The V-Town Social Club

Today will be a manic day of spring cleaning. I live alone, all by myself. (Actually, there are 2 German Shepherds here whose rations I have reduced and are an extra bit hungry. Just an FYI in case you fancy my frozen burritos or can of Clam Chowder.)  Living alone means putting off those little chores, because I mean, who cares really? My dogs do not care. I drink coffee, read, surf the net and sleep. What do I care? I will share with you that I am house embarrassed. 4 years ago now I had life threatening heart event. I spent 3 days in ICU and the remainder of 2 weeks bedbound in the hospital. The fear of death gripped me. It changed my perspective and altered the way I behaved in the world.  The effect of that year has mostly subsided with one great exception: my house. It is not suitable for company. So, follow along here, in a twisted form of logic, I will spend the day dusting, scrubbing, mopping, organizing and in every other way . . . make my home ready for guests. (Permission to laugh out loud.)

I have been accused of solving problems that do not exist. I cannot seem to help myself, I am burdened with at least 6 separate voices in my head. The old story about which is the strongest wolf? The one you feed of course. Well, my voices will feed themselves, or sometimes on themselves. True, if I meditate, I including reading as meditation, the insight I gain may perhaps quiet one, while feeding another. If I succumb to the tiresome temptations of ego and vanity; the overly bloated, fat one will whine and spit; while the angry 3 year old disgorges the patently unapproved Webster dictionary at his object of disaffection. With humble honesty, I cannot even proclaim perfection in my sleep for I snore, loudly, even before my eyes close. While I love my dogs, that too is not limitless. Coincidently, their favorite person is my favorite person. While I find them to be obnoxious, slobbering, never-take-a-day-off mess makers, I relish looking into their eyes every morning and, in that moment, commit for one-more-day, to be the man they believe me to be.

But today my heart hurts. I was born to a pale shade of life. My burdens rise entirely from my inability to read social cues. (Another voice in my head sometimes tells me that, ‘Tom, you actually do see the social cues, it’s just that the rest of us in here think they are shit.’) I had the good fortune to learn at a time when education was better funded. My mind was bent (Permission to laugh here as well.) towards those things mechanical.  With a fair grasp of the basic laws of physics I pushed forth into the world and fed myself well enough to become 30 pounds over-weight. (This last point was intentionally made to impress the ladies so that when they do notice my girth, they will see me as a good provider, dad-bod and all.)  Where the hurt comes in is in the knowledge that we have neighbors who do not have homes, whose pets are always on short rations, and who will most-likely succumb to the worst effects of any social disorder that you and I weather with a precocious glass of Grenache.

At best, their conditions are awful. I dare not speculate as to the rest. Far too many of us already socially distance ourselves from the Great Unwashed. In our minds stream visions of hobos riding the rails looking for work. “There’s work to be found!” my judgmental, pale voice cries out.  (Just for fun he said, Get a job.) “Not so.” Dog Man quietly shares. What really ever happened to, and please pardon my Western references here, the lessons we learned as children: The Good Samaritan; The Prodigal Son; and none-the-least, “What so ever you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto me.”

For the last decade or so, when I travel, and people ask me where I am from I say California. Governor Newsom correctly called CA a Nation State. We are larger than many countries and boast of the 5^th largest economy in the world. With whatever grace we are blessed with I am proud to say, recently, that the State has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to address the plight of homelessness.  It is a start.  Here is where our part, the Dog People’s part, comes in. We need to put our minds together and solve this problem that does exist.

Aside: Quick question – What is unarguably the best part of an argument? . . . The other side.  I share this one thing with you all. None of us, not a single solitary soul, can make a wise decision in a vacuum. Each decision requires relativity. To a point, we must understand as much as possible by learning the other side(s) of the argument. From that, create a working plan. And when that planned path does not follow the trail? We adjust the plan.

Those most vulnerable of us will suffer this time harder than . . .  well, us. Already distant in our society, only those truly committed will brave proximity but then, only from a distance. 

For now, look to yourselves, in this time of quarantine. Reach to your friends and look to make yourselves whole. Very soon, sooner that you might imagine, we must each find that Dog Person within us. For we have so many problems to solve. So feed that part of you now. Send the child and the pale faced putz, to their rooms.  Use the tools that you have available to you right now and lend your voice to help solve crisis of humanity.

Until tomorrow,

Tommy Judt

I am taken by the absence of sound when I walk out my door.  Each day is beginning to feel like an early summer, Sunday morning where the whole world is sleeping in and planning on attending the later noon service. Walking my dogs, I wave at a neighbor I have never met and we share stories across an empty street.  The air is amazingly fresh and clean. Honestly the only time I have ever experienced this was after a weeklong rain storm when every atom of the sky was scrubbed clean and the filth that had spewn forth from our factories, our cars, and our mouths was unceremoniously, and literally, washed-down-the-drain.

I love seeing Facebook actually work, in the way that I hope it was designed.  A forum of conversation and sharing for friends old and new.  My mouth waters at the sight of Tommy Bilbo’s Velvet Scrambled Eggs, and laugh come cocktail hour when friends gather for a virtual Quarantini! What I find palpable, in my perusal of personal posts, is the noted absence of stress. What I do not detect is any sense of resignation. No, what I sense is . . . relief. A widespread, anti-panic. (TP hoarders aside.)

Happy news! The dolphins have returned to the canals of Venice whose waters have become clear again with the absence of motorboats stirring up the silt.  In other happy news, the air quality in China has improved drastically. Some say up to a 25% reduction in carbon emissions.  Here in California we do maintain the strictest air quality standards in the US, and perhaps the world, and again I marvel at how clear each day has become.

The working from home thing has been a bit of a challenge for some companies as they scramble to purchase laptops for all of their employees. Question to business owners: Now that you have invested in so many laptops, why not keep them working? That is to say, why not have a more intensive work from home policy? America, for the most part now, is an information driven society. I was thinking about this last night as I sipped a simple, yet precocious Grenache; enjoyed with my 3 egg omelet filled with homegrown asparagus, tender avocados, onion garlic, basil and cheddar; and realized that in the past  economy of resources has driven us to congregate for work, and work related activities. Discounting for just a moment the obvious social benefits of seeing other people every day, the stark reality is that; when we were a manufacturing based society, raising cathedrals, milling lumber and spewing coal smoke, from the steam engines driving the Dickensian industrial age; the work was only ever in that one location.  Now, with computers, high speed internet and video conferencing, much of America’s work can be done from home.

But Tom! What about employee productivity? How will we ever really know if someone is working or not, since they are not in the office producing their TPS reports right in front of me? Well my goodness, it looks like managers just might have to be a little more creative about how they train, manage, measure and verify productivity, won’t they? No more walking around the office holding a narcissistic coffee cup emblazoned with the WORLD’S BEST BOSS!!  No managers will actually have to use their heads and develop ways of monitoring the quality and quantity of a person’s output.  That being said, let’s look at the other side of the ledger for a minute. If fewer people are congregating at one location, then that location does not need to be so large. Smaller office = less rent. And if fewer people are commuting to work, then fewer carbon emissions will be emitted into our atmosphere. Fewer commuter miles = lessened vehicle costs and time lost in traffic. And if I am correct in my observation that stress levels have dropped, well then, the general quality of life has improved for almost everyone. Crazy! It did not take First Contact with the Vulcans to come to the realization that we are killing our planet and ourselves. No, it took our weakened planet, trying to rid herself of infection, to show us the way to save us all.

My fear, same as yours. I cannot even bring myself to write it.

In the mean time I will enjoy the quiet and revel in the tales of friends who have driven to the City in under 30 minutes passing only the lonely security guard on their way.

Until tomorrow, please remember to shop local. Visit Vallejo has posted a list of local businesses that are still open and ready to serve you.  Shawna Gilroy at the Times Herald has offered a special advertising rate so that you may reach a broader audience. sgilroy@tmesheraldonline.com

Tommy Judt

p.s. Also, please be careful out there, where the streets are quiet, and no one can hear you scream. The dead may just be coming back to life . . . and . . . Zombies do run.

WAIT . . . STOP . . . BREATHE . . .

The last few weeks has given us so much to think about. One important lesson that I see is that of Social Responsibility combined with Enlightened Self Interest.

“O.M.G. Tom!!  Why are you talking about Enlightened Self Interest when the Shop-ocolypse is here!?”  “Hold this, I see stray roll of TP under that cart.”

It is not my intent to minimize the realities or impacts of the Corona Virus. Quite the opposite. What I would like to talk about are the larger things to be learned here: Cooperation, Community Support and the proper understanding of the information being provided.  Basically I believe that this is an opportune time to reexamine our social priorities as they relate to our individual qualities of life. A friend, as recently as last week, cautioned me on not engaging in Social-Engineering considering the impacts of CoVid19. I scoffed, what better time I quipped . . . to myself.

Predictions:

1. Employers will begin to measure productivity with different means.
2. Employers will begin to question the reasoning behind owning large office spaces that concentrate employees.
3. The lessened impact of working commute traffic on our environment will become a major topic in the months to come. (Both air and car.)
4. Employee concentrations, being decentralized, will give rise to the success of local businesses, especially cafes, as Work From Home employees seek social engagement and something other than frozen burritos and peanut butter sandwiches to eat. (My end-of-times menu.)
5. Local gathering places will thrive as workers venture out in the evenings to connect socially with their neighbors.
6. Fuel prices will drop with lessened demand.
7. The race to provide high speed internet to all houses will be a frantic one.

Yesterday I did something that I have not done in some time. I purchased a cart full of groceries. (Currently I have an appropriate amount of TP and learned some time ago how to keep myself clean.)  That being said, I also went down to Moschetti’s and purchased my coffee. Fabrice, as always, happily engaged me in conversation and shared with me the effect that the restaurant and hotel closures are having on his business. In the middle of this conversation he stopped, looked at me with concern and asked, how is Nicole at Provisions doing?  I am so glad Fabrice is my neighbor. I went back and purchased another pound because I could. We often times do not realize the domino effect that something like this has on our community until it is too late.

I only have one small voice with which to share these stories. The State of California has asked all restaurants to close, except for to-go service. I know that this will affect both Fabrice and Nicole, our neighbors. While this is a small part of his business, Fabrice does have an online store where you can purchase coffee for yourself or to send as a gift. He is also selling e-gift cards for his café.  https://moschetti-online.square.site/         E-Gift Cards Moschetti

Nicole at Provisions was working late into the night yesterday trying hard, as always, to provide for her neighbors. She has to close to public gatherings BUT is offering her amazing food to-go. She also has e-gift cards available. Click here to see her menu:  https://www.leagueofchefs.com/           E-Gift Card Provisions

If you seriously want to know what you can do during this unprecedented time, then I will tell you. Shop Local. Shop online at Haute Dawgs, email your book orders to Alibi Books, and buy gift cards and food to-go from your local shopkeeper. If you want our community to thrive through this, here is the Enlightened Self Interest part, then Shop Local. Look out for your favorite vendor and boost them to all of us on social media. Share their stories and spend your dollars here.

Sincerely,

Tommy Judt

p.s. Advice for moving around in the world.

1. The best thing that you can do is use single use towels when touching doorknobs, common telephones or surfaces. These could be wipes, or pieces of paper towels, or if you carry a properly mixed spray disinfectant, spray then wipe.
2. If you keep your keep your hands clean and do not touch any other surfaces you can touch your own face. To repeat: If your hands are clean you can touch your own face, just do no touch any other surface as you may share your germs there.

There is an adage, as old as I am, that states simply, “Not all reader’s lead, but all Leaders read.”

Given the one exception of our Tangerine Baboon, never-the-less this precept holds true.  The only way to get yourself out of a box is to think. And the absolutely, proven-to-work-every-time-method of thinking outside your box is . . .  to read. As I have shared with you before I am the world’s most painful introvert. Out in the wild I am blessed with brief moments of brilliance and charm, wrapped in the awkward conscious of a 13 year old who has lived another 45 years. I still stumble over words when I speak. No matter how confident I am with a topic, when in public, my upper lip quivers ever so slightly when giving a public address. I never seem to say just the right thing.  More often than not my loving advice comes across as too rough and rugged.  I self-describe as: Direct.

At home, with my dogs, my life is quiet and calm. I fill my hours with research, whether it be scanning You Tube videos or consuming volumes of my latest passion. Some time ago, I stumbled upon the topics of Behavioral Economics and Decision Making while researching how to market my construction business. These two topics alone have consumed me. Thinking farther back, I remember the first book that I ever read through in a day. Do you?  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. O.M.G. (Holy crap, I just wrote O.M.G. and meant it.) Now while I had consumed numerous volumes of the Hardy Boys previous to this time, it took Roald Dahl’s story of a young boy and an eccentric chocolate maker to force me to enlist the power of my D celled flashlight under the covers. I was both elated and depressed when I finished the book in one day. Elated because it was the first time I had ever traveled to England. (Yes, you actually get to travel places when you read about them.) Depressed because I had to wait the entire rest of the week before I had library privilege at school again.

Just last night Solano County issued the shelter-in-place order. I am by far lucky for so many things in my life, none-the-least-of-which are you, who bless me every time you read this blog and give it a like or send me a note. I promise, it does me good by helping to quiet my inner, anxious 13 year old, reliving his first day of high school, every time he starts a conversation. I am also lucky for having the skills necessary to provide for myself: Food and shelter-wise. I have been privileged to have the opportunity to serve this community on a local Commission and now to work for our parks department at GVRD. (I am beginning to feel more like a sophomore midterm. Still a ways to go until senior-i-tis, and complete self-confidence kicks in, I assure you.) Most of all I am absolutely beside myself knowing that we have our own local well-spring of distraction and intrigue. I refer to Karen and Jon of Alibi Bookshop.  Recent transplants, to be sure, but a more committed couple to our community I have yet to meet. They have sunk their hearts, souls and pocket books into creating a town jewel on Marin Street.

Social distancing strongly encourages us to stand apart in a crowd. Shelter-in-place requires us to stay at home. (Introverts, stop here and check in on your extrovert friends.)  Now while I thrive in my own environment and have found personal growth over the last few months in self-imposed hibernation, I realize that all this may be new to a lot of you. Vallejo is of course: V-Town. The place where we invent reasons to get together, socialize and celebrate the great expanse of diversity that our community seems to offer, with such a singular uniqueness over others. Dear Lord, I still wave at neighbors I have never met.

So here is the trick, my friends. For you introverts, well, you know what to do for yourself but seriously do check in on your extrovert friends and perhaps bring them the gift of a book. For you extroverts out there, do lean on your introvert friends the way they have leaned on you when in public.  If nothing else, we will come to appreciate each other just that much more.  For both you innies and outies, drop an email to Alibi Bookshop (alibibookshop@gmail.com) or use this link to order books from bookshop.org/shop/alibibookshop.   I prefer to email them directly to maintain that personal connection with my dealer. The other link provides them with a small dollar percentage but they never know exactly who has ordered a book with it.  Either way you will be supporting an amazing little downtown business in the highest of V-Town fashion.

Until tomorrow,

Tommy Judt

Shop Local, there is no time like the present.

Okay, can we all just agree that this is weird AF?  Here is the thing, you have probably been to the grocery and loaded up for the next couple of weeks, I know that I have. And you probably are kicking yourself for not taking out options on Cottonelle, as I assume that their stock is going through the roof. And you probably have your home office setup with your secure connection to work. And you are planning on wearing pajama bottoms while taking video meetings. Let’s face it  . . . you’re set.

Now I am going to admit, for me, working from hope is this introverts dream. I have only just so much go-out-into-the-world juice that for me, this is like a day at the hot springs. I get to sit here, write my blog, do my research and produce my drawings all from the confines of my lovely little war shack on the West Side. Happy, happy Tommy.  I am particularly happy because I can drink as much coffee as I want, dance about the house and yard with my dogs, in a caffeine induced haze, and no one will be the wiser.

Here’s the hook.  I get my coffee from Fabrice. I normally consume about 1 pound a week. (Don’t judge.) Monday I went to the roastery and bought 3 pounds figuring that would be enough to get me through. This morning I went online and order 3 more pounds for my freezer. You all know Fabrice right? Or know of him. Fabrice Moschetti is the owner and roaster of Moschetti, Inc. down on 6^th Street. His coffees are the true work of a craftsman. He and I developed a friendship discussing the subtleties of coffee roasting. He supported me when I made a bid for the Planning Commission and he always has a joke to share when we meet. Many of you have enjoyed the free cuppings that he shares every Saturday down at his roastery. That man gives of himself to Vallejo every day and twice on Saturdays. I am privileged to call him my friend.

Fabrice is an able businessman. He has built his business over the years serving restaurants, cafés and hotels. They love his coffee and are want to buy in bulk.  This week all that came to a screeching halt. The large orders, which are the backbone of Fabrice’s business, stopped. When they will resume . . . well, that is a question that no one seems to be willing to answer right now.

Here is my ask: Please, go online and order coffee from Fabrice. (I will place the link below.) He is a small business, he employs good people, provides for his family and is a great neighbor to all us Vallejoans. To my friends in local government, please, if you have not already done so, adopt a buy local policy and direct all of your departments to buy from local Vallejo shops. Today I ask you to buy coffee from Fabrice. We all waited patiently while he worked to open his café. It would break my heart if we were at risk of losing that and his roastery. With luck and his business experience, I am confident that he will be able to rework his business model and stay open. Today he could use our help.  Please.

Respectfully,

Tommy Judt

Online Coffee Orders: https://moschetti-online.square.site/

E-Gift Cards: https://squareup.com/gift/58VHCRGF8BZDG/order?external_source=postoffice-egift-widget&external_token=E2jNvH2jeql4LCM6&fbclid=IwAR1K1d7Y3o4n_BWqEpOlL0MRbGWDKt9n3nx64aSkN-3A1mxpNnyEl7uKS_Y