Turtle spotting, duck invading, country-music-playing float with a bunch of queers down the Russian River only to finish off with someone on a paddleboard moving forward with a dog onboard!
Shea commentated on his video with director mode:
Bonnie’s surgery for a double enucleation will happen right after this trip to Guerneville, so I’m doubly glad that she is enjoying the travel, not that she can see anything. The quality of her life will be in sounds, feelings and smells henceforth. In one of these pictures, we are at the ophthalmologist yesterday for a last-minute pre-vacation check on the 22 drops a day and 3 oral medications that I currently have to put in her at three different times of the day. None of those will be needed when she has the surgery and will be out of pain from the eye pressure. The other picture is a screenshot from the video from today which best shows the condition of her eyes. You cannot tell that she is completely blind in both eyes when you look at her. The blueness that was in both eyes caused by the glaucoma (which everyone assumes are cataracts) is now overtaken by the blood in the left eye. This is exactly what I saw in my dachshund Tucker years ago when he injured one of his eyes and became a candidate for enucleation in that one eye. It’s a mindfuck to think that she’s not really looking at me when she’s jumping up on my legs like this every day, but I’ve processed what’s best for the dogs when they already have no function to the eyes except to manage the unnecessary pain in them.
I guess I get some credit for the enforcement of long-standing unincorporated Sonoma County Department of Health ordinances on smoking in resorts and bars. Much more signage and compliance so that those of us who wish to enjoy our expensive vacations in a forest can experience smoke-free air. Until I said something last year, the rules about smoking in Guerneville were completely unenforced. I’m so happy to have the conversation going about this and lots of people have thanked me for my activism in this area. However, for some reason, the brochure did not have the free ad for LGBTQ Minus Tobacco that they were supposed to keep in there again this year. I’m going around documenting the smoking areas that are away from pools and even in the covered area of the bar which was full of smoke with no rules for the staff or patrons who wished to be outside and to be able to breathe fresh air.
I was dogsitting for a friend’s sweet babies Gracie and Lucy for a few days, who are momma and daughter.
I’m taking a bunch of pictures of Bonnie with her eyes in the condition that they are in. She does appear to have zero vision, but with the current intense regimen of pills and drops, she is not squinting, so she is hopefully not in any pain. Tomorrow I find out if the surgery to remove the eyes is imminent. I gave her an intense bath and a little trim before the appointment and a trip to Guerneville with Shea and Snoopy.
We went to visit Shani Simmons today in her lovely home and yard. She’s a board member of the Bay Area Butterfly Festival and had a garden tour. There were many monarchs and finches in the yard, so she takes her volunteerism seriously! I’m glad Shea got a chance to meet her and I got to meet Shani’s husband Steve. I just realized I neglected to take a picture of the huge portion of her garden which was comprised of milkweed!
Today marks eight years since my best friend and mom died. I was a big-time momma’s boy. For so many years (thanks to technology), I was in touch with her all day long. We always kept some chat window open and messaged each other about various things no matter where we were in the world. What’s unbelievable is that her house was destroyed by a fire a few months before she died of fucking ovarian cancer. She, my brother and nephew came to live with me immediately after their fire, and then she got the Stage IV diagnosis just a few weeks later. She did not even live long enough for her house to be renovated and died when she was only 73. That’s part of the reason when I had an opportunity to work for City of Hope (which just bought Cancer Treatment Centers of America), I jumped at the chance. As if losing five of my dogs wasn’t enough, it was excruciating that the most sentimental pieces of her furniture that had been professionally cleaned in 2016, were incinerated in MY house fire in January. I can only imagine what she would think of the craziness that has ensued, including one of her sister’s family-destroying exploitation of her estate, effectively disinheriting my siblings and me. The entire family in Italy (which is very large as my mother was the first of nine siblings) has been affected by the internal family feud, which is STILL in litigation. Thankfully my siblings and I have been able to prosper despite the lack of an inheritance of our parents’ sweat equity, but my Nonna (who survived my mother) never spoke to that traitor daughter of hers — or her progeny — ever again. I know Mom would have been proud of my purchasing a home and improving my health (she was always concerned about my weight, sometimes bluntly), but devastated at the deaths and loss of family memories just a few years later. Years after she died she is still an inspiration that encourages me to make her proud.