It’s March! Spring doesn’t officially begin until the equinox, but I’m so desperate I start early, like stores filled with Halloween decor the day after school starts.

As winters go, this was my best ever. I just finished the last big house project, so I’m proud as a whitewashed pig. And I can keep it this way in less than an hour a day. After I painted the bathroom, George came to install a new toilet on concrete to replace the old one that rocked on rotten wood like a small boat in a high sea. One more thing that will never have to be done again.

Saturday’s tsunami scare brings another chance to remind Del Norters: If there is breaking news of local importance — and what could be more important than a possible tsunami? — it will be posted and updated when appropriate at triplicate.com.

Triplicate Assistant Editor Matt Durkee started monitoring developments shortly after a monster earthquake shook Chile late Friday. When the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a tsunami advisory for the West Coast, Durkee drove to the office and posted the news online at 3:20 a.m.

From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, February 1965.

The route to Grants Pass is open again after the December 1964 flood. The first convoy of vehicles left Gasquet at 7 a.m. In a surprise move, the division of highways announced the opening Tuesday afternoon.

Three convoys per day will leave Gasquet at 7 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. Convoys will be limited to pickups, four-wheel drives, and single-unit trucks with a 10-ton limit.

Larry Baker is a former  Del Norte Warrior that is fun to write about.

This is because after college he became a high school football coach. While he was the head coach at Crater High School in Central Point, Ore., and I was the Warrior head coach, we met twice on the gridiron. It was fun to play against this classy former Warrior.

City wrong to fight ballot initiative

The Daily Triplicate recently published an editorial (“Rate rollback ignores reality,” Feb. 6) opposing an initiative to roll back sewer rates. Since your editorial singles me out, my personal response to your editorial is required.

You protest the initiative as “defying reality.” If so, the “reality” the initiative defies is the belief that our local government can do whatever it wants, build anything it wants and pass the costs of misspending onto the taxpayers. The initiative you protest says “enough” to the reality you promote.

Community concert association apologizes for cancellation

The Del Norte-Curry Community Concert Association regrets the sudden cancellation of the concert featuring Daniel Rodriguez on Saturday night due to his illness.

We are sorry for any inconvenience of your plans and hope that we were able to reach most all of our members as well as the community in general in time to halt your travel.