Trial Begins
April 28, 2025
Exactly two years ago and two days apart, David (above) and Karim were stabbed to death on the streets of Davis by a young man, undiagnosed at the time, with schizophrenia. Carlos had suffered a psychotic break from reality, perhaps triggered by having been suspended from UCD for academic reasons, and went on a killing spree, guided by demons he didn’t know he had.
After two years, Carlos’ competency to stand trial has been restored and all the legal hoops have been jumped through. Today was day #1 of the trial. The trial will be divided into two parts: a guilt phase, followed by a resolution on his insanity plea. Today was all administrative proceedings. The rest of this week, and likely all of next will be about jury selection. By mid-May, the substance of the trial commences. All told, they are expecting about a ten-week process.
This morning, Maria learned that she will be called as a witness for the prosecution. As a witness, she is not allowed in the courtroom until after her testimony. So she’s going back to San Francisco for a couple weeks. Sure would have been nice if she’d known that!
In any case, I’ll plan to go to at least some of the voir dire over the next couple weeks… and then plan to see as much of the trial as possible before we leave for Europe.
Note: the above photo was taken in April 2013 during the construction of the Compassion Corner Earthbench. It was taken by Brennan and showed up in my Facebook memories today.
Season of Tall Fat Flowers
April 27, 2025
These are going nuts in Central Park right now:
There are at least a dozen of them in the rose garden. Here’s a close up:
Ours appears not to be growing this year.. will have to investigate that.
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It was a memorial bench kind of day.
A bench on Spafford Lake was dedicated to Maril Stratton who died last May (a ceremony I tried to attend but messed up on the location and missed it). Maril was somebody I first came across during my media working days, and then ran into again in recent years as she was a fierce advocate for voter registration and voting rights and marched, protested and sent gazillions of postcards in that advocacy. I liked and admired her a lot.
Today was the two year anniversary of David’s death and Maria organized a small gathering at the Compassion Bench, now its own memorial bench. There was no program, per se, but it was nice to gather with others who knew and cared about David. Tomorrow is the first day of what is expected to be a 10-week trial.
It Lives
April 26, 2025
For our 28th anniversary last September, Jim gave me an orchid (the traditional gift given on one’s 28th anniversary). It appeared healthy and happy, with purple flowers, for months. Then, one by one, all the blossoms fell and we were left with a stick. I felt like a failure. It remained in our kitchen window and I continued to water it weakly weekly (at Mai’s suggestion, 1-2 ice cubes a week). (Mai is my, uh, manicurist — someone I don’t see very often, but when I do I always note her beautiful and thriving orchids.) I was pretty sure I’d killed it, but I hoped, with continued sunlight, water and occasional words of encouragement, it’d come back.
It appears to be coming back!!
You can be sure that if these bulbs turn into purple blossoms, I shall take a picture and post it here.
Pass the Biscuits
April 25, 2025
Walked with Sabrina (and baby Will) this morning, which morphed into a post-walk gathering in the backyard with Bill, Jocelyn and her sweetie Emma.. and Jocelyn’s dog Gemma (which required some concentration on my part to not mix up the names). J&E had made some biscuits, we had coffee, Jocelyn and Bill took turns feeding Will, Emma had lots of stories.. What a pleasant morning that turned out to be!
Cozed up in the stroller… (and yeah, that’s the luscious snuggly we gave him)…
Walking around College Park…
Bill and Jocelyn…
Emma and Gemma….
Hooray Courts
April 24, 2025
One of my favorite Substacks — I have many — is this fellow Robert Hubbell. Here’s a snip from this evening’s post:
He goes on to describe in detail today’s court drubbings. He then went on a rant about how trump’s enriching himself immeasurably through his meme coin grift and also ranted about how trump’s going after ActBlue. Of course the assault is relentless (the intent). We can only hope he flames out at some point (not likely) or the effects of his actions on real people will start to take a toll on his favorability (could happen).
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Finally, two memes I like:
Seasonal Shift From Green to Brown
April 23, 2025
Driving home this morning — after an overnight in Aptos and breakfast in Soquel — this was the view from the passenger side of the car along 680 near Pleasanton.
The greens are just starting to give way to browns.
A Whole Slew of Celebrations
April 22, 2025
Jim and I are in Aptos at the moment — just until morning. We came down today to be part of a celebration, mostly, for Lorilyn and Allen’s 30th wedding anniversary. Also celebrated tonight were: their 70th birthdays; their transition to bi-coastal living (building a house outside Philly and keeping their place in Aptos); Quinn and Em’s engagement. All kinds of folks from various eras of their lives came from all over the place. Besides LL, Allen, Q and Em, Jim and I knew only one person. Like crashing some else’s party. But it was still fun.
There were nice touches: they started the evening in regular clothes, then at a point, disappeared and returned in their wedding attire from 30 years ago. Impressive! They showed a highlights clip from their wedding, then recreated the first dance (a Frank Sinatra number) in real time. Hilarious. There was good food and dancing and at one point an open mic for sharing. All good. All the feels!
Our 30th is coming up next year, though I don’t imagine a comparable to-do. But something! Stay tuned.
A couple pics:
Easter Messages
April 21, 2025
Pope Francis died today, just hours after appearing yesterday before crowds gathered at St. Peter’s Square, Vatican, and delivering clear messages of compassion and peace.
And by contrast, here’s the [seriously, this is not fake, I looked it up] Easter message from the US President.
I really, truly am running out of ways to express the depth of my loathing. I’m hard pressed to understand his game here. There’s a game, for sure, but what? What possible purpose does something like this serve? Lots of ReTweats (gag me: ReTruths) and Likes, so he’s clearly speaking to someone. Even more loathsome.
The New Arb
April 20, 2025
I’ve been meaning to post these photos since last weekend when I took a beeeeeeautiful walk around the arb. The excavation & rebuilding project is done (I think). Now we have islands, and waterways within the waterway. And as a very cool embellishment, the arboretum folks have planted wildflowers on those islands. So.. here are some of my fave photos from last week.
Now That’s a Good Saturday
April 19, 2025
My idea of a near perfect Saturday:
I Start the day with the best workout in a loooong time. It was a great workout because this 69-year-old body was about as free of inflammation as I’ve felt in years, thanks to a 6-day course of methylprednisolone, which I took to reduce an inflamed nerve in my tooth, in preparation for yesterday’s pre-implant tooth extraction. (With me here?) The benefit of taking an oral steroid to reduce inflammation in my mouth, was the systemic effect of overall inflammation reduction.. which has resulted in astonishing mobility and flexibility and bendiness. It’s like my teenage self (only a small exaggeration). I may have reported — a couple of months ago — the effect of having taken a 5-day “prednisone burst,” prescribed by my primary to address very stubborn knee inflammation caused by last summer’s traumatizing Dolomites hike. That was a Hail Mary tactic that worked beautifully… but it was child’s play compared to the effects of this week’s steroid. So.. yeah.. started the day with fantastic stretching and yoga and bendiness — positions I haven’t managed in a very long time. Made for an exceptional workout and a fantastic start to the day!
(I have no pictures of this.)
II Then attend a HAND’S OFF rally right here in town. Life in these United States, for the next few years, is going to involve a lot of rage against the regime. In the first 85 days of this corrupt and dangerous administration, that has meant marches, protests and rallies in Sacramento, Ann Arbor, San Luis Obispo, Folsom…. and today: Davis! It’s a sad (and scary) statement about the state of our country, for sure, but it also feels righteous to turn the anger into action. And it’s especially nice to be in solidarity with people from my own town, to listen to members of my own community share their stories, to stand on a corner waving signs just a few blocks from my own house, to get honks of support from people I know.
III Then go listen to some jazz music at my favorite cafe. TH at Cloud Forest Cafe has been organizing a series of live music concerts in the Spring and Fall for a number of years now. This was my first time going and it was just lovely.
IV Then go to Janet’s for dinner. Always nice when someone else does all the cooking! Plus, good company and a post dinner walk around the pond.
Life of Wry 