Another banger of a homeowners’ association newsletter:
Happy New Year to all our neighbors. I hope everyone is healthy going into this new, and so far, pretty windy, new year. As you can see, the new signs, STOP and two CRIME WATCH, have been put up, thanks to Tom and Jerry. The annual SEHOA annual meeting will be held on January 24, Saturday, 10:00, at the Bear Canyon library. We will be asking for names of anyone who wants to serve on the SEHOA board. The annual meeting is the time to bring up any ideas, problems or suggestions that you think need to be addressed by the board. The dues may be paid at that time, either half or full amount, paid by check, or sent to Chris by Zelle.
The yearly dues did not go up this year; they are still at $400.00 per year.
January, I found, is a very exciting month, as far as notable happenings in history. Some of the lesser-known historical facts such as snow falling on the Sahara Desert in January 1979, or the country of Burma, being presented to Queen Victoria in January of 1886, as a gift from the British government. Nellie Taylor Ross was elected the first female state governor in Wyoming, January 1925.
Garnet is the birthstone of January; the word garnet, means “seeds” in Latin, so named because the gems look like the bright red seeds of a pomegranate. We celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday on January 19, as well as Louis Braille’s on January 4, the blind man who developed a punch card system to allow blind people to read. Alaska became a state in January of 1959, the iPhone came out in January of 2007, Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill in California in January of 1848, and President Lincoln’s emancipation Proclamation was signed in January of 1863. Ellis Island, opened on January 1, 1892, becoming the main gateway for immigrants coming to America. The very first person processed was an Irish girl named Annie Moore.
An even lesser known or spoken incident happened on January 17, 1966, over Palomares, Spain. Because of Cold War operations, a B-52 carrying four thermonuclear bombs collided with a refueling tanker over the coast, dropping all four bombs. The three that impacted land had their conventional explosives detonate and spread plutonium contaminating the terrain. The fourth bomb fell into the Mediterraneum and was later recovered intact. All four crew members of the KC-135 tanker perished as well as four of the seven crew members of the B-52.
January has also been a very bad month for NASA. Exactly one year after the Palomares incident, January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grisson, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, died in a fire aboard the Apollo I command module at Cape Canaveral. Nineteen years later, Space shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds after takeoff from Cape Canaveral on January 28, 1986, killing all aboard, included teacher, Christa McAuliffe. In 2003, Space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry in the early hours of February 1, missing the January fate by just minutes.
And finally, January 10, 1878, Congress was presented with a bill allowing women the vote. Needless to say, with only men voting, the bill did not pass and failed to pass every time it was brought to floor. It wasn’t until 1920, 42 years later that the 19th amendment to the constitution was ratified and women were given the right to vote.
Hoping everyone has a great 2026 and see you at the meeting!
Our HOA scribe has an interest in space history, and so do I. This very morning, January the 15th, saw the unscheduled early return of four astronauts from the International Space Station, an event forced by a medical issue. The affected astronaut and the nature of his or her medical problem has not been disclosed. What might happen if there’s a medical issue during a months-long voyage to Mars, with no return possible for literally years? One would assume NASA has anticipated the possibility and done some planning, but whatever just happened aboard the ISS seems to have caught the agency flat-footed.
Do you think we’ll ever find out what happened up there? My wife, Donna, thinks it was some sort of mental thing. I think that’s entirely possible, and that it’s probably happened before.
Stay fresh, cheese bags!