Month: April 2018

Life Keeps On Going On

Last week we went to Calistoga. We drove there on a Thursday afternoon, and returned on Friday. The excuse for this short trip was to test how Max can stay overnight in his doggy care (he was fine) before our weeklong trip to Montana to visit the Glacier National Park in May. Instead of our usual route via Road 29, which we took on the way back, the GPS guided us to Santa Rosa, and from there, a relatively short drive on a winding road directly to Calistoga. This area was devastated during the horrific fire six months ago. Many burned trees were cut and littered the sides of the hills along the road. The traffic was delayed by the work on the power lines. Along the road we saw sites where there used to be houses, that are now vacant lots with only foundations left, with “for sale” signs. But when we arrived to our destination, it was like the war zone was over. In spite of the proximity, Calistoga was spared. There is some improvement construction work happening on the road by the entrance, which is expected to be finished in 2020; otherwise it seemed that the town has been frozen in time. We have not been here for at least ten years. But everything looked familiar, if not the same. Some establishments and some restaurants have changed owners, but for us it was like we were here yesterday.

The restaurant where we dined had an enlarged photo on the wall that was photographed in 1928, in front of the Mount View Hotel. It depicted two black cars from the era (I suspect Fords). The men in the photo wore hats, even the boys. Women and children posed on the balcony of the second floor from where an American flag was hung. It looked like a different world, but was it? When I stepped out from the restaurant and looked up, I saw the same name on the building. The new owners changed the railings and I am sure that the fixtures in the bathrooms were replaced as well; otherwise, it seems that not much changed (besides the hats). We stayed at the Roman Spa Resort, where the main attractions are three mineral pools, each having a different temperature. After soaking in them for awhile, we drove back to San Francisco, crossing picturesque small towns and hills covered with young vines. After having lunch at a fully booked (on a Friday!) restaurant in Saint Helena, we ended up in Napa to enjoy some Three Twins ice cream. There we did not see any signs of the fire damage either, and discovered a delightful marketplace filled with different eating establishments and stores, and lots of shoppers. I strongly recommend (if you can) to take one day off during the week and visit the area before it gets crowded on the weekend. Life Keeps Going On!

P.S. From the many photos I took, I’ve chosen four images, with one that I took at a red light, of a man with two delightful dogs. I used this image to replace another one in my forthcoming book “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”. Please pre-order to be one of the first to get it.

P.P.S. I received a number of interesting stories in response to the post last week, “Why to Have (or Not to Have) Dogs. I will add them to my Encounters in the weeks to come. Please share yours. Meanwhile, the first one is from Vivian Holley:

Hi Manny,

As usual, another great story.

I think as a result of your getting Max (and other reasons) I finally pressed Bryan harder about getting a dog and he finally said yes, but it would have to be an older dog.  Then he immediately found Gracie on our neighborhood watch.  She was being rescued from an animal shelter in LA.  It took 3 weeks to get her up here to Northern CA.  She’s over 10 years old, had big time vet bills, but is so sweet even if she can’t hear a thing!

We’ve put up with lots of peeing, lots of expenses, and in return we have lots of love and someone new in our lives we are always talking to and taking care of.  I’ve never seen Bryan so happy.  He rolls around on the floor with her playing games. She won’t let him out of her sight.  We have to trick her to get her to let me walk her if she knows Bryan is around and all she wants to do is run back home to him.

We love her.

Thank you Max and Manny.

Love,

Vivian

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

Why to Have (Or Not Have) a Dog

On Sunday, March 4^th, there was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle in the Insight Section written by Joan Lownds, “Trump’s pet-less presidency breaks compassionate custom”. Turns out that “Trump is the first president in 130 years not to have a pet in the White House, while Kennedy brought a historic menagerie that included nine dogs at one point, a cat named Tom Kitten, seven horses, a rabbit named Zsa Zsa, parakeets, hamsters and canaries.” Does owning a dog make a person more compassionate? Was President Nixon, who owned a dog and who sent American boys to die in Vietnam more compassionate than President Trump? But one thing is for sure – if you own a dog, you better love your four-legged companion, because he will love you back unconditionally. When our Labradoodle puppy Max joined our family on September 4^th – in the fall – we thankfully did not have to wait for the spring, because the love is present in our house every day. Nevertheless, every day while writing “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”, and dealing with the challenges that came into our lives with having a puppy, I would ask myself, why to have a dog?

Online I learned that every year, approximately 3.9 million dogs enter animal shelters nationwide. Do you know what happens to dogs in shelters if they are not adopted? But it also turns out that it is not so easy to adopt a dog. The reasons for being rejected to adopt vary – it can be an “unfenced yard, or having long working hours, as well as having children or other pets”. A Milwaukie-area NBC affiliate recently reported on a 70 year-old woman whose adoption application was denied because she was deemed too old.” I can relate to those reasons. Our high-spirited Irish Setter was hit and killed by a car when she jumped over the fence some years ago. Being 71 and walking with Max three times a day, I realize that this might be challenging for some people, especially as we age.

While working on “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”, I read 21 “How-to Books” about dogs. Talking with some of my friends who have dogs, I realized that other dog owners do not have time to learn how to become their dog’s best friend (neither did we, with our three previous dogs). Is there a solution? Well, in my book I offer some. Or you can explore other books and videos on YouTube. But I want to take this task further. My goal is to sell one million books. After I will recover the expenses, costs, and have reserves to produce more books in the “42 Encounters”, the balance will go to help animal shelters and other facilities to care for their animals, and even more important, to help dog owners learn how to be their dog’s best friend.

As I mentioned last week, you can pre-order “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers“ at encounterspublishing.com. The first 1,000 purchases will not have to pay sales tax, plus there is a 100% money back guarantee. If you’ll feel that the book did not fulfill your expectations, please let me know. You can give the book to another dog lover, and I will reimburse you $24.00. But you need to act now, just click here. I thank you in advance.

P.S. While working on the images for the book, it took me awhile to make the selection. All the images covered the dining room table. From time to time after my weekend outings, I would bring new ones to see if they will be more interesting to replace those which were chosen before. These four images did not make the cut into the book.

Enjoy and Share.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

How to Become Dog’s Best Friend

You may have already heard about Max from my previous writing.  Max is going to be ten months young on April 28th.  In case you don’t know whom I’m writing about, Max is our Labradoodle puppy, who became our best friend on September 4^th.  On that date, three hours before we picked up Max from his breeder in Monterey, I started writing “42 Encounters with Dog Lovers”.  It took me six months to describe 42 days of Max’s life as a new member of our family. Max is our fourth dog, but the first one where we consciously learned how to help our new four-legged companion to thrive in his new life in the strange world, away from his mom and siblings. During the first forty-two days with Max, we not only had to adjust our lives to accommodate our new “baby”, but to also quickly learn how to help him.  In the book, I not only describe our daily experiences together, but I also include passages from different “How to Books” with recommendations for dogs, for each new circumstances we encountered in Max’s behavior.  In addition, there are also images of people with dogs that I photographed over the last eleven years, in the different parts of the world. If you’ve seen my first book, “42 Encounters in San Francisco”, you would be familiar with my whimsical way of capturing interesting people.  To photograph people with their dogs was more challenging, but I think I succeeded. The result is a great photo-story book which I hope you will not only enjoy very much, but will also buy many copies as gifts for your friends, and will encourage them to do the same.  (I think social media was created just to help you in this endeavor.)

Now you might ask yourself, why should you bother and part with your hard earned $24.00 plus $3.95 for shipping and handling?  There might be a number of reasons.  The first one — the joy you will experience with this book, as well as a few ideas you will acquire to to help yourself and your dog.  The other one is that you will help to raise money towards non-profit organizations like SPCA for educational programs to teach dog lovers how to become their dog’s best friend.  To start this process I had to invest thousands of dollars of my own money to get the book into your hands.  There is no profit in selling books, since there are a lot of different costs and expenses to get it to the consumers.  Unless of course, I will manage to lower the cost by selling many books, let’s say one million (1,000,000) of them.  I came up with a seemingly large number after finding out that there are about 83 million millennials in the United States alone. Thirty-five percent of them already own dogs, another twenty percent want to have one.  In addition, there are about 75 million baby boomers.  Plus about 65 million Gen X (those who were born between 1965 and 1984).  And this is not counting those who live outside of the United States.  In general people love dogs, even if they do not own them. And now you are wondering why I am aiming so low?  Time will tell.  Meanwhile, I need your help.  To entice you, I am offering a special deal to the first one thousand purchases – a Money Back Guarantee.  If after you receive the book you will not like it, feel free to let me know.  I will reimburse you the cost of the book, while you can keep it or give as a gift to your dog-loving friend.  The book just went into printing, and you (and I) will be able to receive it in the middle of May.  Please pre-order and place your order now on Encounterspublishing.com, or respond to this email with the number books you would like to pre-order.

If your order is among the first 1000 pre-orders, I will inscribe the book for you and will waive the sales tax.  Just click on pre-order and be one of the first among other millions of dog lovers to get the book.

P.S. You can see Max’s photo on the cover of the book when he was six months young.  The other three images are from the book.

Enjoy and Share.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,

What a Piece of Meat Has In Common With a San Francisco Neighborhood

I decided to write this story after noticing a headline in the Insight section of the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, January 7, 2018 – “Historic Tenderloin is at Crossroads. New developments will challenge neighborhood to retain community and services.”

Before arriving in San Francisco on August 5^th, 1980, we needed to find an inexpensive hotel, so we called my wife’s friend, who had only recently moved to San Francisco, herself.  So she did. Our first stop in San Francisco was a hotel located on Leavenworth and Ellis Street. At night my wife, as a result of jet lag, could not sleep and would look out the window at the lightly clad women accompanied by men, who walked in and out of our hotel.  On the corner, stood a man who seemed to control the traffic (later on I learned about the job description of a pimp).  The next morning, holding our daughters’ hands tightly, we ventured outside.  Walking towards Market Street, we saw a lot of strange looking men and women in dirty clothes. This was our introduction to our beloved city.  It did not take us long to discover that there are other people living in this beautiful city as well.  And gradually we blended in with them.  Through the years, I did not have many reasons to go back to the area, which I found out is called the Tenderloin.  But on a few occasions, when I went to see a show at the Golden Gate Theater, which is located on the corner of Taylor and Market Street, we parked our car in the area, and it was like going back to almost forty years ago. The same looking people filled the sidewalk, either drunk or on another substance.  Actually, it seems that the conditions on the 31 city blocks have not changed for over one hundred years.  Online I found the reason why this neighborhood is named after the most tender cut of beef.  There are a number of stories.  One story is, it is named after a neighborhood in New York City where Captain Alexander S. Williams, after working in the area since 1876, acknowledged the bribes he would get from crooks, and ignored their crimes,he would say, “I’ve had nothing but chuck steak for a long time, and now I’m going to get a little of the tenderloin.”

The second article in the same newspaper, “Tenderloin’s strides, struggles”, points out that the area in the past was full of life with theaters and restaurants. However, because of the city and its’ policies, the area was deliberately kept open for drug dealing and drug use on Tenderloin’s sidewalks, to keep those activities away from the other areas of the city.

But things are about to change thanks to a number of new development projects, which will make the area less affordable for its current occupants.  You can find more about the history of San Francisco at the Tenderloin Museum located at 398 Eddy Street.

P.S. Recently when I was driving from a meeting downtown, I decided to stop in the Tenderloin to take some photos for this story.  But it was impossible to find a parking space.  As a result, I am sharing four images I took in other parts of our city, where I saw a similar picture of the street people occupying sidewalks.

Do Not Keep Me As A Secret!
Smile And Please SHARE It With A Friend!

Cheers,