AV FOOTBALL COACH JOHN TOOHEY nicely wraps up Sunday’s bummer for us Niners football fans:
I don't know if there's something sad about the fact that I can't sleep after the 49ers lose in the playoffs, if this level of fanaticism is unhealthy or childish or immature, but in humanity's futile quest to find meaning in the universe, I'm not going to shame myself for leaning into my 1 million years of genetically evolutionary tribalism nor am I ever going to undermine the significance of sports nor frame the efforts of athletes as trivial. In the grand scheme of the blink of existence on planet Earth, a bunch of biological soup stuck on a rock in the middle of a vast nothingness, spinning in circles in a universe void of warmth or direction, I'm going to let myself feel all the feelings for the significance and meaning we have created in watching humans struggle against one another in athletics...
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death but I assure you it's much more serious than that.” — Bill Shankly
BANG BANG NINER GANG
Oh, and go Panthers! Small school, big noise
AVHS basketball finally saw some action last night (1/25) against the Point Arena Pirates. After several weeks off and over a month without any games, it was great to get back in the gym to play.
JV Girls dropped their game 20-25 but it was a close one throughout.
JV boys lost a very good game 36-39. Lots of good plays and potential coming from this team, unfortunately everyone lost a week of practice and it showed at the end.
Varsity girls were dominant throughout and beat PA 43-24, even with two players missing due to injury / illness. Gibeli Guerrero led the team in scoring, with 23 points.
Varsity boys came out strong in the first quarter but couldn’t keep it going and lost their game 37-58.
On a side note, basketball season during COVID is so hard! Scheduling (and rescheduling) games and refs has proven to be super difficult but these kids have continued to show up day after day and they deserve to be commended for their commitment. Please be patient with us as the schedule is constantly changing.
Additionally, so far, spectators are still allowed into games, so please come support these kids. We love to see all the Panthers fans!
THIS NOTICE on the Ukiah front door of The Office restaurant: “Closed due to hefty staff shortage.” Ukiah has never seemed short of hefties to me, but I'll keep looking.
A YOUNG MAN committed an act of random kindness on me Thursday morning at Mosswood Market by paying for my breakfast. I can think of several hundred more deserving Boonville people, and I hope my ancient, rheumy eyes expressed my thanks to him, my radiant smile of gratitude being concealed by a covid mask. If there's a logic to random beneficence am I now, for karma's sake, committed to my own random act of kindness?
JUST IN from the AV Senior Center: And the winner is… local guy Justin Rhoades! Congratulations, and thank you to everyone who purchased tickets. We’ll be having another great raffle again soon! Enjoy your four primo tickets to the Warriors game, Justin.
THE EERILY sunny, dry days roll on, daily reminders the drought continues, and the summer of '22 promises fires and dry wells.
WHERE TO BIKE IN AV, a newbie asks: Hi! I moved to Philo about a year ago from Point Arena. I love riding my mountain bike and am looking for places to ride in and above the Anderson Valley. Are all of the dirt roads in the hills private? Would love some suggestions for places to ride. Also wondering who to talk to in order to get permission to ride through Rancho Navarro and on to the Masonite Industrial Road. (Ed note: No permission needed to ride Rancho Navarro, and the short hop of Masonite Road to 128. But the other direction — north — on Masonite Road to Ukiah, MRC would undoubtedly object.)
KIRA BRENNAN'S stolen trailer would have been returned to her the day it disappeared if Deputy Squires and or Craig Walker were still our resident deputies. Years ago, a family of thieves arrived at my wife's garage sale, helping themselves to several items that weren't on offer. We knew them only by sight, not by name. I described them and the missing items to Deputy Squires, and that very same afternoon Squires appeared in our driveway.. “This your stuff?” Yup.
BRAD WYLIE NOTES: “Last week I received a phone call from a gent in Crescent City, chatty fellow and childhood friend of local ‘adult’ softball league barefoot star Bill Fleisher. Some readers may recall I wrote last year a couple of reminiscences about our weekly athletic follies over forty years ago. Well, the caller had grown up with Bill and his sisters in suburban Concord, and he provided me with their names and phone numbers. I will call them this week hoping they will want to be the beneficiary of Bill’s elegant fielder’s glove. For the first time in years I oiled it in anticipation they become the appropriate possessors of the mitt and the memories it brings back to us. When I drive down to Navarro Beach I always look the other way on the first upstream corner where Bill died in that auto accident.”
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