Life of Wry

 

WHAT: Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing

WHERE: California State Capitol, Rm 126

WHEN: Today at 9:00am

WHY: They were hearing testimony and voting on about 18 Senate bills, including SB 53 

WHICH IS: A bill that regulates the sale of ammunition, requiring sellers to be licensed and requiring purchasers to complete a background check. Basically, it reduces easy access to ammunition by minors, criminals and other prohibited persons and gives law enforcement a tool to find/remove illegal guns.

A legislative committee meeting is that weird place where advocacy meets bureaucracy. Each needs the other, I guess. Committee hears from the member whose bill it is and a representative or two of supporting organizations. Short. Senator De Leon was joined by Amanda Wilcox, the legislation & policy chair for the California Brady Campaign and a guy from law enforcement. Committee chair then asks if anyone else in the room wants to record support (in our case, it was about 20). People rise, form line and in the middle of all that, this citizen-advocate-for-a-day added her testimony to the record. Well, testimony… name, affiliation and a yea or nay on the bill. No speeches, just pro or con.

Then they go to the other side, same deal. On the opposing side, far fewer people lined up at the mic (maybe 4-5). They were mic’d down a few times, running on.. as a few did.

A lot of pro forma stuff, but you know what? It felt ROCKIN’! Why? Because it has to happen this way. We have to make changes in our gun laws, and the only place that happens is in the legislature. And progress is measured in these very small ways, but it’s the only way. The focal point of the sensible gun laws side is background checks, so that’s where most of the chipping is going on.

So yeah… standing there in a line of other citizen advocates–most from the Yolo chapter of the Brady Campaign–stating your name for the record when it’s your turn, is that small thing that, when added to the greater effort, actually counts. And, at the end, the bill easily passed committee and will go on to the Senate floor for a vote. Have no idea what to expect there… stay tuned.

After SB 53 was heard, our Yolo Brady group moved into the hall and spoke informally with Kevin De Leon’s chief of staff.  The staffer said that De Leon will be elected to the position of Senate Leader on Monday (assumes his role in November, I read), and in that leadership position may be able to advance more favorable gun legislation.  That seemed like great news. He also said Jerry Brown is pretty weak on gun legislation, that he’s sort of “stuck in the 1950s.” That was disappointing to hear. But De Leon and the Gov will need to work together a lot during De Leon’s leadership term, bartering for this and that will likely happen, so who knows… could be a good time for sensible gun legislation efforts.

The things you learn.

I get that legislative movement is critical, if tedious. But, I think as much effort has to go into shifting public opinion and overcoming that woefully, pathetically misled public who thinks owning and brandishing assault weapons is a right..and somehow makes us all safer. To me, the fascinating part of the challenge is the cultural piece. Fascinating.. not in a good way. An issue for the ages.

As of today, 74 school shootings since Newtown–roughly one per week. Those headlines are accompanied by some numbingly stupid photos of open carry nut cases with assault rifles slung over their shoulders standing in fast food restaurant lines and cruising Target toy aisles…maybe the conversation is reaching a tipping point?

There’s got to be some movement here. The momentum needs to build until there is a critical mass of people who can openly support sensible gun regulations. Enough people have to come out of their blind, NRA-generated, media-fed stupor to realize they’ve been on the wrong side of this one. I wasn’t before, but am increasingly encouraged that massive cultural shifts can occur in our lifetime, having watched what’s happened with with marriage equity.

Thankful for the Jon Stewarts who are calling the NRA out. Thankful for social media.

The work of orgs like the Brady Campaign, Moms Demand Action, Americans for Responsible Solution, and others to keep the issues in front of people is really important, too.  And of course those groups also promote and facilitate advocacy.. so they do great work and we need to support them.

Maybe momentum is building and when it does, resistance could fall away (enough of it, anyway) and sanity could be restored.

So.. anyway.. a legislative committee hearing on a Tuesday morning.  It feels like a real place to channel all the rage and heartache and bewilderedness about what has happened to our country.

It feels good to play even a tiny part.

All I’ve got is a food shot. It was either that or a report on my dentist appointment. It wasn’t much of a blog-worthy day.

At least the food at the Magpie Cafe is picturesque.

Since I’ve over-stylized the photo and cross-filtered it to ridiculous, gunked-up effect, you can’t tell what I ate, so I’ll tell you: Smoked trout, Meyer lemons, capers, dill and cream cheese on a toasted wheat baguette. On top of some interesting greens. Iced tea. For dessert: god…this avocado, chocolate mousse thing, which was a bit insane. Plus, as if more was needed, a ginger molasses cookie. Coffee.

That’s Susan over there. She is enjoying, though maybe not as much as I enjoyed my trout, a lemon chicken salad. With toast.

Conversation, as usual, was excellent.

Regarding the other, my night guard is showing a nice wear pattern.  Dr. Shempp is satisfied.

We’re in one of those truly awful strings of over-100 degree days. When it’s that hot, the world seems inhospitable… surfaces burn, the light is sharp, plants are brittle and withered, the heat is harsh and angry.  I look at the five-day outlook and just feel anxious and defeated.  And grumpy.

Not a fan of the over-100s.

This is one of the few times a pool seems obvious and I feel stupid that we missed the memo. Central Valley + Summer + Global Warming = Pool.  A backyard pool, not a public pool–too much pee and other people’s body fluids and sunscreen oil and god knows whatall. Ick. Having your own backyard pool is the only and obvious solution; people with pools don’t suffer this heat. That is a fact.

Pool is not happening here, though. Will try to move on.

In our backyard, however, we do have a hammock, lots of shade and a little bit of verdant greenery that, when it’s this hot, feels like a little patch of respite. A little piece of unharsh. And if you’re lying on the hammock in the shade and swinging back and forth, it’s not too bad, even when it’s 100 degrees. Jim put up the hammock for Mother’s Day and, since, I’ve been lying in it a lot. Peter’s now taken to lying in it, too. Jim’s not a hammock guy, not sure why, but he does mow the lawn.

Here are some shots:

Jim mowing our verdant greenery yesterday…

Peter, who came home today from a day of double header baseball in the over-100 degree weather, wandered around in the sprinkers for a few minutes–the only set we have left waters the grass–then grabbed his chemistry book and retreated to the hammock to study for tomorrow’s final. I have to hand it to him, that is definitely the way to study..

And my latest favorite activity: swinging in hammock (I tried to take a picture at the top of each swing), reading, dozing, daydreaming, listening to music, not stewing about the heat…

We have a very happy boy this afternoon.  

I need to document this because, as you know, this blog is my record of family life and this was a big day for our kiddo; so you readers not interested in an excited mom’s baseball tale, it’s very okay to exit now. Thanks. 

The short of it: Peter got to pitch a game for the varsity team today–a wooden bat tournament in Yuba City. Getting called up is a great opportunity for a JV player, a chance you don’t want to blow. What’s more, he got to start, so it was big.  

He must have felt a little nervous at first because he walked the first two batters (though he did open his first varsity pitching outing with a strike). The third guy bunted, no surprise, to advance batters to second and third, but Peter made a nice play to throw him out at first. He then struck out their number four batter (which was awesome) for the second out.  The fifth batter hit a routine grounder that should have ended the inning, but it was misplayed and those two base runners came home. Unearned runs, but, you know, if they hadn’t initially been walked…. well, whatever, the next guy got out and the inning was, gratefully, over. 

That was pretty much the last bad thing that happened.

Early jitters over, Peter relaxed a little and the next four innings went smoothly.  

His stats on the game:

5 innings; 71 pitches; faced 20 batters and threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of those; struck out 2; walked 2; hit 1; gave up 1 hit; had 0 earned runs; threw 62% strikes; appeared calm and controlled throughout. 

When he left the game, the score was tied 2-2. Davis scored a run in the bottom of the sixth and half an inning later, ended the game a run ahead. The team, Pleasant Grove, is one of the region’s strong ones.. missing its seniors, but so was Davis. It counts.  

Starting pitcher, five innings, a one-hitter, and the team went home with a win against a power house opponent.  That’s a good day.  

He was incredibly relieved. It’s such a great feeling when you do well… remember that feeling? I know he was on a cloud.

This lands squarely in the fun and frivolous category.  

As mentioned here, I was pleasantly ambling up Canyon Road in Santa Fe, a mile-long stretch of gently curving road, along which are some of New Mexico’s finest art galleries and boutiques, and came upon a small store jammed full of eclectic, arty, decorative housewares and accessories.  They had some crafty furniture pieces, colorful rugs, stunning wall hangings, and just the coolest southwestern folk art.  A feast. 

I’d have missed the whole store, but Carrie waved me over, thinking I’d like this woman’s stuff. She (Leslie Flynt) carries this artisan furniture by a guy (from Texas, I believe) named David Marsh, and when I saw it, it was love. 

So… you know… cutting to the chase: I took some pictures, left my name, posted photos to Facebook, talked to Jim when I got home.. and the rest is.. obvious…   

Here is a photo of our new nightstand.

It is so beautifully and lovingly made. The detail’s fabulous and the hardware is perfect. 

I didn’t expect to see this when I unpacked it…

It’s a good thing the table’s going up against a wall, huh?  I thought it was sort of sweet and different; it was like the artist signing his work, but ballsy, too…. like, what if we hadn’t really appreciated all that graffiti?!

Hippie artists. 

Finally, here it is in its new habitat.  

Do ya LOVE it!!?

I am sure going to love seeing it everyday.  I have now a small handful of furniture pieces in the house that I truly adore and get great, great pleasure out of looking at (the kitchen hutch, a table in the living room, our dresser, our bed), and now this one.. which might go right to the top of the list.  I’m sure it’s not for everyone!  But I love it. Heck, Jim even likes it!  (A little unexpected, but, score!) 

It was super fun and frivolous, to find and then actually bite on this thing. Nothing on Canyon Road is cheap (or probably worth what you pay for it), but I trusted my aesthetic, and I’m really glad I did. 

Fortunately, perhaps, it doesn’t happen that often. 

Here are before and after shots.

The before was taken a few weeks ago and is a bushy tangle of trees; from left to right: a tangelo, a Meyer lemon, a sycamore, all in front; and in back, the last remaining redbud. Further cluttering up the front are a handful of old fortnight lilies, an unruly rosemary bush, a couple of leggy nandinas and a newly planted Matilija poppy.  But the biggest offenders are the trees.

It’s heavy, dark, you can’t even see the house… it just looks weighty and unkempt. And the frustrating thing is, it’s very kempt… but who’d know?

I am despondent… well, in a landscape design kinda way.  I am eager for some daylight. I’d like to lighten all this up and give the yard some definition.  I’m sure I’ve kvetched about this before.

A couple weeks ago, Frances and I removed most of the tangelo and trimmed way back the Meyer lemon.  Yesterday, with Derek the bee guy’s help, we removed some strategic branches from the sycamore (the two pile’s worth in the street).

Think it helps?

The tangelo stump’s coming out in the next couple of days, along with one fortnight lily. We will put in its place something smaller and lighter in density, like a pluot maybe. Looking for fall color and spring blooms.  Something eye-popping for each season.

The Meyer lemon will hopefully thrive in the backyard.  When it goes, we’ll have a lot of daylight in the middle, giving a better street view of the terrace and the flowers on it.

I think we’ll continue to hack away at the sycamore until we’ve shaped it into something more elegant.  There must be a way to preserve its canopy of shade while giving it a more uplifted profile.

Eager, as well, to build a short split rail fence along the border of the bed that butts up against the house (hard to see in this picture).  I think that will go a long way toward offering some definition.

Should probably start all over from scratch.. but instead trying to work with what’s there. Definitely gives us a lot to hack on every Wednesday.

I announced at dinner tonight that I was going to bed really early. Too many successive nights of 4-5 hours of sleep. I seem to have found my limit. So, aiming for 9:00. This will certainly be a world record bedtime for me, I proclaimed. Everyone was cool with that.

Then Peter said he needed some extra credit in his food science class (he does if he’s going to avoid his first high school C) and he was going to make something before he went to bed. He’s required to work on his own, which is great; no interference with my go-to-bed-early plan.

I should note that earlier in the week, also for extra credit, he made a plum and apricot cobbler which his teacher thought was pretty great, and today he delivered an extra credit power point presentation on the Italian Peninsula, as part of their Mediterranean food unit. He’s serious about this no-C thing.

Somehow, he settled on flan. I wouldn’t let him make churros unsupervised…because: hot vat of oil for deep frying long sticks of sugary dough… uh no.

So, I was going to finish up the dinner dishes and head off to bed, leaving him alone to his baking. The operative words there: head off to bed. But then noticed, above the kitchen sink, that we’d been invaded by a swarm of flying insects. An hour’s worth of Facebook commentary and amateur entomology sleuthing later (I do love my friendverse), I was satisfied that they were fairly benign flying ants.. not unlike the annual infestation I experience in my office, which after a few years, I don’t pay the slightest attention to.

By the time that resolved, Peter’s flan was ready to come out of the oven, so I was there to share in his little late-night success.

Now I’m going to bed, but before I do, here are a couple of pictures:

The flan mess.. not too bad, I just like the picture.. taken from the stool, as I was getting a better look at the flying insects over the sink:

The finished flan.. not bad, Peter! (who made a liar out of me when I told him it’d be a tricky recipe):

And a closeup of one of the flying ants. It is not a termite because it has a shapely abdomen, wings that are different shapes, and crooked antennae.

I may get to bed by 12:30am, if all goes smoothly from here on out.

Election Day. It’s been a very nice day with a few really choice moments, which is nice because for years, I’ve laid pretty low on local elections days.

Since I left my very community-centric job at DCTV eight years ago, and because of the circumstances under which I left, I’ve not had much interest in local politics. Don’t feel like going into that, but suffice to say, my unhappiness about leaving left me sort of unhappy about all things community and I just retreated into a pretty quiet place and focused on new, other, non-community things. (At least those non-community-ish things were happy-making.)

But I do remember with incredible fondness the thrill of [many things, but especially] election time. Back in the day–and for over twenty years–election season was huge for me. Our small television station factored large during campaigns and on election night, especially in our early years (mid-80s to mid-90s, pre-world wide web, if you can believe there was ever such a time) because we were the best source for election information and–as soon as the polls closed– for returns.  In the earliest days, I served as host on our election night programs, which would begin promptly at 8:00pm and continue “until the final ballot was counted,” which back then could be 2:00am. It was all wildly thrilling. As host, I would deliver updates via slips of paper (really) that would be passed to me live, on the air. We had enormous election-night audiences. For days after, I would be stopped everywhere I went, “I saw you last night on Channel 5!” (and later, “I saw you last night on Channel 15!”).  “Great show!”  Election seasons loomed large and were an incredible high.

Etc., etc.  It was fun. Because of my role as executive director of a thriving media outlet (then it really was), I was in the middle of all kinds of community and political life. Knew the people, knew the issues, and totally cared about it all.

But then, after leaving DCTV, I didn’t care so much.  Or rather, just wanted to redirect.  And since 2006, I have really been community issues-stupid. I’m not kidding. For most of the last eight years, I’ve hardly picked up an Enterprise, save for the youth sports stories (no offense Davis Enterprise, it’s not you!) and have had to rely on Jim to keep me minimally conversant on local topics of the day. For much of this time, I’d have had a hard time telling you who the city council people were or how they aligned on this issue or that. After twenty-plus years at the epicenter of community life, that is just totally weird. But it’s sorta been my reality. Call me a sore loser. Or maybe just a very wounded person.  Whatever.

[Don’t feel sorry for me; like I said, I redirected. Happily.]

Anyway.

I have found a whole, whole bunch of places to volunteer my time and these chosen volunteer outlets have been deeply satisfying, like…

For years, I’ve been working with David Breaux on his journey of compassion, including editing his first book, promoting the construction of the Compassion Corner Earthbench and recently planning the upcoming Compassion Tour and, last week, its benefit dinner. I have edited, for free, three other books (ridiculously fun) and written–for a variety of purposes–literally countless articles, features, and press releases for the Enterprise (right, the newspaper I’ve had a hard time bringing myself to read). I’ve been driving for the winter homeless shelter, regularly checking in on my 92-year-old neighbor June (and doing errand and shopping support), baking & cooking for various school hospitality committees, tabling and getting more involved with Moms Demand Action and the Yolo Brady Campaign, and, of course, scorekeeping for–and reporting on–dozens upon dozens of baseball games.

And writing a daily, journally, photo blog thing.

(And wow, here I go list-making again.  Sorry.)

Back to the election.

The context for this post is: I haven’t been all that involved in elections, but this time, not only did I care a little bit more than in elections past, I did a teeny, meeny bit of volunteering for this one guy’s campaign.

And by teeny, meeny, I mean I volunteered to make some telephone calls to get people to the polls. Nothing worth a king-sized medal or anything, but a little bit of a contribution and a little bit of fun. Yay me.

Sooooo, on this election day in Davis, there were a few things that really, really made my day:

1. Having volunteered to Make Calls for the Joe Krovoza campaign, and having not been able to allocate the time over the weekend, today was my day. So this morning, I went to pick up a bunch of call sheets at campaign headquarters, and planned to make calls this afternoon.  While there, I was given a short orientation.  One thing a campaign volunteer suggested to me, in addition to making my calls, was, “you might want to make sure your neighbors vote.” And I thought, right… June may need some assistance…

When I got home, I went over to June’s.  It turns out, she’s been really ill (as has Tracy, her ancient, overweight, arthritic, poorly groomed pit bull).  Voting was the last thing on her mind. But she also said she’d never, ever missed voting in an election and she’d hate not to vote. In case you don’t know, June was born in Davis. Her mother was born in Davis(ville). She grew up in a house at the corner of 3rd and C Streets (coincidentally, Compassion Corner). She’s got a lot of history in this town, so voting’s a big deal. She decided that, yes, she did want to vote, so she and I started looking everywhere for her vote-by-mail ballot. She found it (in spite of the fact she’s functionally blind) and we commenced to filling in the blanks. She was very cranky today (sick, hurting, hungry, sad because of Tracy, and I sensed a bit peeved at me for being MIA in recent weeks…) and wasn’t up on most of the races. I offered to share my thoughts on those races she was clueless about. She is a republican so defaulted most often to republican candidates, but I scored two victories in the two races I cared passionately about: City Council (Robb Davis) and State Assembly (Joe Krovoza).   Yay me.

To make this long story short, I took her ballot over to Davis Community Church (while downtown fetching her a Subway sandwich and Tracy some dog treats). They were willing to overlook the proxy matter (I’d neglected to get her signature on the envelope that would officially authorize me to serve in this capacity), and the fact I’d torn off the privacy flap (and thus the envelope’s sealant). They enjoyed my story about how she’d grown up just one block south and how her mom had planted what is now that huge, heritage elm tree on that corner. FOX news was also at this polling location, but decided not to have me recount my whole story again for the evening news (phew).

I was just glad a) June got to vote, and b) I was able to facilitate one more vote for Robb and Joe.

2. I finally got some time at 4:15 to make my Joe calls. I gathered all my call sheets and my cell phone and went into the back yard to lie in the hammock and call people in St. Helena, Rohnert Park, American Canyon, Woodland, Winters and Davis.  I did that for two hours and made 56 calls, reaching a small-ish percentage of those, but leaving a lot of messages. I don’t much like that kind of thing, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be. I did get a kick out of the sweetness of lying in the hammock in the garden in the shade on a 90 degree day making get-out-the-vote calls. And kind of kicking ass at it.

3. I summarized my effort, clipped the batch of call sheets together and headed back over to campaign headquarters. The buoyant, bustling crowd of this morning was gone. When I pulled up to the cul-de-sac at the end of Waxwing, there were no cars. The sun was low, the shadows were long, and there was Joe sitting on a chair in the middle of a shady patch of grass bent over a call sheet making calls.

At the end of the campaign, the polls and projections have not been favorable. He’s been a long shot from the get-go, but his campaign generated so much momentum because, actually?, he’s the best guy for the job. Independent newspaper, after independent newspaper, and environmental organizations and cultural and social interest groups galore have been endorsing him. He is the real deal, a committed public servant, not a machine politician and people recognized that. But it’s hard to overcome the money that comes from machine endorsements (especially when one of the candidates is the son of a popular State Senator), and our assembly district is a huge one with lots of republicans, in the far reaches of which the mayor of Davis is not well known. Anyway, an uphill battle for Joe from the start. But he’s run an amazingly positive, issues-based race and would have won if the campaign had been based on experience, knowledge and integrity. What a concept.

Seeing him alone, making calls at the end of the campaign as the sun was setting… that was poignant. As I write this, he is losing pretty significantly.  I’m disappointed as hell, but proud to have supported him. Good guy.

So those were this election day’s choice moments. Felt good to get a little bit back in the community saddle.

First high school sports banquet.  It was primarily to honor the varsity players and coaches, but the JV players, coaches (and families) were also invited and took up an adequate portion of the program.

It was held at the outdoor cafeteria area at DHS and featured gaggles of studly athletes, their ever-supportive families, coaches standing in clusters, giant trays of food from Outback Steakhouse, more desserts than even all those studly athletes and their families could consume, and blue and white everywhere.

Oh, and there were speeches, letters, awards, and championship rings given out. Accolades flew and emotions were touched.

All and all, a very nice evening.  Here are some pictures:

Good ol’ principal Will Brown showed up again and delivered some inspiring words:

Here are some shots of the JV coaches:

Jaret on left and head coach Bob Creely…

Father and son coaches, Brent and Jed Mille….

And Rich (Jaret’s father) and Bob again…

And the JV boys:

Soloman, Daniel and Jake (Gooey)…

Alex and Ray…

Hunter, Gabe, Peter, Mason (in back) Noah, Gavin (way in back), and Tyler…

Tyler, Gabe, Peter, (Noah) and James…

Mason, Gavin, Alex, Ray…

And finally, coach Creely recognizing Peter (with Ray, Gavin and Jake waiting their turn)…

(Not pictured, Jacob.)

This is what I wanted to do today:

This is the hammock, now set up in the backyard, all ready for a long summer of gentle swaying and reading and dozing and listening to music on one device or another. I took this photo last week when trying out the new set up.  The white is a golfer’s umbrella I rigged for shade, and that was the view.  Sweet.  it’s exactly what i wanted to do with most of my day (and go to an art show, and make calls for Joe Krovoza’s campaign, and have a long leisurely conversation with my mom about the French Open, and knock out some laundry… none of which I did.  None.)

This is what I did….

… watched my son pitch. That’s him on the bump.

Now, you know that’s my favorite activity of all time–baseball, Peter, a nice day. And today was a bonus because it was a double header against a reputedly good team from the East Bay. But I didn’t think I’d be camped out in the DHS announcer’s booth for seven hours, give or take. The second game (not the one he pitched in) was a barn burner. Davis got off to a very rocky start, giving up 6 runs in the first inning and 4 more in the second to trail 10-2 after an inning and a half. But then we started throwing up runs (6 in the bottom of the second, another 6 in the fourth, 5 in the fifth…. yeah… it was that kind of circus) and my, but it went on and on and on and on, and in the end, we won 19-12, AND for most of the game, Peter was at first, for something completely different.

So.. you know.

It was baseball, it was Peter and it was a nice day…  I was happy.

But, I have to ask myself, where does the time go? I had hammock on my mind, like I did all week long, and the time to lie in the hammock just simply did not materialize.

Which I don’t get.  I am not a busy person.

Here it is almost 11pm and I still need to clean up dinner, try to do some laundry, get a call into my mom, take a shower (I did manage a workout)….

Sorry about the to-do list. But where does the time go?