed from what I hear.

We didn’t see any dolphins, but it was a nice boat ride.  Have a great weekend.  I’m sold out tonight, Steelers first preseason game,

ed

Hi,

I learned a new trick, we’re going to start having some pictures in my blog.  Obviously, I need to work on cropping and presentation.  But for my first pictures, I’m not too unhappy.  This is a picture of Tony’s hibiscus that was next to the arbor, but was getting all crowded out by the clematis, so I moved it this past spring and it seems pretty happy with it’s new location.  (Actually, there are two hibiscus, I moved them both this spring and then removed the other and it’s been quite mad at me.  Most of it died off, but I have one strong branch that’s a healthy green and even has flower buds.  I think we’ll be friends again next spring).  The big hibiscus (pictured) started blooming two weeks ago and should bloom into September if I remember correctly.  Next to it is one of my new banana plants.  I bought two bananas when I first planted the gardens and they died as did half of the plants I got from the nursery I bought all my plants initially.  The nursery staff also advised me to plant the blue hastas in the sun and the others in the shade (or vice versa) which was the exact opposite of how they should be planted.  Luckily, Tony and Sue had stopped by about a month after the garden when in and we replanted the garden.  Obviously, this nameless nursery hasn’t seen me since.

This is one of my newest additions to the gardens.  It’s the Kopper King Hibiscus I talked about already.  The flowers go from pink on the outside to red in the center, which are nice, but I really like the foliage.  I think when it fills out (probably not until next year), it will really make a nice addition to the garden.

And here’s a picture of my beach with the Arondo donex a few weeks past.  I love how they give me privacy without seclusion.  And I’m always getting questions from people about “that corn” I planted.  Obviously they aren’t farmers.  🙂

The Phipps Conservatory, my favorite space in the City is having a free admission day on Monday, thanx to a grant from the Buncher Family Foundation.  While you’re at Phipps, be sure to check out the Agave americana, they actually had to take a panel of glass out of the ceiling for it to keep growing.  It’s over 33 feet tall at this point.  It’s blooming and dies back after the bloom.

Anyone looking for something to do tomorrow, Manchester’s having their summer Victorian house tour.  They’re real nice people over there.  They aren’t as restrictive as my neighborhood and you see more creative use of some of the properties, and some very traditional.  It’s well worth the price.

I have to buy more passes for the Carnegie Natural History, Art & Architecture Museums and the Andy Warhol, this will be the third time I’ve used them up (sold them).  A very popular amenity here.  I case you haven’t perused my  Specials Page, I have 1/2 price passes to both museums.

Finally, I’m leaving for the Jersey shore tomorrow for a few days.  Derronda’s babysitting the Inn and da boiz.  She’s also representing The Parador at a Pitt Panther football meet and greet Tuesday.  Hopefully we can get some parents and alumni aware of us for future visits.

Well, take care and we’ll chat again,

ed

Hi,

You may ask, “Why did ed put the time in today?”  Well, that’s because I just finished the breakfast dishes.  No, I haven’t been sloven (I love that word and have been wanting to use it forever).  The notoriously inept Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority had a water main break outside my Inn yesterday afternoon and we didn’t have water until mid afternoon.  My poor guests were real troupers, I kept them as informed as I could about the situation, offered the limited options they had and got each room a gallon of bottled water.  I ended up flushing the powder room toilet with water I scooped out of the water feature in the elephant ear garden.  PWSA has a special place in my heart, any of you that have listened to my tirade about them costing me $42,000 when I was trying to open know why, (if your interested, just ask me next visit).  PWSA almost put me out of business before I even opened.  This summer has had a rash of water main breaks.  They have no capital plan to replace our aging system and it’s only going to get worse.  They need to develop a plan for all water and sewer line replacement.  Survey the system and prioritize the areas with the oldest and most unreliable lines and put a dollar figure on it and a ten to twenty year plan to replace these ancient pipes (I hear that some are still wooden logs, I don’t know if that’s true).  PWSA missed the boat with the stimulus package.  If they had this in place a year ago, I bet with some effort, they could have gotten this kick started.  For this reason alone, heads should roll.  $42k, I’d be happy to start the head rolling.  🙂

Speaking of heads rolling, let me rant on one more of my favorite topics, Port Authority of Allegheny County.  Steven Bland, the head of it should get the boot.  His way of dealing with financial crisis is to whine about not having enough money and threatening to cut services and staff until someone bails him out.  They built that white elephant parking garage at South Hills Village Mall at the end of the T, for a fortune, that sits empty.  They missed the boat several years ago when the Ft Pitt Tunnels had to close for a major renovation and there was federal money set aside to alleviate the traffic problems that was going to create.  The money ended up going to a very nice fly over interchange at the mouth of the Liberty Tubes instead of a high speed or light rail system servicing the west hills (and airport).  Now they’re extending the T system to the Northshore  that is way over budget and they keep asking for more money.  Instead, they should have run the T out to Oakland.  If Oakland wasn’t part of the City of Pittsburgh, it would be the third largest city in the state.  Don’t get me wrong, I like having the T over here, when it opens, it will be a nice amenity for my guests.  But from a practical stand point, the money should have gone to an Oakland line.  Now they’re looking into spending more money on an automated payment system.  Why not look into expenses and live within their means.  Number one, move their offices from their Ivory Tower Downtown into one of the many empty buildings they own over here on the Northside.  Another way to save money is to get rid of all those big buses that run half full or empty so much of the time.  They know how many passengers ride on any given route, on the slower routes, replace the big  buses with little ones.  The smaller buses would be cheaper to buy and operate.  They would also pollute less. They would lessen congestion and they could pay the drivers less.  No, I’m not anti-union, I’m anti-waste.  Unions have fought hard to raise wages of the common man.  But big unions are like big businesses, set in their way and inflexible.  Look what happened to GM.  To respect seniority and the unions, I feel the new smaller buses should be purchased and the pay rate should be set appropriately less than the drive of a big bus.  Staff these buses with tenured drivers at the higher rate.  Through attrition, when Port Authority needs to hirer new drivers, they get the lower rate driving the smaller buses.  They can work their way up to the higher rate that the big buses warrant.  To me, this is a win win across the board.  They unions win by granting concessions in financial troubling times, the Port Authority wins because they lower costs and most of all, the riders win because they are not facing continued raising fares and cutting services.  Most of the bus  ridership are people struggling to make ends meet, many juggling two or more jobs and cutting service and raising rates are the worst thing you can do for this people.   One final and shocking quote from the Port Authority, when I first moved back to PGH and the T extension hadn’t started yet, the newspaper asked them if they were going to expand the service for game days and special events over here on the Northside.  The spokesperson said “No, we can’t pay overtime”.  65,000 people attending a Steeler’s home game and they’re going to run on a traditional slow Sunday schedule.  In the next newspaper, the quickly changed their story on that.  🙂

OK, I promise not to rant again for at least a week.  Any of you looking for a last minute thing to do this weekend, “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” is playing at the Melwood Screening Room out in Oakland.  Shows are 7:30 and 9:30 on Friday and Saturday and then Sunday in the afternoon at 3 and 5.  This is one of those campy movies that has drawn huge crowds across the country, mainly from word of mouth.  It’s like the old SciFi movie “Plan from Planet 9”.

Lastly, there’s a new brew your own beer place opening in Greenfield.  These places have risen in popularity and lost popularity over the years.  This will be PGH’s only.  It’s an adjunct to Hough’s bar and restaurant in an old hardware store.  They have all the equipment and you pick from thirty some recipes and they supply the ingredients.  They’re opening with six kettles, each one makes about five cases of beer and they range in price from $100 to $180 for everything, even the expertise on how to do it.  They plan on opening this fall.

Now that the breakfast dishes are done, I’ve blogged and have water, I’m going to go out and water my thirst plants in the parking lot and sidewalk.  Have a great one,

ed