Two nights ago, Jasper and I went on our nightly, late-night walk, which is now technically-illegal due to the curfew.
As we rounded the first corner, I could see two men, maybe late-twenties, one black and one white, approaching from the other direction. I thought, "Well, at least there are three of us who have no business being here."
The two strangers approached, and the black fellow asked, "Do you know where ARCO is?" I asked, for clarification, "ARCO?" "Yes," he replied, "the gas station."
I turned to point behind me. As I turned, I noticed the black fellow had something unidentifiable in his hand. For a second, I felt a pang of fear - similar to the pangs of fear that got Stephon Clark killed two years ago.
I turned back. "Two blocks, back behind me," I said. They both thanked me and moved on. Never identified the mysterious object. A cell phone, maybe, or maybe something else.
Just another night of walking while white.
Friday, June 05, 2020
Ace in the Hole For Torture Squirrel
On Tuesday, I was walking my dog adjacent to an apartment building about a block from my house. Jasper stumbled across, and then excitedly attacked, a squirrel lying right beside the sidewalk. The squirrel seemed to be in serious trouble. It was a paraplegic, and couldn't move its rear legs. Using its front legs, the squirrel scrambled to get out of Jasper's way. Jasper went nuts, barking at the troubled animal.
I took Jasper home, and returned to rescue the squirrel. I had trouble finding the squirrel, but finally found it desperately trying to scramble down a ramp in to the parking lot at the apartment building. A lot of fight in this squirrel!
I scooped the squirrel into a plastic basin and took it home. Once in my yard, the squirrel soon escaped the basin and hid under some cardboard in the yard. Later, the squirrel tried to escape the yard. The squirrel found a gap behind a slat in the fence, and slipped through. There is an anti-dog barrier behind the fence, which my neighbors erected in 2001 to keep their dog out of my yard, after their dog broke in and killed my rabbit. So, the squirrel could hole up there, and take refuge, but couldn't really escape unless it had full use of its limbs. I laid out some food and water for the trapped squirrel.
I suppose it was a form of torture to try and rescue this squirrel. On Wednesday, I was busy and couldn't pay attention to Torture Squirrel. By Thursday, I lost track of the squirrel.
On Friday, I finally located Torture Squirrel again, buried deep under leaf litter in an inaccessible hole behind and under the fence slat. I'm not sure I can get the squirrel out of its hole even if I had the squirrel's cooperation. If the squirrel dies, retrieval will be urgent, but really hard to do. So, today, I put water and some food in plastic bags and dropped the materials into the hole, to help keep Torture Squirrel alive until I can figure out how to retrieve it.
Reminds me of the predicament in the 1951 movie, Ace in the Hole, starring Kirk Douglas and filmed out there west of Gallup, in New Mexico, near the Arizona border.
I took Jasper home, and returned to rescue the squirrel. I had trouble finding the squirrel, but finally found it desperately trying to scramble down a ramp in to the parking lot at the apartment building. A lot of fight in this squirrel!
I scooped the squirrel into a plastic basin and took it home. Once in my yard, the squirrel soon escaped the basin and hid under some cardboard in the yard. Later, the squirrel tried to escape the yard. The squirrel found a gap behind a slat in the fence, and slipped through. There is an anti-dog barrier behind the fence, which my neighbors erected in 2001 to keep their dog out of my yard, after their dog broke in and killed my rabbit. So, the squirrel could hole up there, and take refuge, but couldn't really escape unless it had full use of its limbs. I laid out some food and water for the trapped squirrel.
I suppose it was a form of torture to try and rescue this squirrel. On Wednesday, I was busy and couldn't pay attention to Torture Squirrel. By Thursday, I lost track of the squirrel.
On Friday, I finally located Torture Squirrel again, buried deep under leaf litter in an inaccessible hole behind and under the fence slat. I'm not sure I can get the squirrel out of its hole even if I had the squirrel's cooperation. If the squirrel dies, retrieval will be urgent, but really hard to do. So, today, I put water and some food in plastic bags and dropped the materials into the hole, to help keep Torture Squirrel alive until I can figure out how to retrieve it.
Reminds me of the predicament in the 1951 movie, Ace in the Hole, starring Kirk Douglas and filmed out there west of Gallup, in New Mexico, near the Arizona border.Important Landmark - Erlynda Valcourt Moves Out
I don't even recall when Erlynda moved in - maybe 1999, when she lost her house up in Elverta. I began to get disenthralled with her in 2001, and she refused to leave. My friends were amused about how I could not get rid of her. I threw Erlynda out in 2003, but let her back into the house in about September, 2003, when she started having friction with the folks she moved in with. Truth was, she had nowhere else to go.Erlynda started going out with her boyfriend Chris about 2004 - maybe even earlier - but neither were in a hurry to move in together - probably a matter of trust. Erlynda began shuttling back and forth between Chris' house and my house twice a week, spending about half her time at each place, and that became her normal life.
Things have been remarkably stable since 2004. Sixteen years have passed by.
This year, I decided to give the lovebirds a slight push, and finally move Erlynda to Chris' house (hopefully with Chris' assent). I'm beginning to think of selling my house.
Chris Moves out of Woodland did the heavy lifting these Covid days.The Inexplicable Repaving Project
So many problems in California right now, but the one thing you could count on was the smoothness and stability of the paving of the DMV parking lot behind my house. Been there for many years!Except now they've decided to repave the parking lot!
The parking lot is right next to St. Joseph's Cemetery, which was founded in the 19th Century. I just hope there's no erratic 19th Century burials outside the fence of the Cemetery that the crew will find.
First Curfew Night
On the first curfew night ever in Sacramento’s history, I gambled that no one would care if I gave Jasper his usual walk on a quiet residential street after midnight, and that proved to be the case.
The silence was astonishing to behold. No creepy folks driving slowly about, like last night. No one at all. A pure night.
There is always some traffic in the city, even on Christmas, even when it rains on Christmas, but apart from 2 cars in the distance, a third car at the end of the walk, and a fourth car an hour later as I watered plants, there was none.
The brittle silence was broken only by some highway roar in the distance. For some traffic or meteorological reason, I couldn’t hear the two highways closest to me, Highways 50 and 99, but only Interstate 5, the furthest away. Strange.
Passing by the field at Sierra 2 Community Center, I could hear a tinny radio in the distance and could barely make out a Black Lab running around in the dark. Apparently Jasper and I spooked the person; I soon heard the clang of the distant gate as they quickly departed.
I was astonished to see the windows boarded up at the Curtis Park Market. The windows were intact here last night, and I doubt anyone broke them today. This appeared to be a purely preventative measure. So strange!
The silence was astonishing to behold. No creepy folks driving slowly about, like last night. No one at all. A pure night.
There is always some traffic in the city, even on Christmas, even when it rains on Christmas, but apart from 2 cars in the distance, a third car at the end of the walk, and a fourth car an hour later as I watered plants, there was none.
The brittle silence was broken only by some highway roar in the distance. For some traffic or meteorological reason, I couldn’t hear the two highways closest to me, Highways 50 and 99, but only Interstate 5, the furthest away. Strange.
Passing by the field at Sierra 2 Community Center, I could hear a tinny radio in the distance and could barely make out a Black Lab running around in the dark. Apparently Jasper and I spooked the person; I soon heard the clang of the distant gate as they quickly departed.
I was astonished to see the windows boarded up at the Curtis Park Market. The windows were intact here last night, and I doubt anyone broke them today. This appeared to be a purely preventative measure. So strange!
Thursday, June 04, 2020
Wednesday, June 03, 2020
Before Saturday's Riot, Wilding People Were Ready To Go Wild
Picture from Saturday's demonstration at the State Capitol. The big rod with the spokes carried by the rainbow fellow on the left made me nervous. Big rods are useful for a variety of purposes, and make good weapons too. Monday, June 01, 2020
Trouble Coming For Gulf Coast
Just too much going on in Central America.
The NVG and GFS models are suggesting that once the tropical depression that's now near the Guatemalan Pacific coast comes inland over Mexico, a chaotic weather situation there will result. Out of that chaos, a physically-large tropical system will emerge into the Gulf of Mexico. Winds might not be that high, due to the storm's physically-large size - just too large to wind up with intensity - but intense rainbands would be found quite distant to the east from the storm's center. So, the center of the low might reach the Gulf of Mexico's northern shore around the TX-LA border about June 9th, but the heaviest rains might not fall there, but instead around the Pensacola or Tallahassee area. Tampa might be clipped by some of these rains.
The fact that both models are giving broadly similar results adds weight to the forecast.
The NVG and GFS models are suggesting that once the tropical depression that's now near the Guatemalan Pacific coast comes inland over Mexico, a chaotic weather situation there will result. Out of that chaos, a physically-large tropical system will emerge into the Gulf of Mexico. Winds might not be that high, due to the storm's physically-large size - just too large to wind up with intensity - but intense rainbands would be found quite distant to the east from the storm's center. So, the center of the low might reach the Gulf of Mexico's northern shore around the TX-LA border about June 9th, but the heaviest rains might not fall there, but instead around the Pensacola or Tallahassee area. Tampa might be clipped by some of these rains.
The fact that both models are giving broadly similar results adds weight to the forecast.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Plan B
Back in 1988, I took ballet in a class that included a tall teenager who wanted to become a ballerina. She never reached her goal - just too tall for most companies - but she had a Plan B.
Holly Cruikshank went on to become part of the tall girl ensemble in 2005's "The Producers," with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
Holly Cruikshank went on to become part of the tall girl ensemble in 2005's "The Producers," with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.
Analysis Of A Scene: ‘I Wanna Be A Producer' - DVD featurette PT1 from Shiprock Productions on Vimeo.
Untimely Passing
Jasper is disturbed by the untimely death of the mysterious stuffed Tweety Bird animal.Unsettled Saturday in Sacramento
Following on the Sac Bee web site and watching the helicopters overhead, it looked like there were George Floyd protesters on either side of me Saturday morning, but it was too early and I needed to work in the basement all day anyway (preparing to move E. out), so I missed much of it.
Nevertheless, in the evening, I biked to the east steps of the California State Capitol to catch up.
The police moved - a brief feint - so the video starts with momentary panic.
Later in the evening, there was considerable looting, among other places, on J Street, not far from where I used to work. Made for gripping television.
Nevertheless, in the evening, I biked to the east steps of the California State Capitol to catch up.
The police moved - a brief feint - so the video starts with momentary panic.
Later in the evening, there was considerable looting, among other places, on J Street, not far from where I used to work. Made for gripping television.
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