boycott safeway: one day longer, one day stronger

today I protested with a couple hundred of my union brothers and sisters in front of the Pacific Stock Exchange. It was a great protest on message, good speakers, great weather, good audience.

We were protesting the lockout of 70,000 Safeway workers in Southern California. What's at stake is not just their health insurance, but eventually the health care of all union workers. Safeway has already lost enough money to pay for the insurance, and they are a profitable company. What gives.

We were their to highlight this fact to the investors, the current CEO behind the lockout, Steve Burd has just got to go.

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big old dog

I lost the keys to my new apartment yesterday somehow -- it was a bad day -- so tonight I went to meet a guy from the property management company to get new keys. I was waiting on the porch and who should come along but this big old lump of a golden retriever.

We'd met him the day we moved in, and he had come over with a big stuffed rabbit in his mouth, his tail wagging his body, greeting us as we were hanging out on the steps snacking. Tonight he had not one stuffed animal, but two. I accidently knocked one from his mouth, and when I placed it in front of him again, he dropped the other one, took the smaller one in his mouth, placed it on the bigger one, and then picked the two up again. Smart dog! I thought.

It was a nice evening, a couple new friends of mine stopped by to check out the apartment -- they had been looking as well and wanted to see what we got; a long time friend who lives on the street walked by; a couple of my neighbors; and finally a girlfriend of a coworker as I was pedaling home.

A good day.

smooth move

thanks to the ample arms and cars of a number of friends (eric, eric, grace, bob, kira, 'deep, doug, and peat) the norman conquest is now nearly empty of books, clothes and other miscellani.

it's kind of sad being home. the wall before my computer is bare, and our bookshelves stand empty. i itch to fill them.

this morning i discovered the best way to wait for utility companies. give them your cell phone number and let them call you when they actually arrive. I discovered this unwittingly this morning -- I had thought I had made an appointment for NEXT monday -- but just as I was leaving for work, I got a call from a somewhat irate call from a PG&E gasman.

note, that this route does leave you with rather surly service. he almost left before I could get him to invesitage a heavy smell of gas in the front room, and he nearly waved me off even then "Gas? you might smell dirt. But when he went in, he went out again and got his box, and made some adjustments, and then went back and checked the other heater to boot."

I was glad I listened to my (rather ineffective) sense of smell on that one.

...

yesterday was also notable in that the weather turned and it was actually warm at times. Still a but nippy in the shade, but today I didn't even need my gloves biking home. A first for several months. Looking forward to some surprising warm spring days where biking is an absolute joy instead of just a plain old joy.