Goodbye to a press guru

Those whom the gods wish to make mad, they first wake up at 2:30 a.m. to see the meteor storm of the century.

Wife Jennifer and I were both up and looking at the sky in search of the Leonids' big show.

I saw two or three clusters of four meteors in 30 minutes on that cold clear Tuesday morning.

Because of the moon and the streetlight in my front yard, instead of the storm of the century, I got a cold head.

Hopes for a speedy recovery to Denise Sins, who cracked a vertebra last week. Denise is director of the Children's Museum of Northern Nevada and teaches Art 101 at Western Nevada Community College.

She drew the representation of Nevada's Spirit Cave Mummy, the oldest human remains found in North America.

I'm told the Governor's Mansion did a rousing business Halloween night. Mr. and Mrs. Guinn handed out treats to 3,800 children during the evening.

Dema Guinn said her hand was getting numb passing out the goodies.

It was a shock to me to learn that Tahoe-Carson Area Newspapers press guru Pat Nealy's last day was Friday.

According to Appeal Publisher Peter Starren, Pat's gone to work for Intermountain Color in Boulder, Colo., for a 5 percent interest in the company.

Pat has lived in Minden for more than a decade and was press foreman for the Tahoe Daily Tribune before he ran the presses at the Appeal.

He engineered moving the presses from the Tribune to the Appeal back in 1995 when the company bought the Carson City daily.

His skills were called upon again last year when he led the crew who installed the new press at the Mallory Way building.

Pat's daughter Becci graduated from Douglas High School last June. Becci played soccer with my wife's cousin, Abby Aldrich.

Pat has already sold his house in Johnson Lane and was at company offices in Greeley, Colo., this past week.

Gardnerville's Cal Tinkam was on Channel 2 news last weekend displaying his model of V&T No. 26 at the Model Train Show in Reno.

Denio rancher and photographer Linda DuFurrena's picture depicting sheep with the sign "soft shoulders" in the foreground appeared in the November edition of Reader's Digest. Linda's photo is included in a book called the "Polar Bear Waltz," produced by Outside Magazine from the "Parting Shots" feature. Linda was one of the judges of Nevada Magazine's Great Nevada Picture Hunt and published the photo book "50 Miles From Home," which includes some great photos of central Nevada.

Shirley Chandler of Dayton wrote me to say she got a nice letter from the state saying Nevada Department of Transportation workers would be more discrete with dead animals they picked up and that the dead horse was not in a pickup, but a regular truck.

Thanks for setting the record straight, Shirley.

They cut cards to decide who won the Esmeralda County commissioner's race on Friday.

Deputy County Clerk Kelly Eagan spread the cards on the table at the Esmeralda County Courthouse in Goldfield. R.J. Gillum and Dolores Honeycutt, who tied at 107 votes apiece on Election Day, each drew a card.

They were both jacks.

Fortunately, the rules set before the draw determined which suit would be highest and Gillum won the seat.

Kurt Hildebrand is former managing editor at the Nevada Appeal and would never have thought to set the top suit in drawing cards. Reach him at 887-2430, ext. 402 or e-mail him at kurt@tahoe.com.