Spring at the Market
February 29, 2020
‘Twas a dreamy day at the Farmer’s Market…
Weather app says it’s in the low 60s. Our yard is a riot of spring blooms, making me wonder why we’d bother with a whole new front yard landscaping plan (but we will anyway).
Even with the spring weather so obviously and delightfully wafting in, we’ve still got a toe in winter. These are the leafless sycamores that bow over the bench we were sitting on in the Central Park plaza area. No shade in that courtyard.
With latte (me) and iced tea (Jim) in hands, and my hazelnut chocolate croissant making me kinda guiltily happy, it was a very, very nice morning at the market.
And let me add, Happy Leap Year! I stole this picture from a friend’s FB post.. it’s so great. Hope the one guy doesn’t get hung up on those barbs!
From Small Seeds to Freight Trains
February 28, 2020
I posted this on Facebook today.. copying here:
Yesterday, our Thursday afternoon postcard group presented Kelly Wilkerson with a small, but heartfelt, token of our appreciation.
Since the 2016 election, Kelly has opened her charming, comfy home nearly every single Thursday afternoon to anyone who wanted to gather to review the pressing issues of the week and to write postcards (or make calls) to policy makers (or whoever) to let them know how we feel about those issues. Her dining room table (with spillover into the living room) has been a place to gather with like-minded, smart, committed, passionate people to channel all that negative 2016 energy into something positive. It has been a constructive, fun effort and, as we proved in 2018, productive, too!
Our group quickly morphed into the thriving Sister District group (our very blue Calif congressional district, CA-3, pairs with flippable red and purple districts all over the US to affect election outcomes favorable to democratic values) and merged with numerous other postcard groups in town formed under Indivisible Yolo (looking at you Rachel Beck) and today we are a huge, combined powerhouse of Davis (and surrounding communities) volunteers who are partnering with larger regional groups like Flip the West, Swing Left and, seriously, countless others on even bigger more sweeping efforts to REALLY make a dent in this thing.
Our small Thursday postcard group seed has grown into a powerful freight train of momentum (pardon the shift in metaphors), which has real power to affect the outcome of the 2020 election.
To wit… we’re so big, our effort so growing, that we needed a bigger space… our fantastic new Volunteer Center! (Ribbon Cutting in a week — Saturday March 7, at 10:00).
I’ll promote again, but please mark your calendars for a Kickoff Rally next *Thursday at 7pm at the Veteran’s Memorial Center* to learn about and plug into the ongoing weekly calendars of post carding, phone banking, text banking, canvassing, voter registration. This is going to be huge and a great way to contribute to a significant and fun effort!
And again… thanking Kelly for her seemingly small but mighty first step in January 2017. It took heart and guts to take that first step, but look what we’ve all created! Thank you, my friend.
Spring at the Creek
February 27, 2020
Not too much writing right now, so please enjoy a couple days’ worth of photos from the arboretum.
#walkswithVicki
Persistent oak leaves.
Ducks on a sand bar.
Pair of ducks through a pair of redbuds.
Reflections on, tribute to, area native tribes
Under the bridge
Pretty, huh?
Glow In It
February 26, 2020
I came upon this and loved it…
Game’s Been Upped
February 25, 2020
Upping my game here.
I’ve been a consistent political action volunteer for a full three years now–attending weekly postcard writing gaggles; canvassing and participating in GOTV efforts around elections; text banking, phone banking; showing up for town halls, marches, rallies and celebrations; and of course giving lots of money to candidates whose elections, or reelections, would make a difference.
As I’ve said numerous times, it’s about channeling my rage into something constructive, being part of the solution… all that.
With the opening next week of the Volunteer Center (is that what we’re calling it?) — a joint effort of Sister District CA-3 and Indivisible Yolo — shit’s getting real. Realer than ever.
Just gotta say.. there are a whole bunch–like dozens and dozens–of smart, committed people in this town who know how to organize and who are consolidating their considerable energy and talents into quite a thing. We raised $25,000 in a matter of days (I say we like I had something to do with it, I didn’t, just contributed) to fund office space for the year, collected an eye-popping amount of furniture and supplies, and mobilized a veritable ant colony of happy labor that put it all together over the course of about a week. It’s a work in progress, but when you walk into the large, two-story, multi-room space and see an operation that looks like it’s been humming along for years… it’s just impressive as hell.
There’s a leadership team comprising committee heads (committees include things like post carding, phone banking, text banking, canvassing, voter registration, volunteer care & feeding, promotion and social media, center staffing, etc.). There are meetings like crazy and all kinds of ongoing events that will take place in the center. It’ll be the hub of all election-related volunteer activity for the next year.
It’s fantastic.
There’s a kickoff rally next week at Veteran’s Memorial (after the California primary/Super Tuesday) and an official open house for the new Volunteer Center. The purpose of all of that is to energize, recruit and mobilize hundreds of new volunteers for the coming year. And we have the wherewithal to handle that, what with all that amazing infrastructure.
That amazing infrastructure’s been taking shape for three years, but as I said above, shit’s now getting real, and the game’s been upped significantly. MY game’s been upped significantly.
I just Sign-Up Genius’d and/or blocked out dates in my calendar for regular stints of voter registration, post carding, volunteer center staff shifts, trips to Arizona and leadership meetings. That’s some serious time commitment and is only the basic stuff. I imagine I’ll add countless other meetings and activities as the year unfolds.
I did some home office organizing this evening as I prepare myself to integrate this stuff into my days/weeks/months.
And I’m a small cog! There are too-many-to-count folks who are doing far, far more.
Anyway.
Today was a trip down to Modesto Junior College for more voter reg. The pic is today’s group. It was a good day.
Note: Related, I watched the democratic debate tonight. Good lord. The field’s narrowed to Sanders, Buttigieg, Warren, Biden, Klobachar, Stuyer and Bloomberg, in about that order, and we are nowhere near a nominee. Sanders is well ahead, but it’s too early to know where this is going. After tonight, I just don’t know. It was painful to watch. And that’s why we do this (the above). Distracting and sanity saving.
Time Was, Time Is
February 24, 2020
I’m in love with this picture.
Peter and Jocelyn, a long time ago…
Peter’s now a senior at UCSD, majoring in physics, making a decision on where to go to grad school next year. Jocelyn is a junior at Oberlin College, contemplating public interest law as a career.
Who could have imagined that.. when these two were romping through this San Francisco field?
Jim’s Favorite Time of Year
February 23, 2020
No question, Jim’s a Spring guy. He marks its coming each year by the budding and blooming of a particular tree in the alley between B St and University Ave.
So, drum roll… for what it’s worth… here is this year’s budding-tree-in-the-alley progression:
February 2:
February 8:
February 10:
I was out of town for the period between February 14 and 21…
February 21 (late afternoon!):
Today, February 23:
Da dah! Spring is here.
Then and Now
February 22, 2020
Our house on the same (ish) day two years ago.
And today (ish):
Next year’s shot will be a wholly different deal. It’s in progress as we speak… on paper now, but a design soon to be realized. Wait’ll you see it!
The Gentlest
February 21, 2020
The Gentlest
It’s Been Some Great Fish
February 20, 2020
Wrapping up my swing through Southern California.
Spent a leisurely day at Matt and Michael’s. Read by the fire by the pool (they do that kind of thing here)…
…and ate well. Tonight’s fish foray was to the just-opened San Pedro Fish Market (in Long Beach)..
They had a lot of bugs to work out (we were during their soft opening phase), and a lot of the meal didn’t work, but the fish was fantastic. You wandered through their fresh fish “market,” picked your fish, and they prepared it to order. They had dozens of options. I went with swordfish. Among the best I’ve ever eaten.
Now I know why they call it red snapper.
This was our dinner gang tonight. We’re displaying a Christmas gift that Matt and Michael opened tonight from Jay and Saythong, delivered (a bit late) by Chris. They are ribbons that Saythong hand made. Beautiful handiwork by a talented, artistic and thoughtful person.
Bev’s on the far right. She’ll be 90 on July 11. She’s been through a bout of nasty stuff, including cancer, shingles and a fall or two. She’s a trooper!
