Concert Dec. 28 in the Yreka Community Theater

THE RSSPA PRESENTS A HOLIDAY CONCERT STARRING TWO FAVORITE SONS – YREKA NATIVE KEVIN MCKEE AND HONORARY YREKAN JACEK MYSINSKI


Pianist Jacek Mysinski’s December concerts have become a tradition and this season the much anticipated event takes on an additional element with trumpeter and Yreka native, Kevin McKee. The two musicians appear together for the first time at the Yreka Community Theater in a Red Scarf Society for the Performing Arts holiday concert on Sunday December 28 at 3:00pm.


McKee, son of Luanne and Yreka High School music teacher, Brian McKee, began his trumpet studies in fifth grade. He has since gone on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree from California State University Sacramento and a Master’s Degree in trumpet performance from the University of Maryland. His performances and studies have taken him to the Aspen Music Festival and the Music Masters Course in Kazusa, Japan. Kevin is a freelance trumpeter and teacher in the Washington, DC area; is a member of the Continuum Brass Quintet, the Great Noise Ensemble and has published two compositions, “Escape” for brass quintet and “Vuelto del Fuego” (Ride of Fire), published through Balquidder Music.

Warsaw born, Mysinski, began his studies at the age of seven under the tutelage of Halina Dzierzanowska. He has won many prestigious awards; among them the Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition and Special Prize for the best performance of Bach at the Polish National Competition. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music New York where he was associated with Jerome Lowenthal. Currently Jacek lives in New York where he devotes his time to jazz and composition studies and after having worked with the Mark Morris Dance Group earlier this year, has been invited to re-join them in 2009. Through his many appearances in Yreka, Jacek has come to be regarded as an adopted son. In a recent communication Jacek said, “I am thrilled to be back in Yreka!”.

A champagne reception to welcome home native son, Kevin McKee and honorary son, Jacek Mysinski, will be held immediately following the concert at the Yreka Community Center. Tickets, $15 and $5 for students are available at Scott Valley Drug in Etna, Village Books in Mt. Shasta and in Yreka at Surroundings, Nature’s Kitchen and the Yreka Chamber of Commerce office; or visit www.redscarfsociety.org.

The Absolutely Bullet-Proof Bird Feeder

Aren't they cute? I fed them for months on end as a by-product of my well-meant effort to feed the birds around our yard. I didn't mean to, they just out-smarted me at every turn. Hang the feeder from a pole and they'd shinney up. Try dangling it from a suspended wire and the deer would paw it down.

So here's the secret, squirrel-proof, deer-proof, TELESCOPING bird feeder design: 30 inches of 2-1/2" PVC (for the base) + 60" of 2" + 40" of 1-1/2". They sleeve, you see so all you have to do is drill a hole for a pin and you can lower the actual feeder for refilling.

It's cheap, too. I spent about 16 bucks for the pipe, including having it all cut to length at Yreka Hardware so it would fit in my car. I used plumbers' tape to strap the base piece to our existing 36 inch high fence post so the overall height is a guaranteed eight, yes eight, feet above ground.

Of course the deer might knock it over and then I'll come back with one of those cones they put on dogs so they can't scratch their ears. Did I mention I'd tried little strips of cloth? They stuffed them in their cheeks and nipped them off for nest material.

Part D, Anyone?

Sally and I and perhaps many of you have been receiving endless mailings from AARP and other Part D providers because this time each year is when you can sign up for (or change) your Part D coverage. There are literally pounds of mail to sort through that "explain" all your choices. All. Your. Endless. Choices.

HICAP to the rescue. A free service of the Senior Advocacy Center of Northern California, HICAP (Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) is sponsored (I think) by United Way. HICAP is however NOT affiliated with any insurance company or agency nor does it sell or recommend any specific insurance.

You can call them for many valuable services including omsbudsman and senior legal advice at their Redding office, 800-434-0221. We already knew Debbie Weiland the Program Manager because she travels the five north state counties making presentations on their services and she had conducted several Medicare seminars for seniors here and in Weed.

But the big value for Sally and I was their new Siskiyou County volunteer Joan Favero, who guided us through the Part D maze and enrolled us in a new version that will save us a little over $1,100 in 2009. That's right, nearly $100 a month less than we pay now ($81.60 per month premium plus $25 a month each in co-pay for the one brand name drug we each take). We use the mail-order Rx plan with AARP's United Healthcare and we get a 90 day supply each time we order (although we can also still use the local pharmacy).

Joan pulled up a special comparison shopping program that she trained for on her computer and displayed for us 51 plans that we were eligible for. Then she ranked them by cost and we compared their features to be sure we weren't changing to a plan that used a deductible for example. The best one that fit me was $809 a year and Sally's best choice was $725. That's the total plan cost, premium, drug co-pay, and deductible (if any). We were each paying $1,387 per year so the savings are substantial. All this took just minutes.

Did I mention that she is a retired pharmacist and was able to not only pronounce but even spell our prescriptions which, if you take anything heavier than asprin, is an achievement for us common folk. I was having trouble with Omeprazole (can you blame me?) for example and all I could think to say was that the doctor prescribed it for acid stomach. Before I could blink she named off three major brand meds and mentioned Omeprazole as a generic for one of them. Bingo. (If you get an appointment with Joan save her the time though and bring a list of your meds).

December 31 is the end of the open enrollment period however so if you know anyone who is confused over Part D, give them Joan's name. An important point is that this happens each year so if someone's medical condition changes during the year and their prescription needs escalate they should review their Part D coverage and be ready to change during the annual enrollment window (Nov. 15 to Dec. 31 I think, but you'd better call). Joan is in Yreka at 842-3751.

What we appreciated beyond her pharmaceutical expertise though was that the review is a free service. It seems to me that a huge number of seniors must surely experience the same degree of mystification that we did with the mailed "explanations". It's just overwhelming. But they might not know about HICAP and Joan.

Please share this good news with those you love.

Snow Job

(Editor's Note: This is my adaptation of a joke I got in an email. It's like the anonymous sign in the auto parts store "The beatings will stop when morale improves" or the anti-stress poster "Beat your head here until you don't feel any more stress".I have no idea who started it but I have replaced some of the expletives for the sake of propriety.)

We always have loved the mountains. We lived in southern California for so long and are so tired of the traffic, the crime, the . . . well, you know.

So when I finally retired and the kids were all gone we sold out and moved to the High Sierra where they have four REAL seasons as opposed to our one (smog).

The first winter storm was just gorgeous. Magnificent white flakes (no one is the same, did you know that?) fluttered down from the night sky to embrace our home with a sugary coating. It was easy to shovel the driveway, too. The neighbor said it was a "dry snow", whatever that means.

Oh, now it's Thanksgiving and I've got some REAL shoveling to do. Ha ha ! It's a little heavy though, the storm was a little more "serious" according to Fred but hey, this is what we wanted, to get back in touch with Mother Nature, right?

A little sore this morning, but nothing a session in the hot tub can't cure. Power is out though, so I'll hope the tub works tomorrow.

Wow, I can hardly see the hot tub now, this last storm really clobbered us! But this is why we moved here: snow up to the fence-tops, that's Mother Nature at work!

Broke the shovel today, need to go buy another but can't get out of the driveway.

The snowplow piled a mountain DIRECTLY in front of my driveway! Can you believe this guy!?! And to beat that, it's frozen now. Solid ice. Still don't have a new shovel.

Okay, I get it. You need to know the home phone number of the plow driver and probably threaten his children. How come the schools get plowed out and I don't, hmmmm? He might be Mafia or maybe related to that jerk I fired a couple of years ago.

The little woman is getting testy. Splitting and hauling wood to cook on our Decorator Wood Stove was not in our plan but with my injured back what does she expect???

I'm really freaking tired of this. That bloody plowman is on my list now. Every time my snowblower (with electric start but the power is still out) breaks down HERE HE COMES AGAIN !! HE KNOWS I HATE HIM. He KNOWS that I put the garbage cans right where he can KNOCK THEM OVER. Hah! I am going to find out where he lives and sic Guido on him !!!

Power has been off for three days now and we are living on cans of Chef Boyardee and beginning to enjoy it. My lower back is now in the 'don't even talk to me' stage and the wife is threatening to go back to southern California where she says the sun is still shining.

Alright. I'm not going to deal with this neanderthal plow guy any more. If I see him I'll shoot his #*@!? little truck right in the gas tank. The wife and I have separated and my letters to the editor are going nowhere.

They wrapped me in this funny suit today just because I was running up the street and I forgot to get dressed first. It's a Scandanavian thing but they claim I torched the house on purpose. They just don't understand . . . . it’s because I just don’t want to shovel anymore!

Whee, The People

I'm using the title to this article, "Whee The People" much the way Herb Caen did regularly in his column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Herb was fond of poking fun at his readers and lampooning their follies. He laughed the most at the antics and foibles of socialites and politicos in the Bay Area and became surprisingly famous and in great demand in their celebrity social circles.

My reason for using his phrase is much the same; I relate to his cynicism . . . the government bailout issue for example. The automakers, their unions, their suppliers, and ultimately we consumers created this crisis ourselves, as a group. Why try to blame General Motors when we drivers were buying the Hummers and the Suburbans? Big was good in our consumer lingo. Remember the joke "you don't need to look for a parking space when you own a Humvee. You make your own" accompanied by the video clip of a Hummer driving over the top of adjacent cars? It appealed to those very same impulses that marketing companies use today, namely own more and bigger things than your neighbor.

And the newscasts of serious-faced Congress people looking down at the automakers in the hearings? Do any of us suspect that maybe some of them were driven to those meetings in 8 mpg limos? And then tell me that "we" (meaning the government but really us, the voters) are going to do a better job. A government car czar to decide which cars to build, how much to pay the workers, etc. etc.??? I always thought that was up to the entrepeur, the business owner......

So if there is need for regulation and discipline shouldn't we look to ourselves first instead of trying to blame somebody else? After all, we vote people into and out of our government, people whom we mean to represent our needs and interests. We have a representative democracy in this country (although some, like the Illinois governor treat it more like a business) and if you think about it, so is our market economy. Nobody is making us buy those Humvees. No one forces us to watch NASCAR races, and muscle cars have been hot sellers ever since cars were invented.

I guess "whee" gets the brass ring. We could waste a lot of time and money and engergy pointing fingers when really all that is needed is for us to just look in the mirror. Self-discipline is what this crisis is all about. Taking a longer-range view of our consumer-driven mentality would go a long way toward avoiding these bloated corporations and bloated bureaucracies.

My two cents.

Watching for Katie

We own three rescue shelties as many of you already know. Rescue means they were given up by their owners for whatever reason and are in effect, in the pound so not only is this the only way we could afford one but it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you take an animal home from the shelter.

Oliver for example was a trade for fixing somebody's rototiller because he was too tall to show which is what his owner wanted and she couldn't afford the repair. Andrew was dumped by some vile breeder on a logging road outside Hilt with no collar or tags and loaded with ticks and burrs. His only 'fault' was he was a little fat.

And Tiffany is well, skitzy . . beautiful but emotionally challenged. She would not show well either but for behavior reasons.

Anyway, we walk them through the neighborhood regularly and we are both facinated at their ability, all three of them, to remember where each neighbor dog is. For instance, a neighbor up the street has a gorgeous Irish Setter named Katie. She is usually on a lead by his garage, lounging and watching the passers-by with her toys at hand.

But Ollie thinks she's fearsome. For yards before we reach the house he's pulling and 'yapping' (in quotes because he's de-barked). Also, she's 'there' even if she's not. Most times in other words, the garage is closed and she's gone with her owner somewhere. But Ollie doesn't buy this. She is there SOMEWHERE and he just KNOWS it. He anticipates that she is there / not-there fifty yards away and point his gaze directly at the garage, hoping perhaps that his intuition has not disappointed him. This is a lot like 'eyes left!' in the miltary.

He did (and continues to pull even now) the same thing at Ed Dallara's house on Hogan. Ed, who passed away some months ago, used to cruise the neighborhood with his walker giving out treats to all the dogs he met. If Ed saw us coming he'd open his garage to come out with the biscuits. He had many doggie friends who are very disappointed at his passing and Ollie is just one of them.

Ollie never forgot this man. Or his home. Or the biscuits. We still come to a tugging halt when we walk by his place, even though the garage is closed now.

The thing is THEY REMEMBER. Places where they were, places where nice people were. Why am I not surprised at this?

Attention Gearheads

You have to Google this . . . the Schneider Cup was a fab thing in the 1930's, THE place to be when it came to speed. And since airports were scarce most thinkers thought seaplanes were the wave to come. WW II changed that of course but during the 30's there was a lot of interest in seaplanes (see other stories under the Aviation label).
So here comes Italy with the awesome TWIN IN LINE 12 cylinder (presumably liquid-cooled) engines powering two counter-rotating props through, get this, a hollow drive shaft.


I know. This is why I said Gearheads in the title. The first two models crashed or blew up midair so the third volunteer must have had quite a dose of confidence. He set a world record of 448 mph in this rocket. That record was not broken until a Russian did better in a jet powered seaplane in 1961.
Note; thank you Jack Brooks for sending the photos and firing my curiosity. One last question I have is where is this plane displayed?

WATCH D.O.G.S.

I saw on the news that fathers are volunteering time at the school where their child is enrolled. It's a program that is apparently growing quite fast nationwide and from my perspective as a retired public school teacher, is badly needed in schools everywhere.

The "D.O.G.S." by the way stands for "Dads Of Great Students".

I went to www.fathers.com and found all sorts of info (also 800-593-DADS), the most relevant being instructions on how to set up a program in your locality. It appears that not only are dads a good influence on their own children while in the classroom but on the other students as well. In addition the program helps teach dads something too, good parenting skills.

I suspect our local schools would welcome such a plan. The question is are there any dads out there interested in doing it?

Kathleen Pender, author of the Net Worth column for the San Francisco Chronicle (www.sfgate.com) wrote Thursday that lending $25 billion now would give the government (ie. us, the taxpayer) virtually no control and very low priority to the assets of the three automakers.

Instead, and Lynn LoPucki, professor of bankruptcy law at Harvard and UCLA agrees, Pender favors letting them file Chapter 11 and then provide debtor-in-possession ("DIP") financing. Interestingly the Democrats may in fact force the automakers to file by taking their two-month holiday now, rather than voting on the bailout.

But the point she makes is the automakers don't want this, it gives the lender (us again, the government) too much control and they don't want to give that up. To avoid this they are claiming that Chapter 11 would force them out of business entirely because consumers would stop buying their cars completely. Their compelling line is "this is about a lot more than just Detroit", predicting "it is about saving the US economy from a catastrophic collapse." The loss of jobs would be in the millions they say.

But Pender notes that it would be very unlikely the companies would be liquidated in bankruptcy. "That only happens when a company is sold off in pieces than restructured as a going concern," she says. UC Berkeley bankruptcy law professor Jesse Fried points out that "Chapter 11 was created for companies that can't pay their debts but are still worth more alive than dead."

All admit that many jobs will be lost. On average companies that enter Chapter 11 emerge with about half their former job force. LoPucki says "the employment loss is not caused by bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is simply the recognition that you needed to shrink the business."

Shareholders too, will suffer but both GM & Ford are trading below $3 a share right now anyway (Chrysler is not publicly traded). But top executives are usually replaced (you remember, the CEO's who flew to those hearings in their private jets at a cost of about $20,000 compared to about $600 for coach fare) and most important if we do DIP financing, creditors (again, us, the taxpayer) typically get back some or all of their money.

Unions are forced to renegotiate their contracts in bankruptcy, too. But members of the UAW have benefits that far exceed what most Americans have, Pender says, and maybe that's another necessary sacrifice.

I'm for Chapter 11 here, what about you?

Reading in Volume

These five bestsellers weighed 11 pounds and measured 8-1/2" tall. And that was AFTER we returned "Snowball", the biography of Warren Buffet. I won't count that one because neither Sally or I could get through it . . . the story of a guy who lived just to make money somehow didn't sit right with the way things are going these days (although it fits right in certainly with Wall Street).

But we're doing well on the others, she having finished "Edgar Sawtelle" for instance while I'm closing in on the final pages of Ken Follett's "A World Without End", the one on the bottom. If we ever finish the stack that amounts to almost 500 cubic inches of serious literature per person. I probably could figure out how many pages too but I'm almost worn out just realizing the inches and pounds.

The two by Menzies are controversial and largely unaccepted by academia. One postulates that China discovered America (and most other continents) while in "1434" he thinks China ignited the Renaissance. Despite the exciting possiblities of each I found both to be awfully dry. Menzies spends a huge amount of time on translated Chinese, Portugese, and Italian documents in an effort to buttress his arguments but in the end nothing seemed compelling enough, despite the fact that you want to believe these theories. I mean a Chinese junk found in the Russian River ???

So until I take on "Edgar Sawtelle" my fun right now is with Follett. He's a Brit with I think 18 bestsellers behind him and one, "Pillars of the Earth" is the launching board for this "World Without End", based as it is in England in the 1300's. My copy is paperback and as you can see, thick and heavy. Good thing they did away with the term "pocket book".

Historical fiction I think you'd call it as it covers real events and actual places in England, including war with France and the plague. The central themes are the prominence of the church and the ugly relationships of earls and barons to serfs and peasants. In fact things are so routinely bad that it almost becomes predictable, a criticism I have of the book. Every single time someting nice is about to happen to some downtrodden schmuck an insanely cruel lord beats him out of it. The really evil guys also last way too long too, (one of them, Philemon, lasted til the very last, 1,014th page).

But it's colorful and intricate; the way Follett winds plot and characters together is absolutely heroic. You learn five chapters after the fact why Caris said something to Merthin that at the time made no sense at all. Follett's office walls must be papered over with notes and plot lines.

Sally and I are most fortunate to receive gift certificates to Village Books for holidays and birthdays. We couldn't afford this otherwise and yet we're still awash with books. Surmising that there are many others with similar collections in their homes makes me wonder if we could put together a private library here in Shastina and save people some money during these hard times.

Any thoughts on that?

December CC&R Corner

Important Vote on Changes to the CC&Rs

With a very important general election behind us we are asking the members of the LSPOA to please vote on the proposed changes to the CC&Rs. After 8 years the Environmental Control Committee (ECC) and the LSPOA Board have identified three important, or controversial, well let’s say “hot topics.”

1. Overhangs or eaves. This section as currently written only says that all overhangs will be a minimum of 18 inches as measured from finished siding. To where? A horizontal measurement? What about the facia board or facia gutters? Should they be considered as far as the overall aesthetic look of the building? Constant variance requests by members have left the ECC in the position of recognizing the need for both clarification and re-consideration of this section.
2. Sheds and outbuildings. The minimum construction standards require that all buildings and structures have certain roof pitches, eaves, and roofing material. What about a shed? Should they have 18 inch eaves on a 10 by 10 shed? What size of an “outbuilding” should meet the minimum construction standards (MCS)? In the past rules were drafted to state that if the building was under 120 square feet that it only needed 12 inch eaves, and that the building should be painted as close as possible to match the primary residence. Certain buildings such as a wood shed lean to, and a car port maybe do not need minimum eave lengths to fit in. All of these considerations may not take place because any rule that conflicts with the CC&Rs is not legal and would be null and void.
3. Fences. The first thing almost every new home wants after a year is a fence to keep the dogs in or out, and protect the kids. Fences must be “open” and not any higher than 5 feet. What is open? 50% is the established rule, but what about a 12 inch wide board, does it need to have a 12 inch wide opening to meet 50%? Yep. 12 inch openings don’t keep in or out too many dogs or keep the little kids in. Go and try and buy a 5 feet high dog kennel. Not many out there, they come pretty standard 6 feet high. What if it is just a small 10 by 12 feet dog kennel in the back yard? Nope. Current CC&Rs state no higher than 5 feet tall. But I want a small garden enclosure in the back yard, and the deer keep jumping my 5 feet high fence. Sorry, 5 feet is 5 feet.

We need to amend the CC&Rs to be allowed to make architectural rules that will allow certain exceptions and provisos to the MCS. It takes 51% of the owners of lots to vote yes on these changes. That is over 1,500. We have about 500 ballots and the balloting period ends on January 5th.

The Board may not just go out and draft new rules and pass them. Any and all rules must be posted to you the member so that you may review them, respond to them at a designated meeting or in writing.

If you cannot find your ballot and need another one sent to you, please contact our office at 938-3281 extension #107. Please vote.

Memories of Another Camelot

For those of you who were around in November of 1960 this campaign and election surely must sound familiar. The handsome, elequent John F. Kennedy with his cultured wife Jacquline and their children and their dog getting ready to move into the White House at the peak of their wave promising change for America.

It wasn just a couple days ago when I realized that Obama's electoral landslide wasn't just about politics and racial equality. Some one on the tube put it like this, "It's not an election it's a movement." And that's what I remember about Kennedy, too. Yes, the first Catholic president. Young too, yes. Children. Pets. Many firsts. But much of his appeal to my generation in those years was his fresh approach to what we at the time felt was a political system running amuck.

I was attending Cal Berkeley and while I saw Joan Baez and Mario Savio, a flaming liberal I was not. Married with our first child soon to be on the way Sally and I were more armchair than activist. The glow that we and others in that time and place felt though was the same purposeful involvement that Obama is calling for now. Over and over he has been saying in one way or another that our country's future is up to us, as individual, proactive citizens, not solely our elected officials.

Well, Kennedy said those same things too, and it became kind of a fairy tale in modern times. A Camelot in the making. It ended a short three years later in Dallas and business as usual returned to Washington with Lyndon Johnson in the White House. Somehow he didn't have the charisma or the innocence that Jack had despite the major improvements made in civil rights during his administration. Of course he had his Vietnam to endure too.

Like most I'm hoping it can last more than a few years this time. That we may really make those changes we all seem to feel are needed. Kennedy didn't have enough time but I'm hoping Obama will.

Recycling Those Plastic Bags

As more and more cities and communities are banning the use of disposable plastic bags, retailers in increasing numbers are beginning to help recyle them. We routinely take them back to Ray's and Walmart although like many people, we've been using various cloth tote bags more. When we forget to bring them (which is more than we'd like) we ask for paper and use them for garbage ___ at least they decompose.

I'm not sure where to put the plastic bags they use to keep my newspaper in, though. Until I saw www.plasticbagrecycling.org on one. The site has lots and lots of info on the types of bags, where they can go, etc.

And how about those styrofoam egg cartons (and take-out food containers)? They're light enough to mail back to the company but I'm not patient or forward-looking enough to do that so when we can we buy eggs in the old-fashioned gray corrugated boxes that are biodegradable.

Speaking of "bio" things the Nov. '07 issue of Smithsonian magazine had a teriffic critique article on biofuels. Here's an excerpt from the story discussing the subsidies offered to ethanol producers:

"Biofuel subsidies might make sense some critics say, if they favored "cellulosic" ethanol instead (of corn) ___ fuel that comes from breaking down the cellulose in the fibrous part of the plant, such as the corn stalk instead of the kernel. That wouldn't put direct pressure on food prices, and might even reduce them by providing a market for agricultural waste products.

Cellulosic technology is also the key to exploiting such nonfood plants as switchgrass, and it promises an improvement of more than 80% in greenhouse gas emissions compared with conventional gasoline. But while an experimental celluslosic ethanol plant is now operating in Canada, and several others are being built in this country, most experts say it will take years for the technology to become economically competitive. There are also political realities. "Corn and soybean interests haven't spent 30 years paying campaign bills for national politicians" says one critic "to give the game away to grass.""

Why is there a Totem Pole at Ray's?

I was going to call this story "Traffic Light Count Explodes in Siskiyou County" with tongue in cheek since the CalTrans paving work added two lights (I only counted the three-color lights) but several clients live here and might think I'm trying to be a smart-aleck.

So I'm putting out the real story which is the huge improvement in the intersection where Highway 97 passes through town. To go north on 97 drivers must exit eye 5 and follow N. Weed Blvd. (which I think used to be old Highway 99) until 97 veers off and heads toward Oregon.

There were no stop signs or lights in this direction and much of the traffic was heavy trucks, making it quite difficult and sometimes dangerous to enter the roadway from a side street like Main Street, the central way through downtown.

Coming south on 97 there was a blinking red light where it tee-intersected N. Weed Blvd. at almost a 90 degree angle. And it did so coming down a slight grade. On more than one occasion an 18 wheeler didn't make the stop and the businesses across the street suffered oversize visitors who didn't come through the regular front door.

So now both north and south bound traffic have lights to control them. As a bonus the city somehow bundled the job with badly-needed local street re-paving so the whole community drives a lot better now.

One last note. I just read in the last Chamber newsletter why that totem pole is there in Ray's parking lot. Highway 97 was pushed through to Alaska just before WW II because America anticipated Japanese aggression there.

The Alcan (Alaskan-Canadian) highway passed through British Columbia and the Yukon before entering Alaska and terminating in Fairbanks. Identical totem poles were erected at each end to commemorate the feat.

It's been there, where Highway 97 ends here in Weed, ever since.

Substitute Teaching

I recently did a little substitute teaching to fill in the time while this real estate market (and the entire economy) begin to turn around. I am credentialed in California and taught 7th through 12th grades for several years but I left the field in 1978 (that's thirty years ago) to start a small business and so this temporary return was quite an experience. While it was always open season when a sub came for even my own childhood school, this recent sojourn wasn't anything like what the photo above (and perhaps common perception) suggest, and that's why I'm writing this.

The first difference I noticed was that there was no blackboard. Or chalk. Of course "black" boards predated even myself, referring to the 19th century when they were made from slate. They were green when I left teaching and somebody always got stuck banging the erasers out after school.

They are moving now from the erasable whiteboards to SmartBoards, an electronic screen with a ceiling-hung projector and wireless "chalk" (in several colors). You can draw and write just like you can on a regular "board" and to erase something you encircle it with your finger and tap the erase button from a drop-down window.

Fortunately most rooms still had the whiteboard off to the side where all I had to do was print my name. "Lessons" per se do not exist for the most part when you are subbing, at least nothing you want to chance turning your back to the class for. When I had full classrooms it was all about control. I developed a reasonably disquieting look when teaching and have a rather loud voice when needed so mostly it was just trying to keep the 20 odd souls peaceful enough that we could at least think about what the teacher had left for us to do.

Sometimes though I was covering a special ed teacher who would work with different individuals from different grades on different subjects. Usually it was only one or two children at a time and in a separate room isolated from the noise and distraction of a regular classroom. These were the teaching moments I (and probably most teachers) enjoy __ the chance to really reach out and help. Even if the child had behaviour problems it was easier to get him or her settled down and focused.

The thing that struck me though was how hard these teachers were working. You could see it in their eyes and their faces. They had that professional balance of control and learning, that kind of confidence that you can see the minute you walk into their classrooms. And behavior rules were everywhere: respect for one another, saying "thank you" and "please", and even holding doors for adults. This extended to volunteers, teacher's aides, and staff as well.

An enormous machine aimed solely at educating your children and helping them cope with this confusing world.

Did I mention how tiring this is? After only 5 or 6 hours of subbing I was utterly dead on my feet. Pop an asprin and take a nap after getting home. Yet some of these schools open at 7AM with before-school programs to accommodate early arrivals and some kids stay til 6PM waiting in special SAFE classrooms for their parents to get off work and pick them up. That's eleven hours, people. A very long day for kids, staff, and teachers alike.

So if you have kids in school give your teacher and her aide a hug next time you see them in the grocery store. Trust me, they deserve it, I've been there.

Home Loans Made Between Jan. 1, '03 & Dec. 31, '07

There have been so many laws passed recently that it's getting pretty confusing. Something happened to us the other day though, that brought a recent California law into focus.

A young couple asked to see one of our rentals saying that they only had a week to move. There was a notice on the door giving them seven days to move out because the lender was foreclosing. The landlord / owner had dropped out of sight and would not return their phone calls pleading for help.

So not only do they have to move right away but they likely will not get their deposit back. These tenants had no idea the owner was not making his mortgage payments and that the house was sliding into default.

The Perata/Bass Mortgage Relief Bill went into effect on 8 July this year here in CA and is meant exactly for this type of situation so if you are a landlord (or a tenant), here are four major provisions of the bill (it applies only to loans made in the title above and all provisions went into effect on 8 Sept.):

1. lenders must contact owners IN ADVANCE to explore options to avoid foreclosure

2. tenants will get a notice once the notice of sale has been posted on a property

3. tenants now have 60 days rather than 30 before eviction

4. locals (our HOA?) can levy fines of up to $1,000 on the lender if they don't maintain a vacated property that has been foreclosed upon by fixing things within 30 days. That might include damage by trespassers or squatters for example.

If you are a tenant or a landlord you can take steps now to comply with this law.

Saving Water

Our general manager Jamie Lea recently urged us all to conserve water because our sewer ponds had reached their designed capacity. Evidently things are in the works to expand or improve them but until that happens we all need to run less water down the drain and I'd like to hear more ideas of how to do that from readers.

Here's one I saw recently to get the ball rolling:

When running the tub or shower to get warm water, put a plastic bucket under the stream and collect the water until it is hot enough for your use. The saved water can be used on plants, for your pets, or for an endless list of other things.

We've heard that tubs use more water than showers so if you try this in a tub you probably will collect more than I did when I tried this in the shower. We have one of those limiter shower heads that restricts the flow to 1.5 gpm so I maybe got a gallon before it turned hot.

And of course the head is high up on the shower wall so much was missed but if everybody did that in our county that's what, 45,000 gallons a day?

Anyway, I'd like to hear from you. There are plenty of easy, practical things each of us can do to conserve water.

Editor

The Problems with Joe

By now most of us have learned that he's not really a licensed plumber, that his real name isn't Joe, and that he hasn't paid some of his state income taxes; this latter being a little bit embarassing given that he was accusing Obama of raising his taxes.

The accusation itself is a little shakey, too; he evidently wanted to buy a plumbing business that apparently would cost more than the $250,000 tax "floor" that Obama is proposing and somehow is confused that he would be paying taxes on that purchase. But as we all painfully know, income tax is based on just that __ income. And net income at that, meaning what you take in less your expenses in the case of a business.

To buy a business for say, $500,000 and take home after all the overhead costs $500,000 in the same year is an investor's dream and even if Joe had borrowed to do this, he'd be able to pay off a vast majority of the loan in the first year. Darned few people can ever hope to do something that fantastical. T. Boone Pickens or Warren Buffet maybe but not the average Joe.

A lunch room conversation brought up a more bothersome speculation, though: was Joe "planted" by McCain's team to embarass Obama and score votes for McCain? Given some of the just plain ugly tactics seen lately by regional GOP campaign teams (in San Bernadino County Obama was pictured on a $10 food stamp holding a bucket of fried chicken, a rack of barbequed ribs, and a watermelon), I wonder if the suspicion that some wild-hair Republican in Joe's GOP area may have influenced Joe to do this.

Stay tuned.

Writers & Articles Wanted

I have been filling in this slow time in real estate with substitute teaching (many stories there!) and am unable to meet my original goal of one story a day. Thus I wonder if any of you readers would be interested in contributing short articles to this blog . . . humor, local activities, human interest, animals, etc. The last stat counter report showed 114 pageloads so you know what you like to read. Just email the material and I'll take it from there.

Bruce Batchelder, Editor

Remember Cold Fusion? Well . . .

This is Dr. Randell Mills, the CEO of BlackLight Power in Cranbury, NJ. Mina Kimes on CNNMoney.com this morning reports that this entrepreneur with $60 million in venture funding says he's found an endless source of cheap energy. Trouble is, it violates the laws of quantum physics.

Here is some of what she reported:

Such skepticism doesn't daunt Dr. Randell Mills, a Harvard-trained physician and founder of BlackLight, who recently claimed that he has created a working fuel cell using the world's most pervasive element: the hydrogen found in water.

"This is no longer an academic argument," Mills, 50, insists. "It's proven technology, and we're going to commercialize it as quickly as possible."

For the first time in his company's 19 years of persistent trial and error, Mills says he has a market-ready product: a fuel cell that produces a chemical reaction to alter hydrogen atoms. The fuel cell releases heat that turns water into steam, which drives electric turbines.

The working models in his lab generate 50 kilowatts of electricity - enough to power six or seven houses. But these, Mills says, can be scaled to drive a large, electric power plant. The inventor claims this electricity will cost less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, which compares to a national average of 8.9 cents.

While his business has been working on the "BlackLight Process" since its inception almost two decades ago, Mills developed the patented cocktail that enables the reaction - a solid fuel made of hydrogen and a sodium hydride catalyst - only a year ago. (He recently posted instructions on the company's Web site, blacklightpower.com). Now that the device is ready for commercialization, he says, BlackLight is negotiating with several utilities and architecture and engineering firms, but he won't disclose any partners' names until the deals are finalized.

(Editor): I'm hardly the one to ask about physics ___ particle,quantum, or basic. But the idea that he is beyond the conceptual stage and now at the point of going commercial with this caught my eye. Note that he hopes to have one or more systems in place by Fall 2009. I think it is particularly significant that he plans these fuel cells for power generating plants, the ones that burn coal and contribute so much to our pollution and warming climate problem. Will coal states or coal interests in Congress block this? Stay tuned.

Top Down or Bottom Up?

I'm not sure about this 700 billion bailout plan. Like the email article, it seems to be helping large companies who got too big for their pants. What about say, the independent trucker who is going bankrupt because the high fuel prices are killing him? He's the one who brings our groceries to market you know.

And the small businessman who is closing his doors because he can't get a loan to buy needed equipment. And the salon operator who is refused credit to add some chairs.

All these scenarios take away jobs, lose tax revenues, and aggravate the problem.

A Time Magazine article on CNN this morning (where I got the photo above) argues that there are certain types of securities that should not be rescued (ie. bought by us taxpayers) because they are "derivatives" or "claims" on mortgages and not owned by the risk-taking banks themselves.

I don't claim to understand this but together with my concern for the homeowner with a mortgage, maybe Congress feels the same way.

Another GREAT IDEA for our Politicians

(from an anynomous forwarded email):

US BAILOUT OF AIG
I’m against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG.

Instead, I’m in favor of giving $85,000,000,000 to America in
a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let’s assume there are 200,000,000
bonafide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman
and child. So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon that equals $425,000.00.

My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a
We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free.
So let’s assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes.
That sends $25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $297,500.00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?
Pay off your mortgage – housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans – what a great boost to new grads
Put away money for college – it’ll be there
Save in a bank – create money to loan to entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car – create jobs
Invest in the market – capital drives growth
Pay for your parent’s medical insurance – health care improves
Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean – or else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks
who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company
that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we’re going to re-distribute wealth let’s really do it...instead of trickling out
a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.
If we’re going to do an $85 billion bailout, let’s bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

As for AIG – liquidate it.
Sell off its parts.
Let American General go back to being American General.
Sell off the real estate.
Let the private sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here’s my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn’t.

Sure it’s a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion
We Deserve It Dividend more than I do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington DC .

Mountain Lion Reports in Lake Shastina

A neighbor told us this morning as we were walking the doggies that one of these animals had been spotted here in our neighborhood and that large cat tracks had been seen after the sighting. This is the second time I've heard about pumas as they are also called in Lake Shastina. The other incident was on Indian Hill but as I understand it only scat was found at the scene.

This time however the neighbor said a lion kill was found on Zen Mountain. It was a deer she said but if combined with the tracks and sighting here in Unit 7-3 some precautions are in order. For one, these cats like any predator, target the easiest prey; newborn deer, housecats and dogs, sick or injured animals. So if you have a cat that is outdoors at night you might keep this in mind.

We for example keep two of our dogs in the garage at night but they can go out through a doggie door to do their business. We'll block the door now, at least until we hear from some more news about this series of event.

If any readers can contribute to this story please email me.

Editor

HeroRATS

(adapted from an article in the October National Geographic)

Some people cringe when they see a rat but Bart Weetjens smiles. A Belgian product designer, Weetjens devised a way for these often reviled rodents to help solve a global problem: how to locate land mines, some 60 million of which are scattered in 69 countries.

Dogs are often deployed to sniff them out, "but I knew rats were easier to train," says Weetjens, who bred them as a boy. Rats are also light, so they don't detonate the minesthey find; they stay healthy in tropical areas too, where many of the explosives are buried; and they're cheap to breed and raise.

In the late 1990's Weetjens chose the African giant pouched rat, with its very sensitive nose, for Pavlovian training: if the rats scratched the ground when they sniffed TNT, they got a reward.

More than 30 trained sniffer rats, aka HeroRATS, have started sweeping minefields in Mozambique, where they've cleared almost a quarter square mile. Weetjens also trains rats to screen human saliva for tuberculosis and is mulling new missions, such as finding earthquake victims in rubble. Lives saved, health improved, mines defused__ nothing to cringe about here.

The Blackbird is Coming

Actually I meant the Brewer's Blackbird. The bird, not the plane. That was just a teaser lead-in to get your attention.

Have you noticed that a)there have been fewer songbirds this season and b)the blackbirds are passing through. They seem to gather in small flocks and pretty much blanket a lot, going almost in line across the landscape looking for I guess, seeds and insects.

So what happened to the grosbeaks, the bluebirds, the finches even? Is something going on? Property taxes too high? Transient occupancy tax being applied to birds now? What?

Sheltie Party

People who own Shetland Sheepdogs once again strutted their stuff at Dennis & Pat Sbarbaro's home in Lake Shastina last Saturday. Members of this herding breed are affectionately called "shelties" and are often mistaken for toy collies. They are very social and extremely intelligent; they also do well at agility and obedience trials all of which being reasons they are considered such good pets.

There are perhaps half a dozen sheltie owners in Lake Shastina but the "Roundup" began in Mt. Shasta when Bruce & Sally Batchelder gathered some sheltie lovers for a backyard potluck in 2001. Word got around, people started asking friends, and as things do, the party sort of took on a life of it's own.



This Roundup is the 7th one and there were people (and dogs) from as far away as Grants Pass and Elk Grove, CA. The puppies shown belong to Karen Coombs from Elk Grove, for example. There were perhaps 18 or 20 dogs (they get kind of hard to tell apart as you can see in this picture) and a few less people since some own more than one.

The Sbarbaros handed out gift bags full of toys and treats to each dog and special prizes to various categories such as oldest, farthest away, tallest, shortest, etc. Needless to say the doggies went right along with this in true party fashion. At one point maybe a dozen dogs got into a soccer match (sort of, they couldn't get their mouths around the ball) with the guests.

If anyone owns a sheltie here in the area, or knows of someone who does, please let our group know by calling Bruce Batchelder at 530-938-0385 so we can add their name(s) to our ever-growing guest list.

Gorillas in the Mist

This is a movie I saw recently from Netflix starring Sigorney Weaver (of Alien fame) and it is based on the life of Diane Fossey, the primatologist who devoted her life to studying and preserving the endangered mountain gorillas in Rwanda and the Congo. I think there is a book with the same title.

The photography was dramatic, especially the many shots of wild gorillas up close and cuddly with Weaver. I'm sure some were staged shots with mock animals but surely not all. And the scenery and support actors were most realistic and believable.

The film also brought some key moral and political issues to the fore, one example was when an African official admitted selling a baby gorilla to a zoo. An enraged Fossey confronting him demands to know why and his compelling reply is to raise cash to feed his starving people. Although it didn't calm her in the film it sure stopped me in my tracks. Who comes first here? Is it okay to preserve an endangered species at the expense of human suffering? Who has the moral high ground here?

Weaver portrayed Fossey as an increasingly neurotic, obsessive, and ultimately self-destructive woman who, as in a Greek tragedy, insured her own death in the end. Railing against poaching for example she stages a mock hanging and alientates not only the natives she is trying to frighten but her own followers as well.

The poachers who by the way had been hunting gorillas and other creatures inside the park for generation after generation for food, are being denied that same food by Fossey. She springs their traps, burns their village, and hires scouts to arrest them. Yet it is revealed time and again that poverty and hunger are rampant, that native people die of malnutrition everywhere in the region.

So here we are again; don't we have a right to feed ourselves? Once more, who comes first? For eons humankind has driven species to extinction by over-hunting. It's not that we are not "educated", it's expediency.....you take the nearest and easiest food. "Teaching" native peoples is not going to make it,we need to feed them first.

And here ends my review. You might try the book too, I think I will.

Mac and Cheese

How can you not love this American icon? My mom made this casserole long before they discovered how bad cheese and sodium were. And so I sort of bonded to it. And now, voila! Burger King has introduced this queen of American culinary excellence to the center stage of what they think is smart eating.

Well, I have news. We newbies saw this classic for what it was years ago. My generation pretty much grew up on this stuff. Along with peanut butter and fried egg sandwitches. And guess what? We survived!!

Yes, it's true. The king of American fast food has realized (in my view, far too late)how important mac and cheese is to our well . . . national carbohydrate identitidy.

So here's to macaroni. Health food for us all.

Oughtta, Shouldda, Couldda

This is almost where it all started. Almost. Actually, it was the Ford V-10 (yes, read ten cylinders) pickup that we had traded in for this one. We had bought the ten to haul a camp trailer that we also dumped a few months before. But that's another story.

This Durango was sweet. 4WD, leather, and comfortably heavy. We never worried coming back from Medford in snow. But the engine would miss every now and then. Nothing serious, we never got stuck anywhere. Just a teeny bit worrisome.

Then, one day when we were approaching the offramp to Cypress it starts to vibrate something awful and as I slowed down to pull over I look in the mirror and there are PARTS dropping onto the freeway behind me. Large parts. Metal parts. As in transmission pieces.

We had come to a stop on the offramp, just a mile or two from the dealership where we had bought the car. To make a long story short it was the transfer case. It had siezed up and blown apart. We were under warranty thankfully, and they even loaned us a car while they replaced it.

But the missing engine never got any better. Turned out to be the computer was going south to the tune of $1,000+. The tires were also worn and we had almost 125,000 miles on the vehicle so we did what all good Americans do and traded up to a new Durango. Heavier. Roomier. Worse mileage.

Then we bought a new Dodge truck, too. A chicken in every pot, two cars in every garage, right?

We did this maybe six months before gas prices began spiking and before the recession and housing slump (we're in real estate so we were right up there in the front ranks). So we gritted our teeth and held on until winter came on and she needed tires and brakes. $1,000 later she handled better and we felt oh-so much safer. Of course gas had peaked around $4.75 by this time and those two car payments were looking more ugly every month.

So here we go again. This time with both cars to trade in on ONE car that gets super mileage. It's a Hyundai Santa Fe which I couldn't even spell the first time out . . . I kept forgetting the "y". Front wheel drive with automatic AWD when a wheel spins loose, 19 airbags (there may be one in the ashtray, too), and dual exhaust. That's right.

Of course we got beat up on the Durango. "We can't even sell them now with gas where it is" they told us. We reminded them that we had thoughtfully just put new brakes and tires on her but in the end we still lost a chunk. At least we got what we owed on the truck, though.

Let's see, if I had this to do all over again . . .

Highest and Best Use

Plastic makes things work and even eco-terrorists would be hard pressed to deny that. Unfortunately plastic comes from oil so there's a problem there. In real estate appraisal the term "highest and best use" means what a property would be worth if it were put to it's best use. An example might be if we were appraising a home in the center of an industrial area. It's value would be much more if it were turned into an industrial use.

So if you toss a 2L coke bottle, a landfill destination is not it's best use. Even if you recycle it, that's ideally not good enough either. They smush them into bales, melt them down, and reform them into what they were in the first place. That all takes a lot of energy. It's like turning the plastic bottle back into a plastic bottle with a lot of costly stops along the way.

But if you apply the highest and best use it comes out like this: the coke bottle gets refilled. End of story. Same product. Same bottle. Endless reuses. THAT is what highest and best means. The label stays. The cap gets resealed. No tossing. No landfilling.

But this solution is so labor-intensive that it is uneconomical. I have two suggestions to overcome that: a) put a $1 refundable deposit fee on each plastic container (not just the current CRV, but milk, yougurt, butter, etc.) to pay for hiring people to separate this material at the landfill or, b) take Sheriff Joe's example and have inmates do this work. Pay 30 cents an hour which applies to their room and board costs at the jail.

But how does this work in real life? Well, until we get sophisticated enough to separate our recycles at the curb we have to do it at the landfill. It's dirty, time-consuming work and not limited to plastic. Think about steel, aluminum, cardboard, glass, etc. Again, inmates make sense here.

Until somebody in Washington or Sacramento gets on board with recycling there are no options other than the old wax-coated milk containers. At least they are biodegradable.

Here is the Flying Heritage Museum's description of this aircraft. Please note the cockpit and canopy and see comments at end of description:

"FIESELER FI 103 V-1
Place in history: The V-1 Vergeltungswaffe (German for vengeance weapon) was the first rocket-powered missile used in war. A precursor to today's cruise missiles, it was aimed primarily against England and Belgium. Launched from aircraft or catapult ramps on land, a simple pulse jet engine gave the V1 a distinctive sound that could be heard from ten miles away, earning it the nickname of "buzzbomb" or "doodlebug." The V-1's main production facility was the notorious underground complex of Mittelwerk at Nordhausen in the Hartz Mountains, where slave-laborers assembled the missiles in appalling conditions."

Editor; this was a PILOTED V-1 which, fortunately for German pilots, never saw action in WW II. As you can see in my photo the engine intake is directly above and behind the cockpit. While the idea sounded good on paper (pilot bails out after aiming at target) for obvious reasons it would not have worked well for the pilot. Believe it or not Hitler felt it was "inhumane" and none were ever launched with ordnance. More info at www.flyingheritagemuseum.com.

A Tiny Bit of Good Real Estate News (for a change)

(Editor's Note: Here are some snippets of sales trends from our trade magazine. Maybe things will begin to turn around soon....):

NEW HOME SALES ROSE 2.4 PERCENT IN JULYSales of new, single-family homes rose 2.4 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 515,000 units, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development released Tuesday.

The uptick represents a modest increase from June figures at 503,000, but sales still remain roughly 35.3 percent below July 2007 estimates of 796,000 units.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE ON THE RISE, ACCORDING TO NEW REPORT
Consumer sentiment rose to 56.9 in August, up from 51.9 in July, according to The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index™ released Tuesday, indicating a slow shift toward an economic recovery, albeit one that analysts predict will likely take until well into next year to fully materialize.

HOPE NOW REPORTS RECORD NUMBER OF FORECLOSURE WORK OUTS IN SECOND QUARTERHOPE NOW, a private sector alliance of mortgage servicers, counselors, and investors working to prevent foreclosures reported today that it helped a record number of homeowners avoid foreclosure in the second quarter, completing more than 522,000 mortgage workouts for loans that were headed for default.

The alliance adds that its mortgage servicers provided workouts for approximately 181,000 borrowers in June, an increase of 14,000 over May, approximately 105,000 of whom received some form of a repayment plan.

HOPE NOW also reports that the total number of foreclosures prevented by mortgage servicers since its inception in July 2007 has climbed to approximately 1.9 million.

C.A.R. REPORTS SALES INCREASED 43.4 PERCENT; MEDIAN HOME PRICE FELL 40.3 PERCENT IN JULY Home sales increased 43.4 percent in July in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home fell 40.3 percent, C.A.R. reported Monday.

"Sales improved significantly in July 2008 and remained above the 400,000 level for the third consecutive month," said C.A.R. President William E. Brown. "Deeply-discounted, distressed sales continue to drive volume in many regions of the state. July also was the first full month during which the effects of higher $729,000 conforming loan limits likely had an impact on closed sales."

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during July 2008 was $350,760, a 40.3 percent decrease from the revised $587,560 median for July 2007. The July 2008 median price fell 4.5 percent compared with June's revised $367,130 median price.

New Property Management Services

We are excited to announce that we are launching a new service to complement our real estate business . . . a property management enterprise called, well you see the image. We now have a broker's license that permits this service and have completed five college courses as well as survived the 5 hour state exam to reach this point.

With sales still in the slow lane many property owners are putting their homes on the rental market to generate cash flow and we are ideally positioned to service clients in Lake Shastina not only because of the license but the fact that unlike most management companies in our county with accounts in Lake Shastina, we live here.

So if you or a friend own a residence that has been on the market for too long and are thinking of putting it up for rent please give us a call. We can send you an outline of our program and explain our service in more detail.

Sicko Math

I'm sure you remember those endearing word problems we all enjoyed in school .... Little Jimmy goes to the store to buy apples. His mommy gave him 46 cents and each apple cost 5 cents. It was 1,320 feet from his home to the store. A train was passing him at 37 miles per hour. Was it sunny or raining when Little Jimmy got home? I don't know about you but they very nearly spelled the end to my academic experience. I began wondering just how enjoyable a ditch digging career might be at that point.

So it was recently that Sally and I had the opportunity to revisit those warm, fuzzy moments when we began studying for our brokers' licenses. The test for this license is 200 questions and five hours long and made up entirely of word problems with multiple choice answers. And as Billy May says on TV, "BUT WAIT, IT GETS EVEN BETTER !"

Real estate seems to be made up of large doses of law and math. If that doesn't scare you out of the business right there add in word problems with a clock ticking on the wall, proctors marching up and down the aisles, passes needed to go to the bathroom, etc. You get the picture.

So this is where one's test-taking and reading skills come into play big time, because the sickos who write these mind-benders WANT you to fail. That's right. They've made it but you can't, HA, HA. They try every conceivable twist and trick to catch you off guard. Remember double-negatives? "Which of the following are not non-recurring costs?". I think the trick is to cancel the negatives out so it reads 'which of these ARE recurring costs' but don't hold me to that.

Questions may have what we used to call "trigger words" like "always" or "never". Or they will turn on a key word like "approximately" or "nearest to" or "most likely". Sometimes it matters if a word is plural or singular that is, just one letter may spell the difference.

These question writers also include not only useless information that you don't need for the solution but misleading data as well. One clever example began with "John borrowed $2600 to buy a car..." followed by (and I'm not exaggerating) six full sentences full of the term of the note, where he got the loan, when it was due, the interest rate, ad nauseum. And the last sentence, the question itself read "What was the principal amount that John was obligated to pay back?" Duh. $2600 was the correct answer but you had to squirm your way to it through all the smoke and mirrors to see it (another test skill . . . read clean through not only the question but every answer before you jump).

Of course answer choices are also disasters waiting to happen, too. There's always that d) choice, "NONE of the above (!)". You tremble in your shoes to pick that one, it's like they're daring you. And how about "all the above", "none of the above", "a and b only", "c and d only"?

But the really fiendish answers to nasty math questions are all correct; three of them if you do the problem in any one of the three likely wrong ways and one if you lucked out and picked the right way. This is especially fun because many of the tougher questions require multiple calculations in a chaining order, that is, you do one set of figuring and then go back and calculate another set from the answers to the first set to finally drill down to the right answer.

I will close with a small example which will probably send me to Folsom for revealing state secrets, but it's for entertainment purposes only. If you think you have the right answer call me and I'll let you know.

"Sue agreed to buy a home for $310,000 and she deposited $15,000 into escrow. A bank has agreed to loan her 80% of the appraised value which is $295,000. The settlement costs are to be charged to the buyer and amount to 5% of the purchase price. How much additional money must the buyer deposit? a) $74,000 b) $89,500 c) $ 74,500 d) there is infufficient information to arrive at an answer."

PS: Most of you are smart and will get this one but I did not have enough time to scour all seven cram exams (200 questions each) to find the really evil ones.
PS#2; you surely caught the first trap: is her loan $295,000 or is that the appraised value?

The Civil Forum Last Night

I hope you had time to watch this. It displaced the local and national news on my TV anyway. It was a back-to-back interview with each of our leading candidates by the pastor of a church named Rick Warren. I've never heard of the man and I am curious how this program gained center stage in prime time.

It was riveting to be sure. Hard questions, good commentary. Both candidates squirmed to some extent and each revealed strengths and weaknesses. It seemed as if (contrary to how you feel with "official" interviews on the standard CNN & ABC channels) that the candidates were not given the questions ahead of time. Hooray for that in my view, why should they have a chance to rehearse their answers, anyway?

But my problem is that it seemed faith-based, to use a phrase that Mr. Warren posed. Too many questions about church-related issues. It felt almost predestined, to use another religious word. Why were we asking about religions in other countries at all, and not any questions about the sad state of the economy here?

For example, there was a question that said "should we have merit pay for teachers?". I almost gagged. Hey, let's do that for politicians, what do you say? Of course I'm a retired teacher (and yes, I agree with merit pay) but aren't we dodging here? Those who write the laws are exempt from most all our rules. Minimum wage being the least of them. How about rewarding politicians who actually do their job and represent us . . . you know, we the people?

Why was this major media event held in a church in the first place? Couldn't the major networks have done a better, less biased job? Yes, it seemed biased. In favor of conservative, right wing, heartland America. Is that wrong?

What do you think?

Putting Our Resources to Good Use

This is called "cage fighting", where opponents attempt to bloody eachother into subission and thus gain some sort of prize. Personally, I think this is embarassing to our nature and civilized state. I mean, let's go back to Rome, shall we? Where gladiators killed eachother for praise and reward. So why, ten centuries later, are we still enamored with blood-letting?

Well, that's another subject. I'd rather address how this perversion could be adapted to our modern world . . . . make these people soldiers. I mean, who is more qualified? Physical fitness? Hummph. Motivation to kill? There. So why not use these testosterone mistakes defend us?

It's the money you see. If we could pay soldiers what these guys make it'd be different. But we can't. So let's move to the next level.

Pro sports makes millions in this country. Players get mega-million contracts and stadiums are awash with eager fans. The sports franchises appear to be the singlular exception to our present recession.

So.

Let's put our sports pros where our soldiers are. They are fit. They are motivated. All we lack here is the money. But maybe if we diverted the revenue from all the pro sports events into the military budget we'd come out even.

Then we could watch our wars on ESPN.

Vertical Farming

This is Dickson Dispommier, a 67 year old microbiologist at Columbia University. In the September issue of Popular Science he argues that agriculture as we now practice it, is broken. Using 40+% of the available land it is the biggest polluter on the planet and consumes vast amounts of energy and resources.

He proposes instead vertical farms that would solve many existing issues because to start with, they would be located in the centers of our largest cities, thereby removing the huge energy issue of not only harvesting each crop but also transporting it to market.

His 30 story city-block tower would generate enough food and water to feed 50,000people and use the city's sewer supply for not only the water for the plants but fuel to heat them (it is essentially a greenhouse after all). A process has already been invented and tested for separating sewage sludge from effluent and drying it for fuel while purifying the water by using zebra mussels and non-edible plants.

A core concept in this self-sufficient farm is "aquaponics", a combinating of fish farming and hydroponics whereby dirty fish water is used to feed the plants and the plants return clean water for the talapia fish which live in the water beneath them.

Gone would be pesticide runoff and the need for massive doses of fertilizers and pesticides. The building would be self-sufficient and even have a market on the ground floor level where the goods would be sold, including "meat" grown from stem cells from sheep, chicken, and beef. No more slaughter houses and inhumane chicken farms.

Enough of these structures in large cities would support the entire city population and eliminate the mega-corporate farms now occupying so much of our landscape. Dispommier claims one 30 story prototype could easily be erected and tested for the price of one year's farm subsidies now being paid out.

Editor's note: I apologize that I have not provided more detail, I did this piece from memory so to get more, just get a copy of the September issue of Popular Science (as I plan to).

Those Pointey Little Bullet Birds

I'm sure you have them too, these tiny fellas that fly like we only wish we could. I have absolutely no statistics to share . . . wingbeats per second, calories consumed, etc. But it's obvious, isn't it? Hummingbirds are just incredible works of not only physics but art, too. The color. The nervous behaviour. The unbelievable aerodynamics.

And they also have their dangerous side. I don't know about you but they fly much like a 30-06 and seem to me anyway, just as fast. And did I mention they're pointey at one end? I duck reflexively although I know perfectly well they'd never run into anybody. I mean, if they did they'd stick like an arrow, right?

For some reason they don't get along well, either. They spend more time making sure the other guy DOESN'T eat than they spend eating themselves. No wonder they're starved all the time.

And then there's the road trip they make every year. Mexico, isn't it? Can you imagine these aerial yellowjackets flying all that way? I mean they seem to fly awfully fast here at ground level, I wonder how in the world they have enough gas for a trip like that.

We bought those decals in the shape of butterflies and leaves that you put on your windows to keep them from dashing themselves brainless against the pane. The stick-ons are translucent so you can see through them into the yard but somehow iridescent in the bird's eyes so they DON'T see through them into the house. Once in a while a hummer thumps the glass anyway so I don't know how much good they are. At least the little critter seems unhurt and buzzes away in one piece.

I enjoy these humvees a lot more than GM's.

Should We Keep Our Police Department?

There were far more people at the Community Services District (CSD) board meeting last night than usual and the overwhelming sentiment was yes, we want to keep our PD. That said, what the board finally voted on seemed confusing to many, including this writer.

There were three issues / resolutions to be decided: have a non-binding 'advisory' vote on the November ballot to keep the PD or look into other options; disband the PD and spend existing dues on other means of protecting public safety; and finally, should we raise the assessment for the PD from $65 to $97 per parcel per year?

The first two failed to pass but the last one did, 3 to 2. So there will be one measure on the November ballot not three. This reflected the attitude of the 30+ audience and by far most spoke up in favor of keeping the department. Probably one of the most compelling arguments voiced was that although the Citizens Task Force showed very few calls for law enforcement that may in fact have been because the police are here in the first place. Our rate of crime is so low in other words, because we have a police department to prevent it. Sort of like the ounce of prevention idea. Many in the audience felt that if we gave it up and relied on the Sheriff crime would move in to our community.

Following on this idea a 40 year law enforcement veteran said that other communities that had given up their PD's were sorry they did. He went on to reinforce the opinion that having a PD in the first place was a major reason our crime rate is so low. Interestingly, there seemed to be a large share of retired law enforcement in the audience who not only spoke to this point but picked Lake Shastina to retire to.

Another question brought up by the audience was since we pay for protection by the Sheriff already in our taxes, why would we need to pay again for the same thing? As one person put it, in fact shouldn't the county refund what we pay now since we have our own PD and aren't using their services?

Anyway, a powerful meeting indeed. I hope each of you turn out to express your feelings not only on the November ballot but at the next two town hall meetings in September and October. I'll post times and dates as we get closer. This is and important decision folks, and we need to make ourselves heard.

Editor

Jack & Francine

This is Francine. Of course we don't know if she is a she. Maybe she is Frank or Floyd or something. But the thing is we've had her for probably three or four years now and her partner (he was Frank we think) jumped out of the aquarium one night and I was not able to revive him . . . that is to say he did not try to swim around in the toilet bowl.

So we got Jack, a sucker. Excuse me, a pyclostomus___an impossible word to spell by the way, so I'll just use sucker if that's all right with you. Incidentally, have you ever tried to look up a word that you can't spell in the dictionary? How do you do that??

He . . again, we have no idea but he's too ugly to be a girl and anyway it just seems like it should be a couple . . he looks like a small shark except for his mouth.

But his mouth is why we got him. You see this type of fish spends all day inching his way along the sides of the tank eating the algae. We put one in our other (tropical) fish tank for this reason, too.

The goldfish tank is spotless now. Well, I mean as clean as one could expect__I wouldn't drink the water myself. And Francine? Why she helps in her own way, too. Maybe all goldfish do this but she spends her day in a vertical position cleaning the gravel. She'll pick up one piece, mouth it and then spit it out. She goes over the whole bottom this way while Jack is busy vacuuming the sides.

Anyway, they both accept visitors so if you'd like to come witness this miracle of nature just drop by anytime.

Critical CSD Board Decision Thursday Night !

(Following is an email message from John Kilburn urging attendance and input at the meeting Thursday night. It will be at 5:30PM at the Community Center):


THE ONE OF THREE PROPOSED BALLOT MEASURES FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION WILL HAVE A PROFOUND EFFECT ON THE EMERGENCY SERVICES, TO SAY NOTHING OF OUR TAXES, IN LAKE SHASTINA FOR YEARS TO COME.

GO TO THE WEB SIGHT - http://www.lakeshastina.com AND CLICK ON CSD AGENDA FOR 8/7/08 - WHICH YOU CAN READ OR PRINT IF YOU WISH.

I SUGGEST YOU ATTEND THE FAIRLY SHORT MEETING TO MAKE YOUR/OUR VOICES REGISTERED WITH THE BOARD. THE TASK FORCE GOALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ARE POSSIBLE - IF THE CSD BOARD SELECTS THE CORRECT ORDINANCE.

THE NEED FOR POSITIVE CHANGE - AND THIS WITHOUT ANY NEW TAXES - IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE. IT IS UP TO YOU TO HELP DETERMINE THE NEXT STEP. SEE YOU THERE. JOHN KILBURN, LSPD TASK FORCE.

Battery-Powered Lawnmowers

I bought this mower because it was about the same price as a gas engine one and I am tired of oil changes, new spark plug & air filter, etc. Gas mowers are noisy too, and they pollute more than a car I'm told.

I already own an 18 volt B&D tool set (drill, flashlight, circular & reciprocating saw) and a B&D weedeater that uses the same battery as the tool set so I ended up with four batteries and two chargers. I like not having to drag a cord around the shop and the weedeater got me to thinking about the new battery-powered lawmowers.

It has a lead-acid battery that you take out and recharge between mowings. I can do my front and rear yards twice on one charge. It stays on the bench in winter making the mower chassis so light that I can hang it up in the garage to loosen up floor space.

Mine can mulch, side discharge, or bag and after a mowing I remove the battery, tip the mower on its side and hose off the underside of the mowing deck. This removes the grass that sticks there, improving the "throw" of cut material.

So why am I writing this? Electricity is generated mostly by coal-fired plants so this isn't really a "green" alternative to a gasoline mower. But hopefully the national debate will begin to focus more on how we generate electricity than on how we use it. In other words plug-in electric cars are important sure, but if we continue to make the juice they use by buring coal the carbon dioxide is still being pumped into the air, even more of it as the demand for electricity rises.

Everyone knows that coal is bad. Fossil fuel. So is natural gas. So if the pressure is on battery-powered mowers, cars, etc. then let's look harder at how we generate that juice: wind, solar, hydrogen, tidal, even nuclear. Anything that doesn't spew out harmful gasses.

I'm not an environmentalist actually, I'm just interested in how we as a society try to solve issues like global warming and energy. I would bet there are many of you readers who are also concerned.

Foreclosure Scams

If it weren't already bad enough, along come the scammers, trying to cheat the already desperate homeowners who are in trouble. As reported in the latest AARP Bulletin, be on guard against unsolicited help. It's a sad fact of life that some people actually grasp onto these cold-callers or cold-mailers in their foreclosure fears.

The truth is what it always has been __ know whom you are dealing with. Many times that means to stay local. Craigslist always warns that but if your bank or lender is distant, take the meaning figuratively. At least you know them, that beats a mail piece from Miami.

In some cases the offer to help amounts to giving title to the suspect "until things get better" at which time you can "buy the home back for nothing". Of course they don't say it like that but after all the fine print you end up homeless and they are on title.

Take heart if you are, or know somebody who is in dire straits with a lender. Just a few days ago President Bush signed into law a massive bail-out measure that will allow homeowners who are in trouble the chance to convert their troublesome mortgages into new 30 (or more) year government-guaranteed fixed-rate FHA loans (see previous story).

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling at 800-388-2277 is all set up to take calls and start the ball rolling. There is even a free home loan counseling service in Redding at 800-750-2227.

I don't know the details yet but the law appears to have two caps; one in dollars and the other in numbers of people (400,000) so the upshot is to get in line EARLY and get the process going.

And in the meantime, do NOT sign anything with people you do not know. This is especially true for online offers, mail offers, and anonymous phone calls. Just say "NO". Then call the 800 numbers above and get started.