By Jeremy Couso
SusanvilleStuff Publisher
It’s a strangely dysfunctional autumn this year. I keep waiting for leaves to blossom into blazing colors so I can take some fall pictures, but the color change seems so haphazard, with some trees staying green or barely yellowing while others are already shedding their leaves.
Our daytime temperatures have still been getting up into the 80’s and I think because it has stayed so warm, so late in the year, most of the trees have resisted the urge to change colors. Except a few, and boy do those few stand out gorgeously all over town.
Our weather pattern is supposed to change to more fall-like weather this weekend, there is even a freeze warning for Saturday, and I bet that inspires the trees here in the valley to break out the fall colors.
FBLA Murder Mystery
I am a big fan of Lassen High School’s Future Business Leaders of America club and for years now I have seen FBLA members, under the leadership of Dawn Egan, go on to do amazing things in the world.
The nationwide FBLA organization “inspires and prepares students to become community-minded business leaders” through career preparation and leadership experiences. They compete, they learn skills, they get a very useful education – these are some very smart kids.
The group asked me to be a part of Wednesday evening’s big Fall Meeting and Murder Mystery. The murder mystery was set in a televised ‘Bake Off’ and when one of the judges dies after tasting entries everybody else involved becomes a suspect.
Each member of the FBLA Officer Team played a suspect, like a big, complex version of the board game Clue, and the audience of about one hundred students got to ask questions of each one as part of the investigation.
Suspects included the Bakeoff’s presenter, judges and contestants – I got to play the Bake-Off Director Mack O’Roon!
And the FBLA officers were great – each one having fun with their parts. Special mention should be made of Justin Ellena whose character of ‘Fleur Whitworth’ was worth the price of admission. Also, Tucker Schall did a fantastic job of asking and answering questions in the crowd during the murder mystery ‘investigation.’
It was a great time, and I was happy to get to be part of it. A very fun way to spend a Wednesday evening.
Visiting Fred and Dena in Milford
Yesterday we made the traditional, annual pilgrimage to Milford to visit Fred and Dena Wemple at the Pumpkin Patch, which looks awesome this year, and oh what weather for pumpkin patching! It is gorgeously fall out in their part of the valley.
Granddaughter Peyton and the other kids in Mrs. O’Brien’s class at McKinley got the complete pumpkin patch experience – the fun hayride, playing on tractors, friendly farm animals, pumpkin stories, the hay bale maze and the zenith of the pumpkin patch experience, grandma and Peyton got to wander through the field finding the perfect pumpkin to bring home and decorate.
Now it is starting to feel like fall.
Kon’nichiwa Travelers
Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have returned from their whirlwind trip through Japan with Joyce and Todd Eid, and it was a lot of fun living vicariously through their social media posts.
Jim’s photos are awesome, and the travelers went to some beautiful places on their journey, but strangely they also seem to have been doing a lot of arts and crafts projects while in far off lands. Is that a thing in Japan? Craft projects?
After being Susanville’s youngest mayor, and spending a lifetime in public service, I vote we now make Mr. Chapman Susanville’s official Ambassador to Japan.
The Results Are
At last weekend’s Dancing for a Brand New Me performances Kaitlyn Midgely and Seanne McElrath took home the People’s Choice Trophy, and Jillaine Singleton and Dalton Leighton were the Champions.
Have an awesome weekend everybody!
