“Waylon V 2.1”

Tuesday January 9th, 2024
From the messy desk of Amanda Eichstaedt…

Don’t Freak Out

I had the privilege to have a chat with Cathleen Dorinson for “The Lowdown” recently. The archive will be available after the show airs on Wednesday the 10th, but I figured it was important enough information to share in this newsletter.

When you get your ballot and information from the Marin County Registrar of Voters in February, open it right away. You want to check to see which candidates show on your printed ballot. The reason this is critical is that the only candidates that will show up on your ballot are the ones nominated for the party for which you are registered. In the case that you are registered as No Party Preference (and 24% of Marin County Voters choose this option) you will NOT SEE ANY candidates for President during the primary.

If you are a registered Republican Party, Democratic Party, Green Party, American Independent Party, Libertarian Party, or The Peace and Freedom Party you will only see the nominees for the specific party on your ballot. If your preference is to vote for a different candidate than shows up on your ballot, you have options.

What to do?

Thankfully there is a very handy site at the California Secretary of State website that will walk you through all of your options. Click HERE. Please do not reach out to me with any questions. I am not an expert and would consult the website myself!

The primary is on March 5th and if you want to re-register with a different party based on your voting preference you need to re-register online by February 20th. If you miss this deadline, don’t freak out, since you have up until March 5th to do so at a Voting Center in person. And if you decide to switch parties to cast your preferred vote, you can switch back right after the election.

This situation of only the nominees for the party for which you are registered is unique to Presidential Primaries so rest assured, the rest of your ballot is the same for every voter. All voters in California now receive a Vote By Mail ballot. 

Cathleen provided more detail in our interview. The program is on tomorrow (Wednesday, January 10th at 9 AM). 

A big thank you to Cathleen, who has served on the Marin County Election Advisory Committee for the past ten years. 

Want to get youth some mad skillz?  
The Dance Palace in collaboration with the Tomales Bay Youth Center and business and marketing consultant Leonard Weingarten are doing a program called “Skillz that Pay” which starts in February and will run from 4-5 PM on Mondays through early April. This will introduce 7th, 8th and 9th graders to skills that they can use to enter the workforce. Students that complete the program will be placed in a summer job with a local employer. Sounds like a win, win, win situation to me! Learn more HERE if you are, or know of a youth who would benefit, or if you have a business and can offer a position to a young person this summer.

Mt. Vision Antenna Update
You may have observed that KWMR was not broadcasting from 90.5 FM or 92.3 FM on Friday, January 5th earlier in the day. Richard Dillman and James Mohri along with AJM General were able to replace the repaired antenna. The temporary antenna was running on reduced power, and we are back to where we were originally now. So for those of you on the outside of our broadcast area, you may notice a difference.

__________________________Waylon Update_________________________________

Waylon V 2.1

I am not going to lie, I had a great deal of trepidation after not having our little buddy for a month. Would he be a totally different creature? Would he still like us? Would we be able to uphold the training to help him stay on his trajectory? 

When we got to Teri’s place she had Waylon on a leash and he was clearly excited once he got a whiff of his people. But he stayed pretty calm until she released him for some welcoming hugs. We then proceeded to walk to the park for some human training. 

Teri Balestrieri, me, and Waylon on our training walk.  photo:  Ken Eichstaedt

My overall observation after him being home since Wednesday of last week is that he is responding well to the training, and we are doing pretty well being consistent and continuing to work on the reactive tendencies. His confidence is up, he is far less vocal, and pipes down immediately with a good solid “quiet!” Teri is coming out this weekend for some followup and to check out Waylon’s home environment. We have had some good progress since being home and I look forward to sticking to the program.

What I learned about his reactivity to vehicles is that what we were doing was part of the problem, creating a feedback loop that perpetuated the reactive behavior. Waylon is a sensitive dog and wants to look out for his people. When a big loud vehicle (the type that set him off) would approach, I would tighten up on the leash and sometimes stand over him, holding him between my legs. I believe this led Waylon to believe that I must be terrified of the oncoming vehicle, and he wanted to take it on to protect me. Now with a proper collar (not a harness, meant for a dog to pull a sled), I can keep a loose hold on the leash and encourage him to not be concerned. Baby steps, more work to be done.

When Teri is in Olema I will interview her and feature that as an upcoming program on KWMR.  Yes, you can teach on older dog, new tricks! Even if the old dog is me!

Amanda Eichstaedt
Station Manager/Executive Director

p.s. Dan Hoyle is returning to West Marin with his new show Border People on Saturday, January 27 . Dan is an accomplished performer and son of two of my favorite people, Geoff Hoyle and Mary Winegarden. Dan is an amazing performer and his provocative theatre style is well worth checking out.

p.p.s. Hey Calendar Club members! Your calendars are delayed since after KWMR pointed out the error on January 2024 (mentioned in the Round Up last week) the manufacturer discovered that they had made the same error for January 2025 and had to reprint ALL the 2024 calendars. Hang tight, they are on their way soon!