The State of My Union

No, I will not watch the State of the Union tonight.  The last thing I need is to spend an hour watching #45 tell us how wonderful he is.  I figure if anything memorable or historic happens, it will be dissected over and over and over again by the talking heads.

Instead, I think I'll watch this....

...and remember when we could be proud of our country.  It's from Letterman's new show on Netflix.  I watched part of it last night and it was so nice to see Obama again, and in such a relaxed form.  And how nice to see a president talk with such love and affection -- and pride -- about his wife.

---

 

We may have finally found our restaurant.  Ever since Cafe Italia, where my friend Kathy and I have been eating lunch every month for the past ~2 years was forced to shut down, we have been searching for a new restaurant in Davis.  We both admitted that though we have been eating in Italian restaurants (the Olive Garden in Sacramento for about 10 or more years, and then Cafe Italia) neither of us were wedded to Italian, so we have tried Mexican, Chinese, burgers, and barbeque, but nothing hit us as the perfect place.  (Davis is replete with Thai and Japanese restaurants, but Kathy doesn't like spicy food and isn't into sushi.) Yesterday we went to Paesano's, which happens to be Italian again, but it seemed to be the right fit.  I had the most wonderful pesto tortellini.

 

Kathy, who normally orders spaghetti "light on the sauce" got exactly that, which she didn't always at Cafe Italia.  She seems to have enjoyed it and agreed to go back again next month.  I'm glad because I saw several other things on the menu I want to try.  I guess no matter what we do, we are destined to eat Italian!

---

 

After lunch, I drove to the post office to mail a few letters and then through the cemetery to check on the flowers we left last night.  I encountered a flock of turkeys and stopped to watch them.  Two of them were either fighting or playing.  They chased each other around and around a tree, first in one direction and then in the other.  Then they'd fly up at each other and back to the ground to chase each other again.

 

I know the turkeys are a big pain in the patootie around town, but I do admit enjoying it when I stumble on them and get to watch them in action (especially from the safety of the car).

Turkey Time

Actually, pretty much every day in Davis is Turkey Time.  
 

It is not uncommon to find flocks of wild turkeys roaming around the yards of Davis at any time, especially around the houses close to the cemetery.

The turkey situation is a relatively new thing--within the last 10 years or so.  It used to be that the cemetery grounds had an extension cut off by bushes where people used to walk their dogs.  (When more people die and they need the extra room it will become a cemetery extension, but that will not be during my lifetime.) Turkeys liked to go there, but the dogs generally chased them off.  

But then, as such things happen in Davis, there was a big brouhaha when a couple of people felt that having dogs possibly walk across their loved ones' graves on the way back to the parking lot where their owners' cars were parked was a sacrilege.  There was a big heated discussion held at the cemetery offices.  It was one of the few city meetings I have attended, and the only one at which I stood up and gave my opinion.  I said that if my sons, who were buried in the cemetery, knew that dogs were walking on their graves, it would make them very happy.

I was thinking of the Christmas after David died, when we went to the cemetery in a group, including our then-dog, Toby.  We stood around Dave's grave, drank Jim Beam, poured some on his headstone, and wished him a merry Christmas.  It was something we continued for maybe five years (though we only took Toby the first time).

But ultimately the pro-dog people were outvoted by the no-dog people and now you can't bring dogs onto the cemetery grounds.  

With no dogs to chase them away, the turkey population has exploded.  I have seen flocks of 20 or so turkeys walking all over those precious gravesites that people didn't want dogs near.  

They don't come over to our side of town much, but Walt did see a flock on our roof one day, which was a surprise because somehow I don't think of turkeys actually flying, even though they have big wings.

The group of turkeys I saw today were hanging out with this bird:

I hope someone wll let me know what it is because I thought it was a greebe, but see from Google photos that it is not.  I know I've seen them often, but don't have a clue what it is.

I wonder if anybody in Davis has ever tried to catch and eat one of our turkeys...

Turkeys

Where is my camera when I need it?  A group of us were sitting around the table at the Senior Center in San Ramon having a nice discussion of the book, "The Martian" when suddenly people were craning their necks in the direction of the window and one woman had whipped out her cell phone to snap photos.

There were about half a dozen wild turkeys peeking up over the window sill to look into the room.  The room looks out on a small concrete patio which ends at a wall and behind it is a weed covered hill.  The turkeys had come down the hill to check out the patio.  

My camera was in my purse on the floor by the wall, with three people in chairs between me and it, so I had no chance to dive for it.

Last month while we were discussing another book, we saw a mother deer and her adolescent fawn.  I felt so bad for them since they were obviously looking for food (like the turkeys) but it was slim pickings.  I can hardly wait to see what other wildlife will visit our book discussion group!

Seeing turkeys everywhere seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon.  The first time I noticed wild turkeys in Davis was a couple of years after an infamous battle at the cemetery between the people who wanted to continue to use a hidden area behind the grave area as a dog run, and those who objected to dogs walking  through the cemetery to get to the run.  I was one who argued for keeping the dog run and said that my kids would be happy to know that dogs had come to visit them.  Others felt that having a dog possibly pee in the area of their loved one's grave was a desecration.

After the ban was put into place and the dog run closed, we discovered that one advantage of having dogs in the area was that they kept down the population of wild turkeys.  Now it seemed, the turkeys had taken over the place as their nesting area.  It was common to drive by the neighborhood of the cemetery and find turkeys strolling around the homes or sunning themselves in someone's driveway.

We live a couple of miles from the cemetery, but the turkeys have even made it into our neighborhood.  Walt found a bunch of them sitting on our roof one day.  

They are almost always wandering around the cemetery and they are nasty buggers too.  You don't want to get too close for fear of being attacked.  They have become as ubiquitous as Canada geese, who used to migrate, but lately seem to just stay and stay.

I wonder how those folks who argued for closing the dog run feel about turkey poop on their loved ones' grave!  You can't ban turkeys...they don't comply with the rules.

It was a full yesterday.  This was the first time we had a vehicle conflict on my book club day.  I was going to San Ramon to go to the book club with Charlotte and Walt had a dentist appointment in Berkeley.  He usually takes the car down to Berkeley and spends the day there, but that was going to be difficult.  But his appointment was fairly early, so I just drove him to Berkeley and then drove on to Char's house on the other side of the Berkeley hills.

The discussion of the book was fun and it was interesting to see how many of those >50 year old women would, if given the chance, like to travel to Mars.  The woman next to me, however, said she would wait until someone else had already developed it and I told her it sounded like she was waiting for the Mars Hilton.  

When the discussion was over, we went back to Char's house and I waited for Walt to call me letting me know he was on the BART train headed for Walnut Creek, where I was to meet him in the parking lot of Target.  Turns out that was fortuitous since traffic was horrendous and by getting off the freeway early and driving through town I missed the huge mess where the freeways merge.

I let Walt drive the rest of the way home while we listened to our audio book ("The Enemy" by Lee Child).  We had only 2 hours left in the book, so didn't finish it, but on our next trip we will.

We're old people and were both exhausted from our respective days when we got home, Walt fixed himself a tiny dinner and I skipped dinner entirely.