Hayward power plant foe and recent City Council candidate “Redwood” Rob Simpson has a 1,000-strong forest of 2-foot-tall redwood trees on his Grandview Avenue lot that he’s willing to give away to anyone who wants to plant one.

Simpson’s been doing this for years, he said, and started because he felt “environmentally responsible” for driving a large car. He didn’t want to downsize his transportation – Simpson is a pretty tall guy — so he started giving away the trees as a mitigation measure. This batch will bring his grand total up to 31,000.

“I’m just spreading my seed,” Simpson said.

Anyone who wants a tree should contact Simpson at www.redwoodrob.com or 510-909-1800.

“Hello. This is the Hayward Police Department with an important safety message. We are currently working with the California Department of Fish and Game and the Union City Police Department to contain a mountain lion in the Chapel of the Chimes Cemetery. … The mountain lion has not been aggressive; however, we are taking precautions to help ensure the safety of residents in the surrounding areas. If you see a mountain lion, do not attempt to approach it. Get everyone indoors and call 9-1-1.”

So went an autodialer message to residents in southeast Hayward on Thursday, after a resident spotted — and an officer confirmed — a cougar walking the tree line adjacent to the cemetery.

Such sightings are not uncommon.  Police opted to take the precaution of letting residents know about the animal, which turned out to be a scaredy cat and ran off into the hills when given a bit of attention.

Thus, this, a couple hours after the first message:

“Hello. This is the Hayward Police Department with an important update. The mountain lion has been safely returned to his natural habitat in the hills. You may resume normal activities.”

Police advise residents who spot a mountain lion to get indoors and call 9-1-1. If you are the type who ventures into neighboring lion country (a.k.a. our regional parks and all that hilly open space to the east) here’s a Fish and Game brochure on the subject.

Is your house decked out for the holidays? Want to find the best Bay Area holiday light displays? Check out our interactive map!

We’ve had a number of “interesting hobby” stories lately, what with the Hayward snake guy, Filipino stick-fighters, Alameda County Fashion Doll Club, and even the dude who looks like Jerry Garcia. 

Well, maybe the last one isn’t really a hobby as much as a lifestyle choice.

Bottom line is, they’re fun stories for the reporter and readers seem to like them, so we’re always on the lookout for more. Do you have a unique pastime? Do you belong to an interesting club? Taxidermy fanatic? Street luge? Let us know — more than likely, your neighbors would love to hear about it. So would we.

The Day of the Teacher is approaching and educators from Castro Valley, Hayward, San Lorenzo, New Haven and Newark Unified School Districts will meet from 3 to 6 p.m. that Wednesday, May 14, at the Five Flags area in Hayward (corner of Jackson, Mission and Foothill) to protest possible cuts imposed by the state.

Teachers are asking you to join the rally to help air your concerns about the state budget and how it relates to public education.

The latest edition of The Weekly Standard, the Beltway-based conservative opinion magazine, has a lengthy feature on Hayward resident Michael Emerson and his effort to build the Flight 93 memorial near the Union Landing Shopping Center. The memorial was dedicated last week.

If you’ve seen it, what do you think of the memorial?

Hi ho, bloggers! Got a cool holiday light display, or know someone else who does? Post the location on our new interactive holiday lights map. You can put anything on there, from local houses to big commercial or public displays.

The site also contains listings of holiday events around the Bay Area, and other fun holiday-related things. Have I used the word holiday enough yet?

Holiday. Holiday. There, that should do it.

Do you use a park to walk, run, bike or play? Have any good stories about parkland or jogging/biking experiences in Hayward, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo or San Leandro?

Let us know. And if you’ve got a particularly good story, e-mail it to one of us and maybe we can start a blog post of your own.

FYI: Tomorrow, at 8 p.m., the Hayward City Council is voting to update its decade-old Bicycle Master Plan and also voting to appropriate about $95,000 to create some new bike lanes, including one connecting downtown BART to the Amtrak station.

(Photo by Mike Lucia of Fernando Delgado, 14, at the Eden Greenway in Hayward)

Readers and public relations specialists sometimes blame journalists for dwelling on the negative. Journalists, in turn, sometimes blame the readers who comment on their Web sites for being even more negative than they could imagine.

So here begins the first ever HayWord Positivity Forum.

Tell us what you love about Hayward, San Leandro, Castro Valley and the unincorporated areas sometimes known (for good reason!) as the Eden Area. We know there’s lots to love and we don’t have a monopoly on telling you about it.

For starters, there’s an open studios arts festival coming up next week, not to mention an electric car Ride-a-long Rally and a downtown street party on Thursday evening. And that’s just the organized cheer.

In a guest column in today’s paper, Union City Mayor Mark Green and AC Transit board member Greg Harper ask political leaders to at least consider an end to the 40-year ban on truck traffic along Interstate 580.

Why? Because while 580 through the Oakland and San Leandro foothills is a decent drive, the adjacent 238-880 corridor is a dastardly “airborne love canal” that might not be so bad if 580 shared some of the corridor’s heavy truck burden, Green and Harper argue. One consequence, they believe, is an unfair pollution impact on flatland residents and commuters.

So how about that 580 truck ban, which has confounded generations of Caltrans officials and even Ronald Reagan? Should it stay or should it go?