Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • November 9, 2011 freezer. The noise from home generators can be a problem, but give the choice of some huffs and puffs from the neighbors or three days without power, light, and telephone service, most people who have a home generator seem less than concerned. Generators, however, are not the solution because, besides being noisy, they pollute the atmosphere and add to global warming. Part of the solution could be solar home power units, which my son/technical advisor tells me cost about $10,000. Properly mounted on roofs with adequate sunlight, these devices can reportedly provide all the electrical power needed for illumination and for electronics when the wires aren’t down. My first immoderate suggestion is that we muster unemployed people, veterans awaiting jobs after discharge, and perhaps those inmates of the prison system who are completely non-violent, and produce these solar packs right here in the U.S.A. The products could be donated to members of selected groups, such as combatwounded veterans, senior-citizen veterans with honorable discharges or their widows, and life-long senior taxpayers who are having trouble making ends meet on Social Security. Once mass production makes the solar packs more affordable, everybody will want them. The immediate impact on home electric bills and emergency power losses will be obvious. The gradual impact on global warming could take decades, but, with other measures, we would be moving in the right direction. As an ancillary project, we should enlist those of our fellow citizens who have skills or want to learn them to manufacture thermal quilts for discount purchase or storage. No family should be without a couple per person, as the weekend proved to me and my wife. We tend to keep the heat turned down in any case, but when the heat is turned off, a couple of quilts can be a great comfort and, in extreme circumstances, a life-saver. Another measure involves a phrase I generally hate: eminent domain. I am strongly committed to private property and neighborhood values, and I would never approve condemning or severely impacting private homes because someone wants to build something nobody else wants in his or her own backyard. Eminent domain only becomes necessary when neighbors impact on other neighbors. People who enjoy walks around the towns or keep their eyes open when driving frequently spot trees or branches that are at risk of collapsing onto power lines or houses. On Oct. 29, that is exactly what happened. We need some public officials who aren’t worried about being popular to tell the property owners to take down trees or branches that pose a genuine risk to power and telephone lines or to do it themselves and send the property owners a bill. I’m absolutely opposed to “property maintenance codes” that tell people how closely they have to manicure their grass. I’m opposed to lawns in general and wish they would all be replaced by shrubs or trees where there is no line-of-sight issue. I will not lobby to have people take down macabre Halloween decorations with corpses and skeletons, which I personally find in rather poor taste, and replace them with harmless harvest symbols like scarecrows and pumpkins, which I find in rather good taste. I know I can’t legislate taste, and I’m not about to try. On the other hand, the halfrotten tree or branch that knocks out the power to a whole neighborhood for three or four days is not a personal issue; it is a civic issue. People who are older than I am, or people with younger children or invalids at home, are very much at risk from power failures. Fining people afterwards seems punitive and petty. The dangers presented by leaning, halfrotten trees or big limbs with no leaves are very obvious, but a polite reminder to protect the power and telephone lines by removing the oaken swords of Damocles would be a very good idea. Reducing global warming, and the periodic flooding of low-lying areas such as Ridgewood Village Hall, could require some serious reconfigurations of aesthetics. Big grassy expansive lawns that aren’t used for athletic fields are a mistake, and artificial turf is a huge mistake. Lopping off some rotten limbs by eminent domain and subsidizing the construction of home solar units may, in the short run, be a great big step in the right direction. We don’t need one of these three-day shiver-fests every autumn. It was, beyond hyperbole, the worst autumn storm in anyone’s memory. We all lived through it, so the details do not need a lot of repetition. What happened is that an unseasonal snowstorm struck while most of the older deciduous trees were still nearly in full leaf, and the snow coated the leaves with what one public official called “the gravitational equivalent of wet cement.” Halloween events had to be cancelled because the simulated horror of cute kids in costumes couldn’t compete with the real scary show of nature running amok. On a drive of just over a mile, I had to make several detours around fallen trees and dangling power lines. Both sides of the road bracketing our driveway were closed. Once my wife and I were back safe at home, the power -- including the ignition on the heating system – failed. For the next few days, we adapted as best we could. We spent 12 hours reading by glorious sunlight, punctuated by sparse meals we couldn’t cook because there was no electricity, and 12 hours of sleeping huddled under numerous blankets and a quilt. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. My stomach is having some issues with food that was never meant to be eaten cold, but the reading was productive. Doing that sort of thing on a regular basis could really cut into the productive time of people who work on a rigid schedule. Don’t even ask about households where the kids don’t like to read. People I talked to – many of whom had no power for several days, or had power restored and then cut off again – wearily said they were getting used to it. I admire their toughness, but there are some things you need to get used to, and others you need to get rid of. When your neighbor has a noisy party once a year, or once a graduation, it’s time to turn over and put the pillow over your skyward ear. When they have one every couple of days, it’s time for a polite phone call. Similarly, when the same unleashed dog has bitten a half-dozen people in the same neighborhood, it’s time for the animal warden. Weather conditions are not as easy to interfere with as a noisy neighbor or a bad-tempered dog, but the golden lining is that you can usually do what has to be done without starting back-fence feuds or tedious and expensive litigation. Analyze, if you will, just what happened. A storm dropped wet snow that clutched or froze into the crowns and limbs of trees that were still in relatively full leaf. This “wet cement” subjected tree limbs that were hanging over electric and telephone lines to a stress that would not have had happened if the trees were bare of leaves, or if the stubborn and viable leaves fell off as soon as the snow and ice hit. The culprit is global warming. The warm, wet summer that has caused problems for the various water companies because people didn’t need to water their lawns very much is now causing trouble for everybody who doesn’t have a home generator. Generators are not a bad thing. My son has one. Besides keeping his own household functional, he ran power lines to two neighbors to keep one guy and his wife from freezing and another family from a meltdown in their home A catastrophe seen as a golden opportunity Allendale Notebook Guild hosts Quilt Show The Brownstone Quilters Guild will hold a judged Quilt Show at the Northern Highlands Regional High School at 298 Hillside Avenue in Allendale on Friday, Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, Nov. 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The theme of this year’s show is a “Celebration of Quilts 2011.” Admission is an $8 donation per day. Over 150 quilts will be on display, and a quilt made by the members of the guild will be a special prize in a fundraiser to benefit the Center for Food Action. The show will also feature 17 vendors who will be offering a wide variety of fabrics and other items related to the art of quilting. Prizes of over 100 handmade mini-quilts will be awarded twice daily. An AQS-certified quilt appraiser Karen Dever will offer oral and written appraisals for the general public. To make an appointment, call (201) 327-2140. There is ample on-site parking and catered food will be available for purchase. The guild meets once a month from September through June at the Central Unitarian Church in Paramus. For more information about the guild, see www.brownstonequilters. com. Chamber plans meeting The Allendale Chamber of Commerce will host a breakfast meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 8:30 a.m. at Louie’s Place, 29 West Allendale Avenue. The event will feature a continental breakfast. The group will discuss Holiday Walk details, and nominations for next year’s executive board will be accepted. RSVP to Adrienne at Jumbleiah, (201) 327-8411 or e-mail Jumbleiah2@aol.com. The Chamber meets the second Tuesday of the month and is open to businesses in Allendale. HASA holds Top Tech fundraiser The Northern Highlands Home and School Association will host its second annual Top Tech Fundraiser. Prizes will include the latest in high-tech consumer goods worth more than $8,000. The winners will be announced, but need not be present, on Friday Dec. 2 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the high school located at 298 Hillside Avenue in Allendale. Other prize items include a Janome computerized sewing machine, the new Kindle Fire tablet electronic reader, a Sony 24-inch Internet TV, and Dr. Dre Studio high-performance headphones. Tickets are sold in books of six tickets for $50, two books of six tickets for $75, and individual tickets at $10. Tickets can be purchased at the welcome desk at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale. Payment may be made with cash of personal check. All proceeds will benefit Northern Highlands Regional High School’s educational and co-curricular programs. For more information contact Jill Webb at (201) 3272108, or by e-mail at webbfaron@ aol.com. Class of 2012 to host movie fundraiser Allendale’s Brookside School Class of 2012 will host a movie fundraiser at the Ramsey Theater, 125 East Main Street in Ramsey, at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19 and 20. The feature presentation will be “Twilight: Breaking Dawn.” Tickets are $8 in advance and may be ordered by sending a check made payable to “Brookside Class of 2012” to Gayle Lerch, 9 Butternut Road, Allendale, NJ 07401. Preordered tickets will be held at the door. Leaf collection schedule announced The Allendale Department of Public Works has announced its fall leaf pickup schedule. Bagged leaves will be picked up on streets east of the railroad tracks Nov. 14 to 18, Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, and Dec. 12 to 16. The schedule for streets west of the railroad tracks will be Nov. 14 to 18, Nov. 28 to Dec. 2, and Dec. 12 to 16. Residents are reminded that all leaves must be left at the curbside for collection in brown biodegradable paper bags only. There will be a limited number of paper bags (10 per customer) available at the recycling center. The recycling center is open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. Please note that the week of Nov. 21 is shorter due to the holidays. For more information, call (201) 818-4410, extension 100.