We talked about our street, the incredibly unique Shasta Way, our non-county maintained road, which is no longer a road with the winter rains, but is more a stream, a creek bed, and some very deep holes. We will re-pave, but there is still the question of how to deal with all the water and silt that come streaming down our hill. We discuss various approaches, and may soon have a somewhat legitimate road of our own design.
We also discuss the novelty of having power this year. In the past, when the wind blew, which it often does in Tam Valley, the power immediately went out. I point out that we have had power since the year we didn't have power for five days, and a furious Peter Coyote went on the television news and demanded to know how people who lived ten minutes from a major city like San Francisco could not have power for five days. I was okay with it. I walked every day. I couldn't use my computer, and I lost everything in my refrigerator, but it was a peaceful time. It was somewhat like now. Now, though, we are in the modern world, even though when people come down our little street, they think they have entered a time-warp, and, in some ways, they have. Many of elders of our street built their homes with their own hands after the war, World War II. They raised their children here, and grew vegetables, and lived a long, long time. Now, though, they are dying, and though, in some places, houses change hands, on this end of Tam Valley, the children hold on, and everything seems to stay the same. We like it that way.
When the big money people representing our great national park Muir Woods came in with proposals for sidewalks and streetlights, we pointed out we like it this way. They think we are nuts, but light pollution is a real issue in Tam Valley. When our neighbors wanted to build a home with sky-lights, it was turned down because of light pollution. I am grateful for that. I like to see the moon and the stars. I like the dark.