2025 ARRIVES IN BOONVILLE
One medical aid “lift assist” call came in just after midnight the night before New Year’s Eve. No info was available on why that person needed “lift assist” at 1am Tuesday. But given the Valley’s demographics, we suspect it was an elderly person living alone who had suffered an accidental fall. Later, as New Year’s eve approached, we counted a few (“practice”) gun shots between 8-9pm leading up to midnight. Those sounded like dull “booms” from the area of Northern Boonville. As midnight arrived there were more gun shots, going off sporadically for about 15 minutes. We counted about 20 of the dull “booms” and about 20 smaller pistol shots in bursts of 3-5 shots. All of them seemed to be coming from the same area of Northern Boonville as the earlier shots, down around the intersection of Highway 128 and Mountain View Road. A couple of dogs barked. No voices were heard. No music. It was kinda dark, kinda chilly. It was 2025 in Boonville.
MY FRIEND JUDY VALADAO WRITES:
OK, here it goes. I don’t usually talk about health issues on here [Facebook] but I’m finding myself lost on heart healthy diets. Yes, I had a heart attack on the 14th, (and by the way) the ER here in Fort Bragg was great in getting me stable and transferred to Santa Rosa. A stent was placed in an artery and I’m now on blood thinners and a handful of other medications and I’m doing great. My problem is, what kind of diet to be on? I’m finding one site will say one thing and the next site I check out says something totally different. I have made an appointment with the dietician at the clinic, but in the meantime, does anyone have any idea where to look for the best diet and recipes that are heart healthy? I bought an air fryer and tried it for the first time tonight.
FIRST OFF, I’m hugely relieved Ms. V is on the living side of her heart attack, as is everyone else who knows her as one of Fort Bragg’s most crucial citizens.
AS AN ANCIENT PERSON stayin’ alive in ‘25, I know that life is an every day gamble, that I’ve survived some rolls of life’s dice that I was very lucky to survive, but…
BUT despite my too many wilfully stupid gambles, overall, and without elaborating on my vast indebtedness to my wife of 60 years, I can attribute my longevity to the simple basics of diet and exercise, basics about which knowledge was still in the dark ages during my youth. But I was fortunate to grow up in pre-sedentary times. I walked everywhere as a kid. We all did. 70 years later kids, tiny ones, too, zip past me on electric bicycles.
ONE of the only lessons I can remember from high school was a biology teacher telling us that the heart was a muscle that will “wither and die” if it isn’t exercised. I can’t remember the teacher but I remember that stark phrase, “wither and die.”
SO, I’ve walked all my life and, at the beginning of the running fad, I ran, completing five marathons, wondering every step why I was doing it, finally concluding that walking was as aerobically productive as running and I could see the sights at the same time.
“WITHER and die” seems to have lodged itself in my fragged consciousness. But the other half of physical longevity circa 1950 — food — consisted only of the advice to eat from the five major food groups, in my case maybe four on a consistent basis — milk, fruit, some meat, corn flakes heaped with sugar, tons of peanut butter and jelly on Wonder Bread, the latter combo called “chokers” and probably lacking in basic healthy nutrition. The junk food prevalent today was not prevalent in 1950.
AS A GEEZER twice in and out of the final white tunnel, I eat a giant bowl of granola and fruit every morning, specifically plain granola from the Ukiah Co-Op, a banana, an apple, a sprinkling of olive oil, blueberries, plain walnuts, and a scoop of low fat yogurt. Half in the a.m., the other half at noon. Dinner? Whatever, but gluttonous portions seldom. Walk at least two miles every morning, then another mile late afternoon. A buncha push-ups before slumber. That’s it, which I’m hoping will get me to the other end of ‘25. I’ve done it this way for so many years I feel off if I miss a day.
ARTHUR KNIGHT
This is my grandfather Arthur Knight. Hopland and Yorkville Pomo. He was raised on the June Ranch, him and Jack June grew up together as best friends. His grandmother Effie Luff and Grandfather Frank Luff raised him as his mother passed away pretty young. My Grandfather worked the backhoe for Smokey Blattner and eventually for Dean Titus. He helped develop a lot of properties, ponds and septic systems. I love hearing stories about him…do you have any stories to share. (Facebook post)
STEFAN STAFFORD:
Looking for work here in Anderson Valley and surrounding areas. Can install flooring, replace a sink, faucet, toilet, snall electrical jobs replacing outlets and light fixtures… I also do tree removal and and property management clearing brush. My rate for most work is $35/hr. (facebook)
St. Elizabeth Seton Crabfeed is happenning on February 8th. I have tickets (707-895-3053). Hope to see you there.(Tickets: John Schultz cell: 801-580-1851)
GARY LEVENSON-PALMER
Is this correct? Coastal garage pick-up north of the Navarro is $33.39 per month - that includes a small garBage can, the blue recycle can, and the green waste can. The price south of the Navarro is $72.21 per month - that includes a small garage can, the blue recycle can, and NO green waste can. Can people confirm? Seems a bit of an inequality if in fact this is the case. We have the bigger trash can and our bill is now $88 per month. Some neighbors have "in and out" service (that is Redwood Waste Solutions takes the cans to the street and back to where they are stored) and their bill is now just shy of $100 per month.
AFTER the story on Salvadore Aguilar appeared, Dr. Apfel of the Anderson Valley Health Center called to say that the late Aguilar, only 20 when he died, had not been seen at the Anderson Valley Health Center, let alone informed there that he had AIDS. Aguilar was found dead at the Greenwood Bridge. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Department soon determined that he'd shot himself at a pot garden on Fish Rock Road, distraught at the loss of a girlfriend and what he thought was a diagnosis of AIDS. His panicked fellow gardeners, tardily aware they were driving aimlessly with a dead man in their van, stopped at the Greenwood bridge, where they dragged Aguilar into the woods and left him. However and wherever he'd obtained what he thought was a diagnosis of AIDS, it wasn't at the Anderson Valley Health Center.
Previous reference: https://theava.com/archives/258516#10
ANDERSON VALLEY has two Soda Creeks, one running behind the Navarro Store, the other at mile marker 3.5 on the Ukiah Road where, old timers will remember, a colony of smallish turtles also made their home at the foot of the boulder around which the Ukiah Road Soda Creek flows. Both our Soda Creeks produce a little carbonated water. The Soda Creek on the Ukiah Road used to feature a small pipe at the end of which was attached a tin cup for passersby who felt a little bit of bubbly was just the thing.
NOT FAR from the Ukiah Road Soda Creek there was said to be a haunted cabin that so unnerved its young occupants they summoned an exorcist to see if she could put an end to mysterious door rattlings and candles suddenly extinguished on windless days. Among the ghost's bag of tricks, fully on exhibit during the exorcist's most recent expunging visit was, a witness reports, a sudden weariness overcame the two young dudes occupying the cabin, one of whom reported, “My arms got so heavy I couldn't lift them.” The other exclaimed, “I suddenly felt so tired I couldn't move.” The exorcist advised the bedeviled young men to, well, uh, er, exhibit themselves to the ghost and it would flee!
WHEN VIOLET RENICK attended a KZYX fundraising luau at the Boonville Fairgrounds, she commented that “It was very nice but I didn't see a single other old timer there.” Violet added, “What do you call them, hill muffins? There were lots of them, the men in shorts and expensive sandals and the women nicely dressed in summer dresses.” When one of the Muffs asked Violet how long she'd been in The Valley, Violet, a Pomo Indian, casually replied, “Oh, 14,000 years or so.” The only old timer who comes close to matching Violet's seniority is her brother Art Knight, who also has about 14,000 years local residency on the rest of us. I hope Violet, raised on Anderson Creek across the road from the Evergreen Cemetery, is still with us. But Art is gone, and the sky gods of whatever ethnicity never made two better people.
HEEDLESSNESS ON 253
Hello Anderson Valley,
Be careful with this reckless driver. No consideration for others on the road but apparently themselves. He passed me on a solid yellow line, mind you I had my two boys 6 and 4 years old in the car. Then proceeded to pass the Ford in front of them on solid yellow line on a nasty curve on Hwy 253. I believe in karma and hopefully this is lesson as he could have caused two serious accidents. Hey, you in the crv Honda: I lost my brother in a car accident and you could have put not only us at danger but my kids and I don't play when it comes to my children…
It isnt any one elses business.