Santa Rosa Utopia

If you know the Santa Rosa area you know the Todd Road exit when you are going north. I take that exit every morning to go to work. The trash there is a horrible eye sore. If you know me you know I clean litter pretty often. So I decided last weekend I would clean it. Then my car wasn’t driving right and was in the shop a few days (cracked head gasket). So I went this morning. Spent a couple hours cleaning the area. Which was not nearly enough but all I had the energy for. I was wearing a neon vest a buddy gave me so I wouldn’t get ran over and look more official (Thanks Travis).

So here I am in the bad air and humid heat. On my day off. After a 50+ hour work week of plumbing cleaning litter next to the road. A white Chevy lowered pickup with some sticker on the back saying NorCal something rev up his engine and swerved toward me. Twice. Yeah he went around apparently and took the exit again to do it a second time. I also had a guy slow down in his big Dodge truck and spray me with his washer fluid and drive off laughing.

These jerks will not deter me. If anything bad acts like that just strengthen my resolve to do even more. There was also a lady yell thank you and a trucker honk and wave. Plus there were hundreds of cars that did the right thing and drove by safely. It’s always a couple jerks that ruin it for the rest of us.

I am just a guy trying to do something good for my community. It’s just frustrating sometimes.

Switched it up today. Instead of doing a park clean up I worked with Ken Wells from Trails Council and about 25 other volunteers and worked at Hood Mountain clearing fire debris from last year and brush. Hopefully we can get Hood Mountain trail open again soon.

Spent three hours cleaning Bicentennial Park today. Where to begin? I enjoy cleaning parks and am happy my shoulder surgery and recovery went well and I can physically do it again, even with moments of pain. Had a guy say “you don’t belong around here”. I just kept cleaning trash and ignored him. I used to live close to this park and came with my son a lot about 7-10 years ago. So there is sentimental value to cleaning this park.

Cleaned three crack pipes, two he**in needles, saw two different drug deals go down, cleaned two abandoned homeless camps, around three active camps, and cleaned all the litter in the entire park. The Parks Dept. removed the tire swing, regular swings, and cut down the last two trees that were shading the playground. Overall the park is in pretty sad shape but at least it’s clean. 🥴

Yesterday I bought all of the supplies and put these Christmas bags together. Gave them out this morning to twenty homeless people downtown that have far greater needs than me. There were some great smiles, conversations, and words of appreciation.

In this severe time of need for so many if you can help those struggling in any way I highly recommend it. Good for the soul and the community.

Merry Christmas everybody! 🎄

I have not been able to clean parks or feed the needy for the past few months. I tore ligaments in my shoulder over a year and a half ago. I continued working and doing my community work for over a year through sometimes severe pain. But the damage got worse and pain eventually put me on disability and I had to have surgery to repair it. The surgery went well and I start PT next week. Eventually I will be healthy enough to get back to work and doing my volunteer efforts. If you know me personally you know it is so hard for me to not be helping my community but at this time I have to get my own health in order. Next year I fill be back in force making a positive contribution to our amazing community. I hope you are all well in these difficult times.