It's been a typical June Gloom kind of week.
It takes a few days until it gets up here in the wilds of Northern Los Angeles...but eventually, it does.
This was Wednesday or Thursday, I believe.
Of course it was gone, by the time I left for work and so I got to reacquaint myself with it, in North Hollywood and then Burbank. :-)
I always love when we have something just a little different, weather wise.
Who knew that our local station (part of CBS2) had a news at 2PM? I know I didn't.
Well, they invited the EcoCar2 Team down to their station in Studio City (AKA CBS Radford) and the team drove the car over for the interview. My son was one of the team who was chosen, but minus turning up in a few of the teases during the hour broadcast, he was not interviewed. I personally was good with that. :-)
You can view the segment HERE.
He was sending Facebook messages during the entire half hour before they actually were on the air and I was getting a kick out of that. He is SO jaded about Broadcasting and I take full responsibility for that. lol
Congrats guys and girls, good job.
Well, look what came back today...my ability to have my photo on the right side of the post. I don't know what to say, they re-invented the wheel. :-)
On to the reason for this post. I had a day off, a real mid week day off. So to celebrate this fact, my Husband and I decided to go to a movie. An old fashioned date, yeah, that's right, a date. Yay!
My son had seen Star Trek Into Darkness last month, while he and the EcoCar2 Team were in Yuma and he said that he really enjoyed it. It takes a lot for him to like something, so I value his opinion.
With that rousing approval, we plunked down our money and checked it out.
Full disclosure here, I am a die hard Trekkie, from WAY back. I owned a big yellow tribble, for heaven's sake!
So most of the nods that were going on in the movie, and yes, there were many, were understood by me. You talk Original Trek, this girl knows her stuff. :-)
My opinion, yes, you have seen most of this plot line before, but it was a very entertaining 2+ hours.
I loved the evolution of the camraderie between the characters, it was spot on and infinitely entertaining. The actors are faithful to the legacy of the show and I definitely had less of a problem with them this time. They were a known quantity.
I know I am late to this party...but if you haven't seen it, do.
The other day I read an article about Angelenos and how we refer to ourselves.
The original pronunciation was, of course, Spanish...but over the years it has been Americanized. It brought my foggy memory back to long ago days growing up in New York, listening to Billy Joel's early albums.
This one, in particular, Streetlife Serenade, contained the song "Los Angelenos", and I found a wonderful old live track, on You Tube, HERE. I hope you enjoy.
Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
To live in sunshine
Their funky exile
Midwestern ladies
High-heeled and faded
Drivin' sleek new sports cars
With their New York cowboys
Hiding up in the mountains
Laying low in the canyons
Goin' nowhere on the streets
With their Spanish names
Makin' love with the natives
In their Hollywood places
Making up for all the time gone by
Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
Cuz it's all so easy
To become acquainted
Electric babies
Blue-jeaned and jaded
Such hot sweet schoolgirls
So educated
Tanning out in the beaches
With their Mexican reefers
No one ever has to feel
Like a refugee
Going into garages
For exotic massages
Making up for all the time gone by
Hiding up in the mountains
Laying low in the canyons
Goin' nowhere on the streets
With the Spanish names
Makin' love with the natives
In their Hollywood places
Making up for all the time gone by
Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
It's so familiar
Their foreign faces
My Water Post For Today.
I have a very good Steely Dan friend who I have known for at least a decade. He and his wife reside in England and they decided to take a trip to the coast of England, in Wales.
As soon as I saw the photo, I had to have it...and with his kind permission, here it is.
He mentioned to me that he loved the wild flowers growing around the rocks. To me, it almost reminds me of the California Central Coast...rugged, stark and hauntingly beautiful.
Both Doc Martin and Ross Poldark, would feel right at home here.
I hope you enjoy.
No Water Post Today. See Wales tomorrow. :-)
Yes, it is Anniversary Day for my blog. Who knew that Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses would be my theme, year after year.
6 years of writing every day, but as one learns in the 12 step program, you take it one day at a time and that is my philosophy. I manage to write something, no matter how small it is, to keep myself and my readers going. This post is number 2199, by the way. In case you are tracking such things.
With my going to Grad School on top of working, I know my blog has suffered a bit, but we made it through to the other side and my ramblings have increased in length, once more. :-)
As I do ever year, I mention what has been going on in my life and what I see...looking into that crystal ball of mine, moving forward.
Grad School is heating up, since I have gotten (more or less) permission to go. I am looking into ways to furnish my room, get my car over there and basically set up my house and life, to miss me for 5 long months. It will be a busy summer, but I am excited beyond all belief and honored to have been accepted into the program. In a funny thing...I was looking at jobs they have for students and my Lab Assistant job in the Audio Visual department is still available! I used to take photos and develop them, for my AV teacher. Seriously, they still do that? I would have thought that job died with Kodak.
My workplace will be turning 50 not this September, but next September and I have some half a$$ plan to start writing articles that KCET can post on their webpage, about work back in the day. We will see how that goes and if I can combine that with my final project in Social Media.
My son has just finished year 2 of his competition as you just recently read and I will document what goes on in year 3. Mostly making the car lighter and improving their many emission readings, acceleration, breaking and handling of the vehicle. It is the real science of the project and my son will also be using it for his Senior Design project for graduation. One thing I can guarantee, he is going to be a busy person next year. My best to him, no matter what goes on.
My Husband will be paying the bills and keeping the house going in my absence. Let's all hope he can rise to the occasion and make it happen. I really don't want to see a box arrive every month with the bills. :-)
My "Other" sons.
#1 "son" gets out of the Marines in July. Good luck to him, during this very difficult transition and my best to his wife, too.
#2 "Magic son" moves on to year 2 of his 4 year school. I don't know when he is able to graduate, but I am betting it will take 3 years, instead of 2.
Finally, my baby, Makenna. How will she survive her Mommy being gone?
Stay tuned for year 7, to find out.
He's been a Sea Bee for 4 years...though from what I just learned, he will be out on a disability discharge very soon. He was getting ready to deploy for the 3rd and last time, when his shoulders dislocated on him again and he will have to have surgery on them. Not a great start to a marriage, but that's life...it always throws curves.
I mentioned him in a post many years ago, when he was on his second deployment in the Seabees, which you can read HERE. I also wrote about him when he was about to go in, HERE.
We were invited to the wedding last Thursday in Las Vegas. My son was supposed to be in the wedding party, but was unable to do so, due to the amount of time he spent in Yuma and San Diego. He had to attend a class on Thursday and that did not give him enough time to get to Las Vegas for the ceremony.
My "Magic Son" was Best Man and he got some awesome photos of the couple. This is one of them.
I think the couple are truly beautiful...and look at all those metals the groom has!
My best to them, in their new life together.
OMG! I am so bummed! Our favorite Dim Sum place closed last week.
We have been going there for at least 10 years. Many a trip taken either from my workplace or from home, has ended at the Empress Pavilion.
One of our more recent trips, was documented HERE.
The reason for the closure is that the building it is part of, has become run down and so business has dropped off. I can attest to the fact that the building has been going a little downhill, but I didn't think it was terrible.
It has been a few months since we have been there, though. You can read the entire LA Times article, HERE.
Many years ago...maybe 24 or 25, my Husband and I decided that we would like to start a family. What we thought was going to be an easy transition, became a long and tedious one. During that time, when we were trying to start our family, things were not going so well. I came to the decision that the job I was currently doing, was not conducive to conceiving and raising a family. In one of those synchronicity moments, a job opened up at my workplace, but it was Christmas, I was busy and I didn't apply. One day a week or so later, the person who's department had the job opening, came into the Tape Library where I worked and we began to talk. I mentioned in passing that I had thought seriously about applying for the Traffic job in her department. She turned to me and said "Apply for it!"
So I took her advice and did so. 3 months passed and not a word was said. I figured she had gotten someone else, or they took the job away (a reality of life for a PBS Station, where money runs out right before the end of the fiscal year).
At the beginning of March of 1989 she came by the Library and said to me, that it had taken months of interviews, but if I still wanted the job...it was mine. That was how I became a Broadcast Operations Coordinator, the job I currently hold.
Though she is several years younger then me, she had an incredible command of our job and department and was absolutely awesome at anything she put her mind to. I learned from a master and any traffic skills I have, were gotten from her. She was my boss for something like 18 years and though we had our ups and downs, her life and mine, intertwined with not only our work, but our having and raising our children. Her daughter is 8 months older then my son and her son is 13 months younger. It was a hard couple of years...but we made it work for us. The photo above was taken during that time. She is the one wearing the hat, sitting on my couch, at my second wedding. She had a 4 month old baby at home and in spite of that, she made the effort to be there for me. I, of course, was 3 months pregnant with my son. A situation that I have mentioned, so many times before.
Though I have not worked closely with her for several years, Thursday was her last day at my workplace...more downsizing.
She will be missed by me.
This was the foreshadowing before the fire...
Memorial Day, I took a bunch of photos of a really wonderful sunset.
It was windy that night. Extremely so and I mentioned on my Facebook page that I was worried about when this wind moved across the country, into the great plains. I was right to be concerned, because just a few short days later, huge tornadoes hit the Oklahoma area. As a matter of fact, one of the absolute worst ever, according to measurements.
The wind brings out the crazys in our area and we had 3 days straight of small fires. They were all put out with no trouble at all...until that last one. The Powerhouse fire, which I wrote about a few days ago. The latest update is that it is 80 percent contained, by the way.
On this day, it was just like you see here. A sunset on a clear evening.
Who knew it would bring on such problems down the road.
The Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles is known as one of the trendiest places in the Downtown area.
Young people get off from work and take a ride up the elevator to the rooftop bar to raise a few and wind down after a long work week. That is about all I knew about the hotel itself, that it had a roof bar.
When I saw this sign with the word Standard upside down, I figured out that they go cutting edge trendy at their place of business, including the lobby, and rooms themselves.
Please click on the link and check out this place. I am not sure I would be the target demographic for this hotel, but it is worth a look. :-)
When I have the time to walk over to St. Joseph's Hospital, I pass right behind this statue.
I see it out of the corner of my eye and I always think it is real, before my mind kicks in and I remember it is that statue at the entrance driveway to the hospital.
Personally, I think it is very sweet.
Just enough reality to make it look genuine. The two of them actually looking at each other. The way the woman's legs are crossed under the bench. The two of them holding each others arms, as if to support each other through whatever is going on in their lives, at that moment.
I hope it brings a smile to your day.
Updated to add.
I went over to the statue today and read the plaque.
This is a statue of Roy and Edna Disney.
My Water Post For Today.
This is Lake Munz, in the Lake Elizabeth area of Los Angeles County.
As I mentioned yesterday, there is a fire up my canyon. San Francisquito Canyon, to be exact. The fire began right by one of the two powerhouses in the canyon, Powerhouse number 1. It has then moved to the north and west, slowly marching toward the Interstate 5 area. Before that could happen, the wind direction changed and it came back to the area by Elizabeth Lake. There were some homes destroyed, but almost all were saved. One of those things that was saved, is this camp by Munz Lake. I had never heard of it, but it was built by Paul Newman, many years before his death and it is called The Painted Turtle Camp. The fire came up to many of the cabins, but the firemen got the fires out, before they destroyed this wonderful place for children.
I am sure Paul is up in heaven rejoicing today.
Enjoy the serene, in the midst of chaos.
BTW: A little known fact, Munz Lake (along with Elizabeth Lake and Hughes Lake) sit on the San Andreas fault zone and are sag ponds, that were formed by the two plates rubbing against each other.
===============
Photo by SCVTV.
It's been an interesting weekend so far. The fire that first turned up on Thursday has grown on Saturday, due to the high heat. It was over 100 degrees yesterday and of course, that doesn't help the firefighters.
As I sat talking to my sister on the phone, I noticed that right out my windows, I could see the huge cloud of smoke and so I took a few photos through my greenhouse window.
Thankfully, it is at least 10 miles away...but as you drive around running your errands, it doesn't feel that way.
They are saying containment maybe by next Tuesday. Sigh...
A lazy Saturday post...
Let sleeping kitties lie, I say.
Makenna is laying on the top of my son's couch. She seems to do it so that she can keep track of me, as I work on the computer.
As I have mentioned before, she is fascinated with her "Mommy" and so I will be working, totally oblivious to everything and suddenly I turn and there she is. It always startles me.
I keep saying this...but what will my kitty do without me, for 5 long months?
Skype? :-)
