Trash talk: Many discussions going on around town and on the message boards about the relative merits of trash haulers Athens and Allied (former BFI).  Athens takes your trash as is, and sorts out the recyclables at their facility … Allied sends three separate trucks down the street to pick up your sorted bins of trash/recyclables/green waste.  Allied has been honking off the people who live in the foothills on narrow streets, who don’t want three big trucks tearing up their asphalt on garbage day.  Prices seem to go all over the board — Allied seems to raise their rates at will (that’s been our experience), while Athens goes a little cheaper — some folks seem to have talked Allied down by threatening to switch to Athens.  Then there’s the possibility of the county giving the haul contract to one firm, which will hopefully result in lower rates (counterintuitive, yes, but companies competing for everyone’s service will bid low).  Will it happen?  Expect this discussion to go on awhile.

Snow Job?: on the corner of Altadena Drive and Fair Oaks on Valentine’s Day?  People swear it’s true.  Altadenablog was in Sierra Madre that morning and watched hail come down — it was a crazy weather day, so anything’s possible.

Ghosts:  A-blog is getting a lot of hits for spooky stuff: the "Haunted Forest" (we call it the Cobb Estate on top of Lake Ave., and it never seemed haunted to us) and "Gravity Hill" on Loma Alta Dr.  Expect to see a separate page in coming weeks devoted to  Gravity Hill — it IS a spooky experience, even in broad daylight!