The Annual Don Q Awards for a number of different reasons

Each year, as my last article for that year, I present my Annual Don Q Awards for a number of different reasons: Outstanding, good, not so good, bad, serious, funny, dumb, head-scratching, are-you-kidding, etc.
Those annual awards are presented to all kinds of people or places or things for what has occurred throughout the year. It’s an interesting way to end the year, so here are my 2011 winners:

Area’s Longest Running Expenditure:
Same as last year: The Galena Creek Bridge on I-580 in Pleasant Valley. It has cost mega millions and has been under construction for years. A perfect example of how to endlessly spend taxpayer money.

Area’s Most Badly Needed Road Maintenance:
The southbound portion of the U.S. 395 freeway in Reno. It is in miserable shape with all kinds of pot holes and a zillion cracks in the pavement. Some of the money being spent on that bridge should be used there.

Best Addition To A Manhattan Cocktail:
The Bing Cherries that we canned in brandy this summer. They make a great addition to a Manhattan, but I discovered that those cherries are just like eating Cashews: You can’t stop with only one.

Best Area To Find Pine Nuts:
This year, that area was at the top of Sunrise Pass, which is east of the end of Johnson Lane in Douglas County. Sal and Catali Quilici of Dayton and Elaine and I returned from there with many hundreds of those tiny treats.

Best Tour of Rural Nevada:
We took Elaine’s Mom on her first-ever visit to rural Nevada in mid-May. On that trip, she visited Gerlach, Fallon, Austin, Eureka, Ely, Great Basin National Park, Tonopah, Hawthorne and Yerington. She had a ball.

Best New Neighbors:
Jean Ann Westfall is the new neighbor next door and Stephanie Parker is the new neighbor on the corner. They both make a great addition to the neighborhood, plus they also like an afternoon cocktail. Right on!

Biggest Winner:
Geno Savini, age 14, of Reno, a junior member of the Ormsby Sportsmen’s Association, who was present when his name was drawn for an impressive $340 in the OSA monthly “Skins” drawing. The largest amount ever won!

Favorite Eating Out Location:
Garibaldi’s on Carson Street. Everything on their menu is superb. My favorites are the Won Ton Shrimp appetizer, together with piping hot bread and either Calamari Steak, Veal with Lobster or Rib Eye Steak.

Favorite Second Hand Store:
“Nifty Thrifty” in the older portion of Portola, California. It is run by the hospital auxiliary and offers all kinds of neat purchases at great-reduced prices, especially on their 50-percent-off sales days.

Going, Going, Gone No. 1:
I believe that in this day and age of the Internet, newspapers will some day go the same way as dial telephones, dimmer switches on floorboards, home visits by doctors, manual typewriters and slide rules.

Going, Going, Gone No. 2:
With Email and Bill Pay so easy to use on the Internet, there is little reason to mail letters to friends/relatives or to send checks to pay your bills. I believe the U.S. Postal Service will some day also be a thing of the past.

Good News and Bad News:
The good news: Bob McCulloch of Carson City bagged a very nice six-point bull elk on his hunting trip to the Ely area of Eastern Nevada. The bad news: He got “walking pneumonia” on that hunting trip.

Leaf Raking Record:
Last fall we raked up 25 large plastic bags of leaves from our front yard. Most of those miserable leaves came from large elm trees to the west of us, where the residents didn’t bother to rake their yards.

Longest Running Dinner:
The three-hour, multi-course dinner eight of us enjoyed at a small, out-of-the-way restaurant in Lugano, Italy which opened on a Tuesday night just for us. The dinner included appetizers, salads, pasta, chicken, veal and beef.

Most Enjoyable Project:
The photo calendar that Elaine and I created for relatives and close friends. We spent a ton of time browsing through hundreds of digital photos to select the 12 best for each month of the 2012 calendar. It was fun!

Most Hated Thief:
The squirrel that stole the only four apples that we had growing on our apple tree at the Quilici Cabin near Davis Lake. We had watched them slowly grow in size throughout the summer, and then one day, they were gone!

Most Insane Drivers:
All of the madly racing scooters, motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses on the streets in the major cities of Italy where it is apparent that traffic lights, stop signs, travel lanes and speed limits are only for the timid or the tourists.

Most Spectacular Sunrise:
The first-morning light in Cortina, Italy on the snow covered Dolomite Mountains in the background and the lighted Catholic Church steeple in the dark foreground. A photo of that scene became our 2011 Christmas card.

No Pride In Where They Live:
The many homes and yards where it is obvious that the residents or tenants and landlords are indifferent or uncaring about taking pride in them. Unfortunately, there are many of them in the older parts of Carson City.

Recommendation for a Hunting Change:
One way to lessen the furor over the newly implemented Back Bear hunting season would be to restrict bear hunting to only the east side of U.S. 395. It would sure ease a lot of stress for the folks in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

She Did It To Me Once Again:
For the third year in a row, Elaine out fished me when we fished for Mackinaw (Lake) Trout at Lake Tahoe with our good friend and sport fishing guide Gene St. Denis of Blue Ribbon Charters. Three times!

Stay Away From Us:
The sow bear with triplet cubs and the sow bear with twin cubs who were frequent visitors all summer at a neighbor’s cabin, just down the hillside from our cabin. We didn’t need those seven visitors at nighttime.

Two New and Special Friends:
Len and Donna Bochicchio, who split their time each year between their home in Reno and their second home at Lake Como in Italy. They were very gracious hosts when four of us were in Italy in October.

Well Done To Two Hard Workers:
Kirk Caraway and Jeff Munson for all their hard work in making websites www.carsonnow.org and www.southtahoenow.com great places to go to for the latest and most complete news in those areas. Nice job, guys!

You’ll Be Missed:
The mule deer buck with his enormous antlers and a crooked left front leg who was a frequent visitor at our cabin for three straight years. This year, he was a “No Show” and we are afraid that he is gone forever.

You Should Have Stayed Home:
Brent Hettrick bought a luggage rack for his large SUV, loaded it with the family luggage and drove his family to Disneyland. When he tried to park in an underground garage, the low ceiling tore off the rack and put a big dent in his rooftop. Plus, an hour later, he got a ticket for speeding. Oops!

Finally:
Have a Happy New Year and make at least one New Year’s Resolution. Then be sure to carry it out in 2012.

— Don Quilici is the Outdoor editor for Carson Now and South Tahoe Now. He can be reached at donquilici@hotmail.com.