Dia de los Muertos

I spotted this guy walking down the street with this fantastic bunch of marigolds and I followed him into an alley and then into a hall where people were setting up these altars for their Dia de los Muertos event.  What an explosion of color!  I was fascinated by the arrangements and their strange garish beauty.

Each display was lovingly designed and created to honor deceased loved ones.  It seems like such a good thing to do.  Stop and take time think about the important people who are with us in spirit.

Landscape Wow Factor

Last week I happened to be in a neighborhood in downtown that I had never been in before.  I was just strolling along with my dog when I came upon this fantastic tree.  I have never seen so many huge blossoms on one of these Datura trees.  Datura, or Angel Trumpet as they are sometimes called, really thrive in San Jose and this year seems to be an exceptionally good year for them. 

Light the Night

Tonight thousands of people gathered together in San Jose's Arena Green Park and walked to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research and patient support.  What a tremendous sense of community.  It was quite a moving sight to see the night lit up with flashing balloons: white for survivors of blood cancers, red for supporters and gold in memory of a loved one.

An Endless Stream of Ice Cream

Time is running out on posting about this topic so here goes.  Shortly after we moved into this neighborhood, a friend commented to my daughter that she had just missed the ice cream man. My daughter and I found this amusing because in this neighborhood there is no such thing as missing the ice cream man.  They are like subway trains - another one always comes along. We happen to live right between two ice cream truck warehouses which are to ice cream trucks what roundhouses are to trains.  It is where they go for the night.  All of the carts and trucks have your standard fare like fudgsicles and drumsticks and Strawberry shortcake bars but the really good stuff comes from this truck, B&M.  The proprietor has softserve ice cream and just about any kind of treat one can make from it.  On a hot day when I'm out gardening I listen for his bell and when I hear it I run for my money.

Meeting Up with the Dog Biscuit Man

Wait, wait, wait..

There is a very nice gentleman who goes walking in the SJSU/Naglee Park/Roosevelt Park neighborhoods and who always carries with him a packet of dog treats. The first time we saw him my boxer didn't even know that the man carried treats but still he dragged me across the street to see the man. One meeting was all it took for this man to become boxer's new best friend and so on our walk this morning when he saw the dog treat man headed our way he quickened his already very brisk pace in order to get to him faster. Little things like this add up to make my neighborhood a nice, not perfect, but nice place to live.

Rock and Roll Half Marathon

A friend of mine ran in this race this morning so I decided to roll on over and check it out.  Wow! I had never been to a big race before and I really got caught up in the high energy and excitement of the crowd.  I can see why people run races, it seems exhilarating.  Anyway, somehow in the sea of runners I managed to find my friend (those are his orange shoes) and I got to see my councilman, Sam Licardo, chatting it up with former 49er Roger Craig (who appears to be fit enough to play championship pro ball right now) and I got to see Brandi Chastain who was there to run the race. The Rock and Roll half marathon is special in that it has bandstands set up all along the course with 10 different bands playing. There is also a post-race awards ceremony and concert. Seems like a logistical nightmare to set up but all seemed to be running (ha,ha) smoothly.