My, my, look at the thyme!  Here it is already the fist week that the lil’ darlins head back to school.  I have yet to get used to the notion that school begins before Labor Day weekend. This dates me, I know, but there it is.

Back to School time always reminds me of Pop & Gump, my two grandads.  Pop was a coppersmith, Gump was an educator.  We spent our summers on Gump’s ranch out in hinterlands of the California Oregon border, and lots of fall and spring weekends out at Pop’s Shack in the wilds of Pescadero.  They were both remarkable gardeners and serious eaters and hilariously funny.  Plus, they were both awfully smart, and figured out ways to get the grandkids to do the awful job of slug-slaying or snail squashing with perverse glee so the two of them could concentrate on the finer points of cultivation from the shade of the satsuma trees. 

We had a little garden, big ol’ apple trees and a teensy vineyard at Gump’s Ranch; he made truly awful wine but great vinegars, and grew lots of lettuces and tomatoes so we always had really tasty summer salads. He grew all kinds of weird things that no one ever heard of 40 odd years ago, but are all the rage now, cippolini onions, lemon cucumbers, jerusalem artichokes, white eggplants. Blackberries grew all up and down the creek that ran by the house, and when we were done with our chores in the garden, we’d spend the hot afternoons in bouts of berry-picking and river romping until it was hard to tell if it was the cold, cold water or the dark sweet berries that turned our lips and fingers blue.

On Saturday August 29th, The Visionary Edge will screen Return of Navajo Boy. The event will be co-hosted by and presented at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay.

An official Sundance Film Festival selection, The Return of Navajo Boy, chronicles an extraordinary chain of events, beginning with the appearance of a 1950s film reel, which lead to the return of a long lost brother to his Navajo family.

Living for more than six decades in Monument Valley, Utah, the Cly family has an extraordinary history in pictures. Since the1930’s, family members have appeared as unidentified subjects in countless photographs and films shot in Monument Valley including various postcards, Hollywood Westerns and a rare home-movie by legendary director John Ford. But it is the sudden appearance of a rarely seen vintage film that affects their lives the most.

In 1997 a white man identifying himself as Bill Kennedy from Chicago showed up in Monument Valley with a silent film called Navajo Boy which he says his late father produced in the 1950s. Seeking to understand his father’s work on the Navajo Reservation, Kennedy returns the film to the people in it. When Cly family matriarch, Elsie Mae Cly Begay, watches the film she is amused to see herself as a young girl and delights in identifying other members of her family. Elsie recognizes her late mother in the old film as well as her infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white missionaries in the 1950s and never heard from again.

Friday is the deadline for getting your CFMC medical records

If you were a patient at Coastside Family Medical Center, you need to send your request form to the trustee (fax or email) by Friday, August 28.

After sending in your form, you will need to pick up your records at the old CFMC site Sept 8 & 9 from 1 to 8pm.

Misplaced your request form? You can download the form and instructions from Coastsider.

There’s more information on this situation in an article at the County Times.

NOTE: This is largely the Coastal Commission’s press release, and is not an objective account.

In a well-known suit by two Malibu property owners’ suit against the California Coastal Commission, a judge has ruled in favor of the commission on all counts [pdf of ruling]. The action by Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin today granted the commission’s request for summary judgment, ruling that the issues raised in the case did not warrant further review. The ruling exonerates the agency, as well as two Commission employees named in the suit. 

This is the case that inspired Richard Oshen’s as-yet-unreleased documentary entitled "Sins of Commission."

The case involved illegal roads, grading and tree removal on property owned by Dan Norris and Peggy Gilder. Because the property is located in the coastal zone, these activities required coastal development permit. A site visit in October, 2005, was authorized by a court order. After verifying illegal development on site, the Commission issued a "Notice of Violation" on the property and told the owners to apply for a permit. The owners refused, and sued the Commission. Last year, a superior court upheld the Commission’s action and threw out five of their 8 claims. Today’s action eliminated all remaining claims. 

The results from Half Moon Bay City Council elections going back to 1999 give some insight into this year’s race. All names and counts are from County Elections.

This is the largest field in that period, following an uncontested election in 2007. 

Naomi Patridge is the only incumbent running, but Deborah Ruddock was elected in 1999. In every election except 1996, less than 100 votes separated the winner with the lowest vote count from the next-highest candidate. In 2005, the winning margin was only 15 votes. Every vote will count in 2009, and this election will be very difficult to call.

Darin Boville’s full-length video of Jackie Speier’s health care town hall is now online.

U.S. House Representative Jackie Speier held a "town hall" meeting outdoors at the Farallone View Elementary School in Montara this past Sunday. The event was originally scheduled for the 150-person Cypress Meadows and then moved to the larger auditorium at Farallone View before finally being positioned on the large playground area at the school. About 800 people attended.

Although it was reported that conservative radio shows were encouraging agitators to attend and disrupt the meeting, apparently only a few showed up, and those tended to cluster at the rear of the crowd. The crowd, overwhelmingly in support of some form of major health care reform (judging by the stickers worm, sign displayed, and questions asked) was respectful but intensely engaged.

The video of the meeting is a little over and hour and a half long offers and excellent overview of the proposed reforms

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Supervisor Rich Gordon’s next office hours will be Friday, August 28 at 10:30am to noon at the Sheriff’s Moss Beach Substation.