A nice wake
The enormous crowd at the wake held Saturday afternoon for Norm Vroman in Hopland was a who's who of Mendocino County politics, law enforcement, the justice system and other movers and shakers. And for all that, it was a moving and fun event, one at which speeches were sincere, sometimes hilarious and no one was there on any agenda but to honor and remember Norm. After all the speakers were done, former Sheriff Tony Craver helped pass out little drams of Irish whiskey (Bushmills, I think) and everyone toasted Norm before getting down to the party portion of the evening. Craver, by the way, had the best speech, I thought. Written in the voice of Norm himself, the short and funny speech caught Norm's attitude and speech patterns and really made you think he'd somehow communicated it to Tony from the great beyond.
Our (new) sports editor Tony Adame is already leaving us, heading back to familiar territory in Kansas. We don't know yet who will replace him, and yours truly will undoubtedly be doing some of the sports pages in the coming weeks so bear with me.
The second edition of Day & Night, our new entertainment and activities section aimed primarily at young people in town will be out soon and looks to be just as well-written and fun-filled as the first. Ben Brown provides another detailed biking tour, Katie Mintz goes bowling and James Arens checks out local pizza. Richard Rosier, our features editor and creator of the section writes about bocce and a pre-teen fiddler, while photographer Isaac Eckel provides stellar art on both covers. Look for it around town, but they go fast.
I will be heading East on Tuesday for a week of family time but I will try to keep in touch while there. I am frankly not looking forward to flying. I am one of those people who tries to pack light and keep my luggage to carry-on but I know I'll have to check bags this time, ugh. Also, flights are so crowded these days six hours shoulder to shoulder (I am inevitably seated in the middle of a three-seat row ) is torture.
Ah well. I usually take JetBlue, which I love for coast to coast trips - yes I CAN watch the Food Channel and HGTV for six hours at a stretch - but this time I am on Delta going and American returning so I'm not sure what to expect.