Happy Halloween! - Eat Some Chocolate

A very Happy Halloween to all who celebrate such things. Chocolate, costumes, parties, and fun. I took the day off and so did Hubby, so we get to spend a bit of time with our now 17 year old son. He and his friends at school have big plans for the day, including wearing full load bearing vests, and BDU's. That's a ROTC idea of a costume, I guess. They will be hiking after school (school lets out early today) and so we won't see him til dinner, but that's OK by us. We get to spend time together and that's nice too.

Enjoy the season...winter will be here before you know it.

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Photo taken at
Lombardi Ranch
on Sunday.

Wildfire Aftermath - Lombardi Ranch

Part 2 of my drive around some of the damage from The Buckweed Fire. At the end of the developed area of the canyon, sits Lombardi Ranch. It is a working farm that has evolved into a monster Halloween destination for the residents of Santa Clarita. On Sunday, my Church Pastor made an announcement asking our Congregation to take a trip up there, to bring them business and show them support and love. Since I have great a love of the place, I braved the smokey hills to shoot the aftermath of the fire, to buy some Indian Corn to hang on my front door and to buy a dozen ears of corn, to eat. :-)




As I parked my car in the burn area, it was obvious that the fire had been all over the property. The fact that volunteers and the Lombardi's had managed, in just a few days, to make order out of chaos, was a miracle in itself and greatly appreciated by their visitors.

It's a much smaller display then we are used to, but the place was bustling with children and adults climbing and celebrating the Halloween season and the fact that we still had something to come to. The pumpkins were being climbed on, people were touring the, noticeably burnt and smaller, Scarecrow Alley via a really cute train. Of course, the produce business was booming.

Here are a few shots. Lots of damage is in the background of the pictures, you might want to right click on them and then click Open Link. You get a much more detailed image, that way.

Most surprising is the fact that new life is already coming from death, as shown in this picture. New growth popping out of the burned earth. It always amazes me, but that's how Southern California operates. I am just so glad we managed to save as much as we did.

Wildfire Aftermath - A Look Around The Area

Since I had (temporary) control of my camera, I took a short detour and headed up the canyon, to see what had happened, during the Wildfire last week. This damage is from the Buckweed Fire.
This is Plum Canyon, where several friends of my son's live. I brought one of the boys home from the party Saturday night and even though it was dark, you can still smell the smoke from this one.

The boy whipped out his cell phone, pointed to the house about 2 from his and showed me the video of when the fire came rushing down the hill into that houses backyard. Frightening footage and even more surreal when seen at the location that it happened at, in the dark.


Another cul-de-sac just down the hill, from the first location. Another boy at the party lives on this street. Again, the fire roared down the hill and thank goodness, firefighters stopped it.


Signs thanking the firefighters are all around this area of the Canyon. We are a truly grateful bunch of people.

Driving to Lombardi Ranch... You can see some of the damage. I will show you Lombardi Ranch pictures, tomorrow.

Raising a Boy Child - The 94th Aero Squadron

The birthday week activities continue...

We invited 7 friends of my son's and his flight instructor to enjoy dinner at a very nice restaurant at the take off end of the runway at Van Nuys Airport. It's called the 94th Aero Squadron and they have it decorated in WWI style. Bunkers and cannons greet you upon entry and the decor inside is all French Country Farmhouse. Lots of fireplaces blazing, not only on the inside, but on the outside, via fire pits. Very cozy and interesting. You can hear the Van Nuys information on headsets, while you sit down eating and of course, see the planes taxi up and take off. Landing is just a little harder to see, unless you are right at the window. The restaurant is one of a chain of restaurants run by a company called Specialty Restaurants. I have been to a similar one at Republic Airport and another at the South Runways at LAX. We always totally enjoy the experience and tonight was no exception.
The teacher had to bow out of dinner, due to the many commitments one gets invited to on a busy "Pre Halloween" weekend, but the remainder of the group, 6 guys and 1 girl, all accepted. The pregathering was as I anticipated, except for the addition of our Pachinko game.

They moved it out of my son's room, and into the living room, so those who were not involved with something on our multiple computers, played on it. Food was demolished, gifts were opened, a typical party atmosphere...minus the JROTC air the event had.

They have plans for next week that include a hike and adventure, so they were out front for a bit, testing their handy work, on our local hill.
We packed all 10 of us into 2 vehicles and off we went, to dinner. My car was filled with IPOD music, mostly from the 80's. Police, Journey, Eagles, etc. I find it funny to hear songs I know so well, treated like they are something new. lol
Dinner was very nice and after it, the kids went out to the fire pits to chat and watch the runway action. We settled the bill and then joined them for a half hour or so.


It was a nice quiet time, that gave the kids some more time together and then back to the 2 cars and the beginning of the drop off. Others came back to our house for some more of the computer/pachinko time and then, finally, it was over.
Reviews of the party are good so far and several of the kids were sad that his flight instructor couldn't come. Which says to me, his teacher might have found new business from some of my son's friends. Maybe some other time, I will hook them up with him. Glad its over and so glad I spent the time to do this for him.

Learning to Fly - The Birthday Bash

A big day for the angel house. We are beginning the celebration of our son's 17th birthday, by inviting several of his friends over to our house for a pregathering and then driving the bunch of them to a fancy dinner out. After the past 2 weekends, of fire in the tunnel in the pass and then the wildfires of this week, a nice normal fall day would be appreciated. I bought some appetizers, fried wontons, pot stickers and egg rolls, that I will have out for the kids and I figure they will just hang and enjoy. Knowing them, they will be viewing something on the TV and doing stuff with the computers in the house. That seems to be the way it goes with them all. Hubby is off today to celebrate with us. A rarity, of course, since Saturday is a busy day for him at work. But first up, flying. The winds have calmed down and it looks like a good day for it. A bit cloudy, but good visibility. This will be the first time both my husband and myself have been to the airport together to watch him fly. Should be a nice time and gee, I guess I don't have to bring work with me this time.

Update:
Back from the airport and more pattern work was on the agenda today. A new wrinkle in the normal was the fact that about half way into the lesson, it started to drizzle. Otherwise, things were about as routine as it gets. It was nice though, to have all three of us there together. His instructor gave him an early birthday gift, a book called Flight of Passage, about a young person who wanted to do something different before he hit 18 and he and his 15 year old brother bought and rebuilt an airplane and flew solo across the country in 1966. Many parallels to my son's feelings and obviously the teacher sees it, also.

A nice gift.

======

Photo:
I took this picture
last weekend when he
was wearing his
Air Force Uniform while
flying.

Inside Out

Been working on the screen captures for The Unit episode Inside Out. Since this is my first time doing a show, they eased me in, by letting me have just the second half of the episode. Well, it takes incredible amounts of time to get this going. I truly don't know how people carve enough time out of busy lives to do it. lol

Minus a final upload, I have them done, which makes me happy. Here's a few, just for the heck of it. The one with the gun flash was incredibly difficult to get. It's a post production added on effect, but still, it looks pretty hot!

Photo Credits:
The top 3 photos are of Max Martini and the bottom one is of Dennis Haysbert.
Abby Bramwell turns up photo number 2. She plays Mack Gerhardt's wife, Tiffy.


I hope you enjoy.

You Can't Live Another Person's Life, You Can Only Live Your Own

I will preface this with, this post is a hard one to write.

One of the many things Seniors in High School have to do, aside from going to class and keeping their grades up, is apply to schools that they wish to attend next year. Not that we have a huge list of colleges that my son is interested in and can afford, but we did have a few and they were mostly in California, our home state. One even had aviation for a major and that so interested my son, due to his interest in flying. This made me extremely happy, because getting someone to be motivated enough to go through the process, is probably the hardest part. So I pull up the online applications, to get a handle on what we need to do to apply, and I find out that he must have 2 years of a foreign language. Say what? No one told me that this had to happen, in any of the meetings we have had with his counselor. I knew he had a math problem and I addressed that during the registration process and got him into a math class that he had been blocked out of attending, but the language came out of the blue. So I ask my son how had that happened? He said that his grade in English one year had not been high enough to be offered language. In California, they pass with a D (whose stupid idea was that?) and yet, it is not high enough a grade to move forward. So basically, they allow you to continue, but they block you out of stuff that you need. I KNEW I should have sent my son to school in a state that knows what it's doing...New York. lol

So the bottom line is, I get exactly what I have been fighting against from day one of High School. He ends up either in a Community College or The Military. I am not knocking Community Colleges, I didn't have any money and a Community College was the inexpensive way, I made it work for me. My Community College is the place where I first walked into a Student Run TV Station and found my Career Path. It allowed me to transfer into the College that had the major I had found at my Community College. It opened doors for me, on a personal level. My son though, has lots of very complex interests and majors that really should be spread out over a 4 year period, rather then jammed into a 2 year one. Unfortunately for him...that is not going to be what he gets. I am so disappointed in this and very upset with this California System.

Life on the Audio Board...The Voice of an Angel

Back on Sunday, before all hell broke lose with the fires, my son and I were first string for running the audio board at church. At least the main audio person had given us lots of advance notice on this, so we immediately began getting it all together. There was a substitute singer and keyboardist this week, which added a bit to the madness, but we got it all together early and there I was sitting at the very back of the Church, at the audio board congratulating us for our quick work...ah pride cometh before the fall...I KNEW that and yet I thought it anyway. So mass begins and the lovely young soloist with long blond hair begins to sing. Let me note here that she has a beautiful high voice that reminds me of an angel singing. The problem with this is that she can be extremely difficult to mic, because her voice is so low. So you raise her level up as far as you can, to compensate and then when she hits a high note, she can easily feedback the entire Church. As a matter of fact, last Christmas she sang the song "Oh Night Divine" and hit that high note in the last line, so she is totally capable of doing this. My son is trying to get a handle on the levels and almost immediately she is sending us hand signals, indicating that she needs more audio, she can't hear herself on the talk back speaker. So we work on that a bit and finally, in a break, she turns up at the board and tells us to pull up her normal 12PM mass set up. OK, so we do and as it does its booting up thing it is doing all sorts of stuff we aren't use to seeing, but it does open in plenty of time and we are confused, but set. It seems that what they have done for her mass is adjust some of the frequencies that they allow to go out of the board, making the high ones lower and bringing the low ones higher. Thus, she is able to have her levels raised to a higher place then we were able to do with our mass set up. My son rode her levels the entire mass and refused to leave the board to go get Holy Communion, but she did not feed back and that made me so happy. He's a good responsible kid and I take great pride in his success with this.

Fire: Day 2 - The Battle for Saugus

It always amazed me how fast a situation can change from one of terror, to one of calm. I left yesterday morning and there was all this fire ringing my area and in some cases within maybe 2 miles of my house and then I come home in the evening, to calm. I could still see 2 ridges filled with flame, but they were new and burning toward the west, bad for Stevenson Ranch, in the short term, since it it moving west, but not for me and my house. With so many fires going, getting a handle on status of an individual one is hard, but the feeling I got, was one of survival. We had taken another bullet and we had survived. The media, of course doesn't make it any easier, showing big monster flames for hours on end, but they get caught in the same thing that causes people to set them in the first place. That mesmerizing feeling one gets watching flames in action. Why do we light our fireplace? Not for warmth, though that is a nice by product, usually just to stare at. It must go back, right to our cave man beginnings. Yes, some of these fires were set off by power lines being blown in the high winds...but sometimes they are set by those who want to see the fire up close. Truly a sad state of affairs.
So for today, I say a prayer of thanks that the immediate danger has lessened a bit, but it is not over yet. Schools continue to be closed and the winds are forecast to continue today.

A sad postscript:
I just heard before I left for work that Lombardi Ranch, which I blogged about a month ago, was not as lucky as we were. Some parts of his ranch took a major hit and his one of a kind pumpkins that kids climb on, trucks and tractors, all had damage, or were destroyed. I hope he rebuilds, because generations of children have played on his decorations.

==========
Photo Credit:
Screen capture of
a cool little interactive
link on the LA Times site.
You can instantly get updated
information on every current
fire burning at that time.

Here Come Those Santa Ana Winds Again

The winds that started Saturday afternoon have increased this past day and suddenly, we are ringed by fire. At least three separate fires are burning to the west, to the east and north of us. School has been closed, classmates of my son have been evacuated and his school is currently a shelter for the displaced. I don't know how long that situation will hold, since it is not far from one of the fire lines.


So we wait and we watch and we prepare for tomorrow, hoping that the wind doesn't drive one of these fires into homes and thus, threaten our neighborhood and home. God willing, we will all make it through.

Update this morning. When I left my car at the train and got on it, from the slightly higher elevation of the tracks, you could see fire right across the street and river (dry river, not wet river). So another thing for me to worry about, my car.

========
Photos are obviously from
my crappy cell phone, that gets
so much worse in the dark...but
you get the idea.

Anyone Want a Patriotic Magnet?

Being I am an involved parent, I volunteered a few weeks ago to help the Corps earn some extra money by selling Patriotic Magnets outside a store. We send out about 20 or so cadets and a few parents as protection/support and make a few thousand dollars over a weekend. The money we raise is used to help support the cadets and their activities. Food during competitions, busses to events and the big ticket item that so impressed everyone at camp last year...30 minutes of flying a plane. In my son's case, he had already taken ground school, but that first real flight time (in his log book and everything) will always be from last summer's JROTC encampment. Many of the cadets families are very tight on money and we even help with scholarships to camp, if it is needed. A real nice thing and something I am real proud of. So there we are yesterday and we pick up cadets and magnets and drive to hubby's Walmart and set up the table. Well to put it nicely, it is blowing a gale out there. It was so bad that I finally tied my hair back and I never tie my hair back! So we spent 4 hours standing at the door and did pretty well, about $125 worth of magnets went off with shoppers. I would have liked a bit more, but it was too windy to really get people's attention. Eye contact is everything, don't cha know. Amazing to me at least, being this is my 4th year doing it, people are actually not giving us grief about the war in Iraq. Not like the cadets have anything to do with it, but as the war becomes more and more unpopular, you kind of brace yourself for those type of confrontations. Things were very calm, people were supportive and respectful and I was happy to see that. Now if only my ears would stop ringing and my face stop feeling totally windburned, I would be even happier. The things I do for my son...

Learning to Fly - Helping the Tower

It's Saturday morning and we make the drive down to Van Nuys. The plane has been fixed, it now sports a brand new propeller out front and a dent in it's tow bar from an accident a week and a half ago. Thankfully, we all had nothing to do with it, the owner was with the plane at the time, teaching someone flying, so both our instructor and my son were not involved in the plane's downtime. Big sigh of thanks!

It's 7AM, due to the fact that we will be spending the entire day selling magnets, today. The weather is nice and up they go, leaving me, as usual, working. Things are pretty quiet for most of the time and I do my work thing. I take a break, since I hear an Amtrak train passing by and see that there are a couple of big guys getting ready to take off. I am so in! Grab the camera and shoot a few take offs. Go back inside and I hear my son's plane. They had returned from the practice area and Van Nuys Tower was asking them to do something. Lots of conversation going on, that I am not used to hearing, like "Hey, what are you doing up so early?". A normal day will find the Tower and plane are all business. Everything is very precise and normal in their communication. You are clear for take off, you are clear to land, that kind of stuff. I find out from my son that the tower was having some problems earlier and wanted to test their landing guidance system. Since they did not have anyone landing most of the time I was there, they asked my son's plane to test the equipment. So they are saying stuff back and forth for like 10 minutes, that stuff is not responding or changing, even as they do adjustments to their landing glide and finally they are just too high and can't get the plane down fast enough. So the tower tells them to move over to the other, longer runway, but the teacher decides to just come around again and so they fly over my location and make a loop back around, approach again and land safely. I walked outside, made sure they landed fine and then went back inside to pack up my stuff. As they came in, my son mentions that the wind was picking up a little bit. By the time we got to the magnet sale location, an hour later, it was really blowing a gale! My son wins again!

Cure Autism Now - CAN Walk Las Vegas

Back in April, I walked to help raise money for the organization, Cure Autism Now. Our Team was the brain child of an Internet friend of mine from Las Vegas. She decided to drive down here to Los Angeles, to participate in our walk to raise money for Autism research and I, in return, figured I would go up to Las Vegas and return the favor. So yesterday I made the decision to push forward on this, fundraise and somehow make it up there at one of the busiest times of the year. It is not only a busy time on a personal level, but a professional one. Max Martini, the actor who currently portrays Mack Gerhardt in the CBS show, The Unit, fundraises for this charity and in tribute to him, we have begun doing so, too. On a personal level, I have a Steely Dan Internet friend whose son was very young, when I "met" him and through the past 7 years I have seen, from a distance, how one family has had to cope with the diagnosis of Autism.

So I ask any who care to support me, please click the link below and donate whatever you can. Five, Ten, Twenty, dollars...I am grateful for any and all amounts, that will help me reach my goal of $200. Thank you so much.

My walk name is Angelle Lemarche and my Team is Team Mack Daddy.

You're Still The One

It was an intense day yesterday. I did watch the Memorial Service for Doc, as I had planned and was gratified to hear that the current Department chair used a few lines from my blog entry. So my thoughts and remembrances were shared with others and that meant a lot to me. Al Roker did us proud, as one would expect from a man who spends untold hours in front of a camera, but for me, the highlight was watching 2 men from my class, men who relentlessly needled Doc in our many, many classes tell of how much he did for each of them. My girlfriend, who was 2 years behind me in school said that the life of the Department dimmed significantly, after my class graduated and of the student speakers, all three were from my 2 year tenure at the school. Adding my comment to the several that were mentioned and you have four students from my era. We were well represented and it did my heart good, to see it. I have done countless great, fun things in my life but the best 2 years were and I think always will be, my two at college. It was where I became who I am. Nice to see us front and center, validating my feelings that it was something special. Rock on!

============
Photo Credit
I have many sunsets from my campus,
but this one is not mine.

A Life Well Lived - In Memory of "Doc"

Today is a special day for all of us who survived 2 to 4 years slogging through snow and ice for months on end, to get a degree in broadcasting. We the students of the Communications Department of my College, will pay tribute today, to one of our own, our Department Chair and mentor, Doc O'Donnell. There have been lots of emails, snail mails and phone calls, this past month, trying to get this all coordinated and today is the first event. As I mentioned in an earlier blog entry, my Department Chair passed away recently. It has been a rush job to add a memorial service into our normal Communications Department week of activity, but it has been done. The Memorial service itself will be broadcast on the web, for all of us in Communications, to see. Also today, they will have the Communications Summit. A yearly event, that brings the brightest minds together to discuss issues of importance. Started by a classmate of mine, this will be renamed, in honor of Doc. On Thursday, the rest of the nation will be able to see one of our alumni, Al Roker, show us around the new Campus Center, that is named in honor of Doc. Al will do six reports, during his regular day job on "The Today Show". Finally, on Saturday evening, is the Communications Department dinner. I have only managed to go to two of them over the years, but it was always special, since it was just us. We in the Communications Department. We are small, but we always knew our greatest strength was in keeping in touch. To say the least, I am totally bummed out that I am here in Los Angeles, when my heart is truly in Upstate New York.
I wish I could have arranged to attend, but with the way flying last minute is, I decided I could not go. I send my thoughts and thanks across to the College that gave me my job and my career and I appreciate them going to the effort to thank a man who had such an impact on me.

Lunchtime or Feeding the Hungry

Due to our son's school schedule, there are days when they are in school until 4:30PM and then other days where they get out at lunchtime. Right now they get 2 short days a week. One of the things they do is congregate at a house and make themselves a communal lunch. They have a name for this event and I have picked up clues about what they do, via some recent photos in our camera. It seems that fried rice with lots of extras is one of the main menu items, though it is certainly not limited to that. The raided house basically sets the ingredients for that days feast. We never know when this is going to wipe out our refrigerator, until we come home that evening and see the destruction and chaos in our kitchen. If I had a clue when, I would make sure there is something edible in the house to raid. As a matter of fact last weeks event, had one of the kids raiding his own house for rice to cook, since I was totally out. Good thing we live about 2 blocks apart and it's an easy trip. So here's a picture of last weeks lunch. 5 teenage boys and all that food was totally gone, by the time we got home. It staggers the mind...

Shave and a Hair Cut, Two Bits

It was haircut day this week and I get a request from my son. "Can you order something for my friend, when he comes up to cut my hair?" "Yeah sure", I said. This is something that has evolved over time. When he needs to make an Internet purchase for Magic Tricks, he comes to me. I do the adult credit card thing, with a card that pays ME money back and it is done. Then, it's hair cut time. They go out back and start the process. I have only seen it happen once or twice, so it draws me outside to view it. Being they are not pros, the hair is lying all over my patio and as my husband said the first time it was done here, it looks like an animal met its demise back there. Big chunks of hair on the ground. Well, I can't resist and after spending a few seconds laughing to myself, I go and get the camera. Sneak to the side of the yard and snap a few shots of them in action. I don't know if my son is even aware that I got this picture, so enjoy.
Total for the afternoon: A credit of $17.95 on the hair cut, since his friend does this for free. Payment overcharge of $.10 on the order, $.30 cash back from my credit card company, for the order. Grand total: $18.35 savings.
Watching them in action? Priceless!

Not a bad haul at all.

===================
Trivia Quiz for the Suzanne Brockmann crowd.
What SEAL used the tune Shave and a Haircut and what did he use it for?

Answer: Kenny "Wild Card" Karmody had the natives set charges to that tune, to let his SEAL buddies know he was on the island.

The Best Laid Plans - Trucks, Planes and Rain, Don't Mix

Yesterday was supposed to be a day for me and my son to enjoy the Miramar Air Show together. Miramar used to be the air base that housed the "Top Gun" school that was captured so wonderfully (cue the song "Danger Zone") in the Tom Cruise movie "Top Gun". More then the air show, I was excited to see the base itself. Unfortunately for us, an overnight rainstorm passed through our area of the state, which brought conditions that might have had an effect on the Air Show. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that late night on Friday something like 15 trucks and cars collided inside the truck tunnel that snakes under the Golden State Freeway (I-5) in the middle of the Newhall Pass. This is the same pass that takes a major hit in Earthquakes and then cuts off my area of the world, from the greater Los Angeles area. I was willing to try to get out, but my son thought it all out logically and came to the conclusion that a marginal Air Show was not worth the huge unpredictible amount of time it was going to take to get by an inferno in the middle of the Newhall Pass. He checked out flying conditions in San Diego and nixed the entire days plans. Probably correctly, I might add. We went out on a local errand around 1PM and hit bumper to bumper traffic just around our neighborhoods, probably caused by the closing of the freeway. We quickly finished our errands and moved back to the safety and quiet of our home. We were supposed to drive over to Van Nuys today for his flying lesson, but that was canceled due to the plane being in for repair. A good thing in this case, because we don't know when life will get better for Newhall Pass travelers. Thank goodness I take the train to work. It's not going to be pretty on Monday.

=========
Photo is from
the Edwards AFB
Air Show in 2005

Coral Egan: Magnify

I have a Steely Dan Internet friend in Canada who turned me on to the music of a Canadian artist named Coral Egan.
It was back in 2004 that Coral came out with her second album and caught the attention of my friend. Being we share a love of the music of Steely Dan, he sent some "hints" my way, that this might be something I would be interested in. So I did indeed order her album, My Favorite Distraction and have enjoyed it these past 3 years. She has just released her third album, Magnify and again I have ordered a CD. The cuts I have had a quick listen to, seem to have a more Blues/Funky feel to them, but I have not heard the entire album and reserve judgement on the albums tone, until it is in my hands. No matter what, I intend to enjoy wherever Coral decides to take me.

In a kind of cool side note. My friend from Belgium who found out about Coral from the same Internet friend I did, actually designed and maintains her My Space page. If you are so inclined, please feel free to check it out.

==========

A note to add that I did receive Coral's album and it is so very different from My Favorite Distraction, but there are echoes of that album, in this new one. Like little nods to songs or something. It's wonderful and such a different experience from the 30 Seconds To Mars listening that I have been doing recently.
Outstanding cuts for me, right off the bat. Beginning, Talkin' to the Animals, Clean Up Time and Little While (with it's Joni Mitchell sound). It's nice to see her grow up. Her next one, now that she is a Mama, is probably going to be even better. Go Coral!

Acoustic...or Torque That Song Down a Notch

I know I have been going on and on about the band 30 Seconds to Mars and once again, apologies in advance to all who are sick of hearing about them. What I did want to bring to anyone who cares attention, is the fact that I added another You Tube entry over on the right side links. I put the first one up about a week or so ago and now a second one. They are both decent quality acoustic songs, that are much more torqued up on their album, A Beautiful Lie. These versions are stripped down, acoustic renditions and normally I am not an acoustic fan. Again, Jared Leto wins me over, due to the emotion he brings to these versions of the songs. The 2nd link, A Modern Myth, even has strings playing along, a very nice touch. Click the links on the far right side of the page and then you can listen and watch up at the very top of my webpage. Click the I am done watching, when you are through. It's that easy. Enjoy.

A Banana Grows in Hollywood

Now that summer is over, for the most part, my work has brought back the walking club that we had last spring. I used it for training, for the 3 mile CAN Walk at the Rose Bowl, back in April and enjoyed it. This time it seems group does a power walk for a half hour each day. In order to get some challenge to the walk, they have been bringing us up to this hill that reminds me of a street in San Francisco. The first week I looked at this hill and said, no thanks. Give me a few days to get back into this. So on Monday, I took the plunge and said let's do this thing. So we did and it was a pain, but no big deal. As we walked down the other side after cresting the hill, I see a banana tree with bananas on it. I couldn't believe it! A banana grows in Hollywood? So the next day, I stopped after we crested the hill and I took a few shots of the bananas. The only time I have ever seen a real banana tree, was on the road between Ventura and Santa Barbara. There used to be a grove of them with all sorts of varieties for sale to the public. It was a nice side trip on the road between the 2 cities and it's a shame the place is gone. I don't know why if left, but I suspect it is probably tied to the fact that right behind the property is a very unstable mountain in an area of the coast known as "La Conchita". It continuously falls during bad rain years and residents have been moving out, over time. I got the impression that bananas needed tropical weather and high humidity with lots of sun. These conditions are found near the coast and come close to the conditions they need to grow in. From what I saw the other day, I am obviously mistaken. In a land of citrus groves, fruit trees and avocados, it was a nice, interesting change. Next up, monkeys!

Kids Do the Darndest Things

This weekend, a friend of my son's turned up on Saturday evening. We weren't expecting him, when we left to go shopping. We come home and the fridge has already been raided and will continue to be, thoughout the evening. As it ends up, mostly ice cream and buffalo wings got taken, but it was still slightly unexpected. If I had known, I would have stocked the house with a few more provisions.
While he was here, we ended up with 4 computers and an Xbox 360 going, all at the same time. I had a calendar to make and that means I fire up the very old computer in the den. The guys had the others going, too, bouncing between things. It boggles the mind, what kids today can do, from a multitasking point of view. I finally left them at 10:30P and found in the morning that yes, one more ice cream had left our fridge after I retired for the evening. To be that young again...

In Service To Our Country

On Saturday evening, my husband and I had to run to a market we normally don't shop in. I will preface this with a comment that I don't remember when I was last there. It has been a while, so that might be why I had no knowledge that they had done this. So, we walk in the door and on the wall by the registers, is a wall of pictures of local servicemen and women. Local residents, currently serving our Country in the Military. Since my son has joined the JROTC, we are more in tune with the reality that sometime, these unknown people are going to be friends and JROTC buddies of our child. We have several who have joined up and are currently in basic, or training, but as of this date, not in the direct line of fire. Still, that possibility is very real to us. So being we know a few former cadets, we look at each picture and name and for the first time, yes, there is a former Cadet and very good friend of mine. Not just a friend of my son's, but someone who I had a friendship with. He is 2 years older then my son and he would make the videos that we would see at the Awards Banquet each May. Being he was interested in video and I work in television, we shared an obvious connection. When he spent his first semester of college in Hawaii, I was the one who he would occasionally email, sending pictures and messages our way. He joined the Army this summer and last I heard, he was in Basic Training. Seeing someone I know on that wall of heroes, gave me the chills. I send prayers and good thoughts his way and hope he makes it back to us all, OK. He is the first, but I am positive he won't be the last. Not a great thing to realize, but reality nonetheless.

The Unit Season 2 DVD - Review

I know, I know, I am totally obsessed with this show. You don't have to tell me. :-)

On September 25, The Unit Season 2 DVD came out. I was there at the store first thing, buying it. My day gig is television and I totally am sick of the stuff, when I get home at night. Can you say burn out? I knew you could.
The fact that I have made an exception with this show, a war show none the less, is quite unusual. The fact that I heard about and began watching this show, due to the recommendations from a romance board, should give you a hint that this show is special. Yes, they deal with the realities of todays war and there is lots of action for the war guys, but for once they deal with the realities of the families, who watch these guys just drop everything and leave them, without a word. Getting sent into a hot zone, time after time. How the wives and children deal with this is what hooked me and has hooked my family, good. I spent some time this week listening to the additional tracks on some of the episodes and I had some real laughs, when several members of the cast and crew talked about the conditions they had to shoot these episodes of The Unit in. The Unit is shot mostly around my home town, Santa Clarita. We are not known for our temperate climate. Being a lot of the mission episodes are outside in remote areas of our City, they end up with extremely HOT temperatures for the first 8 episodes or so, then a few that might actually be OK and then into the cold and possibly wet time of the year. To put it nicely, I don't envy them their day gig. So, I was watching this episode that was shot in September and it was supposed to be Siberia in the cold. They comment that they had to fake Ice (by using wax) and snow (by using soap bubbles). Wearing these hot coats and gloves. Did I mention that I don't envy them? The friendships the actors show off on these audio tracks, make it so worth the money to purchase the set. Being I have seen the programs multiple times, this, for me, is the new information. Did Bob really eat those grubs? Yep, about 6 of them and they are crunchy, without much taste. Was that a dummy he was pulling on the sled? Nope, Eric Haney said, "yeah, Scott Foley can pull the actress on the sled, he's strong enough" and thus, the dummy was not used. When Kim dropped to the ground with Teddy, was that a dummy? Nope, the real Teddy and quite a challenge for her. As a mater of fact, they mention that her worried expression was not about the bullets that were flying, but her concern that she would hurt Teddy as they fell. Lynn Mamet (a writer on the show) asks several of the actors if they have to work out to keep in shape for this show. Dennis Haysbert says, that yes they do and no he just doesn't have time to do so and she quips back that maybe he should quit his Allstate gig? :-)
The season has 23 episodes, so there is a lot there, for your money, since the episodes are all first rate. Add in laughs along the way, on the audio track and it's even better. It also has a "Making of" segment that runs almost 45 minutes. Lots of Santa Clarita locations turn up there, which makes this resident happy. Check it out.

Learning To Fly - 34 Right

My son had a pilot exam last week, so there was no flying on the agenda. This week they are back in the cockpit, with a new piece of business. Winds were from the north and so the runways were running opposite to what we are used to. So they moved out of the hanger area and immediately began their take off within feet of me, on runway 34 right. This is the same runway they normally use, but it is called 16 left normally and they usually have to taxi for the better part of a mile to get to the beginning of it. Not so in this situation, so I was getting some really nice, different pictures this time. Since this is such an unusual situation, the teacher decides he wants my son to practice this opposite pattern work, so they do an hour of Touch and Goes. I shot many of them and had a nice time doing something just a bit different. Thankfully, the winds were not too strong and they had no real problems. Due to the wind, the valley was, once again, beautiful, which made it even nicer. With luck, next week we will attend the Miramar Air show on Saturday and he will fly on Sunday.

The Floor - Final Entry

Since I have gone on and on about this floor, I thought I would give you a quick look at the finished product. I still need to paint the molding and cabinets, but for now, we have a floor. Hubby and I both like it and that's all that matters.

Los Angeles Union Station

I have mentioned before that since I commute by train, I pass through Los Angeles Union Station, while I transfer to the Metro Red Line Subway. We don't get into the main concourse of the building, mostly the tunnel and the edge of the concourse. Monday I ended up working late and so I got to the station much later then I normally do and I was early for my train. So I decided to pick up a bite to eat and that meant that I walked through the concourse to get there.
Union Station was built in the 1930's and it is probably the most beautiful station I have seen.
Done in the Art Deco style it has a beautiful wood ceiling, mosaic tiles on the wall and stunning chandeliers for lighting. Many movies have been shot in this historic building and you can just feel the vibe as you walk around. It is especially lovely at Christmas, decorated in lights and a huge tree.
Many holiday parties are held in the old ticket counter area off to the side of the concourse. They normally leave that section closed and only use it for the parties.
That way business goes on as usual, as people who are dressed to the nines, mingle and enjoy their evening.
The main area has huge brown high back chairs, again in the Art Deco Style and the room is just full of people waiting for their trains. Lots of noise and the bustle of activity is always going on.
I have found that it is so worth the expense of riding some form of public transportation, just to enjoy that which is, Union Station. A real gem and a must see for any Angelino.

Child's Play or Barbie's at 20 Paces

A few days ago I spent some time with the daughters of a friend of mine. As I have mentioned before, I raised a son and as such, daughters are somewhat a mystery to me. The children are 5 and 3 and it was a real treat to not only see them interact with me and their Mom, but it was so cool to see them interact with each other and with themselves. I had forgotten how totally obsessed we women are with role playing via dolls and such. The younger one reminded me of that almost immediately after meeting her. She found a table with little duckies on it and right off the bat, she grabbed 2 of them and had them face to face, having some sort of child/duckie conversation. I fell in love, right there. Fantasy, make believe, acting out our own feelings and actions, it all came back to me. When I was young, we used to have Barbie's. Each girl had a dream house set up in our back yard. We would play dreamhouse by ourselves and when the mood struck us, we would go visit another person and her dream house. I can still picture myself under the shade of a Red Maple tree in our back yard, whiling away a hot summer in the late 60's, doing just that.

It was so nice to be reminded of some of my younger days, days that I don't remember with anything but fondness.
In regard to the children? They were a total blast and are welcome back, anytime. What a treat to experience and to remember.

Floor Part 4 or OMG, My Hands Are Killing Me!

The floor is now gone. It took longer then I expected, but we are now down to the original concrete in our kitchen. When we decided to purchase our house some 22 years ago, it was a home that had fallen out of escrow. We decided to purchase it and due to the fact that it was originally sold to someone else, it was already basically done and sitting empty, when we went into escrow. We did pick out the carpet and linoleum for the house, but it was not yet installed, when we stopped in and did a walk around one day. As we walked through the house we saw that there was a crack in the concrete that went right through the kitchen. Picking up the floor today, there was the crack we remembered, but surprisingly, it was no worse then it had been all those years ago. I had some fear that the Northridge Earthquake may have made it even worse, but that doesn't seem to be the case. A good thing, that makes me happy. That was about the only thing that made me happy today. My hands hurt from all the scraping and I am real tired, but we survived it and now we are ready for Friday's install.

The Kitchen Floor, Take 3

I took today off again to deal with the never ending task of dealing with the kitchen floor. Who knew a simple project like this was going to become such a big deal. So today we strip the old floor off and see the concrete we haven't seen in 22 years. Hubby and I are almost never home together, so it should be an interesting day. Friday they will come again to try to install it and hopefully we will get the roll of linoleum off my floor in the living room. Talk about taking over an entire room, but I am thankful that we had a place to put it. I am sure people who do home projects are used to all this, but it's new to me. What a way to spend a day off.