Cascade Mini Mart????

One of the first things I learned upon returning home is that the Cascade General Store has been sold and will be doing business as Cascade Mini Mart. Some folks from town have purchased, and they own 2 or 3 mini marts and the store on Ridge Rd and Alta. Good luck to them. It would be nice to have a convenience store. Heard they also will have a deli counter. The changeover should take place soon.
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Today was the kids Halloween party put on by Womens Club at the firehouse. It was fun as usual, and Carol Carter and the ladies supplied all the amazing goodies and treats for kids and parents attending, along with bingo, musical chairs, pinata and craft making. Met a new family from Nugget street who were pushing a baby buggy with 4 day old Laney inside, along with their other 2 kids. They moved away from a house on Nuggett 4 years ago over to highway 20 side, and missed the old neighborhood so moved back with their growing family. They said they missed the "community" of the shores, so bought the house next door to their former shores house. Welcome back. That's a nice story. And by the way, Laney is already a ravishing beauty.
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While I was experiencing the "noreaster" on Cape Cod, apparently we were having quite a storm here too. Took a day to clean up the fall out from the rain and wind. Enjoyed every minute of it. The smell of the wet dirt and pine trees is intoxicating. Enjoy these warm days. I think winter is very near. By the way, the colors were late coming in Boston due to a warm spell. It is far more colorful here right now! Be sure to drive up Nevada Street in town. Breathtaking.
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For you that know and love Shera Banbury, she has found herself a beautiful new home in Grass Valley to buy. She'll be moving in early November and is very excited to be back in her own casa.
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Dixie ran a press release in her blog about the 5 mile house reopening on Hwy. 20. That is a beautiful building, and it sounds like the have a great new menu. Good luck to them. That is a tough location in winter, but love the drive in the nice weather. To bad there wasn't a bridge from here to the hwy 20 side. It's such a short distance as the crow flies. But it is only 5 minutes from Broad St.

Love that Dirty Water

Back from Boston. If you're my age, you remember that song (Love that dirty water, Boston you're my home). Let me tell ya, no dirty water there. Boston is clean as a whistle (how clean is a whistle anyway) and I loved every second of the 2 1/2 days there. Hit all the landmarks, Paul Revere's house, North Church (oldest) where the lantern was hung, Green Dragon Pub (constitution and revolutionary war papers drawn), the harbor, the incredible North End with Italian bakeries to die for. If there were important decisions or papers to be written, our forefathers did it at a pub over beer. Visited many cemetaries where all the statemen and pilgrams and even our first freed slaves were buried, and pirates hung. The historical bars are not even tourist traps! They serve real food, at real prices, and hardly had anyone in them! 4 days on Cape Cod proved educational and charming as all hell. The beautiful colonial, saltbox cape coddy homes on huge expanses of lawn, and bungalows and mansions alike overlooking the bay were nothing but perfect. We were the guests at beautiful Morgan's Way B&B (relatives of my sisters) and they pointed us the right way to ProvenceTown and Chatham where shopkeepers could not be more friendly and talkative. By the way, we found Bostonians to be hands down the WORST direction givers ever. However, my sister Jackie and I loved their accents, to we asked for directions even if we didn't need them, just to hear folks talk. They would point at a spot where 4 streets came together, and say, "youz should just go datta way, (???) take 2 lefs, maybe 3 rights, and it should be on yer left, or maybe yer right." Oh yeah, good luck with that. This happened MANY times. The transit system is great, just pay $2 and ride anywhere in the system, including transfering to shuttles to airport, etc. We actually got hit by not one, but 2 "noreaster's" (always wanted to use that term) and a house on a beach near us was swept into the sea by the storm out on the cape. Well, back home now, so time to catch up!

howz the weather?

Just landed at SFO last night after a week in Illinois. Chicago is as lively as ever. Folks don't even go out for dinner till 9pm. Streets are rockin in the evening, restaurants packed, sports bars noisy, and tourists abound. Lots of rotating weather, rain, wind, chill, calm, sun, clouds, sun again. Well, that desribes the first 15 minutes in the windy city. Hit all the quirky museums (Polish, Federal Reserve museum (history of money, where we saw actual "wampum") to name a couple. Drove 90 minutes to Wisconsin, Lake Geneva. Beautiful lake and lots of McMansions. Back to Melrose Park, the family town, where the likes of Tony Arcardo, Joey Auiupa grew up with my mother-in-law (mafia figures). Once I was showing her a Time Mag. cover with 6 of the most feared Mafia figures. She went all the way thru school with 4 of them. Anyway, lots of amazing Italian restaurants and bakeries. Filled up on Cannoli and beef sandwiches. Went to Oak Park, next town over,visited the homes of Frank Lloyd Wright (saw about 10 of his creations and his own home) Ernest Hemmingway and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan author). Fabulous neighborhoods with stately mansions and neverending grounds. Must have been amazing in the early 1900's. Lots of tycoons back then, and apparently they all tried to outdo each other by building spetacular homes and gardens. Off to Boston and CapeCod tomorrow. Talk to you later!

Shopping Local

Just read Dixies blog about shopping local, and wanted to share this. Phil and I were going to Roseville to visit cousins from Hawaii, and decided to pick up a few items to bring to the relatives we are staying with in Chicago, and a hostess gift for the Roseville cousin. You know, jam, tea, coffee type stuff. I was planning a stop at Trader Joes, lovely store, but a Corp. none the less. First, a quick stop and the Broad/Coyote St. farmers market. Grab a beautiful fall boquet for the Roseville cousin and a couple of heirloom tomatos (just about the last of the season). Traveling down Hwy 49, we saw a church yard sale. Stopped for a quick glance. Well, inside was an amazing wealth of tasty goodies. We bought sweet little jars of blackberry jam (local berries of course) Orange marmelade with great chunks of rind (from a charming LOL), local honey, FRESH, FRESH peanut brittle, and dark choc. peanut clusters, and herb tea grown right in the back yard. Filled up our little shopping bag, dropped a $20 and never had to make that stop at Joe's. Keep these folks doing what they do! It was like shopping in Grandma's cupboard. Can't wait to present the goodie bag to Auntie Roe and Uncle Tom. All deliciously homemade, ooooooooie!
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CSHA Electing a new Board for 2010/are you interested?

Well, the years pass quickly, don't they. The HomeOwners Board terms are expiring after the 2009 season, and we will look forward to electing (hopefully) new blood in 2010. Myself, I have been on the board in some capasity for I think 6 years. It's been fun, educational and I've managed to make lots of lasting friendships thru the process. Hopefully, we've all helped create lots of change and improvements here in the Shores. But it is time for Kent Rees, (Pres) Caroline Inglis (Secretary) Robert Crabb, (VP, and former Pres) and myself, along with others to move on to some other challenges. So, if you are even remotely interested in seeking a volunteer position on the board, please come down to the 10/7 meeting at the Firehouse at 6:30. Check out the process and positions up for election. It's important that the Board change periodically in order to bring those new fresh iteas to light and frutation. If you can't make that meeting, try the first Wed in November, or call Kent at 265-6114 with your questions, or submit your name to the roster of candidates.
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Well, the themostat tells me Fall is officially here. Hard to remember basking in 90 degrees a week ago. I walked the NID ditch the other day, and the leaves are rapidly turning yellow and red. I'm buggin out for Chicago, Boston and Cape Cod, looking for the peak fall color. Should return right around the time Nevada City is at it's peak. I'll try to check in and tell you how things are in that part of the country. Enjoy this beautiful crisp weather, and talk to you soon!
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The book exchange has to be moved inside soon. Please go grab your winter selections. Someone left boxes and boxes of great VHS movies! They gotta go! Also, what deadbeat left a old full size mattress by the Firehouse door???? Why to people want to make their trash someone else's responsiblity? Baaaaad neighbor!!!! Shame. Someone want to be a good samaritan and take it to the dumps next time they go??????

How many degrees of separation?

Refer to Dixies blog about the Foundy Party. Well, Phil and I crashed that party. Not for no apparent reason. Now follow this: my niece (we'll call her Lauren, cause her name is Lauren) met a charming young Marine, (we'll call him Nathan for obvious purposes) about 6 years ago at the dinner dance at Nevada County Air Show, where the Moonlight Swing Band was playing. The young Marine's father was/is in the band. It was a beautiful moonlit night, romance was in the air, and they actually fell quite in lust/love that warm summer night. 3 years later they were married, yes, at the Nevada County Airport. It was lovely. It was also the first time anyone had requested to be married at the airport. Anyway, flash forward. We snuck into the party last night as Nathan's father was coming over to spend the night at our house after playing. The 17 piece band play's perfectly authentic Glen Miller swing music (meticulously faithful details) and will soon have CD's available. They were impressive as always. Byline, Bruce (the father) tells me that there have been many weddings at the airport since Nathan & Laurens. So romantic, saying your vows while small planes take off and land on the tree lined runway, especially near sunset. Check it out sometime. It's fun to just take a cool drink out and sit in the little park there and watch the private and CDF planes. By the way, nice to meet you in person Tom!

Firehouse Book Exchange

Wow, is there ever an assortment of books at the exchange right now. And that's AFTER we sold $1 a bag at the yard sale. Be sure and go down and grab your winter reading ASAP, as we have to box up most of the books when the rain (rain?) begins. I noticed today that someone dropped 2 HUGE boxes of VHS movies off. I scoped alot of good ones. If you are still VHS friendly, be sure to go grab them. Thanks to many of you who have helped keep the books orderly this year. The exchange was a very successful experiment.
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I went to the discussion at the Firehouse last Wed. with Sarah Holm from Dept. of Fish & Game. Very interesting. Some very reassuring stats: from 1890-2007, there have been 12 mountain lion attacks in California, resulting in 6 fatalities. That's not many. Seems that the big cats avoid us like the plague, for real. I did recently talk to 2 young men who said they were chased by a lion down by the blue pond behind Lost Mine Lake. They ran, (big no-no in mt. lion etiquette) and the cat chased. Fortunately they got away. Also heard from another guy at the yard sale that said one was on his BQ Hill property last week. Sarah also assurred us that our Black Bears (Ursus Americanus, and they are Black Bears, even if they are brown or blonde in color) have never killed a human in California. I checked up on that in Wikipedia, and found one kill in Santa Cruz County, 1875. The Wick status say 52 black bear/human attacks from 1900-2003, to wit:
Alaska-5, lower 48-11, and Canada-36. Proving that better health care plans do not make bears any less grouchy, or hungry. By the way, Grizzly's, Kodiak's and Mexican Browns are all Brown Bears (ursus actos) and Polars are in a class of their own (ursus maritimus). Don't you just love Wikipedia? I'm almost smarter than a 5th grader. . . . . . Factoid: Sarah said a female black bear probably tops out at 200lb, and male 350lb. They sure look heavier than that when you're 20 feet or so from them.