Page 42 - Sonoma County Gazette - January 2018

It is soon after the Solstice, the o cial beginning of Winter and a chilly day. The view from my cozy cyber-hut shows tall Redwoods against the partially sunny and overcast sky.
I hope that you all had wonderful Chanukah and Christmas
celebrations and are now ready for the New Year of 2018!! In our little corner of the world we strive to support each other, including in emergencies and by shopping locally.
The new Caz Central store in downtown Cazadero is an example of a very interesting shop which features unique items created by our neighbors! Both the Duncans Mills and Cazadero General Stores o er daily groceries
and specialty items, Mr Trombly’s Tea and Table stores in Duncans Mills is
also owned by a Cazaderan, plus the sweet shop Toys and treats, next to the Duncans Mills General store and the terri c Gold Coast Co ee shop and bakery.
A Sad Farewell. I had the bittersweet pleasure of celebrating the life of dear friend Michael Tuggle – local poet and intense lover of his family, who passed from this life on Father’s Day, 2017. His wonderful family members and extended family of friends gave Michael a cosmic send-o , with heartfelt stories, poems and general good feelings!
We are blessed in west county with many talented writers, musicians, actors, painters, sculptors and cooks. Mike Tuggle’s recent book The Motioning In is available – call 865 9536 to order one. To get a copy of Sashana Kane Proctor’s recent book Cave of the Casting Bones please call 6325761.
Okay, 2018 has a pretty clean slate as you read this.
Can’t say the same for 2016 and 2017, who dumped a rather festive load of crap on us. The world seems to be hell-bent, pun intended, on going to hell in a bucket. We’re trying to enjoy the ride, but it’s not always easy.
It is natural in trying times to retreat to the personal, to try to let go of things beyond our control and focus on what we can do. This is sometimes distressingly smaller and more local than we imagine our impact would be if, well, if the external environment (by which I mean stu you read about in the big newspapers, and even at times in small can-do broadsheets like this one) weren’t so challenging. Fixing the world at large can be such a case of twenty steps forward, nineteen back. The arc of history curves toward justice, but it takes its sweet time doing so.
I do it too: I might even be a too-leading exponent of letting the world run
on its axis while I try to do good in my local world. The rub of it is, I’m not all that good at even keeping my own row to hoe all that well hoed. I’m sure your world looks much the same to you: those opportunities to shine one’s light
in our own unique way comes only after the mundane minutia is satis ed. It turns out that the list of mundane minutia is surprisingly long, and things get added to the bottom of the list faster than we can remove items from the top. I’m talking about real bedrock stu : Keeping the house warm, dry, and stocked with food, and the inhabitants of said house in a condition to enjoy these things. That is our monthly nut, and it is even easier to run out of time in the month than money.
I’ve been falling down in letting the spare room ll with junk. Yes, my junk drawer encompasses far, far more than a drawer, and today I nally tackled the worst of it, the proverbial Aegean Stables of my humble domicile. This process can be emotionally draining, because I am kept company in my toilings by a nice internal monologue that interrogates me as to how, exactly, I let it get this bad. I have my good points, but on this particular metric I am a terrible, terrible person.
Yes, well, okay, I say to my interior conversationalist. That I am a terrible person today is cheerfully stipulated. Nothing for it but to become un-terrible, one piece of domestic detritus at a time. At some point the self- agellation gives way to a sort of runner’s high, as you wade into the most direct evidence of your personal un tness and start stu ng it into garbage bags. This process inevitably ends in one or several trips to the dump, and (at the risk of o ending with a vulgar metaphor), I would say that the process is well named, and (however unpleasant the actual process leads to a su usion of fresh well-being as the stored up negative energy of one’s trash is kicked down the road to be somebody else’s land ll problem. I should probably do my part to help solve that global problem, but..eh. That’s for another day.
Today I have done enough work to enjoy the holiday with slightly less guilt, and to credit myself with the rst step of another ten thousand mile journey. Might take a little longer than a year for that one, but maybe I can break the seal on 2018 with the needle moving in the right direction.
Here’s to needles moving in the right direction! Now that my proverbial decks are cleared, maybe I can get out and about and actually dig up some news about things outside my front door.
Here’s hoping your needle is moving in the right direction this fresh New Year. Health and happiness to you in 2018!
Here is what’s happening at the Montgomery Elementary School for January, 2018. Students will be getting back in the swing of the daily routines as they return to school from their two week Winter break on Monday, January 8th. There will be a school holiday on the following Monday, January 15th,
for Martin Luther King’s birthday. Then on Friday, January 19th, the students will have a day o while their parents are participating in Parent-Teacher conferences. Get involved with Boosters Club to help out at the school.
Many of us are in the midst of year-long projects, so please remember Cazadero Supply’s 1st Saturday 15% Discount Day, with an assortment of gardening, vehicle and household items available.
Angie Orr, a very dear friend of mine in Monte Rio, wishes to thank Chief Steve Baxman and crew for the recent very rapid response to what proved to be a heart attack! We ‘Friends of Angie Orr’ salute our exemplary rst responders!
I wish very happy January birthdays to Alana Mumy, turning 26 on the 1st, Peter Perlman, Curtis Ross, Meshack Ross-Sabbah, all celebrate in early January, My dear husband Gregorio will celebrate his 70th birthday on January 6th, Kellie Hickson turns 28 on the 12th, Hank Wiedmann turns 31, Toni Parmeter’s son Eli Ellis will be 41, Marcus Curie and Christina Tourady share the 18th, Catherine Canelis enjoys the 21st and Ashley Parmeter celebrates on the 26th
Until Spring...Although the Cazadero Community Club is on hiatus, monthly meetings will resume on the 1st tuesday in March. You may send your dues ($15 per family or $10 Individual) to P.O. Box 3, Cazadero, CA. 95421. Join with your neighbors in planning wonderful events which bene t the entire community
PLANT TREES! Think about participating in the Forest Unlimited’s Annual Redwood Tree Planting in early January. You may contact Carl Wahl at 874- 9268 or carlwahl3@gmail.com for further information.
Have a Very Peaceful, Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New
Please call me at 632-5545 or email mayawrld@sonic,net with info for your Cazadero Column!
Year in 2018!
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