Mom and PUC update

I may not write much tonight but here is a recap.

Mom and Dad are fine in the new normal reality that Mom is essentially totally gone from reality. Her reality exist primarily with her friend in the bathroom mirror and that is just about it. Dad has had to change the door locks on the house to keyed locks on the inside so she does not let herself out of the house at night and wander off. I was up at the house Friday and the three of us went to the Lake County Social Services center to register and start the process of social worker visits, evaluation and eventual placement in some sort of assisted care center.

Dad called and said that Bill and Jan were intending to stop by on their way back to the Sacramento airport. I know last time Bill stopped by he was distressed to see the shape his sister was/is in. I have never known Bill very well but I suspect he is hurting on the inside in his quieter way and I feel for him. The changes in Mom can be a shock to the system if you only see her every few months or years. Her inability to relate to anything in "real" life is frustrating to me and sometimes I think to her since she can get very petty and crabby and cross and confused and accuses those that care for her of not doing even the littlest things to meet her needs. But of course you just did those things and she has no memory. Tough.

Here at PUC I can not speak for anyone but myself on the proposals that PUC has made regarding development. I have written several supportive letters to the paper and have been flamed and blasted in a couple responses on the Register website. But I still think two things, one PUC has the right to develop as long as it complies with county regulation and two, the same people complaining about PUC putting in some houses never complained as several hundred acres of forest have been cleared on Howell Mountain for vineyards. Clear cutting for vines is merely "agricultural conversion" while cutting one tree for housing is raping the land. This confuses me.

Regarding the names involved, I do not know all of them. I have met Adam Pease, he is a high level computer programer from New England who made some money in Silicon Valley and moved to Angwin. He and I have shared emails and perspectives regarding the PUC article on Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Union_College, his passion seems very focused and narrow and seems to reflect NIMBY and "I got mine, never mind about you."

The alumni letter that I got, I just read and tossed and considered a very poor attempt at PR by PUC. I do receive calls from Alumni at the Enrollment Office from time to time and they all tend to be negative but often turn neutral when they learn more about the project and acknowledge they had incomplete or faulty information. I have spoken with Kelli Anderson several times and she commented, "Craig, in another time I think you and I could have been friends." And I think she is right. Regarding the project proposals, I hate to see the open space in front of the college get filled with houses, rebuilding a new, better designed shopping plaza seems good and adding some apartments and small homes nearby seems good. Redeveloping the old Farm and dairy area seems reasonable and redeveloping Mobile Manor, where I live, seems like a splendid idea. Placing twelve homes on forty acre parcels behind the airport does not seem excessive either since all the hills and trails beyond that are preserved and there should not end up being a new Crestmont type development.

To me, change happens, and yes, as an employee I can see all the financial stresses inside the institution that need to be addressed, from improved dorms to adequate computer networks, it takes money to run this place and tuition is not enough to cover the needs.

I check the letters and responses on the Napa Register every day for the latest remarks from the community. Right now the formal letters seem balanced between save Angwin and supportive of PUC. And yes, most of the supportive letters are from people affiliated with the college in some way, past or present. But the interesting stuff is usually in the responses posted on the website, that is where the give and take and thrashing and trashing takes place. A response was made in there that was removed quickly by the editor after I was called out by name as a patsy of the college who could not balance my own check book.

Enough for now, I will stay in touch. Oh, one more thing, my fathers brother "Wilber" passed away in San Bernardino. He had several strokes and such and was already quite blind from diabetes. Dad is going down this coming Friday to Southern California for a memorial and I am staying with Mom for three days. It should be interesting.

Craig
On Feb 25, 2007, at 5:18 PM, GMCOPLE wrote:

Hi Craig,

I came very close to stopping by to see your parents yesterday and would have except the weather wasn't that great. My wife and I had gone up to Fort Bragg to see Bill and Jan. I knew that they had done quite a bit of work to the "old place" and I wanted to check it out. The weather on Friday was beautiful. We were going to stay a couple of days but something came up that we had to be back by this morning so we just stayed overnight.

I started out toward Lake County by going to Willits from Fort Bragg (not my normal method) but once I hit 101, I kept going south (the weather wasn't terrible but it wasn't good). And, I didn't even know if they were home (I was going to just continue to go on into Pope Valley and up over the hill...I always go through Napa Valley when going to/from Mendocino anyway). But I didn't go through Lake County.

So how are they? I am going to call this week. Bill may stop by tomorrow on their way back to Montana. And, yes, I think his stopping is a good thing.

Also, I am getting bombarded from every angle by the SaveRuralAngwin crowd...letters to the editor, I went up to a Foothills meeting and it seems like "everyone" is opposed that I know up there (other than people associated with PUC). Some of the people who write the letters...who are they? And who is this guy Steven Booska who wrote to all the alumnus? And who wrote the lead article on the SRA website (Adam Pease?)?

Anyway, keep me posted...I still have an open mind but the people I see sure don't! And give me a quick update on your Mom.

Jerry Cople