Conejo Post

Conejo Valley News, Opinion, and Community

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Serving the Communities of
Thousand Oaks • Agoura Hills • Oak Park • Westlake Village • Newbury Park • Lake Sherwood

Oh Say Can You See?

dsc017551Have you every been driving along and seen something that made you say, “Gosh, that would make a good picture?”  That is just what happened to me around 4:15 this afternoon, as I was on Canwood Street, leaving the Agoura Hills Post Office.  I looked across the 101 Freeway and saw our flag rippling in the wind and the sun caught it in such a way that it looked like it was glowing against the dark hill.  It was an amazing sight!  I turned around and took this photo to share.

Post and photo by Janna Orkney

February 8th, 2010 · Agoura Hills, Conejo Valley, Meditations

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Blogging Can be a Jungle Out There

Clint’s comment of a few days ago, in regard to email comments posted at the www.VCStar.com website, gave me a nudge to also make a comment about them.  Since I take the print version of the Ventura County Star, I have not paid much attention to the online version, except to go to some of their blogs, like “Brian Dennert Here,” and Ninety Five Percent Accurate*,” by Timm Herdt, that is, till recently.

When I have wanted to see if a story is breaking online, ahead of the print version, I have started checking VCStar.com, and have found some stories I was interested in.  I also noticed that they list the number of comments a story has gotten, and so, being curious, I have checked out those too.  The website even has email comments to Letters to the Editor.

I have been shocked about how viscious some of the comments are!  It seems like some folks are taking the ability to post anonymous comments as a green light to say anything!  And why back up opinions or statements with facts?  When commenting about people, including political candidates, posting an anonymous email is a really easy way to commit character assassination.  It really feels wrong to me! 

I believe that internet commenters to a newspaper should have to use their own name, just like in a Letter to the Editor.  Please, let’s have some veracity standards for what is printed. That is why at the www.ConejoPost.com, we moderate all comments before they are posted.  We welcome lighthearted comments, but, especially for critical comments, we require that they be backed up with facts, reported events, or documented with a newspaper article (but not an online newspaper comment…).

Posted by Janna Orkney

February 8th, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Media, Ventura County

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Frosty Roofs and Blue Sky

dsc01750Sunny and clear and cold…that is how it was early this morning (2-8).  I took this photo of my neighbor’s usually black colored roof at 7:30 this morning, looking east.  The roof  had a layer of frost, that looks rather gray in ths photo.  Anyway, I guess we are getting a sun break until the showers start sometime on Tuesday.

Yesterday (2-7), I drove down PCH to Santa Monica.  It was the clearest I can ever remember, with the Palos Verde Penninsula looking so close, like one of the Channel Islands.  I also found the ocean amazing at Topanga Beach.  Close to shore, the water was brown, and then a few hundred yards out, it abruptly changed color to a teal blue.  It was like there was a barrier between the two colors, the change was so marked.  I assume the brown color came from storm drains emptying into the ocean with a lot of dirt in the storm runoff.

Wow…what a graphic representation of the affect of storm water on the ocean and other waterways.

Post and photo by Janna Orkney

February 8th, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Green, Meditations, Outdoors, Water Issues

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Shopping the Weekend Before Valentine’s Day

With it raining early this afternoon, I headed for the Oaks Mall to stroll and window shop where it was dry.  Once there, I decided to stop by See’s for one piece (honest!) of candy, and of course, then get a free one, because that is See’s wonderful policy of giving you a free piece of candy when you buy something.

Wow!  I got to the store, and it was jammed with people!  There must have been six or eight folks in line to choose the individual candies, another three or four to buy prepackaged boxes and bags, a four preteen boys talking together, it looked like over what to buy.  And, the man being served at the counter was filling a box piece by piece!

Then, I realized…it is the weekend before Valentine’s Day.  Not the ideal time to drop by See’s for one (plus the free one) piece of candy.  I disappointedly left the store, candyless.

One other thought from being at the mall earlier this week…lots of luck looking for plastic boots to actually keep your feet dry during a rain, at the mall.  I found nothing.  So, now I have black polka-dotted plastic boots from target…not only will my feet be dry, but I will be making some kind of fashion statement when I wear them.   (I am just not sure what kind of fashion statement…)

Posted by Janna Orkney

February 6th, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Meditations, Thousand Oaks

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Where is the new Walgreen’s?

Econerd said in a comment yesterday that there now was a Walgreen’s in Newbury Park, she thought at the old Home Depot location.  I also have heard that the store is on Borchard.

Does anyone know?  Anyone want to make a store report?

Posted by Janna Orkney

February 5th, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Development, Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks

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Critical Letter in The Star Today Misquotes Me

I am complimented that Ron Stark had to misquote my letter to The Star of 1-31, in order to send in a letter to the editor that was critical of me.  Let’s get the facts.

In my letter that The Star, I supported Supervisor Linda Parks in her bid for re-election.  Here is a link to the letter:  http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/30/ob11strickland31/ 

As you can read, I said, “For years, it was Linda who kept pushng for Triunfo to go to an all-elected, at-large board, when no one else on the board supported it.”  That is true.  Ron Stark left the “at-large” out of his letter.  Electing at-large, or by the whole district, is a huge and necessary element for the new Triunfo elections, I believe.  Mr. Stark supported doing an election by district, which would have been very unwieldy and I think unworkable, because of the makeup of Triunfo.  The district consists of 40% of the ratepayers living in  Thousand Oaks (Westlake Village area and North Ranch), 40%  in Oak Park, 10% in Lake Sherwood, and 10% in Bell Canyon.  How would you divide these areas up into five districts?   Put Lake Sherwood and Bell Canyon together, even though they are at opposite ends of the district?

Secondly, in the letter, I wrote that I recalled the previous Supervisor only attending the Oak Park MAC meeting once.  That is my recollection, and if it is in error, and he attended MAC meetings more often,  I apologize. 

Finally, Mr. Stark said he was paraphrasing my praise of Linda Parks, where I said that, “you can get a measure of a person or an elected official by seeing what they do on a job that is not high profile.”  What he did was actually quote the letter partly, and then add a whole new phrase.

Hmmm…I wonder if this person is looking to run for one of the four Triunfo board that are seats up for election this year.  Sure sounds like politicking to me! 

Posted by Janna Orkney

February 4th, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Elections, Lake Sherwood, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Triuinfo Sanitation District

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Park and Place the Cones

dsc01749Here is a photo of a parked SUV I noticed this afternoon.  Notice the red plastic cones in the street, to the front and back of the vehicle.  My initial thought was that the driver was placing the cones in the street to protect his SUV.  Then I realized that it is parked on a street that is not busy and on a side of a street with no other parked vehicles.

I am puzzled!

Post and photo by Janna Orkney

February 3rd, 2010 · Conejo Valley, Meditations

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Thousand Oaksians?

Have you ever wondered what to call yourself as a resident of your Conejo Valley city or community?

Well, I got to wondering that, as I sent out an email to folks who live in my community of Oak Park.  I came up with Oak Parkians, Oak Partinos, and Oak Parkistas, all which sound pretty ridiculous!

Maybe in the city name department, it pays to live in a big city  Los Angeles, because Los Angelino sounds great.  And, how about New Yorker, or Chicagoan, or Bostonian?

Or, have the city you live in end with the letter “a.”  Then, you could be called something like Venturan, or Santa Barbaran (hmmm, maybe that sounds too much like barbarian!). 

Try it yourself.  First with and “er” ending.  Here we go:  Westlake Villager -  which sounds great, and Agoura Hillser, Newbury Parker,  Oak Parker, Calabasaser, Thousand Oakser, and Lake Sherwooder - all of which don’t sound so great. 

Let’s think of some of the other common word endings to city names to denote a resident.  They are “an” or “ian,” and “ite,” and they don’t work so well for most cities and communities in the Conejo.  Maybe most of us will just have to be known as “resident of  such-and-such” (fill in the blank for your city of community), however, if you can come up with a suggestion on what we could be called, please share it with Conejo Post readers…

Posted by Janna Orkney

February 3rd, 2010 · Agoura Hills, Conejo Valley, Lake Sherwood, Las Virgenes, Meditations, Newbury Park, Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village

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No Partridge in these Pear Trees

Econerd, who posts comments frequently at the Conejo Post, sent in a comment to “What’s Blooming in the Conejo.”  I am posting it here as an entry on it’s own:

“The pear trees on Kanan Road from Thousand Oaks Boulevard to the Ventura County line (in Agoura Hills) should be in full bloom in a week or two.  We call it Conejo Snow!  (I will probably use the snow reference when the arroyo willows bloom, too.)  One more for the Pyrus clan, they are long-lived beauties, so the saying goes, ’You plant pears for your heirs.’”

Posted by Janna Orkney, text by Econerd

February 2nd, 2010 · Agoura Hills, Conejo Valley, Green, Outdoors

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Jerry West, One of the Best in the West

Sometimes I just like to read a story about someone who sounds like a genuinely nice guy, who is doing some good in the world.  It sounds like Jerry West, former general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers and outstanding Laker and UCLA player, is one such person.

One of my kids had the good fortune to have his wife as a teacher in the early 1970’s at UCLA’s lab school, UES.  Mrs. West was pretty and vivacious, as she would meet parents at the school room door, picking up their kids.  That Jerry West, who was well known even then, was married to someone that nice and down-to-earth, who cared about children, impressed me.

Anyway, there is an article in today’s (1-31-10) Daily News, about Jerry West leading the PGA Northern Trust Open tournament, and it is great reading.  Here is the link to the story by Jill Painter:  http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_14304479 

Posted by Janna Orkney

January 31st, 2010 · California, Meditations

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