Catching our breath this week after the one-two punch of Chief Joseph Days and Wallowa County Fair. I believe we are on the downward side of summer events and getting ready to head into fall activities.

Cooler weather will be welcomed by everyone when it finally arrives, after an inordinately hot summer and, of course, the smoke. No doubt all of us could have done without the added particulants in the air.

We had a great time at the fair. It was another opportunity to meet a number of folks we haven’t bumped into previously. The children who participated are to be commended for their hard work, and there aren’t enough words to thank the army of volunteers who make it possible.

There were a couple things that would have added a nice touch, but I’m taking the sign seriously that says if you haven’t volunteered, you can’t complain. Well, actually I did volunteer to take the auction photos Saturday night, so perhaps I’ve earned a bit of credibility.

Next year, we’ll see if we can’t bring some of the resources of the newspaper to bear to help make the fair even better than it already is.

I WANTED TO share something helpful for all of the businesses in the county, particularly if you’ve moved in the past 10 years. We had been fielding a number of somewhat odd phone calls from people wondering if the Chieftain were open.

Ummm … yes, regular business hours here.

“Well I’m at your front door, and no one is here,” a gentleman told me a while back.

“Not possible,” I said. “I’m sitting at my desk and the front door is open.”

Turns out, his GPS had taken him to the old Chieftain address up the street. This has happened a number of times in past few months, so I asked our crack online time at EOM to look into it. Sure enough, Google Maps did not have our new address; Apple Maps did.

That has been corrected, but it got me to thinking how many other businesses might be in the same boat.

So check it out. Who knows who might be looking for you?

THANKS AND A hat tip to Oregon Department of Transportation for painting stripes along Hwy. 82 leading into La Grande. Lack of stripes on roadways is a major pet peeve of mine. Have you ever noticed how difficult it is for drivers to judge where they should be on any paved stretch when there are no stripes?

Having had the benefit of a bit of professional driver training for a city transit department, I generally keep as far to the right as possible without leaving the roadway — as taught. It seems almost everyone else uses the middle of the road, which makes for interesting situations.

Not to mention the safety aspect of having a line to follow at night or in bad weather conditions. Having lived for a number of years in the Tule fog of Central California, I have great respect for those innocuous painted lines.

Some years back, environmental regulations prompted most paint for road stripes to be modified to the point where it doesn’t last as long. Annual application was plenty. These days, it seems like the stripes should be redone about every three months.