Carlene, Dean and Wendy invited us to have an al fresco dinner with them on a lovely summer night with live jazz music.
Cafe at Benicia Inn Dinner
Glen Cove Rental Area Walk
We did another neighborhood walk with Bonnie, Snoopy and the fosters Millie and Dolly.
The rental that we’re still stuck in while the house is being renovated is in another part of the Glen Cove neighborhood of Vallejo. We enjoy some of the walks in the area, although the foxtails this time of year are still a big worry, as well as burrs, which seem to be ubiquitous.
Vallejo Gay Network Pool Party in Benicia
Pictures I took:
Pictures from other attendees:
Three Weekend Rows
It’s been a while, but I did a double row on Sunday as well.
Foster Vondra Gets a New Home
Former adopters from HSNB took Vondra in as a foster-to-adopt candidate, so we wish her the best of luck. She had a rough start, but is completely healed from the stitches and her hair is growing back in.
Benicia Peddler’s Fair 2025
Once again this year, I tabled for a little while with fellow volunteers at Humane Society of the North Bay. Here are the pictures I took:
Here are some of the pictures fellow volunteer Lisa Szucs took:
Mass Shooting at 345 Park Avenue
Sometimes I think I’m the luckiest man in the world when it comes to catastrophes I avoided, and sometimes things like the fire that happened to me that killed five of my dogs, nine days after a ten-year breakup, really put me in my place. I have told many people that I was interviewed for a job on the 76th floor of the South Tower in 2001, FIVE weeks before 9/11. I have the photo ID from entering the building and blogged about the whole thing. I’m so grateful I did NOT get that job.
I also survived a bomb threat at one of the major law firms in downtown San Francisco on the 29th floor around 2009, as a litigant came in with a flashing belt yards away from my office.
So it gave me a bit of a chill when I heard the address of this recent midtown Manhattan mass shooting that happened. 345 Park Avenue was my in-person office for years, and it was literally my first job ever in Manhattan when I moved there in the Summer of 1988 (then aged 20). For 19 years, I continued to work in and eventually moved to Manhattan. I know I’m far removed from the situation now, but it still gives me a bit of a chill. The corner of that SAME building is also known for being where Marilyn Monroe did her white dress twirl over the subway grades. Small world, eh?
ACLU Lobbying with Assemblymember Wilson
After a lovely lunch in downtown Suisun, a group of us from the Norcal ACLU Chapter had the privilege of meeting with State Assemblymember Lori Wilson to discuss pending legislation in Sacramento, including measures such as the problem with masked and unidentified “officers” and preventing assistance to the unhoused from being criminalized, which some municipalities have attempted to do. Assemblymember Wilson and her staff were terrific, as always. This was my third time meeting with her in the last few years. The other two times for me were with the American Heart Association on tobacco industry legislation. I love melding minds with such dedicated activists. From left to right are Kaila, me, Assemblymember Wilson, Tanisha, Cliff, and Kimberlee in the group photo.
These pictures include the decor in the waiting room and pictures Shea took of me. I didn’t dress up too fancily, but it was worth seeing what I looked like. I ditched the blazer because it was 100 degrees in Suisun that day. I look drunk in one of the pictures, but you get the idea..
Tobacco Free Solano at Vallejo Health Fair
I stopped by the Vallejo JFK Library’s Joseph Room, where they were hosting a Health Fair. I tabled a bit with Tobacco Free Solano (see my T-shirt), who I’ve volunteered with as a Co-Chair for several years.
The video below is a little video panorama of the Health Fair that the Vallejo JFK Library was hosting in the Joseph Room earlier this week. I made to that Tobacco Free Solano was in attendance since it was only a tiny blurb in the Vallejo Weekly. This was early on as it was getting set up, but a very cool idea and networking opportunity for local agencies and other non-profits.
Lazybear Nightlife
Nightlife this week at Lazybear in Guerneville.
We’re not kidding when we say we have “box office seats” from the patio of the room we rent at the resort when it comes to events that take place during Lazybear. Here is Shea comfortably in our unit while John Waters’ 1988 Hairspray begins.