I call it "The Take Back the Neighborhood" walk

For the past several weeks, neighbors from Mokelumne Ridge have been gathering at 10am on Saturday morning on a certain corner. Then, like a small critical mass, we set off in one direction or another, chatting, calling out to new neighbors we meet, and sometimes picking up trash. The trash pick up was Benn's idea today, something I've done in the past and then got tired of. Benn is the one who started an email list, then a Yahoo Group ("Mokeridge") so that we could all become aware of problems in the neighborhood. There have been a number of brazen burglaries,and we need to know who lives where, who does or doesn't belong. Today, Steve and Chiye, Benn, a schoolteacher named Steven, Renato and son Mahal, were along, and me and Yuki of course. We saw Kamala driving to work; we talked to someone on Simson who was unloading some black bamboo from his truck; and we "auditioned" a man who lives on Simson. He wanted to sing us a song he is going to perform for a TV talent show. He is convinced he's going to win, so he's looking for a substitute roommate while he's off in LA becoming famous.