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MY SUN DAY NEWS

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Sun City in Huntley
 
News & Features Columnists Editorials Hang Your Hat Obituaries My Huntley News

May 31, 2012

Chris La Pelusa

Edgewater: Welcome to the Sun Day

Welcome to the Sun Day! What you have before you is an exciting and, most important, beneficial newspaper new to the Edgewater community. The Sun Day offers you news, features, previews, profiles, columns, and other fun, distinctive, and informative editorial content 100% relevant to you and this community. Inside Edgewater’s section The Edge, you will see stories about residents and events that you won’t find in any other news publication.

Better late than forgetful

In some ways, I’m a terrible son. I’m sure I don’t talk to my mother enough (what son really does?), and I’m a repeat offender of forgetfulness.

That open space, well that’s just room to grow

Living with my wife for 14 years has taught me the value of “waste not, want not,” an adage I genuinely couldn’t make sense of in my youth.

Color me orange

Technically, I should have written this edition’s Happy Trails last edition, as that was our active edition over Valentine’s Day, which, by its very nature, topics of relationships are suited to. But remember, I was confused last edition, and Valentine’s was the farthest thing from my mind (yes, ladies, shame on me, I know). However, it’s never too late for matters of the heart.

You’re never too young to be confused

Whenever I sit down to write, and I’m staring at that daunting, impenetrable Blank Page, I make a promise first to myself and then to readers that I will get to the point as quickly, as effectively, and as efficiently as possible. That’s called good writing. That’s called active voice. How many times have you read something that rambles on and asked yourself, Is there a point to this?

Why eat your cake in a closet, when you can watch it on TV?

On the day that you receive this edition of the Sun Day, you can trust that I’ll be a very happy man indeed. You might wonder why I say this. Maybe I struck it rich in the Lotto (my ticket bought at Drendel’s Corner, of course), and I’m taking a very early retirement (33 is old enough, right?).

Like father, like daughter

Artwork is a regular feature in Neighborhood 24 resident Bobbi Vinton’s home, but one wall in particular displays a collection that means more to Vinton than what an appraiser’s price tag might read because how does one appraise the work of his or her father?

If you keep your resolution in order, everything else is playing for gumballs

Last year at this time, I wrote in my Happy Trails that I didn’t believe in resolutions. I should amend that. It’s not that I don’t believe in resolutions. I just don’t agree with them starting at the New Year, because a real resolution can start at any time.

‘You’ll shoot your eye out, you’ll shoot our eye out’

In last edition’s Happy Trails, I mentioned the Christmas classic movie A Christmas Story. Despite the numerous holiday movies in which family disaster occurs, this movie came to mind for two reasons. First, it’s one of my favorites. Second, I knew what this edition’s Happy Trails was going to be then, which is a rarity, as I tend not to know what I’m writing about until the day before I NEED to put something down on paper. That’s just a side note, though, to this story.

Thinking outside the ‘book’

On its own, the word “scrap” hardly brings to mind anything of value or worth. We think “scrap paper,” “scrap metal,” “scrap wood,” or something you might give to a dog or write directions on. But when Sun City residents Holly Veach and Sharon McLaughlin think of the word scrap, they see a treasure; they see family, friends, and memories, and preservation of same. They see Scrapping on the Spot.

A good, old-fashioned thank you in this modern age

Last week, right in the middle of what we at the Sun Day refer to as our “production week,” and what I refer to as “pull-my-hair-out week,” things got tough, and my computer apparently caught the worst or one of the worst (or what I came to think of as the devil of all) computer viruses, which ultimately left me broken down on the side of the editorial road. But you know what they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

感恩節快樂 That’s Happy Thanksgiving in Chinese!

What is it about holiday movies that we like? Is it seeing a family operate a smooth season, beginning with a cut turkey and ending successfully on a majestic winters’ morn, family gathered around the tree, opening gifts (gifts that everyone wants)?

You just won $50,000, now send us a check

Imagine getting a phone call that informs you, “You’ve won $50,000 in a drawing! Just send us a check for $299 to claim your reward.”

Um, excuse me, may I interject?

When I think about things that I’m thankful for, I’m reminded of manners. Without please and thank you, we’d get nowhere (at least, nowhere with relationships intact). My oldest (and, of course, “wisest” wink, wink) sister-in-law taught me one of my first lessons in developing good manners: how to gracefully and properly interrupt people talking, which comes in handy being a reporter.

Resident’s campaign promotion sparks controversy

Whoever thought that a single, benign word such as “group” could ultimately spark so much controversy in Sun City and possibly affect the outcome of the entire 2012 board elections?

Cardboard Connection Radio

When Huntley Area Public Library Communications Assistant and Webmaster Doug Cataldo isn’t laying out Library Links, updating and designing huntleylibrary.org, or doing any number of other media-related library tasks that give the library its “good looks,” he’s talking about cardboard.

2012 board elects talk transparency

Despite reports of low-voter turnout, the October 2011 Community Association Board of Directors election was said, by some, to be the most anticipated election in its history. Controversial, trust, and transparency issues made the campaign trail a slippery slope to say the least, but three of the seven candidates caught traction and come January will walk onto a governing board in hopes to help renew community-board communication and establish a new officiating platform.

If the tooth fits…

I recently gave a talk to the journalism students at Huntley High School. Despite the early hour I had to be there (coming directly off a production, which is always grueling), the talk went especially well, the students were interested, I was interested, and nobody fell asleep.

Hip to be square

In Neighborhood 29 resident Joe Nitti’s world, it’s hip to be square. It’s not only hip but artistic and decorative. After a successful 57-year career as an architectural draftsman, Netti (81) retired in 1993 from penciling lines and curves and shapes and applied his expertise to framing and matting.

No fear … sure

October is definitely the scary story month of the year. Gray clouds billow in, darkness settles on us, leafless tree branches scrape against our windows at night, and foliage dies, leaving behind its scraggly inner remnants. For all this, though, October is my favorite month of the year. And I like a good flashlight-under-the-face, campfire scary story as much as the next. But the pop-into-your-everyday-life fears, I don’t like so much.

Poor economy shuts Niko’s doors

Early in October, Huntley lost one of its trademark restaurants, when Niko’s Grill & Pub closed its doors. “We’ve been struggling there for about 10 months,” said former Niko’s Grill & Pub owner Niko Kanakaris.

Our dog in a nutshell

As this edition’s Sun Day features a story on a proposed dog park in Sun City, now is as good of a time as any to let you in on our home’s best-kept secret, one I’ve only mentioned briefly before: our dog, Ruppy. Actually, Ruppy is a secret only if you consider a secret bold and brazen and barking loud enough to send echoes to Arizona and back.

Sun City resident proposes dog park

Carole Gillham of Neighborhood 21 loves dogs. She’s a Canine Companion for Independence volunteer puppy raiser. She finds a dog’s companionship not only valuable but emotionally and physically healthy. And knowing that there are many Sun City residents who share her feelings, Gillham has an idea for a dog park in Sun City, a place “where people can socialize and dogs can socialize as well,” she said.

Kids at heart … and on stage

They say you’re only young once, but age is a relative thing, no? You’re only as old as you feel? What about saying it this way: You’re only as old as you act.

Scratch-and-win

Sometimes it takes a lot to be a winner. Sometimes it takes just a little. And sometimes it takes no more than hopping across the street to Drendel’s Corner and buying any number of Lottery tickets or scratch-and-win cards.

Neighbors helping neighbors

When most people hear the words “neighborhood watch,” the image of a solitary individual, maybe two, working the sidewalks at night with a flashlight, keeping watch, springs to mind. But thanks to a key group of residents, neighborhood watch in Sun City goes beyond citizen police to simply and importantly “Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” which is the motto and namesake of the Neighborhood Watch program here in Sun City.