My New Year’s resolution should be telling myself that it’s okay to publish a story without a picture attached. I can’t tell you how many things I would see happening last year on my daily drive, but I wouldn’t write about them because I couldn’t stop to take a picture. And by the time I did finally get a chance to photograph it, it was too late. Or it just slipped out of my mind, and I never got the picture, and I never wrote the story. Everybody loses!
So here are a couple of things I’m making myself write about, even though I didn’t get a picture.
* I left town for a few days, and when I came back part of the signal at Stephanie Way and Hwy 395 was installed. It’s just one pole and two signal heads, but it’s more than when I left. Woo hoo!
Of course, it came too late for one family. And it wouldn’t be needed if NDoT would just build a couple of overpasses and turn 395 into a controlled-access freeway like it should be.
* The new Suzuki dealership is open on South Carson Street, next to Kragen’s. Right now it’s just an empty dirt lot, but this year they’re supposed to build a five-story showroom on that tiny lot. The land has sat empty for years and years, ever since they demolished Tequila Dan’s restaurant.
Also, they’ve got Smart Cars on the lot! Vroom vroom!
*The Oasis trailer park next to the Albertson’s in south Carson is being demolished. The land was sold last year to a retail developer, and soon the site will be home to a strip mall and office space. But first the mobile homes had to be moved out. Many of them were moved, but a few were stripped of their valuables and left behind to be crushed by the heavy equipment. The trees were the next to go, and as of today the only thing left on the site is the two-story permanent structure that housed the park office. It’ll probably come down this week. There’s been controversy about these mobile home parks, like the Oasis and the one that was next to Bodine’s restaurant. On the one hand, they’re huge eyesores right on the main street through town. But on the other hand, they’re the only option left for affordable housing if you want to live in the Eagle Valley. Many people who work in Carson City can’t afford to live here except in a low-rent apartment or trailer park, and with the parks being sold and demolished there are even fewer available spots.
* It’s the 10th anniversary of the Big Flood of ’97, and while I remember it vividly, it occurs to me that probably a good portion of you weren’t around back then. You don’t realize how many bridges there are in the Carson Valley until all of them simultaneously close, and you end up stuck on one side or the other of the river.
* Don’t check your mail today. The Post Office is closed due to a national day of mourning for President Ford.
* We’ve had a drier-than-usual winter so far, but once again reports of a big storm are trickling in, supposedly hitting us on Thursday. Will we finally get some snow on the ground this time? Or will it pass us by once again? Either way, it looks like we’ll get more wind for sure.
* Sorry for all the junk you’ve been seeing on the site the last few days. I guess that’s the downside of building a site from scratch; you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself when the thing gets spammed.
