As I watch her doing housework, playing the piano, laughing with her great grandchildren and taking walks, I am reminded of how four years ago my father called to tell me that my mother was in the Ojai Valley Community Hospital. I cannot recall ever hearing his voice sound so broken and sad. At first I could not even understand what he was saying - something about, "If only I had fixed the hallway carpet."

Our Seeds: come to the film, stay for the seed swap
Saturday, February 27, 4:30pm, Ojai Theatre
Join the Green Coalition at the theatre for a movie on Seeds, generously sponsored by Nutiva. All are welcome, $10 suggested donation. For more info call 805-669-8445.

Morning Walk Up the Horn Creek Canyon trail behind Thacher school ...

Testing of the Casitas Dam Warning System will be discontinued, effective immediately. The system was most recently tested on January 13, 2010, when only two of the eleven units reported a successful test. System performance has been degraded by age, lack of maintenance, theft and vandalism.

Download a PDF flyer, and get the agenda for tonight's Municipal Advisory Council meeting on our MAC page...

While a shopping component remains, it's been pushed to the back, and the merchandise has been reduced to cookbooks and a few gourmet food items. A nice comfy bright orange sofa set adjacent to the bookshelves creates a cozy living room vibe (as if you are dining in someone's home). The restaurant seating - rattan chairs and a combination of clothed or tile mosaic tables surrounded by slate gray banquets - feels modern and minimalist, almost hip. The crowd was the well-dressed hippie set, buzzing with lively intellectual conversations.

I say that to preface what comes next.

Last year my friend Mark turned me on to Friend’s Ranch, a citrus-growing concern in Ojai, Calif., that ships oranges and avocados from Decemberish through sometime in June. At first, I’d just cop a little fruit from Mark every now and again. Then we went Dutch on a few boxes. Soon I was buying my own stash. Every tangerine, every orange, every piece of fruit was a revelation: robustly aromatic, gushingly fresh, each one a discovery.

Thanks for the Warm Welcome!

As the Ojai Valley Station’s newest sergeant, I want to first extend my thanks for the warm welcome that I’ve received from the great people living and working in the valley. It’s been a pleasure meeting many of you in person and through our email-based City Watch program.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence. Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.

She's a friend, a good speaker, and a good answerer of questions, so I encourage the curious and the concerned of Ojai to come out and join us at Theater 150's excellent space for presentation and talkback.

Here are the details, as reported by the Star:

OJAI — Theater 150 will host journalist Nomi Morris at 7 p.m. Monday for a presentation and discussion entitled “Haiti: Where It Has Been, Where It Is Heading.”

Morris, a former Middle East bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers, and a former Berlin correspondent for Time magazine, reported from Haiti after the Clinton-era intervention of the mid-1990s.

Now a resident of Ojai, she writes and speaks on current affairs, focusing on the issues behind the news headlines. Her talk will put the Haiti earthquake disaster in the context of the country’s history and decades of international aid efforts.

For details on the address, etc., please see below: