Snoopy and I got approved to rent a house nearby in the Westpointe development of Glen Cove neighborhood in Vallejo starting next week. I’m glad I got approved, but of course it’s bittersweet under the circumstances. Having just become president of the community association for a second term, it made sense that I stay in the neighborhood, and my own home will be accessible for me to tend to the garden. I can also check mail with a modest bike ride. Thank you for all of the support my communities have given me. There is a lot to rebuild, but I feel weird asking for things. Last night I got a whole seven hours of sleep for the first time in two weeks since this nightmare began.
This e-card from fellow tobacco control activists really blew me away with its sweetness. It’s certainly nice to get such warm kudos for something one loves doing in otherwise dark times in one’s life. I’m so lucky to have found these volunteering opportunities here in the Bay Area and Solano County given that fighting Big Tobacco has been a passion of mine for decades.
Good job and good publicity for the upcoming Betty White fundraiser for HSNB in today’s Vallejo Times-Herald. Nice to get our picture in the paper from last year’s dinner.
For our neighborhood quarterly newsletter, I write the President’s Letter article these days. This quarter I actually wrote a few articles in this issue about what the GCCA volunteer Board does for our neighborhood. I’m proud of how professional our team delivers this online periodical each time. Check out the dynamic slide-show version of our newsletter here!
This morning my colleague at Glen Cove Community Association, Nancy, and I gave out prizes to the top three Christmas Light contest winners in our neighborhood of Vallejo. I was not one of the judges, but had the honor of handing out the prizes as President of GCCA. It turns out Shando and I knew Andy and Carlton who won the first prize, nominated by their development representative Dina (who joined us for the photo). Only at the 11th hour did Shando and I even realize we knew the first prize winners. Such a small world. They moved into their home a few weeks before we did in 2020. All the prize winners were wonderful and warm. We thank them for their spirit and spending a few minutes with us on Christmas Eve.
For the first time, Shando and I attended the Grand Victorian Homes Tour, although there are some exceptions to that specific style among the fabulous houses and structures on the tour. The Naval Chapel on Mare Island was one of them, and there were a few mixtures of Craftsman and Mid-Century Modern which were very appropriately included. It was great hanging out with friends who had a similar interest and who were willing to walk the downtown area to see more than a half-dozen of the homes participating. We ended up at the wine tasting place on Mare Island where the last two structures were located. Regrettably, due to it being so close to the winter solstice, it got dark after the first few hours, so we did not take in the full view of many of the homes, but knowing the city better now, I can imagine what some of the views would be on a regular basis, including the amazing sunsets from many vantage points. As with the Garden Tour that happens each May, I loved getting decorating ideas and talking about utilitarian things with other geeks of that nature.
I’m also glad that the funds for this event go to a good cause, and furthering cultural awareness in Vallejo.
Here are some of the details that we loved. In the mid-century modern house, there was an Audrey Hepburn room and a Marilyn Monroe room with their own xmas trees. The Audrey one has her costume for Breakfast at Tiffany’s if you look closely.:
Our Glen Cove Community Association installed this lovely community board up by the shopping center that one sees as one enters our neighborhood. The intention is to keep the public aware of our goings-on. The first sign that was shipped to us was damaged on top, so GCCA brought me the old stand. They figured that since I had offered to save on storage costs for the organization by using space in my garage, I’d take this extra piece as well. Using my garage as storage also saves me time when we get the microphone equipment ready for the community meetings. So instead of putting this weather-friendly post outside, I found a place to repurpose it IMMEDIATELY, and I love the results. This makes for a very stable plant holder!
Here in Vallejo, there’s a fabulous restaurant called Provisions that we rented out for our holiday party. Many of our current Board members/development representatives were able to attend with their plus ones.
Most of us who attended are featured in these pictures, but after two attendees left I remembered to start taking pictures.
I’m returning to my old stomping grounds on Tuesday, December 12, to speak about a timely Tobacco Retail License update for that city. My alma mater, James Logan High School is there (the only high school in town still), so many formidable years of my life were shaped by Union City, where I also lived.
Cumulatively I also lived in the adjacent cities of Hayward and Fremont for decades. The goal is to thwart Big Tobacco from continuing to sell poison to youth illegally.
Even if one child is spared the addiction of nicotine addiction for his or her life, this journey to the East Bay will be worthwhile.
Unless one’s looking for it, one cannot imagine what branding is being used to market to kids, becoming environmental waste clogging our waterways, manufactured with cheap metals, plastics, battery acid, and other toxic, carcinogenic, leaking substances, including containers that will take thousands of years to decompose. Even if one child is spared the addiction of nicotine addiction for his or her life, this journey to the East Bay will be worthwhile.
Thanks to the volunteers who helped out and donated their time, including my husband, Shando. He brought Snoopy and Peaches in the morning.
This video also gives some perspective of the fabulous space we were graciously permitted to use for our event, Tony’s Cakes is going to move to 418 Georgia Street, Vallejo from their current location on Springs Road. This is all of course for the benefit of HSNB.
I’m grateful that every year we have at least one family bring cats for HSNB’s Photos with Santa. This year was no exception. Santa was absolutely fawning over this kitten and another cat that this family brought.
Santa almost made Mrs. Claus jealous when he danced with his neighbor. Uh oh! Drama!
I stole this idea from Mrs. Claus and Trundy, but the Santas gave me a chance to do a cute ELF MOMENT with my husband.
Vallejo Mayor Robert McConnell, adorned in his Madhatter Parade garb, joined the Santas for some photos.
This is a group of photos with some of the kids and families I photographed myself. Some of these kids start as super shy, so we try to bring them casually up to the Santas to meet them, offering to allow them to remain with their parents if they prefer. Meanwhile, other kids run over and immediately reach out to hug the Santas, which just “sleighs” me. I have so many good memories from these events. I just wished I could capture more of these moments, but we were very busy on a good day to raise funds for homeless cats and dogs in our area.
Here are some of the other precious dog pictures from yesterday with the Santas for HSNB in Vallejo. The grey Pit, Misty, was adopted from HSNB when she was 4 months old. She’s now 11!
