northern california

The Funeral

Sunde White illustrates her essay about the fire fighter funeral she saw

Driving home on the freeway yesterday I eased on the brakes on the winding downhill connection between Highway 1 and the 280 because of all the flashing police lights stopping traffic from taking the freeway entrance onto the Southbound side.  As I continued past I could see police lights flashing on the other entrance across […]

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The Beaver Believers Club!!!

Beavers will Save California by Snde White

************************ I wrote this essay a few years ago when I started to realize that wildfires were going to become a norm every fall in California.  I saw the PBS documentary, “Leave It To Beavers” when it came out and I’ve been obsessed with getting the word out about how much they could help to […]

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The Lone Seagull

While jogging on the beach last week I noticed a seagull standing alone,  further up on the beach than the other seagulls that were all eating big crabs left over from high tide at the water line.  As I ran past I realized that he was holding his foot up, just resting his toe on […]

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Suck It Up!

I’ve been sucking it up and just getting on with things all week while I recover from ear surgery and it reminded me of a day where I was horrible and mean and terrible to Britt and demanded that he suck it up.  Years ago we went on an early season snowboard trip.  The mountain […]

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Getting On With It

I walked by an inspiring blackbird in a parking lot the other day.  His foot was perfectly severed and had healed back cleanly, with no clumpy scar left over so his leg looked like a piece of dry spaghetti, except it was black.  And he didn’t care at all.  He was just hopping around in […]

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Know Your Limits

On New Year’s Day, my husband Britt and I drove our dogs out to San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.  We parked next to a guy that was about to go surf the jumbly, stormy waves.  Out of the back of his truck he pulled out an orange soft top board.  Britt and I exchanged eye rolls.  […]

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Fashion Analysis: A San Francisco Dad!

I saw this dad walking along Valencia street one morning.  The giant toddler he was carrying was actually bigger than I drew him  because I thought it would look like I was exaggerating.  I don’t know if the dad was short or the toddler had exceptionally long legs but I swear to god his legs […]

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Beavers to the Rescue!!!

I woke up to an orange sky and a heavy brown haze hanging over the city.  Smoke from a fire a few hundred miles away was pressing down on San Francisco.  For the second year in a row I dawned my dust mask every time I left the house and a coating of ash settled […]

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San Francisco Gross Out #36

I took a walk early one morning in a nice neighborhood up the hill from mine.  Half way through, I came upon two crows eating a rat.  Of course I was totally grossed out but also worried because maybe the rat had been poisoned.

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They Walk Among Us

A few years ago an historically huge swell hit the Bay Area.  It was too massive for us to surf anywhere but Britt and I wanted to witness it.  We drove along the coast oohing and aahing as giant mountains of water collapsed and rolled over on themselves, exploding into the shallower water inside.  Highway […]

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