MCT: Thursday, October 1, 2020

• Hot Wind
• Smoke Covered
• Power Supply
• Another Death
• Free Testing
• Spider Web
• Village Zoom
• Low Flow
• Small Claims
• Calistoga Moonrise
• Worst Thing
• Philo Bridge
• Japanese School
• Various Scams
• Debate Watching
• Ed Notes
• Jimmy 96
• Lit Poetry
• Vintage Ukiah
• Fifty Grand
• Rodenticide Ban
• Patel Plan
• Yesterday's Catch
• Pinche Jose
• Moderator Fatigue
• Drake Forever
• Stand By
• All Lost
• Genre Deterioration
• Amazing Feat
• Clown vs Clown
• Unwatchable Charade
• Elections Nowadays
• Ordinary Joe
• Decadent Language
• Prop 22
• Raisin Sun

DRY AND UNSEASONABLY WARM CONDITIONS are expected to continue this week as strong high pressure aloft persists. Most areas will continue to see smoke impacts but smoke will lessen on Friday. Marine clouds and fog are expected to linger along the immediate coast for the next few days, pushing onshore each night. Inland temperatures are expected to see a gradual cool down heading into the weekend. (NWS)

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Boonville 96°, Yorkville 100°, Ukiah 101°, Fort Bragg 66°

WIDESPREAD HAZE AND AREAS OF SMOKE on top of “sunny” and windy conditions in inland Mendocino County for at least two more days with highs near 100 and winds gusting up to 20mph. Red Flag High Fire danger notices apply to the entire area through Friday night. Overnight lows in the 50s. Some abatement expected into the weekend with lower temps and Red Flag notices being lifted.

SMOKE COVERED THIS MORNING

HEAT MAY OVERTAX POWER SUPPLY, STATE GRID OPERATOR SAYS

California’s power grid operator is asking residents to conserve electricity Thursday evening, when a surge of air conditioning use amid sweltering temperatures could overtax the state’s power supply.

pressdemocrat.com/article/news/heat-may-overtax-power-supply-state-grid-operator-says/

TEN MORE COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County on Thursday bringing total to 964 with 120 in isolation or hospital. Another death raises the county total to 19.

FREE DRIVE-THROUGH COVID-19 TESTING at the AV High School

Every Thursday through the end of the year, 9 to 10 AM or until the tests run out. Arrive early. For the latest info contact: The AV Health Center covid@avhc.org Or see their Facebook page.

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY ZOOM GATHERING: Understanding CA Ballot Measures Sunday October 11th 4 to 5 PM We will cover the ballot measures, pros, cons and possible positions, of the upcoming November 2020 election. Check here for more a detailed description of the CA Propositions.

Zoom link will be emailed to our mailing list at least the week before, please RSVP with the coordinator so we can get an idea of attendance, thank you. Participants will be muted but can submit questions through the chat feature or ahead of time by email (andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com). Looking forward to seeing you soon! BYOB for a more enjoyable event! Our next Monthly Zoom Gathering, Sunday November 8th Will cover COVID Crankiness and Socializing.

AV Village Zoom Book Conversation (Part 3) Wednesday October 14th 1:30 PM The Book is still "Elderhood - Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life" by Louise Aronson - we are only focusing on chapters 8 and 9 but folks are encouraged to join us even if they haven't been able to read it all. If you are interested please contact Lauren for more details laurenk@pacific.net. Zoom meeting information will be emailed out to our list - early October or ask the Coordinator. 

AV Village General Trivia with the Coordinator Tuesday October 27th 4:30 to 5:30 PM Join us for General Trivia with the AV Village Coordinator and have a little fun and learn some new useful facts?! Again, the Zoom link will be emailed to our mailing list at least the week before. Please RSVP with the coordinator so we can get an idea of attendance, thank you. 

Future Zoom Events: TED Talks? In our most recent survey regarding possible Village Zoom activates, TED Talks won by a landslide (followed by the film club, gardening group and trivia)! We need volunteers to share one of their favorite TED talks (or Films or gardening topics) and then host a discussion afterwards. Let me know if you are interested and we can schedule it. Thank you! 

Resources for Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS)! PG&E is connecting with community groups like ours to give us timely alerts on upcoming PSPS and related resources. I will do my best to pass on planned PSPS alerts in our area to you ASAP and please do check out the important resources below. And AV Members please let us know if you want extra help during these times, like check-in calls and/or other support – thank you! * For customers who rely on power to operate life-sustaining medical devices or have access and functional needs, additional support may be available. For more information, visit www.pge.com/disabilityandaging

MARSHAL NEWMAN WRITES:

According to the gauge, the current Navarro River flow is 0.22 cubic feet per second, equal to 2014, the lowest recorded flow on this date in 69 years.

FEAR & LOATHING IN RANCHO NAVARRO

by Ron Morita

On September 17, I filed in small claims against L.N. at Mendocino Superior Courthouse in Fort Bragg. My presentation went as follows:

I am one of seven directors of the Home Owners Association in the subdivision of 135 ten-acre lots called Rancho Navarro. On May 20 of this year the Defendant sent an official document package to all Association members with a letter that stated: 

“We had to censure a director for ethics violations. Sincerely, L.N., President@ranchonavarro.com.” 

Minutes she posted on the Internet name me the ethics violator. The Board of Directors administers a budget of $151,000 and a reserve fund of $153,000. I am one of four directors with signature authority for Association checks. This accusation implies serious misconduct that could result in the denial of employment, credit, or other benefits. 

Some Rancho Navarro members discouraged permitted cannabis cultivation by calling Code Enforcement for minor offenses like leaving lights on at night. One resident slashed the tires on a grower’s truck. The Board passed Home Business Rules prohibiting street parking, night lights, and trucking in water. These actions remind me of our government’s expulsion of my grandfather from the farm he spent his lifetime building 78 years ago. I made speeches at Board meetings, sent letters to the entire membership, and published articles in the Anderson Valley Advertiser advocating tolerance in return for concessions from the growers, one of whom is my neighbor.

At the May 16 Board meeting, Ms. N. created her own ethics definition and proposed that I be censured for forwarding an email from another Board member. This casually written message, which gives no indication of being confidential, mentions, along with concern over Covid-19, that the sender knew a member of the Association operated an AirBnB. I forwarded this email to the person residing at the lot in question with the message: “Jane, Is this you?” 

Home Owners Association deliberations are supposed to be public. On five occasions I contacted the interested parties while mediating disputes as chairman of a Neighborhood Concerns Committee and kept the Board informed of those actions. I received thank-you letters from a defendant and a complainant. Most of the censure debate centered on my criticism of the siege mentality poisoning the atmosphere of our neighborhood. One Board member remarked, “Some of the people you sent those letters to were very upset.” After the censure passed, Ms. N. said, “I trust you won’t be sending any more letters to the membership.”

A previous Rancho Navarro Board prevented two Directors from voting on cannabis issues or attending meetings with lawyers paid by the Association, because the pair were growers. Last year, the Board mailed a document critical of cannabis along with ballots for the Board of Directors, even though growers were running for office. At secret meetings it appropriated $16,000 for lawyers’ fees without recording this in the Minutes. None of these actions was deemed an Ethics Violation by the current Board, and the Defendant claimed the ballot mailing was proper because it did not endorse a candidate. This double standard of excusing flagrant abuses of power when wielded against growers and calling a well-intentioned action by one of their supporters an “Ethics Violation” is contrary to the principles of our democracy.

The judge did not allow my full presentation, evidently believing the question of whether the censure was prompted by my circulation of letters disagreeing with the Board’s cannabis policy was irrelevant. Admittedly it is difficult to prove. He ruled the Defendant does not owe the plaintiff any money. 

Although it earned me a venomous public letter, my correspondence to the membership helped pass a veto of the punitive Home Business Rules. The vote was 48 to 28. Shortly after the tally was announced, Code Enforcement in Ukiah received numerous complaints from local residents. Twelve Ranch properties were visited. 

One resident remembered, “I scheduled an inspection with Code Enforcement after being unable to convince the inspector to look at aerial/satellite photography to determine the lawfulness of my garden. The officer did not show up. I called and left a message for him to reschedule, which he did. The cultivation site was determined to be within legal limits. The Code Enforcement (CE) officer was polite and professional, but refused to engage with my line of inquiry as to how the complainant had determined that I was unlawfully cultivating cannabis. (My garden is not visible from other properties.) After some prodding he conceded it was likely that people used Google images to locate gardens. The inspection lasted about half an hour.”

“It was not a pleasant experience,” one resident recalled. CE officers are armed policemen. If the original complaint wasn’t valid, the inspector might find another problem. One permitted resident was visited about three supposed violations not confirmed by inspection, but the inspector “made it crystal clear” that living in the RV parked on the property for their daughter’s visit was not allowed. “Everything in Mendocino County requires a permit,” another resident observed.

In a speech before the Board, a long-time resident declared, “Some of us have children for whom we are trying to provide hope in very dark times and you are directly responsible for filling them with fear as armed men force their way onto our properties and threaten us with the very real prospect of losing our homes and our livelihoods. Who is going to fight the fire when it threatens your homes? Who is going to pull your vehicles out of the ditch when they’re stuck or remove the tree blocking your roads and driveways? It is us, the part of your community who is young, energetic, and who have invested a life in this area in hopes of turning it into the paradise we all thought we were living in. You are destroying our community!”

One sunny morning two months ago I received a call from a Ranch resident on Bald Hill, three-quarters of a mile away. He complained at length about a bright light emanating from my neighbor’s yard. He had called Code Enforcement, and they said there was nothing they could do. Could I look into it? I walked to my neighbor’s cannabis plot and discovered a transparent plastic sheet draped over hoops to create greenhouse warming on the plants beneath. From thirty feet away the sun’s reflection was bright but not dazzling. I saw no easy way to warm the plants without the sheet and later told the man that such reflective surfaces are common in the city, where many of us are from. My wife received a telephoned earful from the same man, who gave the names of three neighbors with the same grievance. “He was really upset.”

In long conversations, angry residents repeated the same arguments no matter what I said. “If we let the growers in, agri-business will overrun the Ranch and make our wells run dry.” (Rancho Navarro’s hilly wooded terrain is unsuited to agriculture, and competition from the Central Valley makes the future viability of local cannabis farms questionable.) “Evil men will endanger our homes and attack our daughters.” (Most permitted growers—the primary target of the exclusion campaign—are young middle class families.) “Our way of life will vanish if we don’t draw a line in the sand.” (The continuing migration from the cities is changing the Ranch far more than six small farmers struggling to comply with 26 state and county regulations.) 

Rancho Navarro’s help-your-neighbor friendliness is being overshadowed by fear and loathing my mother would recognize from the loss of her farm 78 years ago.

That debate was the worst thing I've ever seen & I was in The Star Wars Holiday Special.

— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) September 30, 2020

A POSTCARD OF THE INDIAN CREEK BRIDGE near Philo, circa 1910. (Marshall Newman)

THE JAPANESE SCHOOL

by Holly Onomiya

In 1930 the Japanese families living in the Ukiah area organized a school to teach their children something of the Japanese culture.

The school was held in what had been a family home, located in the area of Talmage Road and Babcock Lane on the edge of a pear orchard. The parents rented the house, cleaned and painted it inside and out. Tables and chairs were provided for the children.

Classes were held on Sunday afternoons for three or four hours. The children attending the school ranged in age from 3 or 4 to 14 or 15. Lessons were suited to the age of the pupil. They were taught the Japanese alphabet and to write their names and to read simple stories. This was also an opportunity for Japanese children from the Ukiah area to get together, as many of them attended different schools. The teacher, Mr. Tomita, left the following year and the school was discontinued.

I was about seven years old at the time and I remember mainly the games they played and refreshments provided by the parents. The children in our family attended Willow school during the week. During World War II all the Japanese from the Ukiah area were taken to the fairgrounds at Turlock, California and held there for three months and then transported to the internment camp at Lamar, Colorado for the duration of World War II.

BEWARE OF SCAMS

Lots of scams out there - have dealt with 2 this morning:

1. Scammer sends me email, supposedly from a good friend in Ukiah. Asks that I purchase a gift card for her nephew for $300, as she is out of town on a short trip. Then, in second email, asks that I send her the pin #. Easy to see this was a scam, called my friend to confirm it was a scam. Friend said yes, a scam, and that several other friends had called today, with the same info.

2. This one’s good for a laugh: Email supposedly sent to me by my wife (who has a different last name than mine) !!!, asking this—“Please help me free my aunt from an erroneous prison sentence in an obscure Russian province. I desperately need $400,000.00 American cash to hire a competent lawyer to plead her case. Please send money to my PO box and I will use it to free my aunt from her terrible confinement non (sic) in a dark cave in an isolated region. You cannot fathom my generosity for your generosity.” No POB number included, but it grabs your heart, does it not? Anyone want to join me in sending the money—that’s one expensive lawyer, but one has to make a living?

I’m also engaged in fighting my friends at Mastercard over someone who used my credit card info to purchase skin care products for nearly $200. The facts are a little muddled, and after a shoddy, incomplete investigation, they are accusing me of being the fraudster, which really pisses me off. So will gather all the info I have and appeal, and hope to prevail…Nice way to spend my time.

Be careful out there.

— Chuck Dunbar

ED NOTES

THE SUICIDE Tuesday of a young mother has shocked the Anderson Valley where she was well known, having worked in local restaurants. I knew her, but given the vast difference in our ages, I didn't know her beyond the usual exchange of occasional greetings, one local to another. I knew that she'd grown up hard and had struggled emotionally. I also know that there are a number of capable, sympathetic therapists in The Valley but don't know if they were available to her. This death seems sadder because she always seemed so lively, so happy, always bringing a vivacity, a real charm to her work, which was hard work. We're probably all saying to ourselves something like, "If we knew she was so close to the edge, so despairing maybe..." 

A PRESS BREAKDOWN Wednesday (today) will delay the paper-paper version of the ava one whole day, meaning locals will receive the print version of The Truth on Thursday, subscribers Friday, distant subscribers and bookstores whenever. Healdsburg Printing is seldom forced by tech difficulties to delay our early Wednesday morning print run; the few prior deviations over the many years amounted only to an hour or two wait.

WEB PRESSES are large, complicated pieces of machinery operated by highly skilled people, two men in our case, although I've seen one nimble guy do it all by himself. Here at Boonville headquarters the daily push of the newspaper rock up the eternal hill is driven by two senior citizens whose work psychology hovers somewhere between robotic and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), meaning the slightest departure from routine sees us pacing the deck biting our knuckles. 

THE DAILY NEWSPAPER rock climb was lighter prior to cyber-tech, but we now produce a daily on-line paper in addition to our paper-paper, with each requiring different kinds of daily effort. But there are still lots of people, mostly older, who prefer their newspaper in paper format. So do I, but time is dashing past us, and soon web presses and paper newspapers will be gone.

KATY TAHJA WRITES: "A milestone attained. My book ‘An Eclectic History of Mendocino County’ will be a year old next month. I had qualms about self-publishing and thought ordering 400 copies was over-doing it. Well, a year later I sold them all, had 200 more produced, paid all my expenses, paid my business license sales taxes, and have $5,000 in my savings account for this effort. Not too shabby if I say so myself. Of course as a journalist, storyteller and public speaker I believe in shameless self promotion. That helps. "

MS. T's wonderful little book should be required reading in the schools to give the young 'uns some idea of the history of the place they live, and does this place ever have a history! It's more than vivid enough to divert young attentions from their cell phones. Anyway, Ms. T's successful adventure in self-publishing is similar to mine. Our three books, include contributions by Major Mark Scaramella, USAF ret; Mendocino County's best ever courthouse reporter, Bruce McEwen; and vivid covers and illustrations by the talented Fred Sternkopf, and are still selling well ten years later. They've also aroused some interest in the outside world with a publisher writing to say he'd like reprint rights and a movie guy who said he wanted to create a film version of the Fort Bragg Fires saga. The book guy disappeared, the movie guy checks in occasionally to report he's working on it, meaning, I think, he's trying to get funding for what seems to my perhaps delusional (and cash-covetous eye) — a natch for the movies. Get this: A 400-pound San Mateo corpse robber, employed by that county's coroner to transport the deceased to mortuaries, relocates to Fort Bragg where he establishes himself as a late-night janitorial service, simultaneously cleaning The Savings Bank of Mendocino, among other prominent businesses, and cleaning the nasal passages of Coast drug people by distributing white powders up and down the Mendocino Coast. Well established as a familiar presence in the midnight hours, the fat man also distributes containers of gasoline to cocaine-addicted arsonists who burn down the Ten Mile Court, the Fort Bragg Library and the old Piedmont Hotel all in one night of operatic combustion. The fat man was put in charge of these logistics by high level drug dealers affiliated with outside organized crime. His name was Pete Durigan. Before moving north to No Questions Asked County 150 miles north of where he'd been arrested for picking the pockets of the deceased under the auspices of San Mateo County, Pete was a perfect fit for Mendocino County, where you are whatever you say you are, and history starts all over again every day. (Murder Mountain is the excellent NetFlix documentary focused on the Alderpoint area of Southern Humboldt County, but considering that Southern Humboldt and Northeast Mendo are both teeming with outlaws, the crime stories out of both counties are many and unique.

JIMMY CARTER IS 96 TODAY

RECOMMENDED READING: "Poets Are Always on Time" by Elk-based poet Peter Lit is available in a second edition (autographed) via Amazon/Kindle:

SPRING 2006

Every day lately, it has been the same,

i avoid the radio; i hesitate

before reading the newspaper;

i dread seeing television.

Election time: officials, previously invisible,

feel uneasy, raise their heads from the trough

to tell me that they feel my pain, 

understand my concerns, are working on solutions.

After the votes are counted,

they will resume feeding.

Peter Lit

Elk 

VINTAGE UKIAH

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HOME ALONE (And Fifty Grand Runs Out The Door)

On Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at 5:07 PM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a telephone call from a homeowner who resides in the 6000 block of Elledge Ranch Road in Ukiah.

The homeowner reported they had remotely witnessed, from a home security camera system, two suspects force entry into their home.

The homeowner also reported there was a 13 year-old male inside the home alone. This juvenile male immediately hid inside the residence as a result.

Deputies arrived at the residence approximately 12 minutes later and contacted the homeowner who had arrived at the home just prior to their arrival. A search of the home and property was unsuccessful in locating the suspects.

During a scene investigation it was determined the suspects stole over $50,000 in US currency and an undetermined amount of processed/packaged marijuana.

The suspects were described as wearing dark clothing, facial masks and fled on foot after the burglary. The suspects were believed to have later left the area in a blue or green Toyota Corolla sedan.

Deputies are conducting ongoing investigations into the reported burglary at this time.

BETSY CAWN of Lake County passes along this Public Information Release from the Lake County Sheriff with the following note: “Because it mentions Willits in the report, thought it might be of mild interest. (I wonder who the deputy was, all by his lonesome out there on Highway 20, stopping a single-occupant vehicle, and why?)”

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On September 29, 2020 at approximately 12:20AM, a Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy was patrolling the area of Hwy. 20 near New Long Valley Road, in Clearlake Oaks. The deputy observed a Toyota Rav4 travelling east on Hwy. 20 that was exceeding the posted speed limit. 

The deputy conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle for the speeding violation. The deputy contacted the driver and only occupant of the vehicle, Mehir Patel, 26, of Charlotte North Carolina. While the deputy was speaking to Patel he could smell an overwhelming odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle. Patel told the deputy he had been visiting friends in Willits and was returning home. 

When questioned about marijuana in the vehicle Patel first told the deputy he did not have any, but upon further questioning admitted to having approximately 30 pounds in the vehicle. Patel told the deputy he planned to transport the marijuana to Los Angeles where he would sell it for $100 per pound profit. 

The deputy searched the vehicle locating 32 individually wrapped one pound packages of marijuana as wells as $151,000 in a suitcase. Patel told the deputy he had planned on purchasing more marijuana in Willits, but the price was not low enough.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions Patel was not able to be booked at the Lake County Jail. The marijuana and money was seized and the case will be forwarded to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for review. The Sheriff’s Office is requesting the District Attorney charge Patel with Possessing Over $100,000 for the Purchase of Marijuana, Possession of Marijuana for Sale, and Transportation of Marijuana for sale.

— Lake County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Corey Paulich, Public Information Officer

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 30, 2020

DENNIS DAY, Fort Bragg. Paraphernalia, protective order violation.

DAVID GERRATY, Santa Cruz/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

KEITH GILCHRIST, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SYLVESTER JOAQUIN, Covelo. Suspended license, failure to appear.

LAMONT JONES JR., Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER LOPEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

AARON MUDRICH, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, contempted of court, resisting.

JAIME RODRIGUEZ JR., Ukiah. Parole violation.

JONATHAN RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MARCO RODRIGUEZ, Antioch/Ukiah. DUI, suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

VICTORIA VASQUEZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

TIMOTHY WOOLSEY, Covelo. Failure to appear.

JOSE

by Paul Modic

There is drama everywhere or at least wherever I go. I don't exactly create it but my bullshit detector is on high always, can't help it, it just is.

Here on Creekside Farms Road on the edge of Austin, Texas I was surveying the bamboo thicket, contemplating hollowing out a space for my truck. There was a crew down the hill a ways working on remodeling the teardown. The jefe drove up to bring some food and drink to his son who sits all day and night in a cab-over camper in the back yard. The kid was kicked out of a group home for being obnoxious and Jose asked Jenny if he could live there “just for a week or so” until they found some land to put the pile of trash camper. Well, a couple of weeks is now over two years.

I asked him if his crew could take the morning to do some bamboo removal for me. “Oh, we busy down there,” Jose said. 

“Yeah but I'm leaving my truck and flying out tomorrow,” I said. “You'll be working on that remodel for months.” I was expected in Tacoma in a couple days for Mom duty while my sister was out of town.

“I'll ask the other guy,” he said. One of the illegal Hondurans had been chipping away on the bamboo by the teardown with his chainsaw.

Jose was not nice or cooperative and not happy to see me. It's because I'm a threat to him, one more potential person who might convince Jenny to get rid of his crazy son in her backyard. 

Face it, Jenny needs a man. I'm not being sexist. Jenny needs a woman. Jenny needs a partner to go over things with and decide what to do. If she had a significant relationship that crazy young guy would not be living in her backyard.

Jose is Jenny's man. He's her mechanic (though her daughter's car sits for weeks un-repaired in the driveway), he's working on remodeling her teardown, and he has his mentally-disturbed twenty-four year old kid parked in her rundown camper, which she would like to haul to the dump. Jose is illegal and is looking for a green card. He's already impregnated two women up here but it didn't lead to marriage, which he needs to get documents.

He didn't want his crew to help me. I texted Jenny and asked her if she would lend them to me for the morning, I figured two or three guys for four hours. She texted back yes.

I found an axe and started chopping. I laid down strong twine and tossed the sometime thirty foot long bamboo on the twine. When there were about fifteen or twenty poles I pulled it tight, tied a knot, and hauled the bundle out of the way. I realized I didn't need the crew and axed down a tunnel through the bamboo for a protected spot for my truck.

After two hours I was soaking in the Texas humidity and had a blister on my finger, even though I was wearing thick leather gloves. When Jenny got home she told me that Jose had said he told me to just go down to Home Depot to find some guys to help me.

“Well, he didn't tell me that,” I said. “It's just not very nice that he wouldn't lend me his crew but it was fine, it didn't matter anyway, I'm doing it myself. Another hour or so in the morning and I'll be done.” So besides being a manipulator and a user Jose is a liar.

Then Jenny didn't like where I was going to leave my truck. “We're going to have to move it,” she said. “Usually people leave their cars down by the pond. We'll be taking out all the bamboo.” She didn't like the row I had left for shade.

There is a massive amount of bamboo between the teardown and the party barn by which I was going to leave the truck. “Well, why don't you start by the teardown and work your way up to the party barn? That will take months or years!” I said.

“No, we have the dumpster now and one of the guys has a chainsaw,” she said. “We can fill it up however many times we want in the next two weeks for three hundred dollars.” (That turned out not to be true—the dumpster could only be hauled away once.)

“Well, those guys don't seem too interested in the bamboo,” I said.

“True,” she agreed.

“And you were going to do it in May and nothing happened.” I had given her three hundred dollars when I stopped through in the spring on my way to Mexico to pay for half of a professional crew for a day.

Jenny needs a man but I can't tell her how to live her life. Jose is her man, but Jose, like most, is out for Jose. Probably within a week or two of me leaving Jose will invent a reason, a lie about why my truck needs to be moved. Or why he has to use it for something. That teardown is another thing. “I hope that project doesn't just consume you for years,” I said.

“Oh no!” She said. Such certainty.

“Well, if you do get a renter they might not like it that there's a crazy man in the backyard.”

“I was thinking about that,” she said.

“I mean, there's probably no other crazy guy in the neighborhood like him.”

“Oh no, there's others!” she said and told me about a guy who lives in his well-off father's house on the nearby hill. I've met that guy and he's harmless.

“Maybe you should give six months notice,” I said.

Jose will take advantage of Jenny however he can. And she will try to take advantage of him, paying an illegal less than a professional carpenter. I always say hire the pros but Jose and his illegal Honduran crew may be the best chance she has to fix up that teardown dump. 

I should say to Jose: “Dude, I know what you're doing. Get your kid out of there in a week or I'll tell ICE to pick you up!” I have always been knee-jerk liberal sympathetic to immigrants but now I'm starting to wonder.

SIR FRANCIS DRAKE HIGH SCHOOL UPDATE

Editor,

A sad, sad day! I have been advised that now all signs, plaques and monuments of Sir Francis Drake at Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo have been taken down. Paul Revere might have said: "The wobblies are coming! The wobblies are coming!

Myself along with 8500 graduates over the past 17 years are not in tune with those unconscionable, catastrophic demands. Just who in the hell are these people?

It has been said, "Against the steed he threw his forceful spear!" Followed by, "Falling short in into the boggy state of unforgiven indifference with no sign of reparation!"

While we slumber we are being pushed into the abyss of ignorant, utopian reassessments.

Gran says: My my, God help those who are unfortunate to survive. I'll make some cookies.

Angry? You think?

God bless America, t\The Donald, Jerry Philbrick

PS. This is a copy of a letter I sent to the Sir Francis Drake High School Board of Trustees:

From: A protector of the Class of 1956.

Subject: Sir Francis Drake High School Renaming

Attention: School Board Chair

Sir:

It is my understanding that there is a plan on the table to change the name of "Sir Francis Drake" High School.

Please, please do not allow this name change to our great, historic "Sir Francis Drake" High.

Along with thousands of alumni who have graduated from Sir Francis Drake High, we hold the school and the name in the highest regard.

I graduated Sir Francis Drake High School in 1956 on the honor roll and was Bank of America Student of the Year award winner. I then went on to graduate from College of Marin and got my degree in 1959.

Along with my outstanding education provided me by Sir Francis Drake teachings, I worked and studied hard and became a Senior Project Engineer and Program Manager in the aerospace industry thanks to Sir Francis Drake schooling!

Myself and 14 other Project Engineers built and landed the first soft landing on the moon on May 3, 1966. 

The second of two moon lunar landers is now placed in the aerospace division of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. My name along with 14 others are on a brass plaque on the lunar lander rocket motor in a glass case saying, "Drake High, Yes, Sir Francis Drake High School! Thank you!”

For God's sake don't allow the left wing wobblies to deface Sir Francis Drake's history. Man up, ladies too: Just Say No. It is not in the best interest of the school, state or country.

A name change would be caving in to an anarchy steppingstone. It's wrong. Don't let it happen to our great historical school.

In closing, I am an 83-year-old true American with less than one year to live. I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia and I'm okay with it all along with lots of medication. I am not suffering!

In fear of sounding overly dramatic: This is a dying man's last request. With his last breath he says:

"Please, Lord, keep this grand school’s name intact. Do not die in harness."

"Sir Francis Drake High School!" Forever and beyond.

One will know!

Your faithful alum, class of 56, U.S. Navy's Poseidon, Mod- II B/Hot Gas Generator Program Manager, ret’d. 

Boonville

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

They both lost! 

Do not look for winners and losers here. CNN says Biden, Fox Trump.

Big deal!

America lost.

LARRY LIVERMORE:

This was my first presidential debate, in September of 1960. 

The genre seems to have deteriorated a bit since then.

CHRIS SKYHAWK:

Trumps amazing feat—

Editor, 

Donald Trump pulled off the impossible for me at the debate Wednesday night. I felt compassion for both Joe Biden and Chris Wallace simultaneously I would never have thought such a thing could have ever happened. Wow!

PIERS MORGAN: Last night's first presidential showdown of this US election cycle between Donald Trump and Joe Biden was the single most embarrassing and unedifying spectacle in the history of modern American politics. Trump, even by his legendarily barbaric debate standards, was repellent. The President basically brought his Twitter game to the debate - a relentless bombastic bombardment of abuse, personal jibes, self-justifying tripe and blatant falsehoods. But awful though he was, Biden could and should have done so much more to counter and exploit the flailing president. Instead, the Democrat nominee was weak and ineffectual throughout the debate, failing to land any real blows on Trump even as America reels from his diabolical handling of the pandemic which has led to the worst coronavirus death toll in the world and the worst economic collapse too. As for moderator Chris Wallace, one of the most respected figures in American media, I'm sorry to say he lost control, and the plot, allowing Trump to dominate proceedings like an overgrown playground bully and consequently letting the debate collapse into an almost unwatchable charade.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

Trump just showed himself even more clearly in contrast to Biden, who is a real human being. At the end I felt sick at my stomach, literally. At one point wanted to turn it off, but I wanted to see if Biden could hold his ground and speak away from Trumps traps. He did it well and he spoke to the American people directly I thought it was good for people to get this full dose of ugliness, not that we haven’t seen it, but this format actually allowed Trump to puff himself up fully like some kind of reptile and go for the jugular. I thought Biden did well. This country needs healing. If there is any politician of long tenure who can bring that to this country, it’s probably him. I like the fact that he is ordinary. We need ordinary as soon as possible. If they win the Senate and Biden wins, it might be possible to turn this train away from the wreck it is approaching.

A READER WRITES: 

Just a few words on Prop 22 re app-based workers. The point of this measure is to re-classify app-based workers as independent contractors and eliminate the AB 5 classification of these workers as employees who have employee type rights. Prop 22 is sponsored by the app-based companies like Uber. One can see that classifying app-based workers as independent contractors makes sense in many ways. And Prop 22 does provide some “benefits” to a sub-set of app-based workers. I have not done a deep enough analysis of the measure compared to protections that would come through AB 5 so I cannot say under which scheme app-based workers are better served. But this measure is much different than simply providing benefits for these workers.

ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_22,_App-Based_Drivers_as_Contractors_and_Labor_Policies_Initiative_(2020)