Columns

It is raining, hard, as I write this column. There are no birds on the river’s edge and the oak leaves are blowing with abandon from the nearby trees. Squirrels, who earlier I watched gather acorns in preparation for the storm have retreated into their nests. All seems cozy and well with the world.

TED Talks – Monday, Nov. 7 • 12:30-1:30 p.m.

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the voters in the Windsor Unified School District will be asked to consider Measure F, a local school facilities bond. Measure F funds will be used to renovate and modernize the district’s older schools; upgrade libraries, science and computer labs; complete the Windsor High School stadium complex; and build a new elementary school to accommodate student enrollment. Bonds funds will be applied at every school to benefit our elementary, middle and high school students.

I believe in the American people. For years now it has appeared as if people in this country no longer think or maybe no longer know how to think. Perhaps it is just OPT (old people talk). Old people, like me, tend to think things are worse now than when they were young. I don’t really know. But I feel, judging from some folks’ behavior, that the number of high-thinking people in this country is diminishing and one day we will find ourselves tipped. By that, I mean, that the non-thinking folks will be so numerous that they will become an overwhelming majority and tip the scales of sensibility toward the other side.

Days like these, on the eve of an important election with its coupling of high principle and low putridness, make us wonder what the hell is going on.

Senior Center in Larkfield

Two-Minute Drill

“Personal” elections

By now, most people have heard something in the news about a large zone of ocean trash that’s been identified and labeled as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, located off the California coast. It’s one of several areas identified in the Pacific Ocean where large concentrations of human trash, particularly plastics, are creating detrimental impacts to marine life. Many of you may have noticed public works staff removing trash from some Windsor creeks in September and wondered what was up with all the clipboards and note taking that accompanied the work. Well, it’s not far off to say that the work being done by public works staff is, in part, meant to address the town’s contribution to a global problem – namely, the removal of trash from local creeks, which ultimately gets transported during storm flows to larger rivers like the Russian River and then to the Pacific Ocean.

I remember when I first became a mother. The year was 2002 and it was truly life changing. Then it happened again in 2003, and again in 2007, and for the last time, in 2015. I am the proud parent of four wonderful children, two of them are teenagers. I often remember my parents saying throughout the years, “Just wait Elizabeth, just wait until they are teenagers.” Well, incredibly, that time has come. I find myself now in a very exciting, very scary, very important time with my two older children. There will be no other time in their lives or mine, when they will experience such rapid growth and maturity.