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Valley People (Jun 10, 2015)

LORETTA, THE GOOD NEWS. Loretta Houck suffered a terrible head injury in an accident last month. She has been hospitalized ever since. Loretta's husband, W. Dan Houck writes Sunday,

"I saw my wife today. And even more importantly she saw me! We saw each other for the first time in thirty-six days yesterday morning at 8:05. Not sure if anyone else has been counting but just so you know that was 854 hours and 25 minutes give or take since last we laid eyes on each other like that. She saw me and broke into a smile that was so beautiful I immediately dissolved in heaving sobs and collapsed into her neck. She reached up with her right hand, put it on the back of my head and pulled me closer. Over the last two days we have seen a lot of each other. Not only that but we have talked. I pose questions and she with nods and shakes of her head. I asked if she knew what happened and she shook her head "no".  So I told her and when I said, "That was five weeks ago." her eyes got very wide. While eating my morning nectarine I asked if she wanted a taste and she nodded and stuck out her tongue and licked it when I held it out to her. Several time I asked if she wanted a kiss and she puckered up, often putting her hand on the back of my head like before.

"TODAY, she was awake more often and for longer periods. She moves primarily with the right hand; scratching her face, feeling the spot where part of her skull was removed, cracking her knuckles one handed. She moves the left hand and leg, just not as dexterously or as purposefully. The physical therapists say this is perfectly normal and are confident of a substantial recovery. At one point Lo was looking at the generic visitors badge all of us non-professionals wear. I asked if she could read it? There was a pause and then she nodded. "I asked does it say W.Dan?" she shook her head. I asked, "Does it say visitor?" she nodded.

"THERE ARE LOTS of other things, like turning her head and shoulders slightly to look up at the TV. The polite smile I recognize from when she meets new people that she gives the constant stream of nurses, therapists and doctors she is meeting. The warm knowing smile and raised eyebrows for people she recognizes.

"THE ROAD ahead is still very long, hard and scary; but I saw my wife today, and she saw me. Our path is much less dark and far less scary."

PLEASE DON'T GO. George and Kate Castagnola are leaving their long-time home on Signal Ridge to live in Portland. They're too gracious to say so, but I expect the double whammy of being surrounded by large-scale dope growers and large-scale wine production in what was once a proportionate little valley were deciders. And not to mention the wholesale population turnover. I feel like Rip Van Winkle myself much of the time.

RIP VAN RENT SHOCK, TOO. I called all around Frisco recently trying to find a place for the daughter of a Boonville friend. The young woman is a graduate of Anderson Valley High School who went to Mills College on an Anderson-Miner scholarship where she graduated with the highest honors and immediately won a highly competitive job with the City of San Francisco. In other words, and in a rational social-economic context, a perfect person to rent to. But I couldn't find anything and I'm connected —  connected I tell you!

HERE IN WINEVILLE, rents are comparably exorbitant. If you can find a rental. I know an impeccably working couple with a healthy combined income fully prepared to be extorted who can't even find a rentier to extort them.

GREG KROUSE, Grange boss, writes: Organic and Local Pancakes this Sunday. The same good stuff from 8:30 – 11 AM. The real California State Grange of which are Grange and some 185 are affiliated is doing good stuff. Aside from continuing the focus on labeling GMO products, (and why not?) A set civil disobedience, Seed Freedom day, is coming up of July 1. This response to an absurd end run by the seem guys that brought you GMOs stems from AB 2470 past last summer in legislature which gives our State Secretary of Agriculture authority over seeds and limits seed trades to less than 3 miles. Already many criminals in Anderson Valley let alone Mendocino abound, where seed exchanges coupled with a smile and slap on the back is a friendly exchange. To get involved contact the state Grange at 916-454-5805 or www.californiagrange.org/seeds. Your local grange is sponsoring events on Farm oriented food Stamps EBT, and solar power for the less inclined. The AV solar Grange returns with the Snack Shack to the SNWMF (contact Andy Jones - in train cars near Boont Berry). Saturday, July 18th, the AV Solar Grange presents its second in a series with New Orleans’ Tom McDermott, playing ragtime, New Orleans swing and Brazilian fusion. McDermott is just phenomenal. Watch for a possible film festival by Grangers in July.

DATE RAPES IN ANDERSON VALLEY? Deputy Walker is investigating allegations that more than one local woman has said recently that she was drugged then sexually assaulted. If you or someone you know is saying that they've been attacked in this way, please contact Deputy Walker at 272-0567.

INCIDENTALLY, Deputy Walker is unable to confirm an armed robbery alleged to have occurred three weeks ago in Boonville.

DEPUTY WALKER can confirm that a local man had to be tazed into submission when, drunk, he threatened passersby with a crow bar.

READERS of this fine publication are aware that the mentally ill of Mendocino County are now treated by a private firm based in Yuba City. But as we all know from the evidence of our own eyes, every community in the county is home to untreated persons, two of whom, both women in their forties, are often seen wandering around Boonville. Mendocino County's privatized mental health system cares only for those persons whose "treatment" can be converted to cash by the Ortner Management Group. If we had a supervisor, I'd refer you to him, but…

FOR NEARLY FORTY YEARS, school board seats in the Anderson Valley were mostly contested. An independent person here and there would run against candidates cynically supported by the entrenched apparatus of school administrators and teachers. Those trustee candidates were vilified and opposed by the local edu-bloc, as that bloc set national records for consecutive YES votes for what Debbie Sanchez, bless her all her days, accurately characterized as "full time pay for part-time work." But now that the dominant cabal has finally, mercifully shuffled off, and with reputable persons at last occupying the school district's power slots, no one seems to care who sits on the school board and three seats are without candidates. It would be encouraging to see them filled by the good and the true, supplementing the stalwart Stacey Sobeleski and Erica Lemons, both parents of school-age children. Mrs. Lemons, who was on the board when the edu-bloc was riding high, pre-dating Mrs. Sobeleski by years, took a ton of clandestine abuse for her lonely stands for ethical school management. We hope she knows how many of us out here appreciate her courage.

SORRY to learn that the high school graduation is being moved back into the sweatbox, er, the gym. Last year's outdoor event, perfectly organized by high school principal Michelle Hutchins, was not only temperately cooled by summer's early evening breezes, all the fixtures were nicely arrayed. Which isn't to say the gym events can't be attractive in an aesthetic sense, but put Monet's Garden in a sauna and all you want to do is get the hell out. Let's hope that by the time of Thursday night's matriculation the enclosed ceremony is bearable.

HENDY WOODS UPGRADED! And a grand reopening scheduled for Sunday, June 28th, 1-4 p.m. You can check out the new walkways, interpretive panels, picnic shelters, resurfaced trail and more — all accessible to people with disabilities. Win prizes and get giveaways, too. Enjoy music, appetizers and dessert. Please visit our website for more details.

MULTIPLE FIRE UNITS hot-footed it up Peachland Road in the Anderson Valley about 3 Saturday afternoon to suppress a vegetation fire begun when a tree fell over telephone wires. The AV Volunteers confined the ensuing blaze to a quarter-acre.

THE VALLEY was thoroughly globally warmed Sunday and Monday, with temps reaching a hundred lots of places. Fire fighters are rightly worried about the summer to come. Never been drier, they say.

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