Grace Moon's Doodle 4 Google

Grace Moon, a student at Castro Valley's Canyon Middle School, is the national winner of the Doodle 4 Google contest. 16,000 students entered the contest! Her drawing is on the Google homepage today. Grace wrote of her entry:

My doodle, "Up in the Clouds," expresses a world in the sky. This new world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.

Congratulations to Grace! If you're reading this post after the fact, you should be able to find her image here.

And Speaking Of Things On The Move

Here's a startling bit of video of the aftermath of a car crashing into a dentist's office on Redwood Road. Video is from the Castro Valley Forum.

Castro Valley On The Move

Your Boulevardier visited (via auto) the Castro Village today. Parking was a disaster, because much of the lot (especially between Walgreens and Don Jose's) was in the process of being patched and resurfaced. Homeless cars cruised the remaining aisles like sharks, looking for spots to become available. Actually, the cars weren't like sharks, because sharks (with some exceptions) don't stop moving.

Also on the move: the racks and aisle at our local Trader Joe's. The store was a bit chaotic today when Your Boulevardier went shopping, with products being transferred to temporary racks (on movable feet) in preparation for some sort of rearrangement.

Our third moving item for the day: a report on last Saturday's Rowell Ranch Rodeo Parade. Actually, Your Boulevardier did not see most of the parade (though he participated with the warm-up act); however, several other Castro Valley bloggers have chimed in with good reports. Coincidentally, all are young mothers. XTina, AKA Lucky Number 8, posts some beautiful photos. Laurie of A Joyful Life gives a kids' eye view of the event. And Graciela tells the story of how her child's preschool participated.

That Ought to Keep the Kids in School

Construction continues on the security fence surrounding Creekside Middle School. The chain-link portion on Paradise Knolls is complete, and its tall zinc-clad poles and mesh gleam. Heavy, rectangular black posts now line the Center Street frontage, awaiting some sort of connectors; judging by the height of the posts and their color and construction, Your Boulevardier suspects that an eight- to ten-foot-tall wrought-iron-style barrier is on its way.

One wonders if there isn't a better use for the CVUSD's capital improvement budget. Your Boulevardier cannot claim to be a student of the district's finances or a close scrutinizer of its operations, so he will not judge. He will just wonder.

One is reminded of the new roadsigns going up along Interstate 580 through Ashland, San Leandro, and Oakland, just west of Castro Valley. Soeur de Boulevardier first noticed and mentioned that these monumental new signposts seem to be replacing perfectly adequate existing signage. One sometimes wishes that the dollars had been spent on the road surface, rather than on the directional placards that dangle above it.