Community

Pull out a dollar bill and take a good look at it. We all know what it can buy. But what is the paper bill actually worth? It probably cost a few cents to make, but while it’s not very useful on its own, we value the dollar because we all agree that it has value.

Halloween is just around the corner, and besides deciding what you or the kids will dress up as this year, it’s time to take in any plants you plan to overwinter in the house.

It’s the nastiest fruit on the planet, and my mom loved to make cookies out of it.

“The earth is made of butterfly wings, dinosaur teeth, pumpkin seeds, lizard skins and fallen leaves. Put your hands in the soil and touch yesterday; and all that will be left of tomorrow shall return so that new life can celebrate this day.”

“Chronic underfunding is slowly starving California state parks.”

Catching white sea bass in Monterey Bay has been a great bet lately and may continue through the next full moon. Meanwhile, the red tide has established itself along the southern beaches of Santa Cruz, and water watchers wonder why it occurs.

Elise Claire Garrahan was born to Paige Budrow (Hutchins) and Patrick Allen Garrahan of Boulder Creek at 9:23 a.m. Oct. 5, 2010, at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center in Santa Cruz. She weighed 8 pounds, 4 ounces.

OK, I’ll admit it. Much as I love being outdoors, and nice as the weather has been, I’ve already started the transition to one important part of my winter routine: hanging out around the TV on Sunday and Monday nights. It’s football. I’d intended to resist until the weather changed, but then the 49ers were on the Monday night broadcast a few weeks back, and that was it.

In the past couple of years, it seems as if the political pundits and media have done a good job of alerting us to the ballooning federal budget deficits, with little focus on our collective retirement deficit — the shortfall of our present savings to meet our future retirement income requirements.