Phil Dirkx

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Phil Dirkx

About Phil Dirkx

Phil Dirkx writes the Over the Hill column for The Tribune. He has lived in Paso Robles for more than four decades. Reach him at 805-238-2372 or phild2008@sbcglobal.net .

Signs of warming are growing

I was watering my tomato plants Wednesday when I noticed blossoms. One plant had two, and the other had two and a bud. It seemed early for tomato blossoms. “Aha’’ I thought, “It must be global warming.”

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Archive by category ''Phil Dirkx

  • PHIL DIRKX

    Gun safety is important for boys to learn

    A headline in the May 2 Tribune said, “5-year-old shoots sister to death.” A boy had killed his two-year old baby sister in rural, southern Kentucky. It reminded me of the shooting in 1984 west of Paso Robles where a 14-year-old boy shot and killed a 13-year-old boy.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    Citizenship should be requirement to serve on juries

    Last week the California Assembly voted 45-25 to allow noncitizen immigrants to serve on juries. That surprised me. I hadn’t seen any marching crowds of noncitizen immigrants demanding to be jurors.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    We must act now on Paso Robles groundwater basin

    Let’s form a Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Management District now. Let’s do it while the basin still has enough water to manage. Forming the district was recommended unanimously last week by the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin Blue Ribbon Steering Committee.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    Don't let vandals take over Salinas River Trail

    Last week I became a windbag. I wrote about the monument for the three workers killed during the construction of the Nacimiento Pipeline. I told of looking for their monument in the little park near Paso Robles’ 13th Street Bridge. I wrote, “It still wasn’t there.”

  • PHIL DIRKX

    On the Nacimiento pipeline construction accident

    Two workers were killed Oct. 2, 2008, in Paso Robles during the Nacimiento Lake water pipeline construction. Last Friday a man was sentenced in this case. His sentence seems overly lenient.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    A toast to the Toastmasters

    The Toastmasters Club launched my career, and it’s about time I acknowledged that. “What career?” you may ask. That question is justified. I’m just a small-town news guy who made a career out of telling North County people, particularly Paso Roblans, what they’...

  • PHIL DIRKX

    Signs of inflation are everywhere

    Even if you are an atheist, you probably have faith. Almost all Americans have faith in the metal tokens, printed slips of paper and electronic impulses that we call money. We have faith in them to provide us with food, shelter, clothing and some pleasures.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    One water issue solved, but another bubbles up

    I wrote a column last month about the hot water pipe that was leaking secretly in our house’s slab foundation. It started stealthily but finally publicly puddled outdoors next to the slab.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    A dry North County is bad news

    The only silver lining in our unrelenting blue skies is that they contradict the people who claim global-warming doesn’t exist. Our dry skies also justify the past decisions of Paso Robles City Councils to join the Nacimiento pipeline project and to raise our water rates to pay for it.

  • PHIL DIRKX

    What an obituary can say about life

    I’m an avid reader of obituaries. By the way, have you ever noticed how often the word “avid” is used in obituaries, such as “He was an avid horseshoe pitcher,” or “She was an avid reader of vampire books?”

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