Friday Randomness

Another Friday, another brain dump of randomness.

Look at the crowd in the drone photo taken of our local No Kings rally last Saturday! The crowd is estimated to be between 8,500 – 10,000, which is amazing, especially as there were even larger crowds in Oakland and San Francisco, and that our neighboring town had their own large crowd. I counted this as my CBWC walk for that day, though honestly I didn’t walk much because it was so crowded. I took pictures, but they sucked because of so many people, so here are some fun photos from the professional photographers that shared their photos on our local Indivisible FB group.

We parked in a nearby parking garage, which was perhaps a mistake because of the crowd size, and because everyone was leaving at the same time. We could not even pull out of our parking spot because the line of cars blocking us in wasn’t moving and couldn’t let us out. We sat there for a while, then decided to go get lunch instead.

One nice thing about our bougie protests (I say that because often they are held in an upscale outdoor shopping mall, because that is where the Tesla dealership is, so that’s where they started) is that there are plenty of options for lunch. We stopped in at Nordstrom and ate at their cafe. I had the Salmon Nicoise, which was fine but not great. I wished there had been salt and pepper on the table. Ted was happier with his salad and chicken.

Saturday evening we celebrated Diwali a couple of days early with Ted’s parents and brother. It was lovely to get together and we enjoyed our time there, and the delicious takeout we brought. Ted’s mom used to do all of the cooking for this holiday, but the last time she did that a couple of years ago, she was exhausted, so we brought takeout from a local Indian restaurant.

What else…well, our 20 year old Camry needed new tires, and I popped in to the coffee shop nearby for breakfast. In addition to a shelf of books you can borrow (or presumably take, like a Little Free Library) they have a bunch of board games. I laughed at the ‘Monopoly for Sore Losers’ edition.

One of my favorite bookstores in SF, the one I mentioned in last week’s post, put up some signs in reaction to the news of troops being sent to our area. Trump has since backed off of troops in San Francisco (at least for 5 minutes until he changes his mind again), not sure what that means for the rest of us.

When I was there a few Saturdays ago, I bought some postcards that show a similar message. This picture was taken in October, 2001.

This was one of my FB memories yesterday. This was about 16 months after my mom died, and the reminders that came in the mail were sharp and painful. I put time and effort into calling every company and getting off of their mailing lists, and eventually they stopped. I had a job for two years in the late 90s where I worked on an IVR (push 1 for this, push 2 for that) and we ALWAYS had an option where someone could push 0 to talk to a live person. Anyway, the pain of losing my parents has dulled over the years. It is part of me, and will always be there, but it’s not quite the knife in the eyeball it once was.

Another CBWC pic, yesterday I went down a different side street, and thought I might see if I could find some cute Halloween decorations. I found this little graveyard, and look, another pomegranate tree!

Just around the corner, I came upon this wall with charming art work.

Ten years ago today, we first met Mulder. He had been put up for sale on Craigslist, and a local rescue went and bought him in a parking lot. The people who had him before said they couldn’t keep him because they were moving to Japan, but then they contacted his foster mom later to see if they could set up a play date with their other dog (they didn’t know it was a rescue buying him), so I think he just got to be too big and loud for them and their Pomeranian. Most dogs are surrendered when they are teenagers, so they no longer look like puppies, but they still act like puppies. Anyway, their loss was our gain. The rescue had an annual Halloween party the day we went to meet him. His foster mom’s theme for costumes was Peter Pan, and Mulder was dressed as a Lost Boy, but he hated it so she had to take his costume off before we got there. Wait! I know I’ve seen a picture with him in his costume…

Through the power of Facebook, you can see him in the background here! Captain Hook is played by Rocky, who is the foster mom’s dog, who was rescued after he lost one leg in a car accident. Guess what? Rocky and Mulder came from the same breeder, and were half brothers! Rocky is 12 now and has moved to New England. Look at Mulder’s face. He hates that costume. If we ever put costumes/clothes on him, he would just stand very still and ask for help. Sometimes he would cry.

Mulder had been at the house for less than 24 hours, and was shy and overwhelmed by the commotion of the party. He was 6 1/2 months old, and we fell in love with him right away. We had no idea how rowdy he was, a real Tasmanian Devil. We went to visit him every weekend for the next several weeks (where we took him for a walk and got a peek at his wild side), until he had all of his vet visits and such, which is when we were able to bring him home. Sigh. I miss that boy.

What other randomness? I bought my Christmas Cards last week. Other than that, I have zero interest in Christmas this year. Will I change my mind? Of course, I always do. It’s too early to think about though. We spotted Santa the other day, thumbing for a ride. Appropriately enough, he’s trying to get north.

Halloween is next week. Our decorations are minimal, but asshole squirrel George Bush is chewing on my pumpkin again. Better than my avocado tree I guess. I have had some excellent reads lately, will report in November when I’m looking for content.

I’ve shared this cartoon before, but saw it again the other day and it made me laugh.

This post is getting unwieldy. Weekend plans? Since I work a 4 day workweek, I have Fridays off. Today that means taking our car for new brakes, she who just got new tires last week. I hope she feels special and well loved. Also going to spoil myself, and get a massage, then tonight after we pick up the car I suspect we’ll go out for Friday night dinner. No other plans, other than our weekly protest. I’ll be glad for some down time.