SQUIDFRY 09.15.22: Short-Lived Honeymoon

SHORT-LIVED HONEYMOON… Squid has a tradition for welcoming new neighbors that includes bringing over Granny Squid’s famous shrimp pie. Maybe Squid should bring a pie over to CSU Monterey Bay’s newly hired president, Vanya Quiñones, who less than one month after her Aug. 15 start date finds herself at odds with the California Faculty Association for CSUMB.

Before Quiñones started the job, the university announced that masks would continue to be required through Dec. 23. Then on Sept. 7, Quiñones reversed the requirement, citing a low infection rate on campus. CSUMB would become a “mask-friendly” campus on Sept. 12, she said in an email, leaving the decision up to individuals, with some exceptions. Sort of like everywhere else.

On Sept. 8, the CFA-CSUMB Faculty Rights Team announced in an email to members they requested a meeting to discuss what they considered a significant change in working conditions. They maintain their request is more about following federal labor regulations than about the “mask-friendly” decision itself.

While Squid keeps masking in crowded public spaces, Squid can’t help but think there’s little reason for CSUMB to have stricter requirements than the CDC. Regardless, this is quite a welcome to the neighborhood for Quiñones. Squid hopes she likes shrimp.

CLOSING TIME… Squid enjoys a nice surface to walk Squid’s bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane, so Squid has long been a fan of Eucalyptus Road, the most immaculate stretch of tarmac in the county – 1.7 miles of smooth. It was built by the Fort Ord Reuse Authority about a decade ago for millions – the city of Seaside is now paying a pretty penny to maintain it – and it goes nowhere. For that reason, it’s been closed for almost its entire existence, until the city of Seaside decided to open it up last May (during daylight hours only), to honor the 10th anniversary of the Fort Ord National Monument.

So it’s not exactly nowhere that the road leads to, but it kind of still is – Fort Ord is a place to get away from it all. Seaside opened the road to provide another recreation option, inviting people to drive a couple miles deeper into the beauty. Lovely idea, but there’s a catch: The gate is meant to close from a half-hour after sunset until a half-hour after sunrise – but sometimes it doesn’t. Squid’s friend Flapjack the Octopus drove in, then returned – well before sunset – to a locked gate. The phone number on the gate’s sign went to Seaside PD for a rescue. It’s not the first time someone’s been locked in, an SSPD officer says.

Seaside has a solar-powered, automatic gate in the pipeline, and closing and opening it will be possible remotely. Squid hopes Seaside doesn’t lose that remote in the couch.