YOUTH INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC CONTEST

Your local Rotary Club is having a contest for solo instrumentalists. The first prize winner will be awarded $1,000 at the District 5190 Contest in Reno on May 18. The local contest is set for 6:30 p.m. April 9, the semi-finals will be April 16 and both will be held at Eagle Lake Village. The contest is open to area high school and home-schooled students ages 14 through 18. For more information, call Patty Gunderson at 310-2016. Applications are available at Lassen High School's counseling office and Leslie's Jewelry.

STILL OPEN

Sherry McBroome, owner of Sierra Jewelry in Uptown Susanville, reminds us they are still open. They recently replaced the windows in the front of their store, so it appeared they weren’t there. Be sure and check out their ad in this week’s paper for their Valentine’s specials.

HANDMADE HEADBANDS AND MORE

Susanville resident Julie Zacher, of Every Stitch A Love Stitch, loves to knit and crotchet. You will now find her handmade scarves, flower headbands (ever so popular), children’s denim clothes with frills, dish rags, aprons and more at Switch on Main Street. Be sure and check out her one-of-a-kind specialty items.

REGULAR SCHEDULE

C & S Waste Solutionsof Lassen County informs us they will keep their regular trash pick-up days this month even with the presidential holidays.

SERVING UP BEER IN SF

Lassen Ale Works has been asked to serve its beer at the San Francisco Beer Week Opening Celebration alongside a select group of 72 northern California breweries. The event is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 8. It's one of the largest annual gatherings of the region’s craft beer community. Manager of Lassen Ale Works Margaret Liddiard tells us it's a nine-day marathon of beer tastings, festivals and food-pairing dinners.

COMPUTER VIRUSES ON THE RISE

Zack Solis, owner of Quantum Computing on Main Street in Susanville, tells us he’s received several calls from local residents who have been the victim of Internet virus scams.

“Some of the latest scams will give you a blue screen and lock you out of your system unless you respond to the request to pay several hundreds of dollars to get your system running again,” he said, “you might even get a message that the freeze is being done by the government.”

Unfortunately, these scammers prey on your fear of losing all your data and have gotten money from many of their victims. If you experience this or any other computer malfunction there’s no need to panic. Most systems can be restored and data recovery by a professional computer technician can get you up and running in no time. If your system is acting sickly, call Quantum Computing at 257-8390 seven days a week and they’ll help figure out your emergency in no time.

RENEW YOUR COMMITMENT

Weekly, we dedicate this space to share with you news tidbits about our local businesses. Today, as you read through this column, pause for a moment to consider just what it takes for these fine businesses to survive in this county, especially given our current financial crisis. Simply said: we need them and they need us. For that to truly work, businesses have to provide consistently good service and selection at a fair price. In turn, we have to do the shopping.

Are ALL the players — merchants and shoppers — doing their part? My guess, pretty much across the board, is no, at least not consistently. So, isn’t this the perfect time to renew our commitment to our fine county, to help our community, to help ourselves? You know the old adage, “What goes around, comes around!” How true is when it comes to supporting our students and their extracurricular activities, our clubs and organizations, volunteer firefighters and even our local hospitals and health care.

So, here’s the challenge:

Forget what happened yesterday. Dismiss any prior, perhaps bias, perceptions you might be hanging onto. If someone shared with you what he or she thought was a bad experience at a local store, don’t give it much merit. Instead, go find out for yourself.

Let’s all do our part and work together to protect what we have. Better yet, let’s work together to nurture and grow what we have. The ball’s in our court.