April 24, 2020

Been a week since I’ve left the property other than to take Dash for a walk in the COVID rain pollen flowers bursting all around neighborhood. Last week I decided to try Home Depot down in E-Ville for the paper and cleaning stuff and needed to get a bunch of wood to replace the west side of the fence that’s only standing because the Passion Flower vine’s holding it together.

Suited up with mask, goggles, gloves, one of the last Purell and extra nitrile gloves in the pockets with kerchief around exposed neck parts. I arrived to the Home Despot around 10:30 and noticed the entry cones all Disneyland ride style with six foot distancing on the ground but no one was in line so I walked right in. On the shelves, no paper other than blue towels so I got some of those. No cleaning product other than Simply Green, so meh. Found backup bulk dish and laundry detergent. No vegetable starts or seeds but grabbed lots of garden soil. got the other shit for projects to keep working on the house. My cart was full so I figured I’d check out then go back in to get all the wood. Lots of wood.

Upon leaving to pack the van I passed through people leaning on carts and thought there were a lot of people waiting to buy breakfast burritos or hamburgers from Kellys. I packed up the van turned to see that the Disneyesque Space Mountain cone que was full. The entire block wide front of Home Depot decorated with masked people all the way down to the corner and around the building. I walked over and the line had no end of masked patrons. Yea, the line, the people, the possible hours waiting.. all signs pointed to lesson learned and bolt this situation.

When there isn’t a line, get everything you need. Things change quickly (under 30 minutes). At least I have a reason to leave the house again eventually. Gotta fix that fence.

Yesterday the guys renovating the house behind us had their van stolen. Some jackass in a grey car pulled up and parked in front of our gate and stole their van in 7 minutes. The guy lost all his tools. He came over and asked for my video footage. The criminals pulled up at 1:38 and took off at 1:45. Wyze caught them on video, but since I’m a dumbass, for some reason I didn’t have Cam 2 set to HD so I couldn’t read the license plate even though I had a perfect image of the car they were driving. Today after OPD showed up 12 hours later, I sent the event videos to the officer at the dude’s request. Hopefully it helps.. as much as it could being how things are.

Jenny was talking to the renovation guy and he told her he thought this was a nice Oakland neighborhood and was so sad to see it wasn’t. We’ve had less home break ins because everyone is home, but we’re seeing more people being robbed as they’re walking around. I set the cameras to all record HD for 48 hours. We have weapons within reasonable reach everywhere we hang out. Just in case. Funny how catastrophes harden your response systems and you never really ratchet back down, do you?

The semblance of polite society is tenuous at best. When the natural order of criminal activity is disrupted, polite things like burglary or car break ins may give way to things more direct in your face, like a gun or a knife. Hunker down.

Yesterday after the stolen van incident, the OPD ghetto bird started circling our neighborhood. We’ve been here before. Close circles around our block usually mean they’re tracking someone. This time, after the last time where I had to walk the kid out to make sure the cops didn’t kill him in my front yard, with all the OPD guns pointing at us and the cop dog coming through the front gate, I knew to shut the shit down immediately and locked the doors and got everyone inside except myself. I stood out on the balcony and watched our perimeter for someone running up and finding any vulnerable entry point they could get through to continue their escape path. I turned on the OPD Broadcastify when the Citizen app didn’t send a notification. There was an ongoing hunt for armed robbery suspects in the Dimond, two girls were fighting down on Bancroft. But there was nothing in our general vicinity.

We were literally sheltering in place while sheltering in place.

Eventually the helicopter flew away and our family shifted one level of shelter in place back to just pandemic shelter in place reality. I moved supplies out of the Quarantine Van into the basement and upstairs. Beef Jerky, 12 pack of Stella, Pill Pockets for the old Dog Sailor, the stuff from Home Depot.

The sun was beginning to drop down to the west where our neighbor removed the big Acacia tree over the bar right before Vegas left us and the pandemic began. The backyard became vibrant as sunlight mellowed. The seedlings. The pollen covered vehicles. The dogs watching for a treat in their backyard beds. And our two this season squirrels, were standing on the fence watching me and waiting for peanuts so I fed them.

Long Tail takes the peanut from my fingers. Short Tail is more distrusting and grabs them once I walk away. Then the crows flew up onto our power line, all broad and black, and began cawing and kackackacing laughing, so I fed them too with peanuts across the street. We’ve had more crows than usual coming for dinner.

Once feeding was done, with critters all around eating peanuts, the crows crushing and pecking them down on the pavement, squirrels holding them in their little paws, all crunch crunch chomping them with peanut shells gently falling down like feathers from a hawk picking flesh off a pigeon, I stood there and heard this quiet cacophony of tiny chirps and looked up into the Acacia trees and saw sparkling long strands of spiderwebs interlaced between the limbs and leaves, floating, pulsing, gently then watched as these little black headed gray feather bodied birds flew to and fro like pinballs bouncing around between the branches, feasting on insects. Every time I’d see one, two more would catch my attention until the entire tree was a buzz with these delicate birds everywhere, chirp chirping, effortlessly bouncing about and feasting.. A beautiful feathered feeding as the sun was setting behind them. A miasma of birds moving through a living tree entity that provided food for them within its provenance. That tree has been around a lot longer than I’ve been alive.

It was beautiful. Something I’ve never noticed before.

I’m planting self seeding vegetables this season. My yard is becoming a garden for all the critters and if we can partake in the bounty, so be it. For some reason I want to think that if us humans didn’t make it, and if eventually all our structures fell to ruin, overcome with vines and mold and mushrooms and the rain was pouring through broken roofs decaying all we’ve left behind to eventually reset reboot this planet as I’m pretty sure has happened before.. our hubris is fucking stupid…with this human Empire’s knowledge erased by some virus or by those people who burn libraries who hopefully would also succumb to any virus because come on, equality and science.. that what we do now by providing a space for life that will hopefully outlive us when the real swarms take back their planet.

But for now.. stay safe my people. Let’s see how this plays out.

Jennifer Raiser
What a beautiful post. Thank you.

Shannon Blak
Epic summery. Amazing writing style. I feel like I went on a journey. 🙏

Leslie Isaac
i love your story. Real-time story-telling.

George Post
Fresh deer scat in our vegetable garden yesterday means more mesh fencing needed. Sigh.

Joe Olivier
I’ve always enjoyed your writing, you have a keen eye. For shopping it’s best to get there early, like when the doors open. I loved sheltering in place while sheltering in place. Y’all stay safe now ya hear?

Karen Cusolito
Thanks for that!

Claus Brigmann
Thanks John , and now go wash your hands !

Maria Loli Partridge
Touching observations — Richard and I love your writing. xxoo

Lindsay Adams
did the gray car of a long horizontal dent down the side?

Lindsay Adams
a similar car with a horizontal dent on the passenger door tried to steal someones dump truck somewhere between your house and our house. it was caught on a Ring camera

John Mosbaugh
really, do you have a link to the video? there were dents on the car.

Danielle Fay
Thank you for sharing your perspective and experience and writing it in a beautifully rich and descriptive way.
Up here we have more animals than people and the shortages and lines you see have not hit out here so my experience is really different. Stay safe!

Amy May
Ah man. Sorry to hear the guys doing the renovation had their van stolen. That sounds devastating (or at least seriously inconvenient), and they seem like good guys.
Also, grateful for this beauty you’ve shared.

Lyn Alcantara
John I love you. Send me your phone number so we can talk on whatsapp🥰