Dispatch from Gilroy, CA, April 8, 2010: Phone rang early this
Thursday morning. Daughter Shannon’s water broke and she’s heading
to the hospital with her husband Steve. It’s Grandpa Day, and while
hot-footing it to work on this beautiful April morning I remembered
the Player of the Week in the Atascadero News. Dad was sports
editor way back then and the kind Porter family, owners of the
hometown newspaper, actually enjoyed the
”
birth announcement
”
I cooked up for the space normally reserved for a high school
athlete each week …
Dispatch from Gilroy, CA, April 8, 2010: Phone rang early this Thursday morning. Daughter Shannon’s water broke and she’s heading to the hospital with her husband Steve. It’s Grandpa Day, and while hot-footing it to work on this beautiful April morning I remembered the Player of the Week in the Atascadero News. Dad was sports editor way back then and the kind Porter family, owners of the hometown newspaper, actually enjoyed the “birth announcement” I cooked up for the space normally reserved for a high school athlete each week …
Often in life, the yin and the yang coincide … and so it is now. My uncle, Father Dan, St. Mary’s pastor, is recovering from surgery at Saint Louise Hospital to remove a cancerous tumor in his colon. Thursday morning he was remarkably chipper and sitting up ready to devour some magazines. That was good to see. He came through the surgery well, and he surely appreciates the abundant prayers and good wishes being sent his way.
A little sunshine always helps one recover, as does a little gardening. That’s a lesson I learned from my mother, who loved her roses, and my grandparents who tended the garden from vegetables to hedges. So, help the recovery or help yourself recover by marking down two earthy sales. The Rotary Club’s much anticipated flower sale at Goldsmith’s/Syngenta Seeds will be on Saturday, April 24, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 2280 Hecker Pass Highway. The Saturday before, April 17 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., there’s the annual plant sale hosted by South Valley Fleurs Garden Club in the parking lot at Booksmart, 80 East 2nd St., Morgan Hill. Unbelievably vibrant flowers at the Rotary sale, heirloom tomatoes, assorted vegetables, herbs, perky perennials, fragrant flowers and splendid succulents at the Fleurs sale. both for good causes …
Building a community garden, brick by brick, is a good cause, too. That’s the laudable goal for this year’s Leadership Gilroy class. The Demonstration Garden will be built in conjunction with the Arts Alliance at the corner of 7th and Eigleberry on the Arts Center property. Namesake bricks will be sold for $100 to fund the project. Forms are available from the always-effervescent “K-for” Konni at First Street Coffee.
Employees at City Hall will get to enjoy their coffee on what has been termed “Power Fridays” aka “Putt Putt Fridays” … no power for the people on those days. The doors will be shut so City Hall employees can get their work done. Pardon me, but how can Mayor Al Pinheiro and Council members Dion Bracco, Cat Tucker and Peter Arellano vote for such a cuckoo concept? Where does the disconnect between business owner and mayor, for example, take place exactly? The mayor has said many times in public that his insurance business has really taken a significant hit in the last few years and that he has had to reduce staff. So, is MayorAl closing the doors and shutting down the phones every other Friday so the people in the office can get their work done? That’s no way to run a business, and it’s no way to run a city. What it represents is pandering to a group, and that’s no way to improve morale or build an organization over the long term.
Long term I really hope Patty Gutierrez, wife of fallen soldier and true hero David Gutierrez, will heal and find happiness in Gilroy. She and her three sons are moving here very soon aided by the wonderful assistance of Real Estate Agent extraordinaire Patty Filice. The family will be close to their beloved husband and father who lays in rest at Gavilan Hills …
Patty will be pleased at the efforts being made by young Gilroyan Samantha Nussbaumer and her fellow students in Rho Alpha Mu, the Gavilan College Chapter of Alpha Gamma Sigma Honor Society. Beginning this week, they will be collecting paperback books to send to our U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. “There are a lot of us in the community who have paperbacks laying around the house, and I can’t think of a better way to re-gift them,” she wrote. “We are all really excited about this book drive and are hoping the whole community will get involved in something that directly helps our troops with their morale during these trying times.” Magazines and books can be dropped at Chili’s Restaurant or Gavilan College’s Library. We’re sure Garlic City Books downtown and First Street Coffee would be happy to collect if contacted, too.
In contact with the streets always is the fast walking wonder woman, Lynda Trelut. She reports the housing sector of the economy is starting to re-ignite. Why, because she’s spotting nails on the streets again while circling the city on her lengthy walking tours. It’s a sure sign, and if you don’t get a flat tire in the next few weeks you know who to thank for gathering up the nails … “Scoop” Trelut …
Scoopy too … kind-hearted local artist JoAnne Perez Robinson, soon to be appearing on Dancing With the Stars (just kidding, JoMama), has her beautiful work on display this month at Sarah’s Vineyard out on Hecker Pass Highway. If you have not been to Sarah’s recently, go for the art show, the bocce ball in the back, the picnic possibilities and the wine. It’s a gorgeous place to hang out very close to home – especially on a warm spring day surrounded by green foothills.
Green, as in dollars, is what the Gilroy Sister Cities Dinner and Auction is for this Saturday. It’s the one and only fund-raising effort a year for the Sister Cities Association. Good dinner, good cause, great hosts at the Portuguese Hall. Call MayorAl for tickets at 842-4619 or find Dave Peoples, Erwin Boggs, Kai or Libby Lai. No host bar at 6 p.m., Italian feast at 7 – only $40 for a ticket.
