The Shining City on the Hill

The Shining City on the Hill
Originally uploaded by LISgirl

It was a winter day when there is a particular clarity of atmosphere, allowing one to see far across the bay to San Francisco from our hill in Oakland, while the brooding clouds hover over the city. The lit up city contrasts with the dark flats of Oakland in the foreground. A ray of sun lit up one tower of the Golden Gate Bridge.

A string quartet on Mokelumne

Dedicated semi-professional musicians devote hot afternoon to providing sublime music for neighbors and friends.... though sweltering, it was wonderful. I learned that Mendelssohn idolized Beethoven and the year Beethoven died, when M. was 18, was very tragic. He rose above it to compose a beautiful string quartet.

Morning after a storm

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.

Today I learned about the new chihuahua movie

I always learn something from neighbor Fred, with his female chihuahua Shelby who is a friend of Yuki. We parallelled our walks for about a half a block. I now know that a chihuahua is kidnapped in this movie....can't wait to hear the whole plot after Fred takes his daughter to the movie this afternoon....

Quality Donuts

Everyone who lives in Millsmont should know about Quality Donuts. This is the only shop within walking distance except for Seminary Gas. It's a stop for people going to work on 73rd Street/Hegenberger, and for a while there, it was a daily stop for Roxanne and I and Yuki. Since it's on the opposite side of the neighborhood, it makes a good goal (except for the calories part). On this day, we had Elizabeth and Yuki's boyfriend, Henry. Notice Henry waited patiently for us to emerge with a donut scrap, and Yuki is captured here in full bark mode. It took a few weeks, but now she also will wait patiently for me to emerge from the shop and give her a crumb of my favorite, a plain old-fashioned. In my opinion, that's the only thing to order here, but Roxanne enjoyed chocolate covered and buttermilk donuts. The last time I stopped in, the dear lady behind the counter asked after "my friend." She sent warm wishes back with me.

Dogwalking University, Missing companion

These days I walk with my iPod and listen to NPR Technology, Bill Moyers, To the Point (a radio show from Santa Monica), a lecture series on psychology at the U. of Wash., and recently found a new series on veganism, a podcast from compassionatecook.com by Colleen. That doesn't mean I'm turning vegan, yet. But today I needed to pay attention. Almost got jumped by the "white wolf," a dog who lives on Simpson and sometimes gets out of his yard. He actually hides behind a fence, then comes out and bares his teeth at my dog. I retreat and turn the other way. It was a bad day for loose dogs. A black pitbull (well cared for, not starving) was sniffing around in front of my house today, and I had to wait till he went around the corner, to slip in my gate safely, with Yuki close beside me. We had a staring match for a few minutes, before he lost interest. I still haven't gotten in the habit of carrying a big stick (like others I've seen!). 

For two months, I walked and talked everyday with my neighbor around 9am. All the experiences I blogged about and wanted to blog about (but really didn't have time) were experiences I had with her. She hasn't left her house now since mid-August. Her illness has returned and now we visit her with food or just company. I put all the pictures I took on our walks onto a giant poster that I framed and gave her for her birthday recently.  She was so weak that she looked at it once and I don't think ever again. I realize the pictures are for me now.  Someday I'll manage to get them on here, and try to remember what I was thinking when I took the pictures. Some of them are blooming plants that she especially loved, and I planned to take the pictures to a nursery to identify them. I have many good memories of those walks, but they are bittersweet.