A black, stretch limo speeds west on Low Gap Road, careens into the Mendocino County government complex, and comes to an abrupt stop. Several laughing figures rush from the building with bottles of Dom Perignon. They pile into the limo. The door remains open with the engine idling.
Posts published by “Michael Koepf”
By way of analogy allow me to exaggerate about how to rob a bank without a gun. First, you become an elected official—say, a Mendocino…
I’m beginning to know John. Not completely, of course, for who can entirely know another when we seldom wholly know ourselves? Nevertheless, when it comes…
The letter arrived in the mail. They turned me down. Mendocino County refused to issue me a business license for short-term rentals. The Mendocino County…
It was such a lovely summer. The novel I’m working on was already at 200 pages and more. I decided to take a break. We…
Early January. Big storm, lots of rain; the electricity goes off for four days. I'm not home. I'm traveling. I return a few days later…
Cattails. I saw them for the first time this summer. A patch was growing on the south bank, another at the end of the small island that lies near the river’s mouth that’s currently blocked by sand. Cattails exist on the periphery of ponds and marshes. They are abundantly seen in bogs. Cattails are often deliberately planted in slow, effluent-bearing streams flowing from wastewater treatment plants. Cattails remove nutrients—usually ammonia from animal waste or fertilizers. Ammonia accelerates algae growth. Unfortunately—as yet—there are not enough cattails to remove the nutrients in the estuarine mouth of the Navarro River.
An interesting week. A few things happened. One: a friend shared a tidbit about Mendocino public school education. Some years ago, his stepson was smoking…
“Take the back roads instead of the highway.”
Minnie Pearl was right. If you want to take the pulse of America, forsake the interstates of commerce and the stately boulevards where the big shots live. Try a back road to see what’s what.