That's What Friends Are For

A final word on the Fall Festival at St. Andrew's Abbey. In one of those strange coincidences of life that make you indeed think of a higher being, I had a very strange thing happen to me. I made arrangements to meet up with an internet friend from the old Max Martini board. She lives in Victorville and I in Los Angeles. So we decided to meet in the middle, in the midst of the Antelope Valley. We said to each other, when you get there, call me. We the modern cell phone types figured there would be service and all would be well. When I arrived at around 12:30P, I did indeed have good cell phone reception and gave my friend a call. I immediately was sent to her voice mail, so figuring she was driving or something, I left a message. After waiting almost half an hour in the parking lot, watching the cars come in, I decided to start looking at the fair. So I began checking the thing out, the booths and displays, with my cell on vibrate. Nothing. So I called again and got that voice mail. Hmmmm, she should be here by now. Did she have an accident? One of the kids sick? So I continue checking out the fair for another hour and finally bought a snack and sat down. Finished it off and made another call. Another call gets the same result. So I leave another message saying to call me no matter what, just so I know she is alive and well. Then I head down the hill to where many paths converge and I get a tap on the shoulder. It is my friends from Phoenix. They are the couple whose daughter got married at the Phoenix Zoo just 3 weeks ago. She tells me that I had parked my car right next to her car! I did? Her's is white and in LA, there are a million white cars, all within a mile radius of your position at any time, where as my car is a beautiful dark color. Much more obvious, I guess. So she checks out the plate (I have a custom plate), the license frames on both front and back and she goes to her husband, yep, that's her car all right. So even though they were on their way out, they walked back to the fair and stood where the paths come together, to wait for me. Obviously, they were successful. These people are the ones who turned on my husband to the Fall Festival, back in the 70's and the last time they had been there was with him (all together now) back in the 70's. They lived in LA from after the guys got out of the service, to somewhere in the mid 70's, almost a decade and from what I hear they were the 3 Musketeers, hanging together and exploring whatever LA had to offer. They were tight and that tie has never left them. A good thing for us, true friends are hard to come by. Anyway, so there we are talking for about 20 minutes and I tell them I was looking for someone else and hey, why didn't you call me on my cell? They say to me that there is no cell service here. Say what? I have cell and I even called my son at home to double check it. Nope, I am incorrect, my service provider has cell coverage (yay team) but others don't. So off they go and I am back to reevaluating the situation. My friend has 2 young kids, so I go to the children's area and they are not there. So I head back to exactly where my friends waited and I look and I look and about 2 minutes later, there comes my friend and her daughters. It was 2 1/2 hours later, but we managed to connect and have a good time too. Thanks to whoever brought me to my friend's car, made them see it and made them connect up with me, to give me the cell phone information. Higher being? Who knows...but I am grateful for both miracles of the day.

Vasquez Rocks

While driving up to the Antelope Valley area of Southern California, I drove past one of the most unusual natural formations of rock in the state. Vasquez Rocks are the result of living life near the San Andreas Fault. The layers of earth are pushed up sideways from all the earth's movements over millions of years. The result is a beautiful area that one never forgets about. If you are looking at this picture and wondering why it looks familiar, the reason is that it is used quite often in movie shoots. Star Trek, Wild Wild West and many others have used this property over the years. When my son was much younger, we would go to campfires at Vasquez Rocks and before the campfire would begin, we would allow him to climb the rocks. He loved it so much that and would then sit still during the entire evening of ghost stories, etc that would be said at the campfire. Most of them concerned Santa Clarita and it's history, including the bandit who the rocks are named after, Tiberico Vasquez. It was some of the nicest times we would spend as a family. A very peaceful and quiet evening, under the stars, with just us...and those rocks.

Fall Festival or Ceramics Are Us

It's Fall Festival time at Valyermo and I have not managed to go for the past few years. So this year I invited a Max Martini Board friend, since she lives in Victorville and we made plans to meet in the middle, at the Fall Festival. The Benedictine Monks at St. Andrew's Abbey have a festival each year, to raise funds for their home. Lots of food, crafts and booths to look at. My favorite booth at the fair is the hand made ceramics that the monks make on the property. Beautifully designed by Father Maur of Belgium, he comes to the Abbey each year to design new Saints and angels. The angels are shown doing different tasks or work occupations. I own many of them, including Blessed Serra, Blessed Kateri and Jesus on the cross. Each is unique and Father Maur graciously signs them all at his booth. It is always a highlight for me.


They have a beautiful lake on the property and a Chinese garden adjacent to it, that is serene and a wonderful place to stop and reflect. There are even Stations of the Cross around the lake, for any who care to do some solitary praying.
My husband turned me on to this place, many years ago, so you don't have to be Catholic to enjoy the experience.
Being one though doesn't hurt at all. :-)
If you think this is something you would like to do and you live in the Los Angeles area, figure on spending at least 2 hours at the Abbey.

It is worth the drive.

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Photo Credit
An oil painting of the chapel at St. Andrew's Abbey. I painted this version, from a postcard painted by Father Werner. He is one of the monks at the Abbey.

30 Seconds to Mars - First Album

I saved something like 13 dollars when I bought The Unit Season 2 DVD, so of course I had to spend the money anyway. Since I was in Electronics, I ended up purchasing 30 Seconds to Mars first CD, appropriately titled 30 Seconds to Mars. Who would have ever guessed...
Been spinning it since Tuesday and a few things come to me, right off the bat.
Their first CD is NOTHING like their second CD.
You can definitely feel the tie in between the 2 CD's, even in their differences.
I LOVE these guys!

What seriously gets me is I am so not into Metal music and yet I can see I have made an exception with this group. The songs on this first album are loud, the beat is unrelenting and the lyrics I have figured out, are seriously warped. Favorite cuts so far: Capricorn (Brand New Name), Buddha for Mary and Echelon. It's totally great!

Carry on...

The Unit - Season 3 Opener

When last seen, The Unit was left totally demolished in the final episode of Season 2. The members of The Unit are under investigation for crimes committed during previous missions, 2 of them are in the Brig, 2 of them are on the run and 1 bailed out, by accepting a CIA offer. It was not a good place to be, for any of them...or their wives. This episode is part 1 of a 2 parter and though there are rays of hope that things will get better, it is still quite a mess at the end of the show. Being My favorite actor from the show is in the brig, there is not much going on with him, except torture and more torture.

The things our own Country is capable of doing to its service members, sometimes floors me. They are not nice people, or so it seems.
But I KNOW that this team will make it out of the darkness. They made it through SERE (a school where you learn to survive torture) in Season 1, so I am confident of their abilities, their dedication and their loyalty. The fact that the stories are based on real experiences of a member of Delta Force, makes it all the more real to the viewer. This is not fun and games, this is the real deal and the actors feel a need to tell the story right, our service members deserve no less.

If you have never watched this show, you are missing something really unique. In the midst of all the new season stuff, you might want to check this out. The episode currently lives on CBS Innertube, for your viewing pleasure...or live dangerously, step into their world in part 2 (Tuesday at 9PM).

Once in...Never Out.

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Photo Credits:
Photo 1
Really hot screen capture
By Bashfulwun

Photo 2
Torture screen capture
By Red Head Mama

When Does Your Freedom Interfere With Mine, Or Hey, the Neighbors Are Outside Again

I took the day off today and decided to trim some of my trees out back. It's that time of year, summer just finished and fall is just beginning. The weather was beautiful, which made the chore a delight. So I trim the trees and then go to our trash containers. On the way there I glance at the house next door to me. A few years ago they built a 2 story extension out in their back yard that totally dominates my back yard. I hate it, but being I am not out there all that often, I have survived the past few years with minimal complaint. I mostly got upset while it went up. Now I am just resigned...
So, as I glance at it I notice a very little thing in one of the windows. It looks like an eyeball and it sits on the windowsill. Being the savvy modern computer literate person that I am, I immediately realize that it's a webcam.

Pointing out of their window INTO MY BACK YARD! I know they are actually trying to webcam the beautiful view of the valley we have from up here, but why am I convinced that every time I go out, I am on camera? I work in broadcasting and rule number one is: "The Camera is Always On".
We return to the house and log onto the computer and we go looking. Hubby finds the page with the webcam and we see that it doesn't seem to be on right now. Maybe it only goes on when they are home or when they want to shoot a sunset, who knows. Guess I might have to ask them what the air schedule is for the thing. To say the least I am majorly pissed off about this that I can't even be rational about it right now. We have been known to turn on the pond in our pj's upon occasion, usually in the early morning. Now I have to always assume the stupid thing is on and act accordingly.

In the immortal words of Roseanne Roseannadanna "It just goes to show you, it's always something."
Nuff said.

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Update: With a cooler head, I emailed the neighbors and the web cam is no more. What a relief. :-)

Pandemonium or Life in A Unit Obsessed Household

In Hubby's Walmart speak, today is streeting day for lots of things, including The Unit Season 2 DVD, Halo 3 and Lover Unbound by J.R. Ward. I have plans to stop by Walmart and get them this morning. The new season of The Unit airs this evening, so I am obsessed about that, too. Lots going on and my new floor is getting installed today. I decided to take the day off to deal with all this. What the heck, chaos doesn't happen every day and I deserve the chance to enjoy it.

It has been a hard couple of months without any contact with Max Martini, the actor who used to have a website and give us hints as to what they were shooting and what was going on with The Unit. The last contact I had with him, he was shooting his movie, Redbelt. At that time, he said that he did not need to speculate about how the new season was going to go, he KNEW how it was going to go down. I guess that means that he had the scripts in hand, all the way back in June. Tonight I get to see it all happen. Can't wait!

Update:
Floor didn't get installed, due to a miscommunication. So our living room still has this huge roll of linoleum in it.
On the purchasing front. I got them all and am totally stoked about it.
On The Unit's new season. All I can say is OMG!

I Know This Super Highway, This Bright Familiar Sun

Sunday brings flying and in this case that child of mine rolled the dice and won. The storm system that had spent 2 days cleaning up LA had moved out overnight and we woke up to an absolutely beautiful day. As we drove down to Van Nuys I commented that he was so lucky to be flying right after a storm, it should be beautiful from the air. We both mentioned that with the end of a storm, there will probably be some turbulence in the air though and he was ready to watch out for that. We got to the hanger and his teacher was already finished with his 6AM lesson. Yikes, I don't want that time slot. It was cold in the hanger, as it was. :-)
Then off they go. I had absolutely nothing to do but read and watch the planes and so that's exactly what I did. Lots of jets taking off and since I love jets, I was in heaven.


I also noticed that the 2 Super Scoopers were across the runway from me. They spend the summer and fall here in LA, after Canada's fire season winds down. I had seen them flying by work just the other day, along with an LA County fire helicopter and I had wondered where they were going. I was glad to see them not being used today.

The lesson goes as planned and as we drive home, my son reports that they just went over what he has learned so far. Getting a better handle on it all, out over the Simi practice area. I guess he did OK. Next week he and his instructor will be going over his written exam, so no flying is on the agenda.

Raindrops Are Falling On My Head

Amazingly, the forecast was correct and the rain came with a vengeance Friday night. My husband and son both were woken up by the rain and thunder around 11PM. I slept through it, probably for the better, because I am not a happy camper in electrical storms. I had to bring my husband to work at 6AM today and since in my rush to get out before the rain on Friday, I forgot 2 very important things at work. After dropping him off, I set out to drive to work, which is a 30 mile trip. It was drizzling, but nothing too spectacular. I expected to go through a few squall lines, especially in the Burbank/Glendale area (a bad spot, due to the San Gabriel Mountains being right there) and also in the Newhall Pass area. As predicted, I did indeed go through some heavy rain, unfortunately so did others and at the Newhall Pass I encounter the first of 6 major traffic accidents I will see on this drive. At the first one, the car was even sticking out into my lane and I had to try to get over as far as I could and slightly into the next lane. I could smell the gas from the wreck. Slightly shaken, I slowed down a bit and we did indeed hit a few squall lines, the second one, just as I expected, being a monsoon type rain at the Burbank/Glendale border. I managed to get through it OK (it only lasted a minute) and then exited the freeway. At the first traffic light there was another wreck being dealt with, thankfully in the clean up stage. Then over to another surface street about a mile from work and there is a third wreck that took out a traffic pole and the vehicle was still blocking most all of the road. Wow, three wrecks, I am thinking as I pull into work and being the sun is now up and it is almost 7AM, I figure this will be the worst of it. The rain has stopped and it's light. Wrong,. wrong, WRONG! I leave work about 5 minutes after getting there and head back the way I came. I get onto the freeway and wonder if that squall line is still over at Burbank/Glendale. Nope, it's gone, but in the 15 or 20 minutes I have been away a huge tanker trailer has jackknifed and overturned on my lanes. So once again I have to move over and get way too close for comfort to that tanker. I can smell gas again and have a passing thought that I hope the rescue workers would have stopped us if it was about to explode. I get by, again shaken up and I continue driving home. I pass a section of roadway where I had seen that there was standing water at the far right hand side and I see an accident happened after I went through, probably from the water. Just around the bend I see a car sitting on its side, with all sorts of police and fire vehicles dealing with it. I am making an assumption that the first accident, caused the 2nd one, but I am so glad I had gotten through the area before hitting all that. Well as all that is going on, I go through the area where the standing water was and I see that yes, there is even standing water IN MY LANE over on the other side of the freeway! Yikes! So I slow down a bit and one side of the car goes through and not the other. Thankfully, I manage to keep control and get through it OK. A quick prayer and I continue driving, uneventfully, to Santa Clarita. I really hate to think of what that drive would have been like in traffic. Sigh...

May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life For Another Year

The end of the High Holy Days are here and Temple and a Breaking the Fast celebration are on the agenda for today. I have plans to make a Polish Apple Bread to bring to the meal that concludes the 10 days of renewal in the Jewish Faith. I am not Jewish, but I find the idea of reevaluating onself, asking forgiveness of sins, remembering from whence one came from and saying prayers to those who have passed on, as things I look forward to each year. I thank my husband for widening my world and I celebrate the end of another Yom Kippur, with him and his family.

Fall or Where Did All The Hot Weather Go?

Fall has arrived here in Southern California and I was having a real hard time at the JROTC meeting last night remembering that I was roasting in the humidity of a serious heat wave just 2 short weeks ago, at the California Speedway. Cool mornings and even possible rain in the forecast. We shall see if that comes true, but a WELCOME change for all of us.
One of my favorite things about this time of the year is that I can visit a farm stand just a few miles up the canyon from my house.

They decorate it for the kids with lots of pumpkins and things for them to do. Climbing, riding, scarecrow alley, animals, petting zoo, food, music. They have it all and it is a pleasure to visit. They have great produce, too and everything you would want to decorate your house for the fall, even corn stalks. I have visited and photographed the farm stand for years and fully intend to visit it this year. For today, the almost first day of fall, here are a few shots from Lombardi Ranch.

Hey, This Room Doesn't Smell Like Sweaty Socks Anymore

It was finally move in day for the Airforce JROTC, a project literally 2 1/2 years in the making. The keys to their new classroom and office space has been given over to The Captain and the accumulation of over a decade of stuff, was moved to the new room on Monday.
I was there the night the Captain approached the School Board, begging for a bigger space for his cadets. My son was a freshman and the entire Corp stood ringed around the meeting room, to give the board a feel for the dedication of these cadets and to show how many there really were. It was an unforgettable sight and the board did vote for a new room that evening. We routinely fit over 150 cadets in their classroom, for short periods of time and it is so beyond overcrowded, it's not funny. A threadbare gray carpet sits on the floor and the room ALWAYS smells of sweaty bodies that have done PT over those 10 or so years. It's so gross. We in the Booster Club hold some of our meetings there and it is never pleasant, but we do what has to be done, as do the cadets. I am glad that is now all in the past and am so looking forward to checking out the new digs for myself tonight.

They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot

I was watching a program today about Phoenix, Arizona that was an in-depth study of the urban sprawl in that city. It was quite a fascinating show and it highlighted many things I saw just last week, when I was visiting their town. One of the things that they have come up with is not to just bulldoze down all those beautiful cacti and native plants on the land, but to first pick out what parts they want to buy, to save for future generations. Then allow development on the remainder. They mentioned keeping streams in their natural condition, instead of cutting and filling the land. Basically the reverse of what happens normally.* I know to a certain extent this is what my City is trying to accomplish, but not in quite an organized fashion. We have bought large chunks of land around the Newhall Pass area, to preserve and enjoy, but I am not sure we are quite so proactive with the current developments. In our case, I know there is so much more involved then just what I have stated, so it is not the City's fault. But it was nice to see a show that had a positive spin on it for once and I hope this is the start of a trend.
Our environment and our people could use it.

*A quote from the show itself:
"If I had a magic wand. . .that would be an entire region with an open-space network that was designed, designed as carefully as the sewer system, or the street system, or any building. It would be a connective tissue. It wouldn't just be that we bought this chunk, or we bought that chunk, or somebody hadn't used this piece of land. We would design it."
--Vern Swaback, Architect

The Black Dagger Brotherhood

As I have mentioned before, I hang out occasionally at Suzanne Brockmann's website. One of the things I have learned over the year or so I have read the posts there, is that Suzanne and her readers are not shy about mentioning other authors and books. One that got extensive hype was J.R. Ward's 4th installment of The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lover Revealed. I ignored them and didn't think anything of it. Then an April trip to Walmart in Las Vegas brought me face to face with the book. I looked at it and took the leap...and what a leap it was. Vampires, Scribe Virgins, Lessers and The Omega all turn up in the book. A new world totally made up by author J.R. Ward (Jessica Bird). I was coming in on the 4th book, which wasn't the place to pick up the story, but I persevered and enjoyed the book. Now most people would immediately go out and get the other three, but NOOOOO...I didn't for some unknown reason. Several months have passed and the next book is due to come out on the 25th of this month and the hype begins again. Well this time I said to myself, I had better get myself in gear and read those first three books, cause you KNOW I am going to read this new one, when it appears in bookstores. So I picked up the first one and just finished it. The series makes much more sense to me now and I am extremely glad I bought the books. J.R. Ward is an exciting author who writes a spellbinding tale with plenty of erotic moments to keep this romance reader quite entertained. I recommend them highly. You do need to suspend belief a bit, as you would do reading a Harry Potter book, but it is so worth the trip.

In order:
Dark Lover - Wrath's Story
Lover Eternal - Rhage's Story
Lover Awakened - Zsadist's Story
Lover Revealed - Butch's Story
Lover Unbound - Vishous' Story

To Land or Not To Land...That Is The Question

A Saturday class today, due to my son working the parking lot at the Malibu Triathilon this Sunday. So it is late, 2PM, when we get there and this is the 4th lesson the teacher has taught today. He looks just a tiny bit tired of flying, but he braves on. Off they go to do their thing and I am, as usual, left doing work. I finish my work early, for the 2nd week in a row (yay me) and head out of the hanger to see what's happening. Watch stuff going on for about 10 minutes. Then a jet takes off from runway 16 right, no biggie and I believe I even took a picture of his take off, cause they are totally so cool. Well happening right next to him on runway 16 left is a plane that was coming in for a landing and gets close, but does not actually land. Not what I am accustomed to seeing and I even took a picture of the 2 planes leaving the airport area, cause it was so unusual. My thought was, "Why is this plane not landing, it has its wheels always down, I just don't understand". As it does pass me by, I see by the tail number that it is my son and his teacher. The plane looks ok so I go back to walking around and taking pictures. Next go round they come in and land normally. When they get to me, I ask, "So what was going on with that last pass?" The teacher then explains that they got waved off by Van Nuys Tower, because they can't have a landing and take off at the exact same time. They don't use as much fuel as the jet does, so they got the wave off. The upshoot of the entire thing is I had to pay more money for the lesson, but my son learned something new, so I guess it's OK.