Christmas Eve in the Village

I skipped a blog day on Christmas in favor of spending time with my guy and rediscovering the joy of making homemade bread (no machine).  But we did get out in the evening before and enjoyed the low tide at the end of the day, as did a few families who’d made their way to the area to have a different holiday.  Many of the usual visitors did not make their way through the coast range and Oceanside was a bit of a ghost village.  Even the US Mail wasn’t getting through.

What-do-i-know?

Not too much.  But here’s what I’ve gathered since crawling out of my hole:

• Joan Cutuly’s book is doing nicely in sales, yippee!
• The Oceanside Water District (OWD) plant shut down water production during intense rainstorms last week ue to high turbidity levels (too much material agitated and mixed in with cleaner water).  Our Water Master Al Tuckey has worked heroically to keep the aging facility producing clean, safe drinking water.  At the most recent meeting of the OWD board, we agreed it was time to start planning beyond maintaining the plant and bring some professional engineering advice in before the plant gives up the ghost.
• You heard it here first! Scoop!  Neighbor Kay Wooldridge will be the featured artist at Bay City Arts Center (BCAC) in January.  Can’t wait to see her new work she’ll put together for the showing.
• Still waiting to see an empty day on the beach. People are enjoying Oceanside late into fall, and favorite accommodations seem to have perpetual “no vacancy” signs up.  Major boogie board action abounds, but most of the board surfers headed to Pacific City or Bar View.  Sunday was warm shirt-sleeve weather.  Nice.
• At the Schooner, Rachel is gaining a reputation as a gourmet Thai chef.  Call ahead to find out which night is “Thai Night”.

Book Party! at Bay City Arts Center

Mark your calendar for Sunday afternoon October 26, 2008

If well-intended authorship were rain, the skies would darken with the scores who wanted to, meant to, started to write a book, and abandoned the effort in favor of gentler pursuits. Writing a book is a great deal of work to say the least, and oft times requires a support group to get through it.  The solitude, peace and rugged beauty of our special headland and surrounding bays and beaches doesn’t hurt either.  In our area, I feel privileged to know two authors who have made such miracles since I moved to the area in 2004.  One of them is Joan Cutuly.

Joan Cutuly, Netarts resident poet and author, has finished her book “Prisoner or Second Grade” and the Bay City Arts Center (BCAC) is throwing a literary party.  Literally.  On Sunday October 26 from 3 to 5 p.m. the author will be on hand for signing, readings, refreshment and community cheer.

You can get details along with an abstract of the book plus Joan’s own word on why she wrote the book on the BCAC web site.

See you there!

P.S. This affords me the opportunity to share one of my favorite author’s crusty and succinct quotations for the occasion.

“Public Education took twelve years of my life.  I want them back.” – Richard Brautigan