POLITICS & ALL THAT JAZZ
I’ve got a lot to learn.
I never participated in city government before I came to Vallejo. I don’t know how things work. In the old days my activism was grandiose
intellectual coffee-house BS. Now I flap
around like a stranded seal, trying this and that, always working for truth and
justice; at least I’m on the right side – ain’t I? The good thing is the game is accessible in
Vallejo; even I can say my piece, as though it might do any good. I’ve got a front row seat at City Hall where
I get to watch political crime and corruption in 3-D and living color nearly
every Tuesday night. It’s history in the
making; the finest entertainment in town (beside the Empress Theatre, of
course), and the best teacher if I pay attention.
Listening to our untutored councilors try to figure
out rules for cultivating and delivering marijuana made me think I was back in
the old world, eavesdropping on a bunch of rabbis arguing some obscure Talmudic
point. The mountain of considerations
for each decision for each rule is huge.
How many inches a baby plant may be before it can be moved from its
mother? What is the precise size of the
growing area allowed for a vender? Where
may it be? Fortunately, the lawyer for
the dispensary gang set everyone straight when he said, let’s be real, it has
to grow somewhere.
As I see it, city staff runs the whole show. I took part in the citizens workshops that
led to the creation of the new General Plan, aka Propel Vallejo, which has been
snatched from its cradle by our legal staff because a “certain applicant has
spent thousands of dollars” (her words) on his project of putting a deep water
port and cement factory on the waterfront that we, the citizens have rightfully
claimed to be ours in our new General Plan, and we had better not say anything
about it because that’s against the law.
They’re fixing the pipes and water storage tanks in the
parking lot across the street from my complex.
The report claims that “Rerouting the surface storm water flow will also
reduce the risk of flooding of the lower levels in the event of a strong storm
coupled with a power outage.”
Man, that scares me. Will the river overflow? How long can the power be out? I get oxygen from a machine that runs on
electric power. In case that storm and
outage come to my house, I have 4 auxiliary tanks on my patio that hold 72 hours
of oxygen, so they say, and that’s it.
I’ve asked neighbors to help me if the juice stops. And if you’re around, please come over and
help.
One of the first storms of the year knocked my only
tomato plant over, breaking the pot and strewing earth on the patio. I had to get rid of the plant but managed to
save about 15 marble sized green orbs.
What could I do with them? You
can’t eat them, they’re no good to cook, but I didn’t want to throw them out,
so I pickled them. Got the recipe from
the nice pickle vendor at Moschetti’s on Saturday morning. Those babies were so delicious I want to
pickle everything in sight.
One of the most interesting things I ever learned
about self-defense is when you tear up lettuce leaves they produce more
anti-oxidents, so always tear your lettuce when you make a salad.