Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Tonight, Leslie and I went to see “Food, Inc“. This is the new documentary about the American food system, how it works, what’s in it, who controls it, and all those unsavory details. Think, “Super Size Me” meets “The Corporation“. Yick. Fortunately, I’d made us a nice home-cooked dinner before we went, since this film has a way of killing one’s appetite. Still, it was a good film, and definitely worth seeing.

I saw today that the Ketchum YMCA in downtown Los Angeles has the registration page up for their annual stair climb up the U.S. Bank tower. This is the tallest building in Los Angeles, tallest west of the Mississippi, and the 9th tallest in the U.S. 1,018 feet tall, 75 stories, 1,500 steps to the top. So you know that I have to try it. After all, I did the AON Tower stair climb back in April, and that was a good time. And I finished 24th out of 327 runners, which I think is pretty good for a first-timer.

I know that this will entail tremendous pain, and it should also be great fun. As they say on the event page, “Elevators are for Wimps”.

Sounds like a great time.

I checked this morning, and the subscriber list for the USGS Earthquake Notification Service passed 150,000 at about 07:34 GMT on Monday morning. This is a momentous occasion. I never imagined that something I invented could be so popular, useful, or entertaining. It’s come a long way from its beginnings as my Pet Project.

Today’s bike ride was a specially modified version of the Turnbull Canyon route with a small detour in Whittier to see an art project dedicated to Nadya Suleman, the so-called “Octomom”. It was on the wall of Gold Mine VW Parts on Pickering St in Whittier.

It promised to be a hot day today. The route down to Whittier was about as direct as I was able to devise. Gene came along for the first part of the ride, before turning off to ride down to Manhattan Beach to see the bike race there today.

There is a clinic in South San Gabriel that seems always to have anti-abortion protesters outside it. But today, there were more of them than I’d ever seen before.

In Pico Rivera, we took a one-block detour to see Dork St. Keira got her picture taken with the sign. Then it was on to Whittier and the Octomom Art Project.

After that, we rode up and over Turnbull Canyon and then headed home by way of La Puente. Our snack stop was in Monrovia at Merengue. They have a lot of odd Cuban things there, and the watermelon soda was one of them. The cartoon picture on the can didn’t look like it could pass muster in current PC America.

From Monrovia, we rode straight home by way of Sierra Madre. It was a nice ride, and we got to take in some weird local culture, too.

43 miles.
cycling

On Saturday afternoon, I had about an hour and a half between dropping off Lucinda and having to be anywhere, so I went for a bike ride. It was hot, but still a nice day.

I rode over to the Rose Bowl, did about two laps, and then headed home by way of Altadena. It was a nice little ride.

20 miles.
cycling

The light in my bathroom stopped working this morning. Which made shaving a bit of an adventure. So I went and got two new fluorescent tubes for the light today. But when I put them in, it still didn’t work. Which meant that the ballast had gone bad. So I went and got a new one and put it in. Back when I was in 9th grade, my parents had me doing electrician’s work in their chemical plant. At the time, I thought that this was a terrible imposition on my time. But now I’m glad that I learned how to do things like that. It’s more than paid for itself over the years in my being able to fix things around the house. And that’s a Good Thing.

Sunday’s bike ride was the classic La Tuna Canyon route. The one with the four-mile uphill stretch that I enjoy so much.

It was a perfect day for riding. We had a group of seven, and we headed out across Pasadena and Eagle Rock. Along the way, I was talking with Keira, and she told me about her ‘bike porn’ web site, pedalphilia.com. You know that that had to get my attention. Sort of like a Reese’s cup, it’s my two favorite things mashed together. So that was fun.

In Burbank, we took a quick side trip to see the pirate ship, since several of the people in the group hadn’t seen it before.

Then it was time for the Main Attraction. The four-mile hill up La Tuna Canyon. Such fun.

Our snack stop was at Goldstein’s Bagels at the top of Hospital Hill. Then it was (mostly) downhill back into Pasadena and back to the park.

When we got back to the park, I realized that I didn’t have anything to do or anywhere to be until dinnertime, so I just kept riding. I rode down to San Marino and San Gabriel, and then out to Arcadia and Duarte. All so that I could say:

70 miles.
cycling

Now it’s been a year and a half since my divorce nightmare began. It’s still not resolved, but aside from that, my life is rebooting very nicely. And you can see this in these pictures from dinners at the Jazz Kitchen from three trips to Disneyland with Lucinda.

The top picture was in January, 2008, when the ordeal was just beginning. I felt cast adrift and all alone in the world. At the time, Lucinda didn’t know yet what was going on, and I felt haunted by the knowledge that she was very soon going to find herself in the eye of a shit-storm.

The middle picture was from August, 2008. Things were much, much better then. I’d had my “George Bailey moment” that turned my life around. It led to my trip to visit Austin last summer. It also led to my relationship with Susan, which was a tremendously great experience, even though it was only for a year.

The bottom picture is from June, 2009, and even though I’d felt pretty good last August, I’m visibly happier here. By any objective measure, my life is actually pretty good now. I feel content and optimistic for the future. And all things considered, I think that’s pretty good .

There is still healing going on, and more to come, but it’s been nowhere near as hard and painful as it was at the start.

Friday night’s adventure was a trip to Cirque Berzerk at Los Angeles State Historic Park. The tent was set up in the middle of a dusty field, which seemed quite appropriate, since the Cirque grew out of an act at Burning Man some years ago.

The show itself was great fun. It sort of defies description, and about the closest I could come is to say that it’s sort of like a mash-up of “Cabaret” with a circus acrobatics show, performed by the Transylvanians from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. They had a live band and singers on a high platform at one end of the stage. They made a big deal about some seats being better than others, but even the far back row was only about 50 feet from the stage. The tent just wasn’t all that big.

There was a small fenced-in area outside the tent with a bar and a stage. The sign said that drinks were not allowed outside the fenced area, but they had a fenced corridor to the tent, so people could bring drinks into the show. The show itself was about an hour and a half, with a 20-minute intermission. There was a band playing in the outdoor bar area after the first show. They said that cameras were not allowed in the show, but I saw a lot of people at least attempting to take pictures. It was pretty dark in the tent, so I doubt that the pictures would have been very good.

It was very weird, and tremendously entertaining. Certainly worth the trip.

It’s the day after the last day of school. What are you going to do?

I’m going to Disneyland!

I took Lucinda and her friend Claire to Disneyland today to start their summer vacation. We did the whole bit, starting with California Adventure, then lunch, and then the rest of the day at Disneyland. We were there for about eight hours, and we rode a lot of rides. And the girls had a good time.

At the end of the day, we were all tired. We had dinner at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney before heading home. It was a very nice day.

As always, all the pictures from the day are in Lucinda’s photo album.

On my way to work this morning, I noticed the bike had picked up a new squeak. It was a very strange squeak. And when I got to the office, as I rode up the little uphill on the driveway, I heard a snap noise, and the bike felt weird. So I stopped to look. And I saw that the joint where the seat tube connects to the bottom bracket had broken. This is a Very Bad Thing. And it’s pretty much the end of the line for my old commuter bike. I’ve had the bike for 18 years, and been riding it to work daily for 14 years. So I figure I’ve gotten good use out of it.

At lunchtime, I rode home very carefully and got my car. Then, after work, I went to Performance Bike and had a look at what I could get that was suitable. I found a Fuji Absolute 2.0 that was a leftover from last year, so it had a clearance price. That was just the ticket. I took it for a test ride, and then brought it home. So I’m back in business for tomorrow.

This afternoon’s adventure was a trip to the Gay Pride Parade and Festival in West Hollywood. This summer marks 40 years since the Stonewall riots, which are regarded as having started the modern gay rights movement. One of my friends did the web site for Christopher Street West, so she had VIP passes for us, along with about a dozen others in her business partner’s entourage.

I was a perfect day for a parade. I got there a bit late, but still saw quite a bit of it. There was a bus with older gay people touting “Gray Pride”. There were also cheerleaders doing stunts. A fire engine was the float for Mickey’s, which recently reopened after a fire. Hence the “flaming gay bar” banner. There was also a big contingent from the Tom of Finland Foundation.

After the parade, we stopped in to Millions of Milkshakes before going in to the festival. There was the pervasive thump of dance music everywhere, and it was very crowded. We walked around the festival for a bit, and I even ran into a few people I know there. Then I had to leave early to get home to pick up Lucinda.

It was a very fun afternoon adventure.

Today’s bike ride was out to Glendora for a snack stop in Old Town there. I picked this one because it’s a little on the short side, and I wanted to get back a little early today.

There wasn’t much remarkable about this ride. It was cool and overcast the whole way. But it was very pleasant.

36 miles.
cycling

Today I saw that Vons had a special on fresh blueberries, and I was suddenly seized with the desire to make a blueberry pie. From scratch, of course. So at lunchtime I walked over and got some berries. Then when I got home, I looked up a recipe and got busy.

I made a basic pie crust from the Joy of Cooking. Then I made the filling and put it all together. It was actually pretty easy. Easier than the apple pies I’ve made before. And it smelled nice when it was baking.

Now it’s sitting in the laundry room cooling. I put it there because that’s the coolest room in the house tonight. I hope it will be cool enough to cut before bedtime.

On Sunday evening, I had dinner with a friend in Marina Del Rey. We were up on the roof, where they have barbecues and tables. I’d never been on the roof of one of the high-rises there, and the view was pretty impressive. And dinner was good, too.

Today’s bike ride was my route that goes up to the Hollywood sign and then down the other side into Burbank. It was a nice day for riding. Cool and overcast, with the sun promising to come out later.

Heading down Eagle Rock Blvd, Scott got a flat. He decided that he didn’t trust his spare tire for the rest of the ride, so he turned back then. Ben and I soldiered on, crossing the L.A. River into Silver Lake, and then across the Shakespeare Bridge into Hollywood.

Turning up Beachwood, the climbing started. Then we turned left and the hill got much steeper. By the time we got to the stop, we were seeing stars. We stopped for a few minutes below the sign to take in the view. Then we rode down the other side to Lake Hollywood. The reservoir level looked pretty low, so I guess that’s why the Department of Water and Power is saying there’s a water shortage.

To get to the road down into Burbank, we had to climb up from Lake Hollywood. This is the hill that I always forget about, until it’s time to ride up it. And then I remember. It’s actually harder than the climb up to the sign.

We stopped for a bagel at Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake before heading back by way of Glendale, Montrose, and Hospital Hill. Then it was (mostly) downhill all the way home. We stopped to look at the house that has the plastic cows on the front lawn. They’ve added a second calf to the herd.

It was a very nice ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today I went down to Long Beach to the Queen Mary for the Ink ‘n’ Iron show. This just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year.

I got there earlier than I have the last few years, which made parking easier. I went inside and commenced wandering around. I saw a lot of familiar faces, and got to visit with old friends. And I even got a new mailbox. There was one booth that was selling mailboxes hand-painted with hot-rod flames. And he had a box-type one, so I just had to get it.

It was a very fun afternoon, even though I had to leave early to go home to pick up Lucinda. And nothing beats a new hot-rod mailbox.

Back in April, the reverse shift cable in my car broke. It turns out that my car is so old that the part is discontinued and is apparently impossible to find. Even the junkyards in Sun Valley didn’t have one. So it appeared to be time for a new car, for the first time since 1990.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I went used this time. Not wanting to deal with typical car salesmen, I went to Carmax. Very easy and simple. The only non-simple part of it was that the car I decided on was at their store in Buena Park, and couldn’t be transferred. So in the end, I had to figure out how to get myself down there to pick it up.

It turned out that Metrolink has a station in Buena Park, not far from the car place. So after work, I took the Gold Line downtown and got on the first Metrolink train going out that way. The Metrolink automated ticket machine was displaying a BSOD. So I had to buy my ticket at the regular window. It was an easy ride. Not very scenic, but pleasant. And when I got there, it was about a half-hour walk. And I bagged my car.

I’m turning 50 this fall. And I know that the stereotypical thing for men my age is to buy a sports car. But I’m embracing middle age. And what could be more middle-aged than a Chevrolet Impala? My mom had a ‘62 Impala when I was a kid. Somehow, when I was very young, I figured out that an impala was an animal, but I always envisioned it as something like a hippopotamus. A great blubbery wallowing beast. Because that was my mom’s car. The new models now are not quite such great lumbering beasts, but they still retain the ‘comfy living room on wheels’ feeling. And I think that’s just fine for my middle age.

Sunday’s bike ride was another classic with no hills to speak of. We rode out to San Dimas to get a bagel at the Bagelry.

Along the way, we saw this abandoned couch.

It was cool and overcast the whole way, and it never really warmed up. The jacaranda trees are in bloom now, and the purple flowers made a nice contrast with the gray day. Still, it was a nice ride.

46 miles.
cycling