Snoopy First Time at Wardlaw
All posts by jah
Rowing in the Gloaming
We saw another porpoise this evening when we rowed, but I didn’t have my camera ready at that time. I still got some nice shots of the gloaming. The last two pictures were courtesy of fellow rower Darren.
Back and Front Yard Garden Tour
While not as vibrant as Spring, this is around the time of the equinox and the beginning of Autumn. There are amazing blooms from the succulents in the front yard which we love, but some of the changing colors (not the ones typical of the ones “leafers” look for in New England) are in flux in the background, so there’s a lot of green right now, which I keep arguing IS a color. Soon there will be a lot of blue from the rosemary bushes, and some of the other “green blobs” will have white and yellow flowers as the two mature plum trees lose most of their leaves, taking some of our privacy away in one direction for a few months. The lemon tree is about to have tons of ripening take place too.
Backyard:
Front yard:
Snowball’s 12th Birthday
Just over two years ago we got a call from our veterinarian who was upset that she was asked to put down a blind, diabetic dog in a nearby town just because his guardian got tired of him. He was only NINE years old. When he first arrived, he was calm but kind of a mess. His blood sugar was all over the place so we had to do some testing to determine what he would need and get the supplies. We literally had to put a diaper on him because he had uncontrolled urination from his unchecked diabetes and of course, he wasn’t familiar with the layout of our house.
We got him on a steady regiment of long-acting insulin and he rarely flinches when we administer it to him when he eats. He has grown into an integral part of our family and is PERFECTLY house-trained. He has a great appetite and obediently sits for his treats, knows his NEW name Snowball, and has amazing hearing, detecting our cars and gates before anyone else. Not only does he know the layout of our entire house and yard, but he is always clean and extremely patient when I groom him. He slimmed down long ago because of his improved diet and exercise. His fur is never stained with urine and of course, we never keep him in a crate, which had only set him up to fail at his previous home. I’m so happy that he’s thriving at 12 today, even though he did recently get diagnosed with glaucoma on top of his pre-existing blindness, so we also have to give him eye drops to decrease the eye pressure and make sure he’s not in any pain. He regularly shares his bed with other dogs and he’s a handsome devil. When we were asked last year to take in another blind dog from the same veterinarian, we didn’t hesitate, so now we have Snowball and Matty, and they are both amazing.
Happy birthday Snowball!
Serious Shampooing
I take shampooing my beard seriously. Not judging, but this is NOT dye.
Vallejo Chambers Association Mixer
On behalf of Humane Society of the North Bay, attended a mixer for Solano County Chambers of Commerce.
National News – Sunol Glen School District Bans Pride Flag
Thank you to Amaya Wooding and Austin Bruckner Carrillo for standing up for inclusivity and your activism in general. I have very strong ties since childhood to both Sunol and Castro Valley, so this means a lot to me as a gay man who lived and worked many years of my life in CV, Hayward, and Fremont. We are on the right side of history!
George Floyd Common Sense
It’s been a number of years since the George Floyd protests in 2020 and the shooting of Sean Monterrosa, which has been in the news a lot. Sean was not from Vallejo, but he was protesting the police brutality in Vallejo and became the next victim of a fatal officer-involved shooting of an unarmed person as a result. That was the last death of its kind in Vallejo to date. We had a new police chief, Shawny Williams, whom progressives mostly admired as he attempted to reform the Vallejo Police Department (VPD) after that, but he resigned eventually in what many of us believe was a result of his being chased out of town by the Vallejo Police Union (VPOA) with numerous racist threats (Shawny Williams is African-American).
In June 2023 there was the next officer-involved shooting of an unarmed person that made the news. Here is the link to the Vallejo Sun article. I’m pleased with the VPD decision.
So many asked me why I was SO UPSET that this Vallejo police officer fired shots at this alleged thief after I attended the VPD Town Hall at 4pm on a weekday. The timing of the town hall was suspect, but in fairness to VPD, they said all the evidence and investigation into the officer’s conduct was preliminary.
I asked myself “Was the cop in danger?” There were at least 5 unarmed AFTER-HOURS thieves in a closed commercial property. The thieves of course were NOT from Vallejo, but the property was closed up and there probably wasn’t even any cash in there. So the only thief who remained (the others jumped the fences to get away) drove forward since there was no other direction he could go. As a result, he was shot IN THE FACE by an officer who ran over to him. Is that the best practice for police officers? I thought shooting at fleeing unarmed thieves was not a reason to start gunfire, as is the case in every other country where guns are not fetishized. The car barely touched the cop on its way out of the parking space (you can watch the video), as clearly evidenced by the fact that the police officer continued to shoot directly toward the face of the UNARMED young man until his face was hit. No attempts were made at the tires of the car based on the ballistics, but there were a number of bullet holes in the car, which could have also caused it to explode. The alleged thief had surgery and survived, but a few inches over and he’d be dead for what? Stealing CANDY BARS?
At the VPD Town Hall on the shooting, we were told that the burglary of an EMPTY store with no employees present and with NO weapons except the crowbar used to enter the EMPTY store was considered a “Priority 1,” it made me wonder what priority a kidnapping, rape, or murder would have been. Would it have taken precedence over a nonviolent empty store being robbed in a city of 126,000? I’m not saying robbery is okay, but it’s NOT worth killing someone over!
Now VPD has wisely banned shooting at vehicles altogether, which would have made sense in this case also. It’s not like the license plate of the vehicle that attempted to escape wasn’t immediately discernable with the body cam and dashcam. Let’s hope that bit by bit common sense will prevail and guns will only be pulled out of police holsters when actual threats of violence toward PEOPLE are happening.
Dog Reunion at Hugh’s House
Our dogs loved hanging out at Hugh’s renovated yard with a new lawn with his dogs, whom our dogs know well. His front yard and backyard look fabulous with new fencing, gravel, lots of new plants, and a level, grassy area that his dogs are in heaven over.
Three years ago today Hugh helped us enormously in our move to Vallejo, becoming his neighbor.
3 Year Vallejo Anniversary
I’m feeling philosophical today on the THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of us moving to Vallejo! It’s been great buying a place here and setting roots. I was already very familiar with the Bay Area, having lived about half of my life in my home state in this part of California, but after years of considering the geographic convenience, natural beauty, weather, culture, racial diversity, robust queer community, affordability, and other factors, choosing to move to Vallejo was one of the best decisions we ever made, especially finding a house that had all of the boxes checked. We were welcomed with open arms by our neighbors and folks online since it was in the beginning of Covid, prior to vaccinations, and during the orange skies of wildfires that had just burned down homes in other parts of Solano county, including the home of a friend of ours. In fact, when we went to our closing in Vacaville, there were homes STILL SMOLDERING. We have become heavily invested in our community and we’re trying to make the most of that now that the pandemic has waned. I love this city and all of the new friends we have made here. I hope to be an ambassador for this corner of the Bay Area and we are optimistic that with our activist friends, we can make this city, county, region, state, country, and world a better place in the future for our lives and future generations.
