Category Archives: Friends

Benicia Park Hike with Friends and Dogs

Another gorgeous January day was a good excuse to use our easy access from the Glen Cove Neighborhood to hike through Benicia State Park, which is one of the perks of living here. It’s great to have such good friends call us up for a spontaneous nature walk/hike.

The foster dogs didn’t know what to make of the journey. Hobbes was extremely nervous to get into the car. Unfortunately, the last few times he was in the car it was to get vaccinations or surgery, so we need to give them more positive experiences with car drives so he isn’t like this forever.

All four dogs got lots of exercise with a bunch of great smells. I keep reminding myself, especially with a blind dog in my life again, that dogs SMELL IN COLOR. When Shea was walking in front of me with the foster dogs, Calvin especially kept looking back to check on me and basically did a bunch of the hike walking backwards, which was endearing but worrisome. It kept getting him tangled in the tandem leash. Eventually I walked in front of them so at least Calvin was looking forward when looking for me. When the foster dogs were left on tandem and off-leash they were trying to stay so close to me that they kept wrapping around my ankles and almost knocked me over a few times.

Bonnie was terrific even off-leash for part of it. When she was on leash I even inspired her to run to catch up with the others for a while. For a blind dog, this is quite a feat, because she basically never runs for fear of running into something, especially in an unfamiliar location. She has to really trust me to keep up that pace. I intentionally ran with a heavy foot so that she could hear me better. Snoopy was also terrific when he was off-leash for part of the hike. He’s a perfect dog.

The views were terrific and I am so glad that we are so quickly moving to longer days, since it was just over a month ago that we had the winter solstice.

January 2025 Vallejo Gay Network Potluck

Shea still was under the weather, but I attended a great VGN potluck at Lou’s house again. The turnout was incredible despite the brisk weather, but we’re still very lucky to have this incredible climate with many hints of Spring in the air already (seriously). There are lots of trees in full bloom. No polar vortex here!

Pictures taken by others at the event:

Inspiring Friends

We had a wonderful visit with Nick Dong. He is a world-renowned master designer/artist/genius and a good friend of many years who, like so many, helped me find some resilience and silver linings in the horrible event from last January (my catastrophic house fire and the loss of five precious canine souls). It was a privilege to revisit his custom home and for Shea to get to know him.

Nick inspires me to manifest my dream house with this rebuild and find ways to live my best life. In the footage Shea took you’ll see a reflection of the three of us in a small sampling of Nick’s mind-blowing kinetic pieces. If you ever get a chance to see the work of Studio Dong in person, don’t miss the opportunity!

One of his two amazing koi ponds with the most friendly fish I’ve ever met in my life!

Teena Birthday Fundraiser

Teena Miller’s amazing fundraising birthday party was for the charity Food is Free Bay Area. What a nice way to raise money to benefit the community, as Teena and JD always do! It was nice to be among many friendly faces here in Vallejo while we celebrated at the Solano County Fairground’s McCormack Hall.

Here are other pictures posted from the event. For this group photo, I had to think fast. I found some reels of packing tape, put them together, and stood on them so that I could almost be seen in the back row.

My friend, Miss Vallejo Tri-City!

Congratulations to my friend and HSNB Volunteer (that’s how I originally met her) Tonya Johnson on winning the title of Miss Vallejo Tri-City!!! She’s an amazing and well-traveled young lady with a passion for animals, so I know she is very deserving of this opportunity.

Empress Theatre, November 18, 2024.

Several weeks ago we ran into each other at a mayoral candidate’s forum.

Taken October 2, 2024.