Pink pig serves as harbinger of the lazy days of summer

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By Don Callahan

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Would you believe summer is almost here? Would you believe in a pink pig barbecue? If you would, drive to Los Gatos Meats & Smokehouse, 575 University Ave. Talk to John Chiala, owner for almost 10 years. John uses the pig as a barbecue or smoker, smokes up to two 18-pound turkeys at one time in his pink pig, rents out the pig on a daily basis. The pig uses an electric starter, burns 10 different flavors of environmentally safe pellets that leave little or no ash; smoke comes out snout. Chiala also has a new Black Bull barbecue that operates the same way ... donating to Cupertino Host Lions Club for raffle prize at their annual fund-raising event.

Another summer activity--fly fishing ... barbless hooks ... pointless hooks--pointless hooks? Kurt Lemons, Upstream Fly Fishing owner at 54 N. Santa Cruz Ave., tells of a game he has come up with for serious fly-fishing people. First of all, fly fishing is a sport and not a food provider. Though it's catch-and-release and hooks are barbless, the hook still had sharp point. In high Sierra country, snow kills all food in streams; food chain starts from zero in spring time. Small fish bite at anything. And wiggle like crazy when caught. With barbless hook and no sharp point fish are uncatchable ... the game begins!

Cast to left of fishing hole; get strike; assume catch. Cast to right of hole; get strike; assume catch. Cast to either center or back to right; get strike; assume catch. Object is to get as many consecutive strikes as you have made casts. Kind of a "pointless" game. Lemons has set five consecutive strikes for five consecutive casts as a winning number ... been doing for a couple of years and has not been a winner! In the new fishing equipment department--Gortex wading boots and farmerjohns ... breathable ... impossible? Talk to Lemons.

By the numbers--Green Valley Disposal, established in 1918, ranked tenth largest among recycling companies in Silicon County. ... 80 million pounds of material collected during 1998. Using 1990 as base year, Los Gatos community is to reduce land fill usage by 50 percent by the year 2000--as of today our reduction is up to 40 percent. Per Phil Couche, general manager. Postscript: Spring Cleanup in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno. West of Highway 17, May 21. East of 17, May 28.

More numbers--Los Gatos Lodge ranked 46th largest hotel in Silicon Valley, based on sleeping rooms ... 128 sleeping rooms including 12 suites. Looking to expand to 300 sleeping rooms ... local and traveler trade up from 27 to 43percent ... 3,945 square feet of exhibit space ... four banquet rooms, 280 people capacity, 70 employees. They want to build a convention center in the near future. General manager, Ron Nelson, 41 years in the hotel business, very pleased with the renovation and expansion process since taking over three years ago.

Family Affair--A 1999 Family Business of the Year Award will be presented to the Bill Cilker family May 13 at the Fairmont Hotel. Bill, a 1937 graduate of Los Gatos High School, founded the family business, Cilker Orchards, nearly 50 years ago. All four of the Cilker children grew up in the business. Daughter, Elizabeth Smith, Los Gatos High School grad and son, Carl, own the Cornerstone Shopping Center.

Error--Last month's column should have had Zelda Sims owning Los Gatos Optical and selling to Christopher R. Cabrera, O.D., d.b.a. Los Gatos Optometry.

Speaking of Cabrera, his ex-neighbor, the First Church of Christ, Scientist Reading Room has been moved to the Christian Science Church location at 238 E. Main St. after being on N. Santa Cruz Avenue for more than 40 years.

Need a chauffeur? Want to go shopping, but don't want to drive? Want to go to the theater, but don't want to drive? Try My Driver. Wayne Higashi, one of the original founders of Adaptec, has parents that are, in his mind, too old to drive. Higashi hired a driver to be on call for his parents any time of the day or night ... take to their golf club ... to dinner ... to wherever. That became a little expensive and Higashi began to think of all people who could not, or should not, drive ... elderly, temporarily or permanently disabled, no car, and reasons why they would not take a cab or shuttle ... too expensive, shuttle schedules not flexible enough. It seemed reasonable that these people were curtailing their activities. Result? My Driver, a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week chauffeuring service ... timeshare a driver on a month-to-month basis. Subscribers have his personal phone number and call for his service any time of the day or night. Located at 160 Albright Way, Suite C, Los Gatos; phone 379-5200.

Invest in the stock market? Free website allows investors to post and access investor conference, call schedules for thousands of publicly held companies. BestCalls at 15951 Los Gatos Blvd., Ste. 16, is owned by Mark & Doug Coker, LGHS grads. The company started in March. Doug programmed their site and Mark is the administrator. Technology is called CallTracker. Institutional investors have always relied upon quarterly earnings conference calls as a primary research tool, a resource not always available for the individual shareholder. BestCalls offers the solution. Call Mark for more info. on this free service, 358-9540.,via email at info@bestcalls.com, the web at http://www.bestcalls.com.

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Got a tip for Don Callahan? Leave a message for him to call at 354-3110, ext. 31. Readers can also fax him at 354-3917 or email lgwt@metronews.com.

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