Phil Dirkx

This isn’t your grandfather’s Paso Robles anymore. I’ve suspected that for several years but didn’t want to admit it. I finally faced it Tuesday when Paso voters rejected the water rate increase.

I blame our present Paso Robles water rate dispute on two widespread and unrealistic beliefs. One is that “No increase in government fees or taxes is ever justified.” The other is that, “Every complicated thing can easily be simplified.”

Last week’s big rain reminded me that Nacimiento Lake is one of the Central Coast’s most productive water traps. In one day its level rose 19 feet.

One evening last summer, while driving in the parking lot of a Paso Robles restaurant, I suddenly heard metal screech against metal. I’d had a collision.

Last week, the voters here in Paso Robles found election ballots in their mail. We’re going to vote Nov. 3 in a special election on increasing our water rates.

I admit feeling some hometown pride in being able to remind you that a Paso Robles doctor performed the first blood transfusion in this county. I read about it in The Tribune in 2007. I have two excuses for bringing it up now: America’s current health care debate and the rapid approach of Paso Robles Pioneer Day.

The information screen at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport said “Delayed,” where we expected to see a departure time for our daughter, Sandy. She’d been visiting us this summer.

Last Monday morning my old, stained, backyard rain gauge was still readable. I squinted to learn its verdict on the first shower of the new rain season here in southeastern Paso Robles. I interpreted its measurement as five-hundredths of an inch of rainfall.

I now see a faint flicker of hope that Nacimiento Lake could escape being overrun with quagga or zebra mussels. But there’s still grave danger that an uninformed lake visitor might launch a boat contaminated with those tiny, foreign shellfish.

I am humbler this year than I was last year because my tomato vines this year have blight.