Main Street: Harvest

The grape harvest is underway, so drive carefully – you’ll be sharing the roads with trucks, tractors and harvesters, busy traveling from one dirt driveway to another. The harvest always seems to me to be an extraordinary time. When you ponder it, the bounty that comes from soil, water and sun is sort of miraculous. Grapes are the marquee crop around here, but the abundance of fruit, vegetables and flowers is gratifying and humbling.
I can’t imagine being a farmer. My life and work have plenty of uncertainty, but I’m not dependent on whether the sun shines or the rain falls! The optimism, the faith, the hard work and the belief in the unknowable … my hat’s off to anyone with that kind of grit. Let’s enjoy our tomatoes, our apples, and even our wine, knowing that someone bet on the future and won.
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If you’ve stopped by the Downtown Plaza lately, you’ve seen a modest monument rising from a corner near Center Street. In a few days, a piece of steel from the World Trade Center will be mounted on that concrete pillar, ready in time for a dedication ceremony on September 11 at 6 o’clock in the evening.
The monument has been built by a coalition of local volunteers from the building trades. The group contains all the usual suspects, with family names like Arreguin, Domenichelli, Eddinger, and Madarus. Students and staff from Healdsburg High were involved in the design of the monument as well, but nothing would have happened without the dedication of Ben Gilliam, who arranged for the artifact to be shipped here and approached a cooperative city government and a group of volunteers.
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Healdsburger Kurt Hahn was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention. Kurt reported to Kiwanis this week that he was especially impressed by the speech given by Condoleeza Rice, and that he stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning every night he was at the convention.
Kurt also said he gave an interview to a Sacramento TV station, and made sure that he talked so fast that he couldn’t be interrupted or edited. I always thought I was just too slow to get a word in sideways when Kurt spoke. Now I learn that he has cultivated this technique!
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My sweetie and I have traveled more than usual this year. We visited family in Ohio, attended a wedding in Seattle, and played a little bit in San Francisco, Mendocino and Stinson Beach. I know I’m going to sound like an old grouch, but I’m convinced that the worst drivers are on Highway 101 in Sonoma County.
There’s no such thing anymore as a designated passing lane. Cars pass you on the right or left, they zoom in and out of lanes with no signals, and they tailgate you while talking on the phone. Driving the speed limit is unheard of, and you can get the finger for doing so, even in the so-called slow lane.
I’m sure that the never-ending construction on 101 has everyone feeling late and anxious, and I know that even with the extra lanes the freeway is probably beyond a sensible capacity, but I guess I think those are reasons to be more careful, not to act like idiots.
Ray Holley likes to drive slowly in the fast lane with his turn signal on. He can be reached at ra*******@gm***.com.