Idaho Voices

COEUR D’ALENE/SPOKANE COUNTY – The Inland Northwest Blood Center is holding its Holiday Heroes blood drive through Jan. 3. INBC often has fewer donors during the holidays and school vacations. Moreover, there is an increasing need for blood because of accidents in travel and hazardous weather. The combination makes it difficult for blood centers to keep an adequate supply. As an incentive, INBC is offering an opportunity for donors to win a vacation package, along with a travel voucher. Vacation packages include trips to Hawaii; Otter Rock, Ore.; Lake Tahoe, Nev.; Spain; Chandler, Ariz.; Branson, Mo.; and Acapulco, Mexico.

Who would have thought after a record snowy November in both Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, that the first half of December would bring everything from a big thaw via the Pineapple Express, strong winds, thunderstorms with hail, nearly two inches of liquid precipitation, but less than four inches of snow! La Niña hasn’t suddenly disappeared, but the average snowfall for December in Coeur d’Alene is 19.3 inches, while on average Spokane sees 13.7. To have just an average December, and keep those ski resorts happy, mother nature will have to ramp it up for the remainder of the month in the snowfall department. According to the long range models as of Dec. 16, the pattern looks conducive to some snowier weather and for folks seeing a white Christmas across the Inland Northwest. According to statistics, the chances of either Spokane or Coeur d’Alene having at least one inch of snow on the ground on Christmas Day is right around 60 percent.

My son, Seth, is a 31-year-old doctor today, in his first year of neurosurgery residency at the University of Florida. But 26 years ago, he was a kindergartner suffering a crisis of faith in Post Falls. (Spoiler alert: Don’t allow small children star-struck by Santa Claus to read further.) In September 1984, we moved from Lewiston to Post Falls, after I accepted a job as a government reporter in the Coeur d’Alene office of The Spokesman-Review. Sometime that fall, Ben Clark, the precocious son of friends Doug and Sherry Clark, had spilled the beans to Seth. Ben had alleged there was no Santa Claus. The revelation hit Junior hard. He moped around much of the holiday season, challenging Mrs. O and I, whenever we mentioned the Jolly Old Elf. We were wondering how to lift Junior’s spirits when Santa and his reindeer appeared to do the heavy lifting for us. Junior was questioning the existence of St. Nick again when I pointed out the window one evening and said: “Well, if Santa Claus doesn’t exist, who’s that up in the sky?” I still cherish the look on Junior’s face as he saw Santa & Co. flying overhead. Thanks to those old Tidyman’s Santa helicopter flyovers, we gained one more Christmas of cherished memories as Junior again believed. Who knows? Maybe he still does. Why me, Lord?

Today Bill Reid (Jazz) – 1 p.m., Di Luna’s Cafe, 207 Cedar St., Sandpoint, (208) 263-0846.

Just a few years ago, a towering tree bordered by presents awaited Jim and Miranda Tso’s young children on Christmas Day. A construction worker and native of Arizona who moved to Coeur d’Alene in 2002, Jim, 40, lost his job when the housing market crumbled in North Idaho in 2008. With the job loss, the Tso family witnessed a rapid decline in income, spending, finding work and paying the bills.

When the Lake Pend Oreille School District was forced to cut $2.5 million from its budget due to state reductions, officials knew something had to be done to help offset the loss. “That’s about 14 percent of our budget,” said Superintendent Dick Cvitanich.

BOISE – Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, who filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, says Hart confronted him over it during the Dec. 2 organizational session of the Legislature, and Anderson subsequently was punished in his committee assignments, losing the vice-chairmanship of the House State Affairs Committee and being denied a third committee assignment he’d requested. “They made this very personal with me,” Anderson said.

Writing history is not what I innocently thought it was when I undertook the project of writing 100 years of the history of Bayview, Idaho. What I found was that history is what people remember from their own perspective, which can differ greatly from what actually happened, and from person to person, all of whom may have witnessed the same things. First though, before I review what did and didn’t happen during the summer season that I wrote this four-part series, I’d like to correct a few silly errors. Two pioneer gentlemen got their initials reversed. The correct first names are Frederick Blackwell, and Daniel C. Corbin.

The early onset of winter has driven diehard gardeners indoors. Our only connection to the ground at this point is shoveling snow. Just think of it as water for next year’s garden. Now it’s time to tackle some indoor projects. First is cleaning up the tool shed. Most of us tend to just drop the tools back in there haphazardly. They are often still covered with dirt, dull from a season of gardening or just in need of some TLC. The power equipment was probably just parked after the last use.

The fifth-grade student leadership team at West Ridge Elementary in the Post Falls School District is doing their part this holiday season with their Breakfast with Santa Saturday at Applebee’s, 280 W. Hanley Ave. in Coeur d’Alene. From 8 to 10 a.m., West Ridge students will be collecting donations at the breakfast. The money collected will be donated to a local charity not yet decided on by the students.

The Ponderay area just north of Sandpoint this spring will become the home of Big R’s largest store. With the “R” standing for “ranch,” Big R has six stores in Montana and Washington. The 86,000-square-foot former Black Sheep Warehouse and original Kmart store at 477181 U.S. 95 will be Big R’s first store in Idaho. “This is a substantial project for our company,” said Wayne Wike, owner of Big R stores. “We are relying on the teamwork of dozens of people working very hard to stay on schedule for our anticipated opening.”

For 12-12-2010

Community Worship Taize-style – Second Sunday of each month, 8 p.m. at the Fort Ground Chapel on the campus at North Idaho College. Presented by Community United Methodist Church, Coeur d’Alene. (208) 765-8800 Catholic Daughters Court No. 1447 – meets at 7 p.m. the second Monday of the month at the St. Thomas Center, 406 N. 10th St., Coeur d’Alene. (208) 765-9022

Post Falls Historical Society – Board of directors meets the third Monday of each month at 6 p.m. at the school district office, 206 W. Mullan Ave.; (208) 262-6533. Post Falls Kiwanis Club – Meets Thursdays at noon at G.W. Hunters, 615 N. Spokane St. For information, e-mail egille0843@aol.com.

Swing Magazine was a relatively short-lived but popular national magazine which was published during the early to mid-1990s and included the tag line “Life In Your Twenties” under the masthead on the cover. It was one of the very first publications geared heavily toward “Generation X,” a group of people who had begun to graduate from college and was just starting to make enough money to consider where they wanted to establish a career and settle down.

Temperatures plunged to near 10 below zero across the Inland Northwest on Nov. 23. If you think that’s cold, the mercury plunged to an unbelievable 68 below zero in Siberia in late November as well. It was so cold that exposed skin would freeze almost instantly. In fact, one person took warm water and threw it up in the air in Siberia and the water evaporated in seconds. Winter has not officially begun, so don’t be surprised to see more days with temperatures below zero in our region. The best chances are during the full moon near Dec. 21 and Jan. 19.

 Sammy is a high-energy dog who loves to play. He is very active and would prefer a home with people just as active. He may be too energetic for smaller children but would do well in a home with older, respectful children. Sammy does not get along with cats.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Coeur d’Alene Nursery is celebrating its golden anniversary this year and during the half-century it’s been in business, the men and women who work there have grown and shipped 715 million trees. That’s enough to cover 2,500 square miles, more than enough to blanket the entire state of Delaware in green. That’s not to say that trees are the nursery’s only product or that those products are shipped to the East Coast. The facility, on the Rathdrum Prairie and now surrounded by Coeur d’Alene, also grows native grasses, shrubs, forbs and harvests seeds from cones – actually, any herbaceous materials that grow in Western forests.