• Three Events, One Day

Saturday morning saw Natalie's Rascals celebrate their first year in business. 

They had free doggie treats, a prize wheel (we won a mud bath for our dog - I'm guessing they'll be washing the mud off before returning him to us). They also were holding a raffle with many terrific prizes (winners to be drawn at the end of the day).

Natalie (middle holding poodle type dog), along with some happy customers.

There were also $10 microchips being offered to pet owners.

Nicely decorated treats on display. Inset shows the microchip promotion.

A couple of hours later, Discount Tire Centers had their grand opening.

A look at the front of Discount Tire Centers.

It was a fun time, and weather was great too. 

There was a Grilled Cheese Truck that had many tasty options, all courtesy of Discount Tires, plus several vendor booths.

Abby Benoit gets her arm painted.

KOLA radio was doing a remote broadcast, and they had a couple of games/contests during the time I was there.

Winners of the kissing contest were the Gary & Carrie Brown and Jaimie & Ben Benoit.

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At 1:00pm there was a ribbon cutting for welcoming Discount Tires to Wildomar.

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In the evening, Marna O'Brien Park was the site for Astronomy Night 2017.

Kids lining up for tickets to win a telescope.

About 80 tickets were given out to kids hoping to win one of twelve telescopes; thanks to the sponsorship of PVM and Interwest.

An estimate of 120 to 150 people attended.

Boy Scout troop 332 was selling popcorn.

Crew 332 was selling My Buddies Pizza, and they were able to put all the proceeds towards their projects. Thanks to My Buddies Pizza, and their generosity, for giving a big discount on the pizza and George Cambero for picking up the rest of the tab.

Also in attendance were the Temecula Valley Astronomers, the regional agency called WRCOG, SoCal Edison, Wildomar's Mayor Bridgette Moore, Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Walker, Councilmember Ben Benoit and District 2 city council candidate Dustin Nigg. 

During the presentation.

Since My Buddies Pizza showed some community spirit tonight, I'd like to let people know that they have a 25th anniversary party coming up soon. Check the flyer for details.

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‘It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes, 

Wildomar Rap [remember to insert humorous anecdote here].

• Astronomy Night 2015

A perfect late Summer night to hang out in the park, after sundown and enjoy a balmy breeze.

Tomorrow's Eagle Scouts making change.

The evening started with some pizza dispensed by Boy Scout Troop 332, and then a very well thought out presentation by John Garrett, Wildomar's Astronomer in Chief.

John Garret pointing to the screen and an illustration of the constellation Cygnus.

A lot of families came out and enjoyed the presentation and getting a chance to look through the telescopes.

Here you see City Manager Gary Nordquist and Mayor Pro-Tem Bridgette Moore awarding a telescope to one of  6 winners.

A special thanks to the Temecula Valley Astronomers as they set up several telescopes and invited the public to view the moon up close, Saturn and its rings, and Albireo.

Visit their facebook page.

Just a thought

It was a good turnout and the lines to look through the telescopes were always several minutes long (some longer). Still, what I'd like to see is for the various community leaders (in addition to the usual people) take more of an active roll and invite people from their groups to city events.

The teachers from the various schools, the leaders of organizations like Elks Lodge, Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, local sports leagues, religious leaders/churches, and other clubs. It's not as if the whole city should show up, but even if a percent or two did that would make it all the more worthwhile to all those involved.

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Next week is the last movie in the park at Marna O'Brien Park for 2015 The Croods). Let's get out there and see if we can't get our largest crowd to date. Spread the word and be there.

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Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. 

― Stephen Hawking

Wildomar Rap counsels those that are going to end up one step ahead to bypass the traditional route of two steps forward and one back and just take the one step forward from the get go.

• Astronomy Night in Wildomar

What a great event for Wildomar.

Many thanks to John Garrett and Temecula Valley Astronomers for the enjoyable presentation and setting up their telescopes and allowing others to take a look at the night sky with them .

Looking at the Sun through a telescope was a first for me. They use special filters so you can safely view it and see 'bumps' around the edge of the Sun. I learned they are called a prominence.

A panoramic view of the inflatable screen that the presentation was projected on.

Manning the snack bar, selling pizza and sodas.

Ashley Fox chatted with me about her Girl Scout Silver Award project (click this link to read what a silver award is).  I'm going to write up a blog about her project soon. In brief, her goal is to raise $3500 for a swing that will accommodate those in a wheel chair. Before tonight she'd already gotten half way there with $1800 raised. Tonight they added nearly another $300 to the total. The next fund raiser is at Stadium Pizza on Monday May 12th.

You couldn't ask for better weather and the temps were perfect for family time outdoors.

SunPro Solar donated 12 of these telescopes to be raffled off. All those in attendance were giving a raffle ticket, free of charge, and there were two drawings throughout the course of events.

Four of our Five City Council Members were in attendance for the evening event.

Here you see a live projection of the moon (below) and setting up the equipment (above).

It's hard to judge crowd size, but it safe to say there were more than a baker's dozen and less than 1,000. Ok, my real guess would be around 200 people. More thanks goes to city staffers that put in a long day. 

As I was chatting with Public Works Superintendent Les Chapman, I like how he put it. That these kinds of events are what make us a community, and he'd like to see more of them. I was telling him about times I've driven to neighboring cities to listen to live music in the park while having a picnic, and he thought that would work well here too. We just need to get our parks department up and running.

Follow this link if you aren't already subscribed to the city of Wildomar's email alerts. It's the best way to keep up with when things are happening.

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