Yesterday

The campaign to save the park (No on G) is over and I now find myself with a lot of free time. I hadn't tracked my volunteer hours, but someone on the campaign must have because I was told that I had volunteered 400 hours over a span of about 2 1/2 months. Color me blown away. 

I have not mentioned the folk who live across the street in what I've dubbed 'party house' in some time. I could not tell you how many people live there. I could not tell you who owns the nine or ten cars associated with party house that are parked along our short block, but I know that a few of the dudes who may or may not live there are mechanics and some seem to be used-car salesmen. There is one primary tenant who is likely on the lease; she has lived there since we moved into the area six years ago. Aside from her, there is a rotating cast of women (and men and pets) who come and go. A new chick showed up about a month ago. I've seen her a few times; she once came over to introduce herself when I was leaving for work. -seemed nice, but was a bit too animated, if that makes sense. 

Yesterday afternoon, we came home from running errands to discover that various porch items had been moved around. We had had a parcel delivered earlier in the day. Could a delivery driver have moved the items? I put everything back in its place and thought little of it. At around 5p, I took one of my cats out for a walk. The new tenant across the way was hanging out of the kitchen window chatting to herself while the dudes who wrench on cars were out tinkering on a red Mazda parked in the driveway. I could hear her exclaim about my cat, Bart, while I took him around the corner. During our wee walk, Bartie sniffed some plants, tried to roll in dog urine and slunk away from approaching children. We were out a total of about 10 minutes tops, before we made our way home. We rounded the corner and were met with an emergency vehicle parked out front of house. There didn't seem to be any urgency as the EMTs got their gear. I wondered why they were here. I have an elderly neighbor who lives alone and wondered if he were OK. As I approached my front door I could see that the emergency services personnel were following me up the front door path. I turned with my cat in my arms and asked if they needed anything. One of the EMTs asked if I had recently called 911. I said that I hadn't and volunteered that maybe our elderly next-door-neighbor had before taking my cat inside. My husband went out to speak with them and was told that someone had called in a report of a '45-year-old white woman' at our address with a bloody nose. I suppose that that was meant to have been me. Thank you for shaving off a decade of my age, but WTF, I was out walking my cat, no blood anywhere on my person. The ambulance left and my husband thought to check the doorbell camera to see if there had been a bloodied woman out front of the house. There had not been, but there was video from 2p that showed the new tenant from across the way coming up to our door, fucking with our porch items, then having a sit on our garden bench for a spell before trundling off back across the street. I can't know for certain, but I feel like it was she who called emergency services. Let's hope her behavior was a one-off, if you will, but I fear it might not have been. 

WE WON....!

A bunch of No on G supporters convened at a resaurant last evening to watch election results. Some highlights not having to do with saving Sunset Dunes--

Amy Acton beat Vivek, the hateful brown guy, to become the next governor of Ohio. 

Susan Collins, handmaid of the patriarchy, finally lost her senate seat to a Democratic challenger after decades at the helm. Bye, biotch! 

Sunset Dunes, thanks to so many volunteers over the past few months, has been saved. It was a tremendous effort by so many. 

Purple: pro-park

Green: anti-park

I live in the purple strip down by the park. WE DID IT. 

Tasty victory cake. 

Victory speech by Lucas Lux

No on G, car show and flowers.

After campaigning fairly regularly for the past month to Save Sunset Dunes park, I've learned that some surfers are, in essense, NIMBYs for the ocean and attendant environs. Not only do a squeaky wheel minority of them hate the park, they 'fucking' hate it. 

Last Friday afternoon, a couple of us were out with signs on sticks urging folk to vote No on G and an older surfer (read: 50s, white, kinda bloated-looking) came up from the beach with board under one arm and yelled 'I fucking hate all of this!' and 'I can't wait for all this shit to be gone!' while making a wide sweeping gesture with his other arm. It was a really warm day that day and there were about two dozen folk just sitting around enjoying the weather and the view. We said nothing while looking at each other in stunned amazement. Well, I did respond snarkily with a 'you seem nice!', but I doubt he heard me.

The rage that folks have about not wanting a park at the beach is brutal to contend with out in the wild, if you will, but I think I get their upset, however much I do not dig it. They don't want to share 'their' parking spots close to the beach. They don't want to share the waves that they surf on. They want to be wrapped up in some fantasy that Ocean Beach is a sort of 'hidden gem' surf spot for them and them alone. It's nuts.

***

Last Saturday I attended the car show in Golden Gate Park. A buddy of mine runs it, so I get to hang out a bit with him and check out some really cool, older vehicles from the US, Asia and Europe. It's a hoot. Here are a few snaps---

Bitchin' Camero!

Baja Bug, baby!

Funky USPS vehicle from yesteryear! 

***

We planted some Dahlia bulbs this summer and this is one of the beauties that grew. She has just a whisp of white and I love her. 

I decided to treat myself to some cut flowers from the Farmers' Market last week. Cosmos make me smile. In fact, I have tried very unsuccessfully to grow Cosmos in the garden, but they always stay spindly before dying entirely. -lucky to be able to have the cut variety whenever I'm feeling fancy, though!

Oct. 9

Ballots have been mailed and we're barrelling toward Nov. 3 faster than I would like. I've yet to pour over the voting guide; I am not really looking forward to it. A small group of us Sunset Dunes (the park at the beach) supporters were out handing out campaign materials last evening at an event in the Mission. Most folk, as one might imagine, were not there to talk politics. Fortunately, those who did interact with me were pleasant. One comment by a park-supporter was akin to the 'bridge building' rhetoric from some Democrats regarding how we must treat Drumpf cultists. He said something like: We must be nice to those who are for Yes on G (aka the proposition, if it were to pass, would destroy a park). Why do we have to be nice to people who are not voting for the greater good? Why do we have to placate people who cannot see beyond the end of their own nose? 

Anyway, I will end this bit with a snap from last week of the sun setting at Sunset Dunes, the new park at the beach. Ahhh...so lovely. 

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the annual music fest in Golden Gate Park, was last weekend. I didn't go as I had my volunteer gig and work to keep me busy, but I could hear strands of music playing all the way at my place some 2 miles away. Crazy how sound travels. What wasn't crazy, but felt insane, was the THUNDEROUS noise of Blue Angels practicing overhead yesterday. I was in the backyard and both felt and heard the oppressive ROAR of the fighter jet engines. The sky was mottled with clouds, so I couldn't immediately see what was happening (I also hadn't read the news that the Blue Angels would be flying/practicing this week). The sound of the aircraft made me think of Drumpf's cavalier remarks about how Iran could 'take out' (read: bomb) major Southern California cities. 

I don't know about you, but I am not looking forward to the Blue Angels' upcoming air show.

Door knocking in Duboce Triangle and beyond...

Wednesday two weeks' back saw a small group of us go out knocking on doors for No on G, save Sunset Dunes Park. We tackled an area of town called Duboce Triangle, a densely populated strip between Haight St. and Market St. near The Castro, handing out literature to interested parties who opened their doors to us. 

Highlights of the event: A shirtless man answered his door, looked at us, then bellowed NOT interested in our faces. A middle-aged woman barked at us about the city of San Francisco trying to take away parking spaces for cars. (And what does that have to do with the park?) 

I have committed to spending two hours each week at Sunset Dunes with literature and a smile to share what voting for Prop. G would bring. It would bring, should it pass, an end to the park. All of the park infrastructure would be ripped out--benches, refuse bins, hammocks, play structures, the skate park, parallel bars, art installations, the kids' pump track, etc. It would all be removed and the city would have spend circa 10 million dollars to convert the park back to a road for cars. 

Highlights so far: Multiple older white men feeling no compunction about screaming FUCK in my face in order to emphasize how much they hate the park while USING the park. I did respond to one such an individual with, 'Why don't you go walk in the street then?' while gesturing toward a neighboring road. Spying my narrow-minded anti-park neighbor walking in the park until she was close enough to my contingent of pro-park peeps at which pointed she pivoted away, removing herself from the stretch of old road she professes to hate.

***

I had an interesting interaction with a customer at my job the other day. He'd mentioned that he'd moved away about 20 years ago and that it was nice to be back in town. -turns out he grew up in Pacific Heights in the 80s and 90s. For those who are unfamiliar, Pacific Heights in one of the poshest sections of SF. I don't know how we got on the subject of the current Mayor of San Francisco, Dan Lurie, but we did. This customer had attended private school with Lurie. I expressed a distaste for the Mayor, citing his having grown up an heir to the Levi-Strauss fortune as being one reason why he was unfit for the job. There was no way, in my opinion, that Dan could be a man 'of the people' as he had grown up in rarefied air, if you will. I knew that the person with whom I was speaking would, too, have grown up in priveledge based on his zipcode and the fact that he now lives abroad in one of the richest countries in the world. What I didn't know was that I was speaking to someone who was the son of billionaires who were decades-long politicians in their country of origin. He listened to me spout upset about Mayor Lurie and then said something to the effect of: People are complicated; many politicians publically espouse positions that they then do hold personally. That is, of course, the case, but it doesn't make fighting for what is right any easier.

Apropos of this post, I will leave you with an image of the stunning Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in existence in the world. 

Today

I am unable to comment on posts, at present, and that feels weird. Delighful-looking crab-apple jelly, beautiful Dahlias in NZ...all these lovely posts read that have brightened up my mood. Thank you, bloggers, for your thoughtful posts. 

***

I spent two hours yesterday canvassing for No on G--save Sunset Dunes Park--at the old Great Highway. What never ceases to amaze me are those who would gladly use the new park while knowing that they will vote to dismantle it come November. It's not necessarily what they say, but how they say it. One younger fellow walking with out-of-town visitors said through clenched teeth that he had already 'made up his mind'. I had to fight the urge to say with a huge smile, 'Enjoy your park walk!' at him in response. Many who are in support of Sunset Dunes gave the pro-park signal of a thumbs up, a raised fist, or a peace sign while walking, biking and jogging by me. That felt good. One old coot on a bike bleated an anti-park slogan while tooling past me on Sunset Dunes. I wanted to tell him to go bike in the street with cars, if he didn't like the park, but thought better of it. While many are steaming mad that they cannot drive down ALL ROADS all over town, I can't mirror their anger when engaging with them, but I sure do want to. 

*** 

The woman who designed this bad-ass symbol---

died a couple of days after the great Gloria Steinem. Her name was Robin Morgan. I grew up with Ms. magazine, and am, myself, a 'Ms.' I knew that Steinem created Ms. magazine, but what I did not know was that R. Morgan had been an editor at Ms. for many years until reading her obituary. She was a radical in the best sense and I am so glad that we had the pleasure of having her on the planet. 

Aug. 26, 2026

Everything makes me cry these days. I blame being a huge sack of walking hormones and mine are in meno-flux. 

Things that make me cry without fail: 

• how fucked our country is in so many various ways and I will not illustrate them here because it is such a fucking downer
• the loss of blogger friends
• any part of the UK suffering from wildfires right now
• the loss of long-term clients from the memory care center where I volunteer
• Dolly Parton's death

***

School is back in session where I live. I can hear the school bell, the kids' voices and see the cars a-clogging the short block on which I live twice-a-day from my living room window. Well, I COULD see them if the window were not covered in a thick sheet of plastic. We are having the facade of the house spruced up. The cheap-o 70s siding has been removed and the old stucco struck off. The aluminum windows, another relic from the 70s, will be replaced with something a bit more modern and energy efficient. Underneath the old stucco is Douglas Fir framing. The boards are thick and rich in color. They've been put up in a diagonal design that almost looks to be a herringbone pattern. It's really rather attractive.

***

To mangle B-rate movie actor Ronnie Reagan's jibe at Senator Cranston: Here we go again! The cranks who want to return car traffic to a two mile stretch of road along the ocean have managed to secure enough signatures to bring this issue back to the voting booth. If anyone cares to read about this latest development affecting the west side of San Francisco, here it is!

I will leave you with a bit of beauty from our garden. The mini passionflower plant has, after four years, finally produced one wee flower and it is spectacular.