Now that winter is just around the corner, here's a few of the California Desert's art festivals that are coming Up:

Borrego Springs Art Festival, Oct. 22-25.  More info: www.BorregoSpringsChamber.com

Death Valley Art Festival, March 14-14, 2010.  More info:www.deathvalleychamber.org

The Southwest Art Festival--Indio, Jan.29-31, 2010.  Info:  www.southwestartsfest.com

La Quinta Art Festival, March 11-14, 2010.  Info: www.lqaf.com

Indian Wells Art Festival, April 204, 2010.  Info: www.indianwellsartfestival.com

The Art Place Art Walk, first Friday of every month 5-8 pm at The Art Place, 41-801 Corporate Way, Palm Desert. Info: (760) 776-2268

VillageFest in Downtown Palm Springs, every Thursday evening on Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs.  www.villegefest.org

College of the Desert  Street Fair, weekend mornings on the campus. Info: www.codstreetfair.net

Over the past five years, musicians and recording companies from the desert, and from around the country, have donated several thousand new CD's to our Marines through Operation Sun Runner, working through the Armed Services YMCA, Twentynine Palms

Marines stationed overseas often look forward very much to receiving care packages from home. 

If you are a musician and would like to donate CDs to Operation Sun Runner, please send them to:  Operation Sun Runner, C/O The Sun Runner Magazine, 61855 29 Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, CA   92252

Campgrounds that were closed for the summer reopened for public use on Friday.

Visiters seeking to make camping reservations should call Reserve America, the National Park Service's camping reservation contractor, at (877) 444-6777 or visit www.recreation.gov.  Otherwise park campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Joshua Tree National Park, where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet, is spectacular in the fall, winter and spring months.  It's a bit hot during the summer.  For information, visit the park site at www.nps.gov/jotr or call (760) 367-5500.

All military veterans and their families were invited to see Governor Schwarzenegger sign into law AB 717 on Friday at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Plams.  This bill, championed by 65th District Assemblyman Paul Cook, establishes March 30 of each year as Welcome Home Vietnam Veteran's Day. The signing ceremony took place outside the headquarters building on the General's Lawn.   More information about this new bill is available online at www.aroundthe capitol.com/Bills/AB_717.

The most significant impact the Marine Corps Air Ground combat Center has on Twentynine Palms and surrounding areas could be in population, according to a report by combat center  officials.  "Base employees, dependents and retirees form the majority of the Twentynine Palms population," the report notes.

Using 2005 figures, the latest athat were available, the report estimates of the 27,387 people in Twentynine Palms, 69 per cent were directly employed, supported or related to the military in some way.  The report also points out that 29.5 per cent of the city's population is comprised of veterans.

As a Realtor in the Hi-Desert, I have had the personal honor of working with many Marine and Navy homebuyers in the area--many first time buyers--and look forward to working with our fine Marines and Sailors in the future.

Signed by the President June 30, this bill offers education benefits worth an average of $80,000--double the value of those in the previous program.  It covers the full costs of tuition and books, paid directly to the school, and provides a variable stipend for living expenses.

The original GI Bill signed by FDR in 1944 helped almost 8 million combat veterans afford an education.  According to a 1988 congressional study, every dollar spent on education benefits under the original bill added seven dollars to the national economy in terms of productivity, comsumer spending and tax revenue.

Knowing  the relationship between the level of education and the level of income, this new bill is good news for the future housing market.

You won't find many 15 and 16 year olds willing to spend their summer without cell phones, TV, and other amenities, but 11 kids from across America did just that, traveling the country by bicycle and sleeping on thin rubber mats most nights.

The group from Overland Summer Programs spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in 29 Palms July 29, only their third night in a hotel since leaving Savannah, GA June 21.  From 29 Palms they headed to Lucerne Valley, traversed the Angeles National Foreest before making their way August 1 to Santa Monica.

Their path can be followed  at www.meganbentzin.com, which was created as part of a fund-raiser for children's charity.

The Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms employs thousands of people a report from the base Community Impact Assessment points out.  In 2006 about 11,967 military members and civilians were employed by the base.  Using a formula devised from the Base Realignments andClosures program, the report's authors calculate 19,550 jobs are created in the wider region incirectly because of the Marine base population.

The reoprt cites dozens of orgaizations on base that provide volunteer labor for projects ranging from the Red Cross and the rape hotline to Toys for Tots.  Marines, civilians and teir families from the combat center donated 1862 pints of blood in 2006.  Our Marines make mighty fine neighbors!

I read an article in the local paper that a rabid bat was found in Morongo Valley (San Bernardino County, CA) last week.  There have been three transmissions of rabies from bats to people in San Bernardino County this year, with nine cases last year.  Its interesting that the last transmission of rabies from a dog to a human in this cxounty was in 1948; the last transmission from a cat to a human in this county was in 1939.  I guess those vaccines for our pets really work.

When I first  started in real estate,, I'd have potential clients come in to the office, most first time buyers, looking for information as to how to buy a house.  I'd tell them that first they need to do is find a lender to determine if they can qualify to buy and for how much.  I'd refer them to a local mortgage broker, and never hear from them again.  My broker told me that this particular mortgage broker had established Realtors that (he or she) had an established relaitionship with, and my "buyers" were sent to them.  Does this sound familiar?

An interesting note on the history of the telephone.  In the early days of the telephone, to make a call you had to go through an operator.  In the late 1800's there was an undertaker who had reason to beleive that the local telephone operator was dirverting calls, which where intended for him, to other undertakeers.  This inspired him to invent the dialing system that has been used ever since.