Page 42 - Sonoma County Gazette March 2017

We made it through February! Hooray! Yes, it was a wet month. Dutch Bill Creek was a raging brown maelstrom most of the month, but it resulted in no calamity for Camp Meeker. That puts us ahead of Big Sur, Guerneville, Santa Cruz, and most of the central valley. It’s true that a small chunk of Bohemian Highway slipped into the creek downstream of us, leading to a small concrete obstacle on the way to Monte Rio. But, knock on wood, there’s more rain coming. To quote every surfer everywhere, it has been both epic and brutal.
Greetings Occidental!
Winter is when we hunker down. I have spent much of the last few weekends hunkered down in my easy chair, thinking about how I could get some more warmth in my house. My furnace was acting funky – first air but no heat, then heat but no air. Since HVAC engineering falls under my mechanical engineering training, I figured I could easily troubleshoot, diagnose, and repair. The thing that moves air is the blower motor, so therefore the blower motor must be at fault here. Okay, call one of those west county plumbers who can navigate the narrow streets, and it’s my old buddy Skip, a fine musician when he is not repairing furnaces. Skip’s trained musical ear quickly noticed a sound not unlike a functional blower motor and pointed this out to me – somehow
my own musical ears had been talked over and persuaded by the mechanical engineering monkey brain that that sound was coming from something else. Skip asks “do you have a crawlspace under the house?” – at which point I lead him down there. Poke a flashlight into dark but yet somehow toasty warm space and see the bottom panel of the plenum dangling in the considerable breeze of my furnace at full roar, spilling my joules into the crawlspace and not into my house. Some plumber, I.
I’m writing this from an AirBNB in Boston, where I’m visiting some colleges, again. I won’t be back in town for another week either—I’m going to Finland! What a thing! For now, however, I’m in surprisingly warm, generally lovely Boston. I’m looking forward to my return to Occidental— I love my bed, and the trees, and my car (though it has been nice not having to drive anywhere!).
The biggest thing I need to mention, obviously, is the April Fools Day
Parade! It’s on April Fools Day—April 1st! The fun will start at the Occidental Center for the Arts, loop though town, and end back at the OCA. I’m guessing the start time is the same as last year, which was 1pm. The Fools Day Parade is always a blast—full of out rageous costumes, with a lively soundscape of the Hubbub Club and happy children. I treasure the Fools Day Parade as one of Occidental’s most fun, most quirky traditions.
Other important Occidental updates? The annual Salmon Creek Harmony ARK Education Foundation’s (the ARK’s, for short) Auction is coming up on April 8th. More details should be forthcoming, but at the time of the writing, their website (www.harmonyark.org) has not been updated. It’s worth checking out their website periodically though, for more information when it appears. You can also read all about their mission and work there too.
What to do, what to do? I checked in chapters 1, 3, and 7-10 of the Man Book and they all said “this is a job for Duct Tape.” Now it’s true that all Man Jobs that do not require WD-40 require duct tape, but now I’m doing honest to gosh duct repair! Duct Tape for its intended purpose!
Downtown Occidental is about to get a face lift— the Occidental Community Council submitted a grant application to the Historical Society Landmark Commission of Sonoma County for $2173, and it was approved! The grant will fund updating the kiosk in front Howard’s Station Café with information about the historical railroad and building a brand-new kiosk with more related information near the start of the Old Road. The kiosks will be designed and build by Rick Coates. I’m really excited about this, partially because I got to help my mom write the grant and attend the grant hearing. It was a really interesting experience!
I will cut to the chase: Duct Tape is, somewhat surprisingly, really really bad at repairing ducts. I will be fair and admit my craftsmanship may have been faulty. The previous application of duct tape had lasted for nineteen years, mine about nineteen minutes. I tried four or five times with about an
40 Years serving out community. This isn’t new news—in fact, it’s a little bit old, but I only just learned about it now and I want to share it with more people! The West County Health Center is now (just over) 40 years old! It was founded in 1976, and in August of 2016, as part of National Health Centers Week, they received a Gold Resolution from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors for their work. They are still fundraising to rebuild their Russian River office, which burned down eight months ago. They have a modular center up and running, never fear, but are planning to rebuild a permanent facility there within the next two years. Go check out their website (www. wchealth.org) to donate and learn more about their work. Or to book an appointment!
hour and a half of total success before I decided to consult another expert, this time my good Humboldt buddy Bob the Handyman. He told me (and the smart guy at Pierson Hardware in Eureka CA). That what I want is called “metal repair tape” and it’s not on the strictly-for-amateurs duct tape aisle. It’s over
in the plumbing section, don’t you know. But I also got a can of Goof Off, the recommended product for removing gunky duct tape residue from the previous dude’s nineteen year masterpiece. Despite getting it wrong at every turn until smarter heads prevailed, I’m quite proud of the bounteous cfm’s of warm air cascading from my ventage.
I can’t wait to be back in Occidental, and I’ll talk to you next month!
Ah, heh heh, guess I got off on a bit of rant there. I know there’s more to Camp Meeker than my navel-gazing plumbing adventures. It’s just that my crawlspace is most of what I’ve seen of Camp Meeker lately in the daylight. Lots of away time working, lots of home nap time recovering. I promise next month will be much more journalism than this month’s solipsism.
FOOL’S DAY PARADE Rain or shine, a flock of Fools will cavort through the sleepy town of Occidental on Saturday April 1, 2017 as the annual FOOL’S DAY PARADE returns for the 12th year. From noon on, madcap folk will be seen gathering at the Community Center (corner of Bohemian Hwy @ Graton Rd.). Then, at 1 pm in foolish formation they will frolic through town and down Bohemian Highway to end up in the parking circle that fronts the Occidental Center for the Arts, the sponsoring organization for this moment of mayhem. Rides, refreshments, sponaneous entertainment and surprises will ensue. Local low power FM station KOWS (107.3 FM) will be on hand to broadcast the demented din.
What I would love to write about would be Camp
Meeker’s musicians. I don’t care if you’re a jaded touring pro or a humble back porch picker. What do you play? When do you play it? Who do you play it with? IF you think about it, sylvan glades like ours have the potential for a real Songcatcher energy. Back porch jams have a way of wafting through the trees that makes it sound like the music is coming from everywhere and nowhere. Maybe us musicians should know who else is out there. My email is on the masthead, so give me a jingle in the key of B natural!
42 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 3/17
Unsuspecting tourists may be astonished to witness stilt-walkers, llamas,
a marching band called The Hub Bub Club, and a magical mechanical green caterpillar conveyance full of smiling children called the Lunapillar. Each year, blessed by the Emperor of Fools Zero the Clown, two new royals are coronated. These worthies, having summoned the strength to wrench a plumbers helper from the “Bucket of Muck”, are crowned inside a coronation chamber and pronounced “King/Queen For Five Minutes”. After the ‘ceremony’, there will be a BBQ sponsored by OCA.
Anyone can participate, but to sign up officially, go to FaceBook and join Occidental Fools Parade. Let the foolish fun begin!