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Ding, ding, ding. It’s a familiar sound that now goes off in my head every time I am about to square off with one of my teenagers. I don’t know what it is of late that is bringing out the angst in them.

Eyes closed I can feel the rays warm my face as the sun rises over the mountain. It is early morning and quiet. I sit in my backyard grateful and thankful we live in Sonoma County.

Given the events of the last month, November truly feels like a month of gratitude for our whole community.

Several Windsor churches have moved forward in faith through a series of transitions designed to make them stronger and better able to fulfill missions focused on loving God, loving others unconditionally and serving the community.

Last weekend a very good friend celebrated a milestone birthday, which she wanted to commemorate by having a “crafternoon” at her family’s cabin. Melissa gathered years’ worth of craft materials – pounds of buttons, miles of fabric, bags of saved mint tins, boxes of old maps, mod podge, glue guns, scissors, scrapping paper, paint, etc., etc., etc. – and several years’ worth of friends, and we crafted our hearts out.

We’re going to the park today. Let’s go to the zoo! Spring break, we’ll take a drive to Disneyland. How about Sunday at Golden Gate Park?

The following snippets of history are compiled by volunteers of the Windsor Museum & Historical Society. The museum is open, free to the public, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment. The museum is located in the historic Hembree House at 9225 Foxwood Drive. Learn more about Windsor history at windsorhistory.org.

It could be said that we will best remember the year of 2018 as “the year after.” After all, this was the year that followed the historic wildfires of 2017 in Sonoma County. And this was the first full year of legal cannabis in California, following the Jan. 1 implementation of the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). This was also the year that followed the undeniable realization here that we are facing a monumental affordable housing shortage. What happens next in 2019 is likely to follow the same course of news, events and public discussions, also mostly about wildfire rebuilding efforts, evolving cannabis laws and our housing and affordable household income struggles. 

One way or another, the current arguments in Congress over our national health care policy will bring new costs, changed services and more uncertainty to our local families, work places and medical institutions. In Washington, D.C. it’s all about politics; here, in our Sonoma County homes, it’s all about coverage, cost and care.