All posts by jah

Wellfleet Renovation Status

Covering the HVAC, which was getting leaves and fruit dropping from the neighbor’s tree. I want the tree hangover to be trimmed because every year this causes a lot of work for me, although at least I was able to put it in compost and ate a few of the fruits.

HVAC was put in and has power, but the vents are not in the most ideal places. I wanted to hang a specific tapestry in this area, but now I will not be able to because of the placement of this vent that was not there before.

Painting of the rooms has been done. We are pleased with the final green and gray colors. The purple of the big room is very consistent with how I bought the house, and I love it.

I’m very concerned about rodents getting into the crawl space, as that’s what caused the fire. The wires must be covered with metal to be impenetrable.

After moving in these trees were dramatically pruned so that the window overlooking the next door neighbor and my house was fully exposed. Now that they are finally growing back, I hope they are never pruned again, although I will be adding some privacy to a few areas.

Weekend Dog Content

Foster maltipoo Millie doesn’t like to crowd us on the bed, so she goes to the very edge and even stretches upside down, as seen here in these pictures. Even though she’s one of the tiniest dogs I’ve ever fostered (she’s mostly fur), she’s very agile, so she gets in and out of bed and jumps off and on like it’s nothing. I’ve got to take her to the vet soon to check out what’s going on with the growths in her ear. I’m hoping they are benign. We think she’s about five years old.

Meanwhile, the newest foster, cream-colored chihuahua Marshall, is acclimating well. He’s young, healthy, and looking for a permanent home. He’s shy at first, but incredibly affectionate once he trusts a person. He is already neutered and house-trained, and he has yet to bark once, so definitely not yappy! He gets along very well with other dogs, as you’ll see in the videos where he’s very playful.

Fosters Dolly and Marshall (who only recently met each other) start off wrestling in bed, and then Snoopy joins them….until someone yelps. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, my parents used to say.

Here are Snoopy and the three foster dogs resting in the backyard of the rental this morning.

Wellfleet Garden Needs Help

We watered the garden and straightened up some plants that tipped over.

Pruning that I have to do on the bushes the dead branches of this plum tree are going to be important, especially because some of the dead branches reach over the back fence. Otherwise, I did trim a bunch of branches that were growing THROUGH the fence this day.

Triple Weekend Rows

On Saturday, during my second row, which was the Skills Boat, we had four new or relatively new rowers, as well as a coxswain in training. It’s exciting to see new interest!

On Sunday we had a big stinky tanker (fuel) pass us by this morning when we rowed.

In this video from Saturday, I tried to capture some of the “rollers” that we get on the whaleboat from time to time when there’s a wake from a passing ship or speedboat, but nothing dramatic was captured in this short video. It’s still a perspective most Bay Area folks will never get from the water, though.

Disco Gala for Humane Society of the North Bay

As the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala was beginning last night, we took a panorama of the view from the Masonic Temple on top of the hill here in Vallejo.

At the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala at the Masonic Template in Vallejo, we had an incredible auctioneer. We raised a lot of money for the homeless cats and dogs in our area! As a volunteer Board member of the HSNB non-profit, I’m very proud of the work we do to try to save as many lives as possible, given the challenges created by circumstances and, in some cases, callous people.

Lots of disco and disco-adjacent music (like Dua Lipa that Tom Bilbo and Shea are dancing to) at the Humane Society of the North Bay’s Disco Gala.

Pictures we took while helping to set up:

Pictures we took once the gala was underway:

The video compilation below is over half an hour long, but it begins with me at the microphone introducing most of the HSNB Board and then the auctioneer.

Pictures from other folks:

September 2025 Dogs

Shea took this picture of me with the pack of FIVE (look carefully) a few days ago. It’s sort of an optical illusion. The three fosters are all there with Bonnie and Snoopy.

Three fosters are Millie (a small white Maltese-Poodle mix), Marshall (a cream-colored Chihuahua), and Dolly (a black Chihuahua with a white chest). The two guest dogs are Gracie and Lucy, whom I dog-sat again. Of course, our dogs are Bonnie and Snoopy.

August 2025 Dogs

We took in another very shy chihuahua (cream colored) named Marshall, who was not coping well with being in the shelter. He’s been painfully shy like Dolly was, but I don’t mind that he’s enjoying the freedom of the backyard a lot while we patiently get to know him. The dogs all get along with each other, and he’s going to hopefully trust Shea and me more to be affectionate soon, but at least for now, he’s curious and comfortable sleeping in doggie beds and enjoying the wonderful weather outside as much as he wants to. We had two pool days in Vallejo with the dearest of friends, catching up. This was last night, resting in the backyard of the rental (the house under renovation is getting closer and closer) with the five dogs, including the three fosters.

While we were at Lazybear we had a housesitter/dogsitter who took care of our fosters and our former foster who is now adopted, Perry!

August 2025 Selfies

A few of these were technically taken on my trip to Chicago, but there is no real context to them. I guess the exception is that my new friend Jonathan had the wherewithal to find me shoes that would fit me after I complained about my very sore feet after walking. I went to the thrift store he worked in, and he showed me this cool sailor shirt, which was in the same motif as the shirt I wore the night before when we went out to dinner with my friends Leo and Keith.