In the normal course of affairs, I would start with an intro. One with some pithy soliloquy, where I end with a final acknowledgment that there are actually others here in this (blog post) room with me, usually with a “let’s get to it.” But this month I sit in an uncomfortable place – one where things to report are both of loss and gain. Some of my favorite writers and philosophers have written about that paradox of life the most: that grief lives on alongside joy, sadness alongside happiness, hate alongside love.
So…
National Headlines
Before I was in politics and government, I was a writer. And before I was a writer, I was in politics and government. When I was a writer was – therefore – another kind of middle. A middle spot in my life when I was also a stay at home mom and grappling with an all new life that was new, exciting, and terrifying – all at the same time.
(There are all those oppositional feelings again.)
As a writer, I wrote a couple of good things, a lot of trash; and at the time I was told that a blog was really how to sell your serious stuff.
So I started a blog. And while it never amounted to much in the way of my writing “career” – certainly not by comparison to the way it impacted so many others – that (this) blog is essential to the person I am today.
(And that blog is not to be confused with my new blog… see how messy life can be?)
This was in 2009 – late in the year; one year(ish) after the beginning of Scary Mommy – the now-famous blog and content collection website, founded by New York Times Bestseller Jill Smokler. In 2009, a lot of bloggers fell into mom blogging (which I have written about extensively). Eventually, I followed their lead and considered myself one, as well.
The majority of mom bloggers at the time were around a decade older than me, a lot with different ages of kids, in different stages of life; and yet somehow, it was in the Internet, and writing on the Internet, and in sharing the dichotomies of motherhood, marriage, and life in general that a community formed around this idea. It is through their stories that I navigate motherhood still, today.
Today, it was announced, that Smokler has died after a two year battle with glioblastoma. Many – actually probably most – of you that are subscribed here began with me back then during the mom blog days. And while today I’m much different, life is nothing like it was then – if it weren’t for Scary Mommy and the revolutionary, online community of moms that came with her, where all of us are today would not look like it does. She was just that impactful.
State Headlines
California is about to be Ground Zero for a Super El Niño. While I know the naysayers will say it’s all for nothing, or point to the one El Niño we had where it was dry (somewhere around 2016-17), there’s still a chance things could get crazy.
One significant concern with the Super El Niño isn’t just the water, it’s the heat that will turn into fires. In California, our fires have changed – they aren’t walls of flames anymore that cause problems, they’re ember showers which travel up to miles away. Some of our fires in recent years have been so extreme, they developed their own weather patterns – fire tornadoes, and wind changes as a direct result of the fires, themselves. And they’re burning through buildings, warehouses, homes; the result of which is we are all inhaling whatever chemicals are in the smoke, along with run off in the groundwater from the ash after it rains. We could argue all day about whether it’s a changing climate, or government incompetence (the data says it’s both). The bottom line is that it’s a problem, so better to plan for the worst and hope it was all for nothing.
Except…
There is an increasing problem across California of alarmism resulting in people taking no warnings at all seriously. A few years ago, we were told we were getting a hurricane, which eventually got downgraded to a tropical storm, but even then they were telling people to buy emergency bags, be prepared to go. At one point the governor announced he was positioning search and rescue teams up and down the coast… and it was a big circus, for very little in the end. The next time it rained, though, people didn’t prepare as much – figuring the warnings were just more hyperbole – and major flooding resulted. Ever since then, any weather warning is met with an eye roll from just about everyone I talk to.
The Super El Niño headlines have grown so extreme, and so alarming, I’m afraid people have completely tuned out. Soon enough, though, we’ll know if the Super El Niño will in fact be super, or just another flop.
Local Headlines
This month’s local headline is a personal headline (remember last month I said that might be a more common thing).
It’s no secret that I’ve run for office before, and after careful consideration have decided to run again this year. Three seats are opening this fall on the Oxnard Harbor District’s Board of Commissioners, and in all honesty, this seat suits me, my priorities, and my qualifications more than probably any other seat out there. The Commission is tasked with overseeing activity at the Port of Hueneme – one of the largest generators of our regional GDP, employing tens of thousands of Oxnard and Port Hueneme residents annually. But the commission was also created to ensure that economic activity doesn’t interfere with our delicate marine life, and with our changing climate this has become an increasing challenge.
This stuff is my bread and butter.
So…
No matter where you are:
– Learn more about it and connect on social media
Website: https://heather4harbor.com
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heather4harbor/
Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather4harbor
– Donate towards door hangers and campaign signs
https://secure.anedot.com/heather-schmidt-for-harbor-commissioner-2026/maindonationpage
And if you’re local (as many of you are):
Vote for me November 3rd, and prior to then get involved by coming to my Campaign Kickoff!
Now if you’ve made it this far…
This is what I mean about grief alongside joy, and all the rest of the things that we all – sort of – coexist with, somewhere in the middle. That’s life. Complicated. Messy. Painful and rewarding. And that’s really the hardest of the Hard Truths, right? That somehow we learn to exist amidst all the good and the bad. In spite of it all, we just keep going.
Heather Christena Schmidt Community Consultations 
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