To me that is about the perfect, fall Honey Lake Valley weather. Each morning gets a little colder and when you wake up you can smell wood smoke from fireplaces around the valley. Love this place.

The SusanvilleStuff Crash – or How We Spent Our Birthday Week

I started writing column number four on Sunday evening. It had been an event-filled weekend with fun stuff like Farmers Market, the car show and the Symphony performance and I was all ready to start out SusanvilleStuff’s birthday week with lots of cool birthday related things.

That’s right! As of September 21st our SusanvilleStuff website has been around for 19 years, and we have all sorts of neat stuff planned as we head into our twentieth year, but those plans would get delayed a little by technical difficulties.

Every morning at about 5:00, I habitually reach for my cell phone and check to see if SusanvilleStuff is online, WebXtra has launched and stories are beginning to post, then I go for my morning walk. So, at 5:00 on Monday I refreshed the site and got the dreaded white screen… SusanvilleStuff was unreachable. And thus, my week began.

Now in the world of Jeremy and Marshel the website is of paramount importance. It is, after all, what we do every single day of our lives, some days around the clock. When there is no website, it is like having the power go out. We are at a loss.

We try and use our SusanvilleStuff social media connectors like Facebook and Twitter as best we can to keep everybody informed but it isn’t the same as the website, which reaches everybody at the same time.

We try to maintain consistency. And when we don’t have that it feels very strange.

Because we have a big fancy Virtual Private Server for SusanvilleStuff we rely on techs at our hosting company to fix stuff when things go awry beyond my ability to repair them. The process is slow, requires a lot of phone conversations with support people and basically, I stay up till all hours working with people in other places around the world to fix the server.

On the first day of an outage Marshel and I pace around the house, sometimes working on the stuff we can do without a website. By day two we have done everything we can do without a website, so I pace around the office. On Tuesday I put 1.2 miles on my step counter during one extended tech support session, just pacing around the office while I was on the phone. lol

Poor Mrs. Couso.

Day three is chaos. I am done. I want to yell at tech support people, I don’t leave the house, I just want my website back. I’m sure this is some stage of grief. This is also the point where I begin wondering if those three backups I have, but never have had to use, are thorough enough.

And then suddenly it all comes back. Magically! Some smart server tech, whose name I will never know, fixed it, the backups all worked, everything is in place, all is right with the world again. Thank goodness. I’m too old for technological stress.

Other things

Thank you to the Susanville Symphony for letting me be a part of a great show last Saturday. It is exceedingly kind of the Symphony performers who have played at the concert for decades to make room for the eclectic group of musicians brought into the mix for this show.

Bear warning! Fall means bears!

It’s weird, I had lived here for 45 years before I ever saw a bear in town. Now we get them coming down out of the woods in the fall to forage in trash cans and wander around town.

Because, to a bear, an apartment complex dumpster is basically Golden Corral buffet.

Raccoons are the same way. I didn’t even know racoons lived around here until I was in my 40s and one night, I saw eight of them at a storm drain. Now they seem common.

By the golf course and out on Gold Run Road, the zoological center of Lassen County, there are bears and mountain lions, all manner of scary beast. This is the time of year I avoid morning walks at the Bizz or Ranch Park because I just know there is a mountain lion watching me who thinks I look tasty and slow.

A Car Show in the Park  

Ken Bailey stopped me, nay, accosted me, in the park and made me take this photo of his car. Which is a beautiful car.

Have you guys been to this car show, the High Country Cruise? It is the biggest car show in town every year, with about three times the number of cars in the Main Cruise, but it kind of goes unnoticed locally, which is really a shame.

Every year it brings in a whole lot of out-of-the-area folks who cruise into town with their classic cars and hang out with all of our local car folks.

Normally held at the fairgrounds, this year it was held at Memorial Park, and we will have a photo gallery from the event here on SusanvilleStuff next week.

Staying Home for the Winter

I know several of the snowbirds, who normally head down to the warmer parts of the country for the winter, are staying here this year. Welcome back! Here’s to a nice, mild winter with lots of snow up in the mountains.

New Mural

There is a new mural at the Susanville Grocery Outlet on Main Street. For you old-timers, that is where Safeway used to be. I don’t know who the artist is but bravo to the store for brightening up the midtown area and promoting Susanville.

photo courtesy Thomas Herrera

New Event Alert

Next weekend Mrs. Midgley is throwing a huge party at the fairgrounds. It will be a two-day Oktoberfest celebration and there is a whole schedule of fun activities for both adults and kids. There is live music on both days and Oktoberfest themed contests.

Sounds like a worthy addition to the Lassen County annual events calendar. The fair’s website has more information.

Have a wonderful weekend everybody! See you next week!

“E621 was notified that all occupants were out of the building and the fire was in apartment 11. Fire Crews made entry and found the fire had been extinguished.”

According to McFarland’s report, a resident had extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher and the fire was contained to the oven inside the residence.

“Due to the quick action of the resident, the fire was stopped from spreading to the rest of the apartment and building. The cause of the fire was an oven being left on and unattended when power was restored.”

There were no firefighter or civilian injuries. The Susanville Fire Department was supported by Cal Fire, California Correctional Center Fire Department, City of Susanville Natural Gas, LMUD and Susanville Police Department.

“The Susanville Fire Department would like to take this time to remind everyone to not leave cooking appliances unattended and to keep combustible materials away from appliances that conduct heat.”

A screen capture from surveillance video at Taco Bell – photo provided by SPD

Once the Manager came to the front counter, the suspect reportedly told the Manager to, “Give me all your money”. Staff complied with the robber, who also took the Manager’s cell phone before fleeing the business.

The suspect is described by police as a white male adult, approximately 5’8, 170-180 pounds. The suspect was wearing blue jeans, dark-colored zip-up style jacket and a white-in-color face gator.

The suspect’s clothing was further described as being “Dirty”. No weapon was observed by the employees.

No one was hurt during the incident which is being further investigated by officers. Video surveillance from the business and other area businesses is being obtained to aid in the investigation. The department is waiting for better quality video from Taco Bell.

If anyone has information on the incident, you are asked to contact the Susanville Police Department at 1.530.257.5603 and ask for Officer Ortiz.

Lassen County Sheriff Dean Growdon, Susanville Police Chief Ryan Cochran

and Modoc County Sheriff William Dowdy placing wreaths at last year’s ceremony.

Lassen Family Services Annual Wreath Dedication Set for October 7th

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and Lassen Family Services, the sole provider of abuse focused prevention, intervention treatment and victim support services in Lassen County, will hold a special wreath laying ceremony on the morning of October 7th to honor the memory of Deputy Larry Griffith, Officer Robert McElrath, Deputy Jack Hopkins and all law enforcement personnel who put their lives on the line to protect victims of crime and their commitment to ending domestic violence in our community.

Again this year the annual ceremony will be held at the Lassen County Sheriff’s Office on Sheriff Cady Lane beginning at 10:00a.m., and the public is welcome to attend.

The Honor Guard will present the colors and refreshments will be served following the ceremony.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

According to Lassen Family Services 40% of California women will experience physical intimate partner violence in their lifetime. In 2012 LFS provided services to 1 out of 48 residents in Lassen County, over 208 of those helped were victims of domestic violence.

Several events are held by the organization during the month of October including the annual Dancing for a Brand New Me fundraiser. Purple ribbons were displayed at local businesses and community agencies to commemorate, acknowledge and bring awareness to the problem of domestic violence.

Lassen Family Services is a private, non-profit organization founded in 1979 and relying completely on federal, state, and foundation grants and public donations to provide a lengthy list of free services to the community; domestic violence and sexual assault rape crisis counseling/intervention, emergency shelter and transitional housing, 24-Hour Crisis Line, sexual assault response team, Court Appointed Special Advocates program, Child Abuse Treatment program, legal assistance/court advocacy, parent education, prevention education, law enforcement and hospital accompaniment, emergency food and clothing, emergency and non-emergency transportation and community referrals.

US Navy Reserve Civilian Pilot Training Program at the Susanville airport January 8th, 1943

Reserve Pilots Start Training

September 23, 1942

Twenty army air force reserve pilots began training Friday at the Lassen Junior College in an eight week course. Twenty-five naval reserve pilots joined the army fliers this week and there’s a possibility that an additional ten army fliers may be assigned here from Santa Rosa Junior College according to Ralph Lloyd, coordinator of the civilian pilot training program. Lloyd was appointed to replace N.H. McCollom who will leave for the army in the near future.

Making up the first complement of twenty army fliers are ten men recruited locally and ten assigned here for training from the Salinas Junior College. Training of students from coast schools has been necessitated by western defense command ruling against flying in the combat zone.

The local junior college provides housing and sustenance for the fliers besides the ground school training. Flight training is goven in conjunction with the Jaysee by Flint, 1035 Lander street for the Susanville municipal airport.

Recruited by the Lassen Junior College are fliers from Westwood, Susanville, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, Chico and Salinas