Wednesday, May 11, 2011 — Making progress in the book room

There have been a host of gregarious events over the last half week. The Noyo Sunrise group of Soroptimists held a racous western mystery dinner Saturday night. A truly delightful bit of home spun drama. Between scenes raffle sales and awarding took place with all sorts of donated items being won by some. Our table actually did very well. Everything from books about tatooing to free tickets for car washing to a gift basket with assorted wine, mustards, sauces and other goodies which I won, were awarded to our table alone. Lots of laughs over the mystery play and definitely lots of kibitzing. A good time was had by all and funds that will go to scholarships for deserving young men and women were accumulated.

We played boule at the harbor Sunday. Because the city of Fort Bragg has donated space for boule courts at the Star Aquatic Center in the middle of town, it is getting to be a question of whether to play in town or down at the harbor on Thursdays and Sundays. I'm sure it will all work itself out eventually, but right now strong opinions tug people in several directions. For this coming Sunday, most will gather with us at the Wollenberg garden to play and eat at the Taurus party beginning at 2:30. This is an annual event and is always fun. But someone just told me today that its possible we can expect rain. I say NO! We'll see. The porch has more roof now so at least we can eat out of the rain. Can't play boule on the porch though so we'll see who the tough guys are. Actually, I am putting all my energy into wishing for no rain and I think that's what will happen.

Pacific Textile Arts had its board meeting Monday night and the future plans for our two new buildings was discussed. There are so many possibilities for classes and meetings to be considered. We hope to apply for the non-profit property tax exemption that is often awarded to educational entities. When we last tried for this exemption the city and county gave us the green light but the state weighed in with a big NO. They said we didn't serve enough of the community at that time. That was almost thirteen years ago. Now we have been teaching children to weave for three years, mounting textile art exhibitions for four years and using the headquarters building for meetings of civic groups. In the "old" days I think it would have been a slam dunk to get it now, but we all know how desperate the state is for money. Hard to believe our little property tax money could make any kind of a difference to the state and it certainly would make a huge difference to us since we operate so frugally. We will definitely have to give it a try once again. Wish us luck.

We're hoping to use the new library building for the silent auction during the upcoming rummage sale fundraiser for Pacific Textile Arts scheduled for Saturday, June 11. The bake sale with coffee can also take refuge there out of the sun. The new Baltic birch floors which we placed in both buildings are looking wonderful but they need many coats of finish before the rooms can be used. I'm trying to put one coat on the book room floor each day for six days. Then the reading room will get the same treatment. I think we can have it done in time for the silent auction. The large classroom will take a little longer. It measures 960 square feet. That's a lot of painting. I discovered during the crack and hole filling phase of the flooring that my knees simply couldn't do a repeat of what they had done when we worked on the little house using the same floor material. This time, after three days my knees were bruised and painful even though I was using knee pads and pillows to protect them. So I knew I couldn't repeat that act for applying the water based finish. I am rolling it on with a long pole and using a brush put into a special clamp that connects to a suitable pole. It still takes time, but it's working. Just put the fifth coat on this afternoon. One more tomorrow and we go on to the reading room section of the smaller building. Pretty exciting.

I just returned from my swim and am writing this in the family room watching a wonderful Nova program about Stone Henge and the theories that abound regarding how it and nearby stone formations were brought about. Lots of fascinating ideas.

Guess what's on now. The very educational Save the Bay program we've all become familiar with. Good for KQED for showing it again. I might be a little biased. Chuck is one of the talking heads for this production which is so well done. I learn something new each time I watch it. What an amazing movement this program relates. The environmental movement owes a great deal to the three strong women who issued the first call to arms that brought this movement into being and changed attitudes of the millions of Bay Area residents. Just looking at the treatment plants that are being shown at this moment brings back memories of what the bay used to smell like in my early years of living in the area. They are showing the tremendous improvements that have taken place in this amazing bay, delta, estuary and wetlands. They're showing the areal view of the salt beds and the restoration ithat is taking place. Gorgeous shore birds on screen now. It actually makes one hopeful. Bay trails are illustrated now and the future for their growth and extension is very exciting to one who grew up in this beautiful area. I'm so happy living on the Mendocino coast now, but looking at these scenes definitely tugs at my heart and I'm happy to be only a few hours from this beautiful bay.