Columns

Our one-month reprieve is over; it’s time to pay our taxes. The coronavirus pandemic may have delayed the taxman, but there’s not much relief for most of us, as we must now file our income tax returns by May 17. Some of us might even have to pay taxes on some of the COVID-19 relief benefits we received. And, of course, we will watch again as many of the wealthiest people and the largest corporations pay as little as no income taxes at all.

Our shared disdain for PG&E turning the lights out on us while we were running from the threat of the Kincade wildfire is not the only thing that should be uniting us right now. This time there was no loss of life. This time we “only” lost 141 homes in Sonoma County, nothing close to the 5,600 torched by the Tubbs fire in 2017. But this time the economic impact in evacuation costs, days of lost work, a week of lost business revenues, canceled trips to our Wine Country and possibly the permanent closure of some local businesses is much more widespread.

Looking for a lost pet or a new four-legged friend? See the list of incoming strays and the slideshow of cats and dogs available for adoption from the Sonoma Humane Society, Healdsburg Center.

Palm Drive: Where we stand

Oysters were a growth process for me. I’ve never been much for foods that require time to “learn to enjoy,” but summer parties on Nantucket often include bountiful trays of oysters and chilled shrimp, and nothing else. And if the evening stretches into a string of gatherings, there is often little else to eat. One night a friend laughed and said, “You’re really missing out on something delicious.”