Stan’s Obligatory Blog

This afternoon, I went to Downtown Los Angeles to meet my friends Kathleen and Richard and Kathleen’s daughter Jenny. I used to work with Kathleen at Hughes Aircraft back in the late 1980s. At the time, I remember her saying that I’d have to meet Jenny some time, because she thought we’d be friends.

So yes, I like Jenny a lot. We’re a lot alike in many ways. I once taught her how to pick locks for fun. We used to go to the astronomy club together when she was in high school. I’ve known her now for something like 15 years, and she’s gone from being a little kid to being an actual adult. She lives in London now, sharing an apartment with her boyfriend. She was back in L.A. just for this week, so it was a treat to get to see her again.

Today’s weather forecast was grim, at least by Los Angeles standards. Chilly and wet, with the chance of rain increasing throughout the day.

So I went down to the park to see if anyone else was going to ride. When I got there, Michael was ready to go, so we decided to head up to Montrose. As we started out, Jon came down the road, so there were three of us for the ride.

We started out heading up to La Cañada. We took a little detour up Chevy Chase to Figueroa, then down Linda Vista and back up Chevy Chase, so we got in two big hills. Then we headed down Hospital Hill into Montrose.

Along the way, Jon told me about how they had recently filmed a scene for CSI in his living room. Apparently, a location scout had liked his house and asked if they could use it. This has no bearing on the ride, but it’s just a sample of how along-the-ride smalltalk is just different here in L.A.

When we were riding through Montrose, we noticed that we’d lost Jon. So we stopped, and about a minute later he came down the road. He said that he had to stop when he looked down and saw a dead bird lodged in his crankset. He had no idea how it got there, but he had to stop and remove it. I told him that if that ever happens again to be sure to call me so I can take a picture.

After passing through Montrose, we continued on into Tujunga. The weather seemed to be holding, so we decided to head over La Tuna Canyon. It got kind of cold during the four-mile downhill, but it was all right.

At the bottom in Sunland, we took a right on Sunland Blvd and headed up towards the mountains and Foothill Blvd. This was where we saw a road-killed dog. I didn’t take a picture because it was actually a very disturbing image. Its end was obviously violent, as it was torn in two.

We had a brief stop at a Starbuck’s in Sunland. I had a somewhat-dry bagel and some orange juice. Then we continued on back towards Tujunga.

I had to stop for a brief photo-op at Stan’s Liquor. I always make a note of any business that has my name on it. I also had to take a picture of the sign for the Poo Ping Restaurant. It was about now that we started to notice a few raindrops. It was also getting colder. We decided that we probably should just head straight home and not stop any more.

We took Foothill all the way back to La Cañada, then went back down past Descanso Gardens. At the bottom of the hill, we all split up to go our respective ways home. I took the standard route back on Woodbury Road. I stopped briefly to snap a picture of the towers on top of Mt. Wilson shrouded in clouds.

When I got home, I had a hot shower to bring my numb toes back. Despite the cold and wet, it was a nice ride.

43 miles
cycling