Columns

There’s a lot of water flowing into Yosemite Valley. All the major waterfalls are gushing, including Vernal Falls. Unnamed waterfalls from snowmelt seemingly flow out of granite walls everywhere one looks.

If you own or work for a local business, these are tough times. From Thanksgiving through St. Patrick’s Day, some small businesses have to lay off staff, cut hours, slow down on purchasing or even give up and close. I’ve seen it happen year after year — winter is hard on commerce.

One of the traps of adulthood is the vague complaining about change.

The other day, I picked my son up from school and had some errands to run afterward. I also had the baby in the car and we all know what a pain it is to get the littles out of their car seat every time we have to go a store. So I nicely asked my son to run into the post office to mail a folder to my mother-in-law. I handed him a couple of dollars and the folder, expecting him to just hop out of the car and go mail it. Instead, he looked at me like I was crazy. “Mom,” he says. “I don’t know how to mail this. What do I say when I get up to the counter?” Oh my goodness, I’m thinking to myself. Ok, be nice Elizabeth, don’t insult him. I had to handle this situation correctly as it was a very delicate one.

As the months pass by, all of our collective writing addressing our anxiety and tribulations around the fires, smoke, election, etc., seems increasingly necessary. Even since I penned last month's column, we have had another major wildfire and the collective anxiety around the election has become yet more intense.