Hogan High 67

MY NEW PLAN: As of this post, I will no longer be mentioning the GOP nominees for president and vice-president. I will focus entirely on the positive aspects of the Harris-Walz campaign. Part of this is based simply my own thinlomg but it is also inspired by a long-time friend (in real life) and a comment he made here on FB earlier this week: The nominee's focus is on owning the news cycle and so his behavior gets more and more extreme. And a point someone on msnbc made is that his base wants him to be awful. The more awful he is, the more they like him. And so, done. I will not comment on the outrageous thing he did today nor will I comment on the outrageous things he/they will do in the next 11 days. VP Harris was extraordinary tonight in Houston. Let's focus on her, the next President of the United States of America!

Well, my landlady, the daughter of the wonderful woman who invited me to live here back in 1987, refuses to work with me regarding the 33 ⅓ percent rent increase she announced on November 10, in a "happy holidays to you and your family" card. Seriously: That's how she did it. I have asked her to work with me as I get back on my feet after being sick for coming on two years. She will not consider making the extreme increase incremental. Pay the full increase now or be evicted pronto. This leaves me staring into the maw of imminent homelessness, as I have depleted my savings during my illness. I am beyond despondent, which is death to creativity. I am still in such deep mourning about the loss of Lark that it is all I can do to put one foot in front of the other. And now this, when I have zero resilience. Honestly, it feels like a death sentence. I did a very successful Go Fund Me campaign in Nov. '22 so I can't go in that direction. I'm working on book proposals but they are quite a ways off from producing income. I've been applying for jobs but have not gotten a single response, not even a call back. My heart hurts horribly and literally, mostly because of Lark but also because I am now faced with losing the home I have lived for 35 years and where my dear Joey and dear Lark are buried, as are Rosemary, Poe, Mario, and Jamaica. Instead of saving every penny, I have poured thousands of dollars into this place, including with improvements that will last for decades. When a toilet needed replacing, I did instead of asking for it to be done. I get ZERO acknowledgment or credit for all I have done here. I have made other repairs that are a landlord's responsibility and now, on top of the increase, she has told me that all plumping and septic issues are my responsibility. I have been an extraordinary tenant. Honestly, I do not know if I will make it through this. I have devoted my adult life to working about Sonoma County in myriad ways, including a 50 percent pay reduction to stay with the PD and including putting KRCB on the national map through my 27 years as a volunteer programmer who received 5 James Beard Nominations for Broadcast Journalism for a show with NO BUDGET. I was up against shows from NPR and other big budget/big staff programs. At the time, the nominations got a lot of attention at the awards cemetery, which is how Mouthful and thus KRCB got a lot of national exposure to people who pay attention to such things. But all that work, all I did to make Mouthful the success that it was, means nothing now. The station made so many promises – syndicate it, promote it, spread the word about my outstanding interviewing skills, etc., but nothing ever came of the promises. But I never even got a thank you for all I did for the station. And now I am on my own with challenges that feel utterly and completely overwhelming. And my grief at the loss of Lark is emotionally crippling in ways I have not experienced before.

Concrete ideas are welcome but, please, no comments about finding low income housing, moving, etc. I need to double or triple my income. This was already what I was working on when the notice of the increase came. Now I had to peddle even faster just to stay where I am and that may not be possible.

But, hey, it's after 5. I can have a glass of wine.

Dear Friends, Do you maintain a web site? If so, would you be willing to share it? I'll start. My site is micheleannajordan.com. It features my work as a writer, a chef, and a novice photographer. I'd love to see what others are up to in this arena. (The site is pretty easy to navigate but if you are looking specifically for stories, click first on Articles and then on Narrative.) There will be a lot of new content soon.

Michele Anna Jordan - Author & Chef | Sonoma County Writer Join Michele as she explores and celebrates the cooking, food, farms, people, places, stories, culture and hidden treasures of Sonoma county.

Whenever I drive on Rollingwood towards the cemetery, I pass the old Vallejo Auto Movies and remember all the crazy times we had there. In this day of COVID, do you think drive-ins may make a comeback? Do you remember the last movie you saw at a drive-in? Mine was Rachel Rachel, but it was at the other drive-in theater on the north side of town, near the Fairgrounds, I think.

Sunday, July 12, was the 50th anniversary of Wayne DeLaura's death. He drowned while swimming with friends near the convergence of the American an Sacramento Rivers. On this anniversary, Bobby Howard and I visited his grave at the cemetery, with two bouquets. Afterwards, we went back to Bobby & Coni's house and had a nice dinner, with Bobby's yummy smoked ribs and Coni's delicious roasted vegetables and twice cooked potatoes. This year, the DeLaura family did not host a graveside memorial, because of the virus. Ernie, Bobby, Poliann, BabyJo, and Charlene are all doing well.

Dear Friends, The Kincade Fire in Sebastopol is close to 90 percent contained. I will be sending out an update as soon as I can but I don't currently have access to my Hogan list or emails. My iMac was compromised by the power outage/surge (yes, I use a very good surge protector) and I'm waiting on a replacement now. It will be a couple more days. If you have information you'd like me to share with our class, you can still send it, no problem. I hope everyone who has been touched by California's fires, evacuations and outages is safe.

Michele Anna Jordan
Sun, Sep 29, 12:24 PM (2 days ago)

Hi y'all,

What a great party Coni and Bobby hosted a couple of weeks ago. Great big thanks to them and to everyone who helped pull it together (and take it apart). And to everyone who traveled a distance to join in. We enjoyed great food and wonderful conversation.

Lots of people took photos but I've not yet received many. (Thank you, Dave Kuehl for sending great photos!) If you could please send me what you have, I'll put together a sample via email and will also put them into an album on our page.

I have another request, too: Do you have a web site or blog? I'd like to send out a list of links so if you have one, please let me know and I'll pull things together. Please send me the link and put "web site/blog" in the subject line. And thinking ahead: In a few weeks, I want to feature some recipes from classmates. I know that Richard Satterlie and Doug "Midnight Meatloaf" Sheldon are both great cooks and occasionally send a photo or post one on Facebook. So think about what you might want to share and send it to me any time. Please put RECIPE in the subject line, as this will help me keep things organized. I'd like to send this out in early November, so fall/winter/holiday recipes.

For now, here are two photos. One is from a luncheon I did recently at a farm in Sebastopol and the other is from our fete. I realized when I saw the first one that there is a strange beauty to the detritus of a gathering. These images tell a story and I find them engaging.

happy fall to everyone,

michele