The mayor-to-be Back in the Day®, with a much lighter ball in the air, and only one of them, too.
Back in the Seventies, after Chris Coursey and I had completed our majors in beer with minors in journalism and gone to work for an unremarkable Colorado daily, neither of us had the slightest inkling that he would one day be the mayor of Dresden.
If there’s any good news to be found here, it’s this: Chris has already been to hell and back, and more than once, too. Santa Rosa is in good hands.
Tags: Chris Coursey, Santa Rosa
October 14, 2017 at 10:25 am |
Young and with a cold PBR. Those were the days, I guess. Chris has a rough row to hoe for sure. I hope he has an abundance of compassion and patience. Did Merrill’s house survive the fire?
Today I got to spend 10 miles next to Gwynne on his Bike Friday. He’s 91 this year, I had to ask to make sure, and we spun along at 12 MPH shooting the breeze when we got swallowed up by the Buena High School Mountain Bike Team out on a road training ride. Sweet. Maybe today is a good old day, huh?
October 14, 2017 at 3:25 pm |
Ninety-one. Man, that’s inspirational. Any day you’re on the right side of the lawn, rolling along with your pals, is a good one.
Chris has the required skillset, never fear. Compassion and patience in abundance. You gotta have those if you wanna hang around me. A big stick helps, too.
Last I heard Merrill’s new place was OK, but jeez, it seems like these fires are circling around trying to pick off any stragglers. I hope he has a place to park when he gets back after this second cross-country trip.
October 14, 2017 at 12:30 pm |
Thanks, Padraig. Love the pic.
October 14, 2017 at 2:31 pm |
Blast from the past, que no? I should put up a few more from that set at Rudy Boogs’s mom’s shack. I have you and Mombo chucking the ol’ pigskin back and forth, plus me being hairy and shirtless for no good reason. I look like I’m auditioning for “Cops.”
OK, since you asked, here they are. And right on cue, as I posted ’em, KUNM plays “El Rancho Grande.”
Mombo doing his country-hippie shtick.
Your Humble Narrator, doing whatever it was he thought he was doing. Levitating, probably.
October 14, 2017 at 1:37 pm |
I always scratch my head when I see the photos of what’s left after a wildfire in the USA. Only the concrete, stone, brick, etc. is still standing. Makes me wonder why we build homes using what is basically kindling? Europeans come here and laugh at the 2 X 4’s and chicken wire we use for housing in this country. But I’ll bet the vast majority of the burned out homes there get rebuilt exactly the same way while these same folks shake their heads at those who rebuild in a flood-plain or in tornado country. Are we incapable of learning anything these days?
October 14, 2017 at 2:04 pm |
Larry we build them that way because it’s cheap – no other reason. You know that.
October 14, 2017 at 5:30 pm |
Cheap? I guess you are right, it’s the cost of the land they sit on in California that makes ’em so expensive.
October 14, 2017 at 2:33 pm |
Same reason folks live in mobile homes. I lived in a 9×40 single-wide in Greeley for a spell, and holy shit was that ever cheap for one hippie and two dogs.
Here in the Duke City it’s all fauxdobe, as we used to call it in Fanta Se. You may know it as “stucco.”
October 14, 2017 at 3:57 pm |
I am not a fan of “stick built” homes, although I live in one. My previous one was built of “slump block” which are concrete blocks cast to look similar to brick. But, wood framed homes are more earthquake resistant than block, stone, or brick homes. Something to think about in some parts of Italy. Here in SE Arizona brick or block homes with metal roofs make sense in fire danger areas. But our last fire, like the one in Sonoma, caused evacuations and threatened homes in the town, which hadn’t happened before, because of extreme drought, low humidity, and crazy high winds. Conditions that are more prevalent now that the planet is cooking on high. When the Monument Fire hit here in June, after 90 days without rain, temps were in high 90’s, humidity in single digits (3% one day) with winds gusting to 65 mph.
October 14, 2017 at 3:28 pm |
Brutal job. Wish him well.
October 14, 2017 at 6:05 pm |
I saw the drone video following the postal truck and was dumbstruck by the utter devastation I hope those folks get the help they need.
October 14, 2017 at 6:23 pm |
It’s staggering. The numbers, when they finally get nailed down, are gonna boggle the mind. It’s not just the loss of the high-value homes but the commercial real estate, the vineyards, the less grandiose homes, the tourism, the jobs. …
These folks are going to be looking around, shaking their heads, and mumbling, “Where the hell do we start?”
October 14, 2017 at 7:41 pm |
Especially the invisible people who are probably already running out of money. You know, the ones that pick the grapes and make the wine.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/fires/article178502386.html
October 14, 2017 at 7:53 pm |
To be sure, Pat. Some of those people are already back at work, trying to get the last of the grapes picked and pressed before the taint sets in.
November 11, 2017 at 9:48 pm |
Stock Funds
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