Thanks!

As of today, the Corvallist blog is officially six months old. What started as an experiment has garnered a solid regular readership of 100 people each day, plus about 25 to 50 more per day that wander in due to various Google searches about the town or local news topics. The numbers climb every month.

I had only planned on doing this for six months, figuring I'd be lucky to have 25, maybe 50 readers by that time. Then I planned to close down and vanish back into the woodwork. But the way things are going, I guess I'll actually have to polish up the site and make it a bit more worthy.

Thanks to my fellow Corvallists and other-ists who have bothered to read my ramblings, made comments and sent lovely emails (for the most part).

(The best part? The income from that little advertisement over to the right has earned me BIG BUCKS. We're talking a whole $6.85. That's right, folks... more than $1.10 per month. I might get a crazy idea and run off to Europe, or start thinking retirement, so I'll be yanking that thing from the site entirely in the coming weeks. If Google ever actually sends me a check for that cash, I'm going to frame it.)

We like Mike.

Local presidential candidate Michael Smith is hitting the campaign trail this week, heading to the Deschutes County Fair & Rodeo in Redmond to drum up support and hopefully a little cash. Once again, I think this campaign is a great idea, even if I can't quite convince myself to register as a Republican to help Mr. Smith get onto the Oregon primary. (I figure I'll have to use my vote to help prevent Hillary Clinton from getting the Democratic nomination.) But I support Smith's efforts and would love to see him shake things up a bit.

Whatever your party affiliation, this grass roots campaign has the potential to effect real change in the current political wasteland. He's not one of those Republicans; he's a reasonable moderate with ideas drawn from all over the political spectrum. He brandishes his opinions on the internets, commenting on hot issues while they're still current news. Wouldn't that be a refreshing change from the status quo?

At the very least, helping Mr. Smith get onto the Oregon primary will help restore a moderate voice to a party that has apparently abandoned reason for madness. (No, I'm not sure why I'm quoting Gandalf, except that it fits.) Please consider contributing to Smith's campaign, or at least mention him in conversation to other people. Spread the word. Be part of something politically positive.

Beavers predicted to be mediocre again this fall

This is fair warning, dear readers: I am a mild college football nut. I adore PAC-10 football. However, the Oregon State Beavers are not my top team. Yes, I am a traitor to my alma mater. But I cheer for them anyway, as long as they aren't playing against the team I like better. Since we have no pro football team in Oregon, supporting the local college team is serious business.

The college football predictions have just been released and the news is not good for OSU. The West Coast media have predicted that the Beavers will finish only 7th in the PAC-10 conference standings, right where they finished last season. USC was again chosen as the top pick for 2006, despite the losses of Matt Leinart, Reggie Bush and LenDale White.

Coach Mike Riley is optimistic, but will need to do a lot more than simply find a replacement for star receiver Mike Hass. I guess we should all still be thrilled that we aren't the punchline of the conference anymore! Anyone else miss Jerry Pettibone and his well-loved wishbone offense? Nope. Didn't think so.

Beaver season opens with a home game against Eastern Washington on August 31st. Yay! Football's coming back!

Begging for Blood

The regional chapter of the American Red Cross have put out an urgent plea for blood donors, as local supplies are dwindling to critical levels. If you have O- or A- blood, the need is especially great.

We have no walk-in blood bank in Benton County, but there are a number of blood drives coming up, including one this coming Monday, July 31st, at Salbasgeon Suites on NW 9th Street. A complete list of blood drives taking place in August for Linn, Benton and Lincoln Counties can be found here.

As an added incentive to motivate teenagers to start giving blood, anyone aged 16 to 18 will receive a gift card for free music downloads and will be entered into a drawing to win a free iPod. Plus, everyone gets a cookie (or equivalent tasty treat).

Not everyone gets to be the sort of hero who jumps into a freezing lake to save a toddler, or rushes into a burning building to toss old ladies out the window to safety. But most people can save lives simply by submitting themselves for a modern leeching a few times a year.

On that note, if you haven't already signed up to donate your organs, please take a moment to do so now. You're not gonna need 'em, so don't be stingy.

I promise, this won't become the Birthday Blog

Although a Birthday Blog might be kind of cool.

A good friend of mine turns 34 today. He's one of those hardworking guys in a service job that is pretty thankless overall, but he enjoys what he does and he does it well. If you've ever frequented the 7-11 on Kings Blvd, you've probably seen him. Tall guy, long blond ponytail, and a big, big smile. He knows when to crack jokes with the customers and he knows when they just want to pay and get out the door. He's been managing the store for some time now and works entirely too hard.

Everyone who knows him loves him. People who don't know him personally will listen to a brief description and say, "Oh, THAT guy. Yeah, I know him." He's the only adult I know who will voluntarily and cheerfully wear a Big Gulp costume and stand outside to greet people. You've gotta love that.

Next time you stop by 7-11 for a cup of coffee or a Slurpee during the week, please say Happy Birthday to Shawn. He won't be there today or Thursday, but he's usually there weekdays. Who knows? He might even tell you who I am. ; )

More Burright Bullshit

I really thought I was done writing about this guy, but his supporters are apparently still trying to salvage his campaign by discrediting Diana Simpson, the only remaining candidate for sheriff. I guess they gave up on trying to make Burright look good, so they'll try to make Simpson look worse.

A Gazette-Times article this morning listed a website run by Burright supporters who spoofed the web address for Simpson's official site. Simpson's site is www.simpsonforsheriff.net. The other site is http://www.simpsonforsheriff.org. Isn't that clever? Of course, the big red X drawn over Ms. Simpson's face is a bit of a giveaway.

The spoofed site is completely juvenile. One of Diana Simpson's most heinous crimes seems to be her failure to use her husband's surname. The creator of the spoof site is probably the same guy who wrote a letter to the editor some time ago complaining about "Diana Simpson-Godfrey." However, we will never know, because the owner of the site actually registered the address under Diana Simpson's name. (To be fair, I have registered this website with privacy controls to keep my family and work out of the teensy little spotlight this site brings, but I am not pretending to be someone else.)

One of the most hilarious sections of the spoofed site is the list of people who have endorsed or pledged support to Diana Simpson. The list is supposed to demonstrate the "power conspiracy that exists in Benton County." Several names are highlighted red to show their conspiratorial ties to the local educated elite. The reds all seem to be OSU professors and local K-12 teachers. At least the site administrator went back and fixed the spelling of the "Proffessor" designation he had there earlier.

I think free speech is a wonderful thing. I wholeheartedly support the right of "Tim" to express his dismay over the Diana Simpson campaign. But I'm also going to use my right to free speech to point and laugh at his methods. I'm also going to eagerly await the election results to see how successful this guy is at staging a massive Burright write-in vote. Good luck, Tim.

ARRRGGH!!

I just spent at least an hour writing up a post, only to have it be eaten by Blogger.

*sigh* I'll have to redo it later.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but I've been curled into the fetal position cursing the sun and shaking my fist at the overly optimistic meteorologists who kept promising a cooling trend.

Sometimes, the best thing about Corvallis is not actually Corvallis.

One of the reasons I initially moved to Corvallis was that it had all the benefits of being a small town, without being completely removed from civilization. Driving an hour or two in any given direction will bring you to Portland, forests, mountains or the ocean.

And what an ocean. I've been to stretches of shoreline in nearly every state on both east and west coasts, and I believe the Oregon coastline is simply the prettiest. You have sandy beaches, even dunes, or rocky beaches with tidepools, sandstone cliffs, a few caves, and sometimes the mountains and forest come right down to the sand line. All this, only an hour awayby car through a beautiful stretch of forested road.

So, yesterday, as the mercury climbed past the 100°F mark, the family and I hopped in the car and headed west to Lincoln City and Newport and spots in between. We played on the beach, had some clam chowder, dipped our toes in the water and then killed a few more hours watching Lady in the Water at a movie at a theater that was completely empty, even on opening night. A friend who saw it here in town said it was unbelievably packed with people also trying to escape the heat. The movie let out just in time for us to head back down to the beach and watch the sun go down. We didn't have to shell out for a hotel, though we did notice the prices had inexplicably doubled with the influx of overly warm people (hah). We simply drove the hour back home, arriving just as the house was cooling back down.

Yup. I love living here. It was even fun driving past the weird rednecky shack on Highway 18 that has the giant "REPENT!" sign out front.

Brace yourselves...

The National Weather Service has issued an "excessive heat watch" for our area beginning Thursday and continuing through Sunday morning. It'll be climbing to the high 90s on Thursday, then breaking the century mark both Friday and Saturday, with some estimates suggesting it will reach a blistering 106°F on Saturday.

Ugh.

Drink that water, people. Heat exhaustion and heat stroke are not fun. If you can find an excuse to get out of town, it might be a good time. I may kidnap the rest of the family and head toward the coast, as it will actually be under 70°F in Newport. That's quite a difference!

I Scream, You Scream...

Some guy on NW 10th Street is screaming the loudest.

According to the Crime Watch section of the paper today, he has called police repeatedly to complain that the ice cream man makes too much noise driving by his house. I live in the general vicinity and the ice cream guy in our neighborhood is a 20-year-old kid who rides an ice cream bike. It's not even a van. The music isn't particularly loud, although he does circle through the neighborhood a couple times a day. Why not? It's a neighborhood with lots of eager kids.

As someone who works odd hours and often has to sleep during daylight hours, I know that noise sensitivity can be an issue. But this gentleman called the police three times and actually managed to get the police to write up a noise citation and probably scare this bloke away from his block for good. What a grump.

Amy Stack due to be released early

Nearly two years ago, Robin Jensen, a 17-year-old Corvallis student, lifeguard and all-around high-achiever, was riding her bike home to Lewisburg when she was struck down by a vehicle and left for dead by the side of the road. She died from her injuries later that night.

Three days later, OSU grad student Amy Stack was arrested for her involvement in the hit and run on Miss Jensen. She went home after the accident, ordered a pizza, called her parents the next day and said she had hit someone and begged them to come to Corvallis. Her parents arrived from Oklahoma two days later. They waited an additional day, hired an attorney, and finally called the police.

Circumstantial evidence related to claims that Stack was drunk were not permitted as evidence during the trial, despite the fact that she had previously been convicted of driving under the influence. Because of this, she was charged only with failure to perform the duties of a driver, with a maximum sentence of 36 months.

Amy Stack's parents paid an "expert" $15,000 to testify that the accident was the fault of the victim, saying that she swerved into the car and caused her own death. Even after the judge explained that fault was not an issue, since Stack was being charged for leaving the accident, not causing it, Stack's attorneys never varied from this tactic. Ms. Stack never showed a bit of remorse; she never apologized, never even claimed responsibility. Even after her conviction was handed down, she and her family were only concerned with what would happen to her. They asked that she be permitted to pay a fine and avoid jail time entirely.

The judge sentenced Ms. Stack to two years in prison. However, a mere eight months later, this coming August 1st, Amy Stack will be released from jail. She will need to remain in the area for an additional 90 days, then will basically be free.

I am often accused by some friends of being a typical soft-on-crime liberal. I think "3 strikes" laws are abhorrent, am completely against capital punishment, and think mandatory minimums remove too much discretionary power from the judiciary. But this is absurd. Apparently, Robin Jensen's life was only worth 8 months in a minimum level institution. What a damned shame.

"What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art."

And the genius of Leonardo da Vinci has certainly not passed away.

This weekend Da Vinci Days returns to Corvallis. I love small town festivals anyway, mostly for their kitsch. I've been to the Gilroy Garlic Festival, the Castroville Artichoke Festival, the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival, and have even braved the wilds of Lebanon for their Strawberry Festival. Da Vinci Days is by far my favorite, despite a serious lack of campiness!

Rather than creating an event around food, the festival is dedicated to art, science and technology. The highlight of the event, for me, is the kinetic sculpture race, where human-powered creations must brave road, sand dune, mud bog and river and somehow stay intact. It's a race lasting all three days, but I most enjoy watching the river portion, which will take place Sunday around noon. Maybe that's just a touch of Schadenfreude, since the river often claims more vehicles than the other race segments.

There is lots of great local food, several art displays, a film festival, robotics exhibition, a geocaching contest and lots of live music, including Mumbo Gumbo and Stairway Denied, our local Led Zeppelin tribute band, which is about as good as a tribute band can be. There are great activities for kids: everything from juggling school to teddy bear surgery (!) to the requisite face painting. There's even a Fiesta Latina on Sunday for the Spanish-speaking set.

It's cheap entertainment at $15 for a weekend-long pass and there's way too much to do. Sorry for forgetting to post this yesterday, but the festival goes late tonight and all day tomorrow, so don't miss out!

Charity begins on Garfield Avenue

Years ago, when I was about three months pregnant with the Corvallist kid, I was forced to quit my restaurant job because of morning sickness. I had planned to work at least five months longer, so it was a bit of a shock to the family budget, especially since the artist formerly known as my spouse was also working at the same restaurant and the income level was loooow. I babysat my neighbor's kids for a while and became an expert on stretching a dollar, but that same neighbor told me about a local charity that had been something of a godsend to her family in similar circumstances.

Vina Moses is still my favorite local charity, although I switched over from recipient to donor more than a decade ago. Once a month, any local family can go to the Vina Moses donation center and fill two grocery sacks with virtually anything in the building. I took advantage of this offer only briefly, but it meant saving a ton of money on barely used maternity and baby clothes, most of which were returned a few months later. They also had a few household goods like dishes back then, but now the building has more than doubled in size, and they offer toys, towels, blankets... you name it, they probably have it. They officially don't accept furniture, but people drop things off there anyway. Ever since, we have given them all of our usable used clothing and household goods and stuffed animals and even some furniture and a couple of kiddie bikes. Sure beats watching Goodwill overcharge for items that are given away freely here.

In addition, Vina Moses offers several other services, including a homeless survival kit (sleeping bag, tent, stove, etc.), infant layettes, professional clothing for interviews, school supplies and two new outfits to 800 school kids every year, and holiday food and gift baskets. They have a separate program that provides emergency rent if a family is facing eviction, prescription drug assistance, help with utilities and transportation costs, and more. They do this with extremely low administrative costs and virtually nonexistant fundraising costs.

I donate to United Way through payroll deduction and designate half of that money to Vina Moses (the other half to Community Outreach), but I wanted to bring attention to their annual fundraising sale at the First United Methodist Church on the corner of 11th and Monroe. The sale will be held Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you have some time and are interested in supporting local people in need, this is a fantastic way to help. The items up for sale will include donated antiques, but you can also drop off items to be sold or make a cash donation. The church will be donating food all day, including homemade ice cream. Most items will be half-price on Saturday afternoon.

If you can't make it to the sale, please keep the donation center on Garfield Avenue in mind, especially around the holidays. They help a lot of people with a relatively meager budget, and it's worth supporting the work they do. Besides, the actual Vina Moses was a nifty broad.

Jack Burright withdraws from sheriff race.

He even apologized for his "poor judgment."

I think this was inevitable and am glad it happened several months before the election.

Apparently it IS easy being green.

You just have to fake it.

Highland Professional Center, the new development at the corner of Circle Blvd and Highland Drive, is nearing completion. The site is intended to be a new medical office complex, complete with pharmacy and several medical tenants, but unconfirmed rumors indicate that the original tenants backed out. There's certainly a demand for medical construction here, so someone will inevitably claim the space.

Now that the sidewalks and parking lot are completed, landscaping has begun in earnest. Several young trees were planted around the perimeter of the property today, which was certainly be an improvement over the plain bricks and piles of dirt that were there until recently.

However, later in the day, I noticed that the ground around the trees was an unnatural color. I was wondering what kind of sod the company was using -- certainly nothing native to this area. So I pulled over to inspect the ground cover.

Yep, that's right. The landscapers spray-painted the dirt bluish green. I'm not sure if this is intended as a temporary stopgap measure until grass seed sprouts or to serve as a reminder: "Remember to plant grass here." Maybe they're just being sneaky and don't think anyone will notice.

Sibling Revelry

Sibling Revelry may just be the coolest name for a store. It's a funky little (expensive) store in downtown Corvallis which offers up interesting clothing and accessories, plus an assortment of gifts.

But really, I've got absolutely nothing to say about the store. I just wanted to use the name while I hijack The Corvallist today to wish a happy birthday to my older brother, who actually reads my little blog. Our family has an odd anti-tradition of never actually sending cards on time (except for his wife, who is an awesome card-sending goddess), so I'm cheating a bit... but he's been to Corvallis once, so I figure that counts.

I couldn't get the picture scanned in time for this post, but my favorite picture of the two of us as kids is this picture where we are on a beach (Florida? Puerto Rico?) when I was about 2 and he would've been 10 or 11. He's writing something in the sand with a shell or rock and I'm paying rapt attention, which may or may not have actually been the case, but the snapshot captured something I like.

When I was a bit older, he taught me how to play chess and handicapped himself by removing the queen, a bishop, a rook and a knight from his starting lineup. He would still kick my ass, of course. I can't remember ever actually winning, even with that huge advantage.

When I was in 4th grade and earnestly doing research for my upcoming report on Clara Barton, my brother looked over my shoulder and offered up his own information about Ms. Barton's tragic demise. The encyclopedia we had didn't have any details, but my brother explained that she suffered serious gastrointestinal distress and died in severe pain. I believed every word, until he came to the punchline, which was some variation of "Clara Barton died a-fartin'." I think I was genuinely pissed at the time, but I can't think about it now without cracking up.

Later still, when I was 16 and had recently graduated from high school, I flew to Greece to stay with my brother and his wife for 3 amazing weeks. They gave me a neat tour of relatively non-touristy sites and treated me like an adult, which I definitely was not. But I felt utterly grown up and cool.

He's a true mensch who always seems to know what to say. He delivered the perfect toast at my wedding and the perfect eulogy at our dad's funeral. I love him to pieces and only regret that I don't get to see him very often because he lives 3000 miles away.

He's my favorite libertarian AND he will always be older than me. ; )

Love you, Bro. Happy Birthday!

Clearcutting sucks.

Back in April, Good Samaritan Hospital sold off a 16-acre parcel of land at the corner of Satinwood Drive and Elks Drive that was zoned residential and would've been difficult to develop for anything other than houses. They teamed up with the City of Corvallis and bought a parcel on the other side of the hospital campus in conjunction with a purchase of a neighboring farm for open space. It was a sweet deal for the Corvallis Clinic, who snagged $500,000 of the $17 million simply for signing a quit claim deal on lease interest that they held on a portion of the land.

So now, 50+ houses are going to be crammed into the usable acreage, significantly expanding one of the nicer moderate subdivisions in town. There is no word yet on what size homes or lots will actually be built, or what the selling prices will be, but it seems more and more likely that we will end up with more oversized, cheaply-built houses on tiny lots that will sell for premium cost. Fine, whatever. Go, go rampant capitalism! Never mind that a Corvallis family earning the local average salary can't afford to buy anything better than a manufactured home!

But I find it awful that the first step the developer takes is to clearcut the existing forest, leaving nothing more than a thin barrier of trees along a portion of Satinwood, without leaving any native trees within the development. Isn't this ugly?


How hard would it be to plan the development so that some of the trees could have been preserved within the development? Sure seems to make more sense than building up all the houses, then planting tiny decorative deciduous trees.

River and Blues

The Corvallis festival season will kick off tonight with the Red, White and Blues Riverfront Festival. From 5 to 10:30 tonight and from 10 to 10:30 tomorrow, First Street will be cordoned off for the festivities.

The cost is a mere $5 per day (and free for kids under 12), unless you want to hang around outside the mesh wall, where you can hear some great blues music from bands like the Hammer Smith Band and Jimmy Thackery absolutely free, with no crowds sticking their elbows into whatever elephant ear/corn dog/tofu burrito fair food you might be munching. However, part of the reason you'll go ahead and shell out that $5 is so that you can shell out some more cash and sample Oregon microbrews and yummy wines without worrying about those pesky open container laws. There are also local crafts and activities for the kids, and hey, it's only $5.

Tomorrow night, the evening is capped by the usual Corvallis Jaycees fireworks display* over the river, which I think I'll skip this year. Last year, there was no actual enforcement of the ordinance that says "No shooting mortars and bottle rockets into the crowd" and dodging teen-tossed cherry bombs became old pretty quickly. For a town with a hefty police-to-citizen ratio, it seemed odd that we couldn't wrangle up a cop to handle the morons aiming for the pockets of people.

I think I'll watch from a hill north of town and bring my own wine. But only after I go shell out my 5 bucks to hear Thackery, who played with one of my faves, Muddy Waters. I am not familiar with Thackery, but maybe some Mud rubbed off.

*Ugly web page warning!

Who IS this guy?

This sign was briefly stationed at the corner of 9th St and Circle Blvd near Rite-Aid. Apparently this person occasionally takes his Sharpie to walls as well, usually with commentary about Christmas and Catholic paganism.

Is it a joke? A wee touch of mental illness? A serious plea to Corvallis denizens about the perils we face? I hope I see the author posting one of these signs some morning. It's deliciously weird.