Whew. So much has gone down since we last spoke! It’s been a whirlwind week of crazy heat and wildfire smoke and tectonic jolts in the night… and I don’t know about y’all, but these harsh, high-summer vibes have me feeling a little off-kilter. I even woke up with a weird/woozy midseason fever this morning! So I hope that today’s lovingly compiled list of all the sweet things happening in Healdsburg over the coming week can serve as a soothing balm, both for me and for you. It’s filled with treats like:

First though, some congrats are due to the Healdsburg Prune Packers — our century-old adult baseball team, named after the top local crop in the early 1900s, before we were a wine town. These days, the Packers play in the seven-team Pacific Empire League, one of California’s three summertime leagues for college-level players who want to stay sharp in the off-season. (There’s been plenty of fun sports drama/politics involved in the divvying up of those leagues, BTW, if you want to take a deeper dive…)

But anyway, if you heard a giant victory roar coming from Rec Park at University and Piper streets on Friday night, that’s because the Packers just won their league title for the sixth year in a row. With a championship game score of 9-1, in air still thick with smoke from that scary fire on the Sonoma coast, no less! In the words of Press Democrat sports reporter Gus Morris: “The dynasty is alive and well in Healdsburg.” 🤘

OK, I’ll leave you with this parting cheer from our mayor, Chris Herrod, who was in the sardine-packed stands of Rec that night: “Thanks for another magical summer of games enjoyed with friends and neighbors in historic Rec Park!! This team works so hard for every win, as does the whole Prune Packer organization. Thanks to all the City staff, sponsors, volunteers, interns and host families that help make it happen. And finally, thanks to Dick Bugarski, ‘the voice of Healdsburg’ who always sets the vibe!”

Oh and before you keep scrolling, a quick PSA: In the name of community togetherness, keep passing this newsletter around to other locals, so they too can subscribe. Cause when a tree falls in THIS forest, I want everyone (and their mother) to hear about it. 🍃

Summer is summering, hard. Our grassy hills are bone-dry and khaki-colored, in a state of full resignation to the elements, while the rest of the local plant kingdom white-knuckles it and we humans either take shelter in our air-conditioned caves or haul our friends and families out to the nearest body of water — river, lake or sea — to survive these relentless, full-sun days in the 90s.

And right at the height of our gnarly heat wave, the season’s first two major fires within a 50-mile radius of Healdsburg gave us a real spook this past week. The first was the 152-acre Woodside Fire at Salt Point State Park, along the coast due west of us. That one broke out Thursday afternoon and was spreading quite speedily for a bit, but Cal Fire managed to get a hold of it overnight, and stop it from hopping Highway 1 and heading east. Still, the smoke that blew through Sonoma County from Woodside on Thursday and Friday was freaking brutal. It made for some bonkers air-quality levels — “the worst in the world,” according to NBC’s Bay Area station — and activated our communal “post-traumatic smoke disorder” around here, as Healdsburg Tribune editor Christian Kallen coined it. Many a local event was canceled, and the stage was set for a series of creepy-beautiful burnt-orange sunsets… hauntingly reminiscent of wildfire seasons past.

Once the smoke had cleared Saturday, we barely had time for a nice, deep inhale before the 872-acre Feliz Fire up near Hopland in Mendocino County sent another stream of sky gunk our way. It was freaky, but we were fine, and firefighters again corralled the fire before it did too much damage. Indeed — what really struck me this time is how adept our fire agencies have become at wrangling these blazes, after being infused in recent years with tons more money, equipment, crew members, experience, wisdom, strategy, etc. It seems to me that the outcome of the Woodside and Feliz fires might have looked way darker, say, five years back. And these same props go to our very own Healdsburg Fire Department and Northern Sonoma County Fire District, of course. (The chief of the latter, local fire celebrity Marshall Turbeville, was the incident commander for Woodside, and the face of its public dispatches. He’s turned into such a star…)

We were also rattled by a couple of no-joke earthquakes over the past week: a 4.3 last Tuesday evening and a 3.8 in the wee hours on Saturday, both around 12 miles north of Healdsburg. I was bartending at the 145-year-old Dry Creek General Store & Bar during the first one, and if you’ve ever been inside that place, you can imagine how all the old ag artifacts on the walls and ceiling might have creaked and rattled and groaned and thrashed about, threatening to crash down on our heads. (Good news: They didn’t fall.) Locals are sharing lots more spooky earthquake stories in the “What’s Happening Healdsburg” Facebook group, here and here, if you wanna join the lore-fest.

But that’s quite enough disaster chat for today! Without further ado, here’s your local weather forecast for the week ahead, courtesy of the National Weather Service. ’Nother hot one…