Operators Are Standing By To Hear From You

Ah, the dog days of summer. When the City Council takes a break, when the School Board slows way down, when government basically takes a vacation with the rest of the population. In other words, when reporters go through conniption fits trying to find stories for their readers to read.

They are out there, those stories. They are lurking in corners, in garages, in stores and restaurants… they are hiding in the shadows of parking lots and coffee shops, in open spaces and medical offices. They are on the street, on the sidewalks, in the bike lanes. Parks and picnic areas have them. They are taunting me from various rooftops and hillsides. Boats lobbing lazily at the marina tease with me hidden tales, and there are stories to be told from the trails of the ridges.

But unlike the city council stories, unlike the police logs and the school board decisions and the various government agencies that meet from time to time, the summer stories require more conversation between reader and writer. In other words, I am asking you, dear reader, to let me know what’s going on in your world, so I can share it with the rest of the world (at least the world as defined by our city limits).

Your life is not interesting enough to share, you say? Pshaw, I reply. Of course it is. Our lives are all vats of interesting gumbo, a delicious mix of the common and the unique. What is annoying you in your neighborhood? What moving tale of kindness and generosity have you heard lately? Who is getting deployed, or coming home, from a military assignment? Where are you going for vacation this year? Not going on a vacation? Why not? How has this giant mess in Washington affected your life? What do you think about the new supervisorial districts? How about those Giants?

Patch is my job, but it’s your space. The point, the purpose of this publication, is to mirror life in this fair city, warts and roses and all. And yes, I love writing stories about all of it. But I would love for you to become more active in the conversation as well. Weigh in with comments on the stories you see. Sign up to be a blogger. Send me an email (jim.caroompas@patch.com) and let me know what you’d like to see more, or less of on the pages of Martinez Patch. And by all means, go to the Martinez Patch Facebook page and, if you haven’t yet, like the page.

WEATHER:

Sunny. Highs in the lower 90s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming west 10 to 20 mph in the afternoon.

EVENTS:

Friday:

-- GarageLand Duo at 4:30 to 6 p.m.; 8 p.m.

– So What?

: ToniLee Baker, acoustic, 7 p.m.

Saturday:

–

Sunday:

TODAY IN HISTORY (from Wikipedia):

1957 - The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.

1958 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs into law the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

1976 - In New York City, David Berkowitz (aka the "Son of Sam") kills one person and seriously wounds another in the first of a series of attacks.

1981 - A worldwide television audience of over 700 million people watch the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul's Cathedral in London.

2005 - Astronomers announce their discovery of the dwarf planet Eris.