By Judi Curry

Are you safe in the park? At Sunset Cliffs Natural Park? Robb Field; Dusty Rhodes? Dog Beach? Dog Park? Neighborhood playgrounds?

Have you seen many bees this spring? Have you seen as many birds this spring? Do people you know have cancer? Do you know dogs and cats that are being diagnosed with cancer? Do you have any idea what might be the cause?

Do you know what the ingredients are to kill weeds? Do you know what a “carcinogen” is? Do you know what “Glyphosate” is and what products contain it?

Did you know that here in our own “backyard” that glyphosate is being sprayed and there are no signs

By Judi Curry

With every holiday that passes; with every special occasion that comes up, I am reminded how much I miss my husband. It is always traumatic when you lose someone that you love, but I think it is more traumatic when you lose your best friend, your lover, your confidante, your weekly date, your protagonist, your companion, etc. all at the same time.

The heart heals, but the scab always remains. Just scratch the surface a little bit and all the angst returns.

I got so tired of people saying to me, “I know how you feel”. Unless they lost a spouse they have no idea how I felt. Yes, losing a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a child, etc. is horrible but it is nowhere near the same thing as losing a spouse.

By Judi Curry

San Diego Airport is One of Most Dangerous in Nation; Airplanes Drop Black Soot On Those Below

As I write this, it’s Sunday, April 7, 2019. Between the minutes of 6:31am and 6:52am I reported planes off course 6 times. They were flying quite a bit south of the OB Pier and very close to Pt. Loma Avenue.

This is not the first time this has happened, and as we get closer to summer and more and more tourists coming to San Diego this is going to get worse. For those of you that tell me that the airport was here before me, let me reiterate that we purposely bought our house where we did because it was NOT in the flight pattern.

Leucadia Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant
4161 Voltaire St.
San Diego, CA 92107
619-295-2222

By Judi Curry

A friend of mine gave me a gift card for Leucadia Pizzeria for my birthday and I thought it would be fun to use it with a good friend from Leucadia. He was going to meet me there and so we had two cars. When we pulled into the parking lot we found there were no parking places, but three spaces were taken up with Leucadia Pizzeria delivery vans. There was no available parking on the street so we went somewhere else.

They have over 20 pizzas listed on their menu,

Ketch
2614 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
619-814-8080

By Judi Curry

This is my 5th time having a meal at the “Ketch”. I’ve written two other reviews on it – one for the OB Rag in October 2018 which is available if you are interested in reading it.

This time members of my widow group got together to welcome one of our members back to San Diego, and it was up to me to decide where to go. I knew it was a cold and rainy day and we would eat inside, but decided to give the restaurant another try. I am happy to say that it was a nice experience.

We arrived on a Saturday at 11:45am. This presented a problem because we could only order off of the breakfast menu for the next 15 minutes. If any of us wanted lunch, we would have to wait until 12:00pm to place the order because the kitchen was not prepared to make both breakfast and lunch items. By the time we decided what we wanted to do it was lunch time and the decision was made for us.

Once again the menu has changed since I was there last. Things I would have liked to try were gone and new items were in their place.

The Old Broad Loses Her Cool

I have a birthday coming up in a few days. This is a BIG birthday and I have been trying to not think of it; just want the day to pass quietly without any attention being given to the day. Unfortunately that is not going to happen, in spite of two of my daughters on a trip to India and not being here to “commiserate” the day with me.

The remaining daughter has already asked me a dozen times where I want to go to celebrate; has asked me if there is anyone I would like to have join us, etc. And not only that, she was planning a party for me – more about that in another column – and she inadvertently sent me the guest list.

The Old Broad Shares a Story About 2 of Her Foreign Language Students

I have been hosting foreign language students since 1992. They come to the US to learn English, and live with me during their stay here. I am now on my 521st student – and I have to tell you – I am so proud of Lea, from Switzerland, and her friend Serena, from Italy, that I have to share the story.

Yesterday Lea and Serena found a wallet on B Street in Downtown San Diego. It wasn’t just any wallet; it had 24 credit cards, a driver’s license, and $400 in cash in it. They took it to an authority – not quite sure if it was a police officer or not – but they were directed to someplace else. It was late, and Lea brought it home.

The Old Broad Asks for Help

By Judi Curry

What does “Chase”, “Discovery”, “Bank of America”, “Amazon”, “Cox”, “Bank of PNC”, “Apple”, “Navy Federal Credit Union”, “Wells Fargo”, and “US Bank” have in common?

Probably nothing, EXCEPT that I received “phishing” letters from each of these institutions at least 4 times in 5 days.

Each one said virtually the same thing – and each of them were a scam. They look so authentic; the interesting thing is that I do not even have accounts at 6 of these institutions.

Where did they get my name?

By Judi Curry

Something happened this morning that I have feared for years. I am so disappointed how I handled it, and I am so grateful to the San Diego Police Department. This is what happened:

At approximately 6:25am I heard a noise but thought that it was one of my students. I live on a corner, and there is construction happening across the alley from my house and I thought they were starting work on the house early – again – and got angry. But then Shadow began barking – loudly – and in a tone that I have never heard him use before. I continued to get ready for the day, and still Shadow barked.

I finally walked to the kitchen and saw what Shadow was barking about. Standing at my back door was a young man – 21 or so; wearing a hoodie; and knocking at the door. Fortunately I have a metal screen security door and even if he had been successful in breaking into the back door, he could not have had access to the house.

The Old Broad Has Her Say

I Just Remembered Why I Stopped Shopping at Vons

The calls regarding the closing of ACE Hardware, Trader Joes, Vons, Ralphs, have been burning up the wires the past few days. At the request of one of my loyal readers, I decided to do an investigation as to what really was happening.

The first call I made was to ACE Hardware, where they confirmed that the store in Liberty Station will be closing by the end of February. There are all sorts of rumors as to why they are closing, but I was more concerned with the actually closing and did not go further with my questioning.

Then I called Trader Joe’s to find out if it was true that (1) they were closing at Liberty Station and (2) they were going to be moving to the Ralph’s store on Rosecrans. I was assured that neither of the rumors were true. They are staying where there are, and they are not moving to Ralphs.

Then I called Ralphs to see if they were moving. I was told that they were not going anywhere; that the store would be remaining as Ralphs.

Then I called Vons.

The Old Broad Writes …

Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery

Several years ago I wrote a number of articles about the deplorable condition of the Ft. Rosecrans Cemetery. (See here, here, and here.) At about the same time Michael Turko [ed: of the former “Turko Files”] also did a piece about the cemetery and between us the transformation of the grounds was amazing. Doug Ledbetter, the Director at the time of the articles, listened to us and within a year it was again a beautiful place to visit our loved ones.

Ed Ayub Physical Therapy
3145 Rosecrans St.
San Diego, CA 92110

I didn’t meet Eddy and his crew by going to his physical therapy office. Rather, I met Eddy and his wife Mary through their dogs – Boomer and Bella. They live around the corner from me and every day when I walked my Golden Retriever Buddy, his dogs would come to the fence to greet us. It finally came to the point when Buddy automatically turned into their gate and patiently waited for them to come out and greet him.

Eventually, Eddy and Mary came out to say a few words, and before you knew it Eddy had a treat – or two – for Buddy. Although Buddy couldn’t pay them back, I would bring a new jar of jam I had just made as a “neighborly” gesture. One day when Mary and I were talking she noticed that I was wearing a splint on my arm and asked questions about it. The next day she told me that Eddy wanted to talk to me about the swelling.

Fig Tree Cafe
Liberty Station
2400 Historic Decatur Rd., #103
San Diego, CA 92107
619-821-2044

One of the fun things about having visitors come to San Diego that have never been here before is introducing them to the variety of restaurants in the neighborhood. I used to think, when I lived in San Francisco, that I would like to start trying restaurants on Lombard Street and try a different one every day. I doubted if I would ever get to try them all because there were so many different ones.

San Diego does not have as many restaurants as Lombard Street, and restaurants seem to change more rapidly than they do in San Francisco, but there is still a huge variety of different tastes in our fair city.

So Friday Hugh and I decided to try the “Fig Tree Café” in Liberty Station.