VALLEY NEWS
If you were to drive through the Central Valley of California this week you would perhaps notice dust clouds coming from some of the orchards. It's almond harvest time and they're knocking the nuts out of the trees and then using special machines to sweep them up. Everything is running about two weeks early this year and the harvest is suppose to be bumper...

I suspect that our extremely mild summer has at least something to do with it. We are in the middle of August and the temperatures are only in the mid 80's. We've had just a handful of triple-digit days...

Cheryl and I were in Merced to pick up some Sees' Candy for her birthday and we ate at El Pollo Loco for lunch. While there we noticed a newspaper article about the restaurant chain and it says that they are bringing an El Pollo Loco to Turlock! This is good news! El Pollo Loco is a fast-food chain that started in Mexico -- but the food (mostly chicken or "pollo") doesn't taste "fast."