We had a nice stroll to see the trolls under the bridge along the water with the dogs in downtown Vallejo. We then stopped by the Ferry Building for a snack and drink and watched the sunset over the water and Mare Island.
Shea took a close-up video of a rig under Highway 37 on Napa River:
I called into this committee about an ordinance that is being brought to Oakland (a historical leader in non-smoker rights) on both smoke-free bar patios and smoke-free multi-unit housing, which passed in Vallejo in 2022 unanimously, thanks to the hard work of our coalition.
Here are my comments, which I had to shorten to under ninety seconds:
“I’m Joseph Hayden with LGBTQ Minus Tobacco and the Alameda County Tobacco Control Coalition. Protecting bar staff should be a given. Staff members often must walk into patio areas of their places of employment. It is also unfair to patrons who want to breathe fresh air to have to be subjected to an uncontrolled amount of passive smoke in a confined area. We strongly support the passage of THIS aspect of the ordinance as written. I WANT to support the adoption of a Smokefree Multi-Unit Housing Ordinance, but the burden of proof to show the type of smoke that is being forced on should NOT fall on victims who may be wheelchair-bound or otherwise immune compromised from asthma, cancer, Covid, and any number of respiratory diseases. Smoke (which could be the CO-USE of Tobacco and cannabis) permeates through balconies, windows, and even electric sockets. Smokeless cannabis options abound. Oakland should prioritize the protection of its citizens rather than yielding to the cannabis industry’s talking points. Many California jurisdictions, including numerous cities in the Bay Area, have already implemented smoke-free multi-unit housing without a cannabis exception because that’s the only thing that makes sense. Thank you.”
This video has all the comments from our coalition and the cannabis lobby.
Hummingbirds are now regularly using the solar-powered artichoke-shaped fountain to stop fluttering, drink, and bathe. I happened to be sitting in the best spot when I took this footage.
New location for solar spinners, and new configuration:
This was almost dismissed as a weed, was at my real home, but Shea noticed it was a tomato plant. Now it’s about to turn red, which is exciting. It’s the first tomato I’ve actually helped grow, although there were several tomato plants producing when I first moved into my home from the previous owner.
Below you can see the two solar trees that I’m testing out. Their solar panels might have been covered for months by foliage or dirt.
We brought some plants from my home to the rental to work on repotting, etc. I’m using a donated Ethan Allen dining room table as my garden table, which I feel guilty about, but it is slightly warped and the chairs that came with it had some mold, so I discarded them without thinking months ago. In hindsight, they probably would have been worthwhile to re-upholster, but things were moving so quickly right after the fire and I made a lot of rash decisions.
Everything I do in this yard is to stage for my own home. I’m trying to enjoy the serenity of it even though I resent being here. I’d rather be at my house, but there is no electricity. At least at my house, there is some outdoor furniture that is comfortable to sit on and potable water from the hose. I don’t really need wifi since I have a mobile network, but it’s just not the same.
Even some of the new furniture I bought I now have some buyer’s remorse about. For example, the extra large recliner was a death trap. I can barely get out of it with all the strength in my legs. The dining room table I bought new looked perfect in the catalog, but what I could not see was that the tiny grooves on the top do nothing but collect crumbs and make the table impossible to wipe down. It’s like going backward to a tiled countertop after having quartz.
I was thrilled to see the roof start to go up on my house. I was so frustrated when I first went over to the garden because I didn’t see any progress, but then I noticed lots of material inside the house in preparation for a major step forward. I just need that roof, the walls, the windows, and the doors, and I can move back in, right?
I did a lot more pruning of plants like the rosemary and the younger plum tree so I can see the old fountain and cleared the metal steps. Watering the plants will hopefully make a huge difference, especially because I have never seen the lemon tree so distressed before. I ended up taking the most stressed small plants back to the rental for some TLC.
I unplugged some of the outdoor items like an Alexa, outdoor lights and the large fountain. I’ll bring the two solar trees to the rental to see if they are working also. One of them flickered on, so that would be a nice win.
I’m still finding random melted metal pieces that I don’t recognize from the “before time,” which might be an artistic touch to the garden at some point. Maybe I’ll make one piece out of several melted pieces.
Here’s a sign that progress is being made: the steps outside of the side yard:
Bonnie and Snoopy share a peaceful moment here while I do some gardening and read Barbra Streisand‘s first book “My Passion For Design.”
It’s a different experience to read that book this time now that I’m rebuilding a home after the fire I had. I’ve also been watching a lot of videos on home rebuilding after a fire just to understand the steps better. It’s heart-wrenching to see so many families go through what I went through, and I’m not even looking for families who lost pets like I did. Once in a while, I’ll hear about such things on the news and people losing their human family too. Shea made a good point the other day. Why do houses still burn? I’d really like to know that answer myself.
Tonight was one of the last evening rows of the year due to the completely unnecessary and bogus time change. I suppose the global rotation and our latitude have SOMETHING to do with the shortening daylight, but sheesh. Sailboats and sunsets make for a gorgeous evening, coupled with great weather continuing late into October. I keep reminding my row-mates how lucky we are to live here!
While I ultimately did go ahead with perhaps the first “couples” costumes of my life, I saw this hair at the thrift store which was the wrong color for Ernie’s hair. I ended up becoming Bert and Shea was Ernie as you’ll see. Shea has his own hair to spike!
During a Fairfield Court visit, I took a bunch of selfies. You can see that the courts in our county seat here in Solano are on very pretty grounds!
Today the Humane Society of the North Bay newsletter had an article on my adoption of Bonnie and her surgery this year after the fire that took the lives of five of my dogs in January. I’ll cross-post it here.
On January 18, 2024, Joseph Hayden’s home (back patio pictured above) was devastated by a fire, resulting in the loss of five beloved rescue dogs of the seven pictured here. Hayden was away helping a neighbor take her two dogs to the vet at the time. Two of Hayden’s dogs survived the fire, including a foster dog that is back with her original family (pictured on the ottoman near his leg) and Snoopy, the black dog with the white chest. Two of the dogs that died were blind. Most of them were seniors. Not getting to say goodbye to these souls that were lost before their time was what made this tragedy all the more devastating to a dog lover and board member of HSNB, on top of the complete devastation to the home.
Hayden could not imagine what the future would bring after this tragedy, particularly as he had only been out of a ten-year relationship for nine days at the time of the fire that left him with seven dogs. As the rebuild takes place, he focused on finding silver linings. During a Zoom board meeting for HSNB, Hayden overheard that there was a “difficult to place” blind dog that had been languishing in the shelter for over a year. He was immediately intrigued, as this seemed like a sign. She was even the same size and approximate color as the two blind dogs he had recently lost, but she was only about six years old and needed many drops a day in her eyes to address her constant pain caused by two types of permanent blindness. She was human-selective, meaning she growled at every stranger unless introduced in a very specific way. The fostering went well, and she immediately bonded with Snoopy, who surely was missing his many lost companions.
Just a few months after fostering and then adopting Bonnie, the recurring ophthalmologist appointments took a daunting turn. Bonnie’s extremely limited eyesight was suddenly no longer there at all. The glaucoma was so bad that she was in constant pain, which the eye drops could no longer manage to stay ahead of, even though they had increased to 22 drops a day over three intervals, together with an oral medication. Unfortunately, it was determined that the only humane way to proceed was to do a bilateral enucleation, which means both eyes should be removed completely. Hayden had experienced this with one eye of a dog he had years prior, so he was familiar with the process, although that dog continued to be able to see with the one remaining eye, even if depth perception was lost. While the cost of the surgery was many thousands of dollars, over time the cost of the customized eye drops and other medications were going to add up as well.
Bonnie had her sutures removed a month after the surgery and is now pain-free and medicine-free. She navigates amazingly well, even up and down the stairs in the rental house, jumps on the furniture, and has a higher quality of life without having to sit for eye drop after eye drop, although she was admittedly very patient with the process because it was probably soothing for her. She gets to do all the fun walks and car rides while using her other senses. Fortunately dogs “smell in color” so she’s living her best life and loving her new family.
Godmother Mei comes to visit:
Mid-October dog wrestling with Bonnie and Snoopy.