Friday, October 30, 2026 

     Dark and cold this morning. Heater on to warm up my bedroom.   I suspect by afternoon the house will be warmed by the sun, but now it is cold.

     Sitting on a bench with a friend at the park and watch a group of small children dressed in costumes having a Halloween party.  The women cluster together decorating a table and the costumed kids are creating their own challenges in the sand box, and on the slides and bars.  Most days I don’t see little kids. This is such a treat.

     The federal ICE thugs are hanging out by the jail in Salinas. So scary. I follow the action of the protestors on Facebook reports.

      I am reading such an interesting book DANGEROUS, DIRTY, VIOLENT AND YOUNG, A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground by Zayd Ayers Dohrn.  He writes about his parents who were protestors and fugitives during the 1960’s and 1970’s. His parents are my age and I am remembering how difficult the civil rights wars and the Vietnam wars were. The election is getting closer.

 

Thursday, October 29, 2026

     At noon I am on the deck trying to get warm in the sunlight. four hawks are circling the neighborhood.  Oh no, not four, just two hawks are visible when I put on my distant glasses. My vision changes dramatically when my glasses are off.

     Wednesday, I stay in my nightgown the whole day.  I call it my day off, no planned activities just finishing up house chores, dishes, laundry, throwing out papers, organizing my pill containers.

     A friend drops by with her little dog and we talk.  I am not embarrassed wearing my nightgown in the late afternoon. I show her the latest episode of Jon Stewart on the Daily Show. He is so good at seeing the humor in Trump’s behavior and speech. Humor weakens Trump’s hold on our citizens. I am laughing. She is near tears at the cruel, crazy words and behaviors of the president.

     My roommate is out for the evening.  I watch more episodes of MAJOR CRIMES. And I finish reading REGIME CHANGE. Life is good.

 

Wednesday, October 28, 2026

    I complain to the staff that the basement garage is too dark for me.  Get some lights down there I say. And they shrug their shoulders and tell me to park there.  I don’t.  A few weeks later a staff person tells me sheepishly, there are actually lights in the basement garage. We have learned to turn them on in the morning.  

     Another wonderful morning sitting in the Larkin house garden, talking with a friend. The garden is coming alive after last week’s rain. People walk by, taking a short cut through the garden to another street. We sit on the new benches under the arbor and converse back and forth.

     For a couple of nights I take a Tylenol pill at bedtime for an achy shoulder. And I am now sleeping better then ever with that tiny pill.

     I am alone in the evening. I watch several episodes of the MAJOR CRIMES series on Netflix. Murder dramas with quirky police people. So satisfying to me. Reminds me of my work at the welfare department decades ago. I continue to read REGIME CHANGE, a hopeful look at the corruption of the Trump mob. The election is coming, the election is coming.