By BOB SYLVA, Sacramento Bee

Dennis Kercher, in pursuit of acerbic knowledge, in an almost Edenic plucking of fruit, in a zealous example of "locavorism," opens his front door and pads down the walkway to his prized vineyard of sorts.

In his long blue lab coat, a shirt and bow tie, a pair of wool, chalk-striped blue suit pants that probably belong to his father, Gabriel Clary strikes a slightly improbable figure in the wine department at Corti Brothers in Sacramento, Calif.

Scott Shields lives inconspicuously, if not elegantly, on a quiet, tree-lined street in Sacramento, Calif. Petals from an old camellia bush are splattered on his front steps. Outside his retreat, there are automobiles, leaf blowers, electric street lamps, cable-TV lines and friendly neighbors, their lives furnished by the clutter and discord of current events.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In an examination room equipped with hand bars, a full-length mirror, a few inspirational posters, Don Harway sits in a chair. He has on shorts. He usually wears shorts.

When Alex was 6 years old, a cancerous tumor took root near her lower spine. The child who loved to dance, who even now sometimes runs and dances in her sweetest dreams, would never walk again.