Despite all the doctors agreeing with us, they kowtowed to the cannabis industry.
I’m very disappointed that Oakland City Council, where I called in last night with many other tobacco control advocates in the Bay Area, delivered a haphazard ordinance. While I’m thrilled they will have smoke-free bar patios, they included an exemption for cannabis smoke on their smoke-free multi-unit housing ordinance, which renders it toothless and completely unenforceable. Here are my comments (in the video below). At least I’m happy to say that when it came to SFMUH, we passed it CORRECTLY here in Vallejo in 2022!
This is the full video of the item that was discussed on November 12:
I know it’s cliche, but all politics are local works on many levels. Unfortunately, the clown show that will soon be the federal government, full of corruption and misinformation, is going to bring hell to the USA and the world. Many innocents will die unnecessarily for many reasons (Ukrainians, Gazans, pregnant people, etc.) just to suit the ego of a few people, and in particular one extremely flawed man in decline. I predict mass incarceration and police brutality will be emboldened, together with the racism that promptly saw the harassment of Black people with texts asking them to pick cotton the day after the election.
Andrea embraced someone at her election night event. Our friend Neal Zimmerman is on the right.
If there’s any good news from my perspective about the 2024 elections, it’s that with local politics things went the way I had hoped. I supported my friend Andrea Sorce for mayor of my city of Vallejo and she was victorious, even though I like the other three candidates and have known two of them for a while. Our new state senator I got to meet on election night at Andrea’s election party and he remembered me from our zooms and emails, which was nice. Christopher Cabaldon is a gay half-European/half-Filipino guy just like Shea and was a very successful mayor of West Sacramento. Cassandra James is northern Vallejo’s supervisor officially now, although I’m not her constituent. Similarly, my friend Alex Matias is for District 1 in northern Vallejo, but he was victorious. My new city councilmember, Tonia Lediju, is my friend and she was uncontested in her bid to run for that office.
I started to collect cranberry-colored glass from thrift stores inspired by Barbra Streisand’s book on design. Before the fire, I had an entire bay window full of different colored glass, but there’s something magical about varying hues of the same color juxtaposed in odd numbers of pieces, of course. We’ll see how much I can find in the years to come.
While I’m still biding time until I move, I do like to see art, even if it was not of my own choosing completely, but donated to me after the fire. Some of it will make great placeholders until things that are more “me” are acquired.
I don’t think I’ve ever posted a video of us rowing under the bridge(s) before, so here it is. It’s amazing how the noise of the traffic above comes and goes. It’s actually not that common that we row that far from the marina at Glen Cove, but when conditions are favorable like today, it’s really cool to do. We struggled to get there fighting against a strong current, but getting back to the marina was a breeze today.
I was back on the water today after a few weeks. What a gorgeous November day. We’re so lucky to live here and row all year round.
Rental backyard with Bonnie and Snoopy before their baths and grooming today.
Before baths and grooming:
Shea gave the dogs baths with his homemade soap! After drying them off and blow-drying them, I groomed them and clipped Bonnie’s long nails. She is so patient with all of that. Snoopy not so much! Now it’s time to put their dog sweaters on for the brisk mornings.
Pictures Shea took of me with the dogs after their cuts (with and without yawning):
Now up to four fountains (3 solar) including one fountain that was close to ground zero during the fire, which I glued back together and re-wire. Eventually, they will all be solar. The birds (especially hummingbirds) love the tallest fountain. Of course, they are staged at the rental house, but I’ll bring them home when my house rebuild finishes. Just hearing the water trickle reminds me of home, though.
I started to collect “cranberry” glass from thrift stores inspired by Barbra Streisand’s book on design. Before the fire, I had an entire bay window full of different colored glass, but there’s something magical about varying hues of the same color put together (in odd numbers of pieces, of course). We’ll see how much I can find in the years to come.
I am grateful to live in this state (California) but really done with the USA experiment. I have had so much respect for those who have served in the military including so many in my family (soon to be five generations). However, American pride is really gone when I think about how the electorate in disproportionately powerful states are invoking the worst of the puritanical roots of this country’s political origin.
Yes I’m lucky that I am eligible for European citizenship, even though Italy itself, the country through which I can obtain that citizenship, has a fascist bitch at the helm. However, that country still has universal healthcare and a high standard of living, even based on my own family’s prosperity. Almost all of them have a vacation home in addition to their primary home, which they own. They work far fewer hours and have vastly more time off from work.
The garbage picture is self-explanatory.
I woke up this morning considering throwing my US flag in the garbage. I used to insist on having it out for every holiday that was appropriate to show that a liberal like me would still always identify as American. I don’t think I can bring myself to do that again, even if the next president is a butch, full melanin, indigenous Latina trans woman. I would say, “great,” but it will never reverse allowing Bush 2 to get the popular vote the second time because he used racist electoral college methods to steal the presidency the first time. Very similarly the name recognition of Felon McRapist was something the ignorant American electorate gravitated to rather than another overqualified, experienced, and competent woman.
Cults are a real problem and misinformation is rampant. Things are not going to get better, but the white supremacists will go to the ends of the earth to maintain their power.
He doesn’t know what a tariff is. He doesn’t know what a socialist or fascist is. Everything is a word salad and the man is declining, with a 39-year-old nutjob as his VP pick.
Doesn’t he look like a primate? He’s always been agile with his paws and he is found in many videos reaching out to drag a human hand toward him to pet him, even if that human hand is literally in the process of petting another dog at the time! He’s quite a character and I’m so glad to have him in my life, especially after he and I both only had each other after that horrible day at the fire, which took his five canine siblings.
Attended my tobacco control activist friend Tehra’s housewarming. What a cool home in Vallejo from 1915 with a huge backyard with lots of features and amazing plants. She’s a cool lady (pictures with her thumb up in one of the pictures) and a great public speaker with a story to tell about Big Tobacco and its targeting of the LGBTQ population.
I estimate 99% of my indoor belongings were incinerated or damaged so much by the fire, and not too much of that was able to be professionally cleaned (mostly some clothes).
Just recently while moving my outdoor plants behind the retaining wall to keep them out of the way from the construction crew one of my mom’s ceramic pieces (signed by her with her name carved into the bottom) became another casualty of the process. It had a plant in it, so I thought it was best to leave it on the premises and leave it outside, but it still broke and the plant survived.
While it was a long shot, because of the four pieces it was left in, I was able to gather the three biggest pieces. I glued them not realizing a gap would be remaining in the bottom. I will no longer put plants in it, but I might come up with some kind of band-aid solution for the gap that remains (or not). This is the result. It’s still pleasant to look at, and I’m glad at least I have some of the things my mom painted and touched. She had her own kiln and used molds, of course, but she hand-glazed and hand-painted thousands of pieces like this one.
