The public is invited to a celebration of the beginning of excavation of the tunnel at Devil’s Slide on Monday, Sept 17 at 10am. The event will be at the south portal site.

Following the public remarks, excavators will be used to begin digging the tunnel. Confirmed speakers are Tom Lantos, US Representative; Richard Gordon San Mateo County Supervisor; Caltrans Director, Will Kempton.

Shuttles will run from parking lot to event site from 8:30 to 9:45am and following the event. Parking for the public is at Gray Whale Cove and space is limited. Please carpool if possible. The event is being held at an active construction site. Please dress appropriately.

A community hosted celebration will follow at HMB Brewing Company

Year by year, guitarist Roni Ben-Hur has been building an increasingly stellar reputation for himself since he first migrated from his native Israel to New York City, back in 1985. A passionate leader, player, composer-arranger, published author and respected educator, Roni now stands as one of the elite players in modern jazz. His new album "Keepin’ It Open" was #6 in the radio charts and he recently sold out two shows at Dizzy’s and Coca Cola.  He was one of the stars of the 2007 Stanford Jazz Workshop. He is joined by Ronnie Mathews, piano; Ray Drummond, bass; and Akira Tana, drums.

You could easily list the very solid Roni Ben-Hur among jazz’s elite guitarists." - Nick Bewsey, Primetime. 

"Roni Ben-Hur plays bebop and its related genres, as well as sambas and bossas, with consummate élan, always delivering deeply musical performances to greet the ears." - Zan Stewart,The Newark Star Ledger.  "

A superior straight-ahead guitarist who can swing as hard as anyone . ."- Scott Yanow, All Music Guide. 

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$30.  Tickets at the door.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission.

All kids bathed, stories read, in bed by 8:30.

Up at 5:30, shower and dressed by 6:00

Breakfast of pancakes with warm syrup, sausages and fresh squeezed orange juice served with lecture on "a good breakfast fuels your brain".  Play Mozart for kids to kick-start the day.

Make lunch.  Food pyramid balanced lunch including mini-sandwiches cut into hearts, homemade lemonade, and napkins folded into delightful origami animals. Veggie florets with little bag of hugs and kisses treat and haiku note:

Your first day of school
Playing with friends, learning new things
Love you to the Moon

Dress kids in finest, Lolo in sweet back-to-school dress, matching leotards and barrettes, with shiny patent leather Mary Janes. Matching darling swing coat with backpack filled with new school supplies.

Walk Lolo to kindergarten with dog, arriving early for play time before class and chat with Moms.  Hang out for coffee with other parents after the bell rings, resume dog walk for extra exercise.

Up at 6:00, shower and dressed by 6:30

Breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and bacon with milk served with lecture on "eat quickly or we’ll be late for playtime".  Listen to NPR, drink coffee and discuss story with older kids.

Pack lunches of hot soup, and one large heart sandwich. Toss in carrots with ranch dip and fruit cup with spoon.  Add Sponge Bob napkin left over from summer birthday party, with mini Hallmark card for kids: "Have a fun day".

Dress Lolo in smart chinos, layered tops for comfort and playground friendly sneakers.  Can’t find barrettes but opt for oh-so-cute pigtails with matching rubber bands in favorite colors. Grab backpack, remove rocks, and sand. Replace broken pencils.

Walk Lolo to kindergarten, arriving just in time for line-up.  Head home to eat breakfast remnants from kids, telling self it’s good to recycle.

Up at 7:00, Fall asleep in shower wake to ice water—dressed by 7:45.

Breakfast of cereal with milk and banana served while reading aloud "a full day of recommended vitamins" from box to salve Mom’s guilt. Pop in Disney sing-along video with sound off.

Lunch of apple, square sandwich with crust hacked off, and fruit roll-ups—hey it’s fruit isn’t it?—torn paper towel for napkin. Toss in post-it note: "Luv ya, Mom".

Dress Lolo in jeans and comfy tee shirt.  Spend 10 minutes looking for any shoes that match, settle on Hello Kitty rainboots to cries of "But it’s NOT RAINING, Mom." Comb hair, put lunch in backpack. Note to self: remove all rocks and sand "later".

Drive Lolo one block to school, circling parking lot 17 times looking for parking place. Carry child to class dropping her at the door just as the late bell rings.  Take nap in parking lot.

Up at 7:30, look at shower ... sigh.  Wash drool from corners of mouth, pull on sweats and flip-flops.

Breakfast of cereal with water. Remind kids to go easy on the milk so we have some for breakfast. Turn on "My Gym Partner’s A Monkey".  Justify actions, as "you can’t protect them forever."

Pack one of those delicious Lunchables that the kids love so much - pre-cooked hot dogs with peanut butter and jelly.  Add ketchup packet for vegetable.  Scrawl, "Mommy loves you" in sharpie inside lunchbox lid. This takes care of lunch notes for rest of year.

Dress Lolo in jeans (from yesterday), mismatched socks and sandals—the only shoes I can find. Spit on bangs and pull back from face, leave lunch sitting on the kitchen table.

Drive Lolo one block to school parking in fire zone and avoiding glares from Moms dressed in suits who arrived early.  Explain that "getting to school late" is an appropriate expression of self-confidence and that rules were created by the bourgeois to oppress the proletariat.

Return to car, bang head on steering wheel. Return home to the comfort of Judge Judy.

Wonder if Slim Jims and Coke constitute a reasonable breakfast. Add gummi bears for fruit. Scream "Hurry Up!" over the blare of cartoon network’s "Two Stupid Dogs" (don’t ask). Remind kids that there are children who can’t afford Slim-Jims, so quit complaining.

Dole out lunch money

Explain to Lolo that wearing pajamas and slippers to school is the latest craze. Cut bangs out of eyes with toenail clippers.

Drive Lolo one block to school parking directly in the playground, which is now empty since the kids are in class.  Push Lolo towards the classroom while speeding off before anyone can get my license number.

Return home and eye beer in fridge. It’s happy hour somewhere, right?

There has been a moratorium on new connections to the Montara Water and Sanitary District Water supply since 1975. Those building new homes since then have had to dig their own wells on their own property to get access to water.  The problem is that everyone—including MWSD—is drawing water from the same aquifer.

Julia Scott of the County Times interviewed one family whose well is running dry. They want to move, but they can’t get water and can’t sell their house.

"We’re just stuck," Gary said. "We have this incredible burden on us that we can’t get rid of. They tell me that even if the house was condemned, they wouldn’t give us a hookup. One more hookup wouldn’t tax the system that much more."
...
"Our concern is that we’re all drilling in and getting water from the same area. It’s like straws in a big milkshake: We suck out water, and they suck out water — it seems to us that there’s going to be a diminished resource," [MWSD General Manager George] Irving said.
...
The unincorporated Midcoast is one of the fastest-growing areas of San Mateo County. A master plan for the area, approved in draft form by the Board of Supervisors in October 2006, allows for the construction of 7,153 new homes in the next 30 years — roughly doubling the current population.

MWSD gets all its water from local wells. El Granada and Half Moon Bay get their water from the County Coastside Water District, where you can get a water hookup (if you have tens of thousands of dollars) because they’re buying their water from the SF Public Utilities Commission, which gets its water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir [Wikipedia] at Yosemite.

Well, summer break has finally drawn to a close and I get my life back (a little). With the school year brings new classes, new clothes—and a new principal at Farallone View. Catherine Werdel is the new principal, replacing Suzanne Michelony (who in turn, replaced Mike Bachicha the year before).

Want to get a head start on getting to know Catherine? Click your preferred video format for a three-minute introduction.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Reproduced with permission of Montara Fog.  Our daughter, who had Catherine Werdel for social studies at Cunha, describes her as "awesome".

Meet Catherine Werdel [3 min]| Quicktime | Flash  |

Coastside Lutheran Church is holding their annual book sale over the Labor Day weekend. They’ll be out in the church parking lot from 9am to 3:30pm for the next three days.

I was able to pick up a number of books, including a reviewer’s copy of Words that Work for a buck, in a transaction that didn’t result in any royalties for Dr. Luntz.

By Erin Tormey, organizer of the Coastside Farmer’s Market. In Half Moon Bay, the market is at Shoreline Station (at Kelly and Highway 1), Saturdays, 9am to 1pm

If this morning is any indication, then it may just be the weather folks are right, and the Coastside is in for a glorious set of bright, bright sunshiney days coming up. Here’s hoping that you are sticking around to enjoy it.  Lots of folks I know are heading to Burning Man for a hygiene holiday and I say Happy Trails.  Some of the usual suspects are heading out for a last summer blast in the hills, and I hope they find peace. But if I had my druthers,  I would stick around and revel in the just plain insane beauty of it all, sleep in, noodle around in my jammies watching the day unfold and have pie for breakfast at least one morning of this lovely long weekend ahead.

Peach pie. Uh huh.  Or perhaps a raspberry - peach crisp.  Oh, yes.

After a nice piece of pie, you can imagine doing anything.  Even cleaning your garage.  Your garage, I said, not mine.  Mine is beyond recall these days, full as it is with canning jars, box springs and my great grandmothers washing machine. I think it’s because every time I make a pie, everyone else eats it, and there is none left for breakfast, so I lose my nerve, and just put the box of my nephew’s cast-off ski gear down in some forsaken corner, shut the door on the whole thing and head for the beach with a bodice-buster.

But some people simply have a deeper strength of character when it comes to these kinds of endeavors, and if you are one of those folks, I have a tip, and a request, for you.  On the off chance you are contemplating cleaning out your garage this weekend or any time soon, consider this -