LORETTA HOUCK, THE LATEST. Shelly Englert writes:
"First of all, I wanted to thank you all for supporting Loretta and W.Dan during this initial three months of uncertainty and awaking. Your financial contributions have been very generous and your emotional encouragements have been a real life support for W.Dan.
"I'VE DECIDED to extend this fundraiser for another month to give those of you who have not had time to contribute to do so and for all of us to reach out a little further in our supportive community to those who do not yet know about this fundraiser. I've also raised our goal to $30,000. If we can raise $10,000 in a week, I think we can raise another $10,000 in a month. Now that we can see a little further into the future, we know that Loretta is going to need some sort of long term care once she returns home and her return home may not be for another 5 months. So any more financial help we can give will be truly appreciated and put to use for the care and recovery of our dear Lo.
THIS BRINGS me to the "Community Page" of our fundraiser. This is a new feature on the site and we were asked to use it as a test community. The GiveForward folks have seen how wonderful Loretta and W.Dan are and what an amazing group of friends they have and asked me if we'd be willing subjects. I, of course, said yes! This is a place we can all post comments, photos, encouragements, and thoughts. You'll find a link to it on the fundraising main page just above the update section. Please check it out and make comments frequently. As Loretta becomes stronger and stronger she will be able to check in to see all the positive thoughts you all are sending her.
LASTLY, I wanted to give you an update from my perspective. I only get to see her once a week, but have been there watching and observing her every step of the way. I've watched her sleeping peacefully and wondered if she was ever going to wake up. But from the beginning I know she was there, she was just waiting for the right time to re-enter this plain of existence. Once she awoke, I watched and waited patiently for any sign of her personality to reemerge. That didn't take long. Very quickly, her quirky little smirk appeared and her eyes lit up at the mention of Dan's name. Now she's nodding, shaking, and scratching her head with the intention of getting her point across. She lights up at the mention of Paris and the possibility of seeing it once again. Her eyes not only twinkle, but she grins from ear to ear when chocolate gets mentioned. Today, I told her I'd ask the nurse if I could bring her some chocolate and she not only gave me her half smile but looked at me like 'you better just smuggle that in here next time'. That's our Loretta. Now, I'm watching and waiting for her to begin talking. She had her tracheotomy removed earlier this week and that is the beginning of her starting to talk and eat. I'm so looking forward to hearing her voice and to know what she wants without asking her yes or no questions in hopes of getting it right. I can't wait to get to know the new Loretta. I have a ton of other stories to tell, but I'll save those for another time."
CALTRANS TO COMPLETELY CLOSE 128 near the Sonoma County Line at night for weeks. Night closures start August 24th at 11pm to 5am in order to place piles for a retaining wall project approximately 1.4 miles west of the three-way intersection of North Cloverdale Boulevard, North Redwood Highway, and Oat Valley Road, and approximately 2.4 miles east (inland) of the Mendocino County line. Weekends, traffic will be unimpeded. Weeknights, motorists will be detoured to State Route 253. When traveling from Cloverdale to Boonville, the detour adds approximately 16 miles and 20 minutes of additional travel time.
A READER sends along an unclaimed property list from the State Controller's Office, on which we find the following individuals and entities owed money: Anderson Valley's CSD; the Anderson Valley Ambulance; the Anderson Valley Cemetery District; the Anderson Valley Health Center; and the Anderson Valley Investment Club, attention Kay Jablonski.
BEST BREAKFAST DEAL in the County? The breakfast burrito at the Anderson Valley Market served up by the ever-pleasant Alicia. Five bucks and you're good until dinner.
THE MAJOR was fill-in host for the weekly Trivia Quiz at Lauren’s restaurant in Boonville last Thursday while Regular Quizmaster Steve Sparks is out of the country. Catholic in his interests, the fill-in quizmaster combined a basic citizenship quiz with a true-false round about whether certain song titles were real country songs or not. The citizenship quiz asked how many amendments are there to the US Constitution, when the great document was signed, who is the current Supreme Court Chief Justice, who is the area’s Congressperson and so forth.
SOME of the (incorrect) answers to the citizenship questions:
Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
Answer: “We’re too young for this shit.”
And these two answers to the question about our current Congressperson: 1. Krusty the Clown, and 2. “Dan Hardman,” (apparently a krazy mash-up of Dan Hamburg and Jared Huffman.)
THE HIGHEST SCORE on the eight-question citizenship round was 4.5 out of 8 questions.
COUNTRY SONG TITLES, True/False
1. I Keep Forgettin' That I Forgot About You.
2. If I Can't Live Without Her, How Come I Ain't Dead?
3. I Didn’t Know She Was My Half Sister.
4. New Bottle Of Whiskey, Same Old Testament.
5. Eighty Proof Bottle of Tear Stopper.
6. I May Be Blind, But I Can See You’re Cheatin’.
7. You Done Stomped On My Heart and Mashed That Sucker Flat.
8. Take Me Drunk, I'm Home.
9. You've Been Talkin' French In Your Sleep Ever Since You Drank That ’Spensive Wine.
10. It’s A Matter Of Wife And Debt.
11. Tell Ol' “I Ain't Here” He Better Get On Home.
12. When the Ship Hits the Sand.
13. You Ain't Much Fun Since I Quit Drinkin’.
14. My Urine is A-Burnin', and You Better Believe I'm Pissed.
15. I Got That My-Woman's-Talking-Liberation Blues.
16. Drop Kick Me, Jesus, Through The Goalposts of Life.
THE LOWEST SCORE on the Country Song Round was 4.5. Yes, the quizzers all scored higher on the Country Song round than they did on the Citizenship test.
ONE PLAYER on Thursday told the Major that he gauges the difficulty the quiz questions like this: “If I know the answer, it’s too easy.”
ONE TEAM was an enthusiastic young couple with a toddler in a stroller. Their team name: “Here till the baby freaks out.” The baby did not freak out, and they tied for second.
A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, the high school looked like it had been bombed. Debris from major construction everywhere. This week, paved, painted and ready for some serious study. Well, study anyway.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM WRITES: On Thursday, about 30 "Beyond the Deep Enders" (those who live in Rancho Navarro) attended an evening get-together organized by Kathy and Jerry Cox. What a fine time all had. But one of the best things about it was that no one seemed the least interested in viewing the food fight on FOX News. While a reported 24,000,000 Americans tuned in to watch moderator Megyn Kelly hog the limelight, along with The Donald, the "Beyond the Deep Enders enjoyed food and refreshments, good company, and intelligent conversation. What did they miss? Well, with 10 wannabes on stage, trying to act presidential (and failing miserably at it, according to independent news outlets) global warming, guns, immigration, and the Keystone Pipeline were ignored. After all, what really matters are, in Huckabee's mind (he has one, even if it is limited) "illegals, prostitutes, and a manly military." Leave it to Trump to steal the show with misogynistic outbursts, nothing new or newsworthy there. So, all those millions of viewers got nothing useful out of two wasted hours listening to the shop-worn list of hateful opinions of the Republican "front runners." Having only read summaries of what went on (forgive me for not wasting time watching) it seems that Hillary got off lightly. After all, she is fence sitting as we speak on the matter of the Keystone Pipeline. Her husband, the man from Hope, is even reputed in some quarters of secretly being a bubba of “The Donald." One attendee of our soiree actually knows something about tar sands. Sure enough — and he should know — it is expensive, not needed, has to be heated to move down the pipeline, has toxic chemicals added to make it capable of passing through the pipe, is environmentally destructive, and may end up as export anyway. Has anyone given even a passing thought to what happens to all that contaminated sludge that is left over from the refining process? Not the Republicans and not Hillary. So much for "Fair and Balanced" news. Gone are the days when any hope of democratic governing was in part predicated on a neutral, intelligent watchdog called The Fourth Estate. As for we "Beyond the Deep Enders" we'll party on and try to ignore the fact that we live in a society determined to press the self-destruct button. — From Beyond the Deep End
EVER SINCE Pasquale DeVino quit dry-farming pesticide free wine grapes in small quantities on the less frosty ridges above Anderson Valley, the contemporary wine industry's image sanitization scheme of "Fish Friendly Farming" stands as a blatant oxymoron. Who are they kidding? The name itself is layered deception in that the only "farms" involved are wine grape vineyards and for that reason a new FFF promotional video shone at the Grange Saturday night, "Fish Friendly Wine", is, at least, a tad more truthful in name.
WINE'S ALLURE from its introduction in Genesis is in its psychotropic properties. Yet it is a drug which mostly European descendants have made fashionable. Reducing the amounts of siltation and other contaminant run-off by some percent, cutting back water use by some percent, lowering pesticide and other toxic practices by some percent, if it truly happens, is not fish, or environment, friendly. The environment and the fish in it still die. If while you're beating me up you choose to only stab me a few times and not use the gun you have in reserve is that a sign of friendliness?
FISH FRIENDLY FARMING is a myth at best — a dangerous and sad mindset when believed by the perpetrators and masses alike. If you're curious you can find the full 23 minute video on the home page of the Fish Friendly Farming website.
THE SECOND MOVIE presented at the Grange Saturday night was much wiser, albeit somewhat too long. The Russian River: All Rivers - The Value Of An American Watershed takes a deep look at human impacts on our aqueous environment. As might be expected by the focus on the Russian River, the area prevalent wine growing industry is deservedly given the biggest hit. I, along with a few others, could not sit through the whole thing and had to leave early but that doesn't mean that it is not a worthy documentary. 20 or 25 bucks will get you a copy online or maybe Eric Labowitz will be willing to loan it out. (David Severn)
ALTHOUGH INCUMBENTS have until August 12th to file for re-election, so far only incumbent Dick Browning and newcomer Eric Arbanovella have signed up to run for the school board, leaving one seat of three up so far unfilled. Incumbents Patti Wilson and Martha Bradford have not so far said whether or not they'll run again.
THE CSD board has incumbent Valerie Hanelt and a pair of electoral newbies, Paul Soderman and Joanie Clark, registered for the three available seats
FROM A PRESS DEMOCRAT story by Chris Smith last week : "The nightmare on Santa Rosa’s historic Wheeler Street, near Luther Burbank Home & Gardens, at last abates. For well more than a decade, neighbors of a sickeningly decrepit, moldy, varmint-infested house pleaded with City Hall to do something about it. One problem: the elderly woman who inherited the house from her mother and abandoned it for a motel room wouldn’t answer the door for officials hoping to discuss the problem…"
GOOD FOR THE ELDERLY WOMAN. Put Alongside Boonville's odiferous and long-abandoned Ricard firetrap, the old lady's place looks like the White House.
BOONVILLE PEOPLE have complained for years about Ricard's property but nothing gets done about it. Ricard himself is a wealthy old coot holed up in a exquisitely maintained, fire-safe home in Little River. He also owns property in downtown Mendocino where he'd never get away with what he continues to get away with in Boonville.
WE GOT A CALL recently from a post office pr lady who said she was giving me a hotline number to call to report delivery problems. We called that number three days later to say that the Sonoma County bundle, as of Monday, had not reached Sonoma County's info-starved readers. So far, no call back. If someone in the mysterious post office bureaucracy had called back, we would have said, and will say if we ever get that coveted call-back, that lately delivery service has improved somewhat. We assume that it took the postal system a while to recover from the closure of the big Petaluma distribution facility, which had handled our precious cargo efficiently for decades. So far this year we are not getting the number of delivery complaints that we got last year. Although out-of-state deliveries, for which we pay a much higher price per piece, are still quite slow. Our experience with incoming deliveries of other local papers has improved lately, too. In general, we notice a continual slow decline in our out of state subscriptions but a comparable increase in on-line subscriptions, a trend that’s only going to increase as those of us in last of the reading generation die off.
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