Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike club ride was to Claremont, and it was a perfect day for riding. I’d recently arranged so Susan could get a Caltech jersey, so we were twins today. At the start of the ride, I got Silvio to take a picture.

The route was very direct. We just went straight east, passing through Duarte, Azusa and Glendora before turning south a bit and then taking Bonita Ave out to Claremont. There really wasn’t much to it. But we still managed to miss a turn. Still, we found our way there just fine.

When we got to Claremont, we went to 42nd St Bagels. The rest of our group went down the street to Some Crust Bakery. But both are nice. I had a garlic bagel and some orange juice.

The ride back was pleasant. We went by the most direct route, which included the stretch of Gladstone St with the 1% downgrade. That’s always fun.

When we got home, our average was just about 16mph, which is not bad for this distance.

56 miles.
cycling

In today’s obituary pages, Alexander Courage has died at 88. The headline says it all:

Alexander ‘Sandy’ Courage, 88; composer wrote ‘Star Trek’ theme

Apparently, he had a prolific career writing music for movies and TV for over 50 years. But in the geek world, he’s going to always be known for “Star Trek”.

And the eight notes:

The eight-note brass fanfare that Courage wrote to herald the starship Enterprise became one of the most familiar musical signatures in TV history.

“I’d argue that it’s the most famous fanfare in the world,” Burlingame, who teaches film music history at USC, said Thursday.

“It’s been around 42 years — and it’s all around the world — and when you hear those eight notes you immediately think of the Enterprise,” he said.

Read the whole article here: www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-courage30-2008may30,0,1290138.story

Film and TV director Joseph Pevney has died at 96. Bein’ a geek, I immediately recognized his work on the original “Star Trek”. He directed several of my favorite episodes ever: “Amok Time“, “Arena” and “The City on the Edge of Forever“. And of course, he also directed “The Trouble with Tribbles“. So hoist a tribble and take a moment to remember yet another person who helped shape modern geek culture.

www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-pevney29-2008may29,0,2766431.story

This morning’s bike ride was the “Old Glendora” route. A straight ride out to Glendora, with a stop for a snack there. Then a straight ride back. It’s a relatively flat route, which was just the thing for today.

It was cool this morning when we gathered at Victory Park in Pasadena. We started out going south to Temple City, and then turned east on Longden, and we just headed east all the way to Glendora. When we got there, we saw a house with a big collection of weird stuff on the front lawn. I figured that was worth a picture.

In Old Town Glendora, we were going to go to the French bakery there, but when we got there, we saw that it had gotten a “C” grade from their last health department inspection. Since none of us were ever all that crazy about the food there, we decided to try something different. We went back down the block to Classic Coffee, which turned out to be quite good. The food and drinks were good, and the service was good, too. So I changed the route slip for the future. We also got a little chuckle out of the mirror ornament in the car parked next to our table.

The ride back was nice. Just straight west all the way back. We took Sierra Madre Ave across Glendora and Azusa, since it’s open again after being closed for reconstruction for the last couple of years. And we got back to the park by 11:00, which is pretty early for us. But the ride was a little shorter than we usually do, and we were going pretty fast. So it was a fun ride.

38 miles.
cycling

This evening, Susan and I went to see “Heavy Metal in Baghdad“, which is a documentary about Acrassicauda, which is the only known heavy metal band from Iraq. They started some years before the war, and the film included some video of them doing a concert in 2002. They said that in order to get permission for the concert, they had to agree to sing a song praising Saddam Hussein.

The band members said that at first they thought the war and the fall of Saddam would be good for them. But over time, they found that living and playing in a civil war zone was no good. When they did a show in post-Saddam Baghdad, it was in a hotel surrounded by concrete barriers and troops. And the show had to be over by 7:00, so everyone could make it home before curfew. Later, their practice room was blown up by a rocket, and all their instruments were destroyed. Finally, the film followed them as they escaped Iraq to Syria in hopes of finding peace there.

Overall, the film was kind of depressing, but also uplifting. It’s a triumph of the human spirit. Even under the worst circumstances, young men will find ways to rock out and bang their heads.

Today is Friday before Memorial Day, and so we had planned on having a cookout at the office. Who knew a freak storm would blow in and it would be raining? Usually, if it’s after March, this is just not something we have to worry about here in L.A. So nobody could have foreseen this. But the show must go on. We moved the actual serving area inside to the conference room. But the grill was still outside, so I just stood out there in the rain cooking our sausages. It was all right.

Sunday’s ride was the Mt Washington route. We’ve done this one before, and it’s always fun. It was hot today, so this seemed like a good choice.

Before we even left the park, there was a sudden, loud hissing noise, and Silvio’s front tire went flat. So he had to fix it before we could even start the ride. But this turned out to be a good thing. Jon was a couple minutes late to the start, so we were still there when he pulled up.

We started out heading up into La Cañada, and then down Hospital Hill, and down Verdugo all the way through Glendale. Then we took a detour to cross the L.A. River and go down Riverside Drive. There’s no real reason for this diversion, but it turns a 36-mile route into a 39-mile route.

The ride up Mt Washington is nice, especially since they repaved the road. So it’s a fun climb. Just look how Susan is smiling in the picture. Or perhaps that was because we were within sight of the top. When we got to the top, we stopped in the shade in front of the Self-Realization Fellowship gates. Then we headed down the other side.

At the bottom, we turned to head into Highland Park, with another short detour to Eldred Street, which is reputed to be the second-steepest street in Los Angeles. But we didn’t see any bighorn sheep there.

Our snack stop was at Kaldi’s in South Pasadena, which has a nice shady spot for the tables outside. And after that, we rode across San Marino and then back up to Victory Park.

It was a nice ride.

39 miles.
cycling

On Saturday afternoon, Susan and I went to the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena. I’d been wanting to go there for some time, and they were having an exhibit called “Chinaman’s Chance” about the Chinese immigrant experience. As it turned out, there wasn’t much to the Chinese exhibit. It was three artists whose art reflected their views of straddling the cultural divide. It was amusing, but not very filling.

The rest of the museum was nice, though. There was an exhibit of ceramics from China, along with other artifacts. One of the artifacts was a chair dating from the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644. When I read the card, my first thought was, “that’s one old chair.”

Today’s ride was out to La Verne. It seems that when we go there, it’s either very hot or very cold. Keeping with that tradition, today was very hot. The bank thermometer in San Dimas said 95 at 10:00 in the morning, and my back porch thermometer read an even 100 when we finished the ride.

The ride started at Live Oak Park in Temple City, which is a nice seven-mile mostly-downhill ride from my house. From there, we headed straight east, mostly by the flattest route, which was nice on a day like today. On last Sunday’s ride, we’d passed by Random Lane in Duarte on the way back, so I made a point today to stop for a picture.

When we got to La Verne, some of the riders wanted to eat a full breakfast at a restaurant. The rest of us went down the street to Coffeeberry, which has a nicely shaded patio. We had iced tea, iced coffee, and juices there. There was also a rock shop next door with some nice fossils on display in the window.

After the stop, we headed back. The route back was down through Bonelli Park, but by way of the bike path around the lake, so it avoided all the hills in the park. Again, this was nice on a day like today. We saw people jet-skiing on the lake, and a lot of people walking in a fund-raiser for cystic fibrosis. Then we got on Cypress St and rode all the way back to Irwindale. At that point, we left the official route and headed for home by way of Santa Fe Dam and the bike trail there. We stopped at Encanto Park in Duarte to get water and sit in the shade for a bit. We also met another rider who was on his way from Anaheim to Santa Clarita, which is a fairly ambitious ride on any day, even if it’s not 100 degrees. We helped him out a bit with some pointers on the route to take, and also where to stop for water.

It was a nice ride, even if it was very hot.

58 miles.
cycling

On Friday night, Susan and I went to Griffith park to do one of the evening hikes. Tonight’s was up Glendale Peak, which is one of the small mountains in the park. I’ve done this one before, but it’s a pleasant hike. And it’s also a good way for us to get some weight-bearing exercise.

On the way to the start of the hike, we saw a lone coyote hanging around in one of the parking lots in the park. On the way up, we saw a small frog in a little puddle on the side of the trail. And a bit later, we saw a couple of deer running around just above us on the hill.

By the time we were close to the top, it was dusk, and so we got a picture with the city lights and Griffith Observatory in the background.

The trip down was nice, since it was cooling off by then. And the nearly-full moon was plenty of light to see by.

It was a fun evening.

This evening, I went to another cooking class at Chez Cherie. I’ve done a few of these before. They’re always fun, and they give me some new ideas and recipes to bring home to my kitchen. Even though I don’t really have a family to cook for right now, it’s always good to know how to cook good food.

Tonight’s class was “Weeknight Meals”, which means recipes that can be done quickly, but which are still tasty and good. We got a handout with the recipes, and we got to see each of them prepared. And the preparation was complete with running commentary from Cherie, who is very entertaining. At the end, we got to sample each of the dishes, and they were all quite good.

It was a fun evening out.

This afternoon, Susan and I went to the California Science Center to see the third “Body Worlds” exhibit and also the IMAX movie “Sea Monsters 3-D“.

The body exhibit had a theme of the heart and circulatory system. It was interesting to see, although a lot of the plastinated bodies were really just basically pieces of art, showing how the body works inside. Still, it was interesting.

The IMAX movie was great fun, chock-full of gratuitous 3-D effects. There were prehistoric sea reptiles swimming out of the screen and right into our faces. We had a fun time.

Today’s ride was a variation on one of Gene’s routes. I modified it slightly to avoid a couple of hills and also to avoid riding on Peck Road. I called it “A Relatively Flat Ride“.

We started out from Victory Park in Pasadena and headed east. We took the low road through Arcadia to Monrovia, and then rode around the small hill on Lemon Ave. Then we took the bike path and then Royal Oaks out to Duarte, where we got on the San Gabriel River bike path. We rode up to the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, where we turned around and headed back down. Then it was east again out to Glendora along the side of the 210 freeway. When we got to Glendora Ave, we turned south, which was nice, since it was slightly downhill all the way to Cypress St, where we turned west. From there, it was still slightly downhill all the way back to Irwindale. Then we went north into the Santa Fe Dam recreation area. There was a small uphill to get over the dam, and then we were back on the bike path. We took that back to Duarte.

We took Duarte Road back to Myrtle Ave in Monrovia, where we turned north. This took us up into Old Town Monrovia. That was where we saw the vanity license plate slightly altered to say “GOT GAS?”. They used some white something on the “P” at the end to make a question mark.

Our snack stop was at Planet Cookies in Monrovia. After that, we headed straight back to Arcadia, and then up into Sierra Madre and Grand View Ave, which was the only real hill on the ride. Then it was straight back across Sierra Madre to the park.

At the end, the sun was starting to peek through the clouds, so it was a nice finish to the ride.

44 miles.
cycling

Today’s club ride was the “Montrose Madness” route. This is another pleasant ride that doesn’t go anywhere in particular, but manages to go up and down a lot of hills in the process. It was cool and overcast today, with a little bit of light mist near the mountains. In fact, it was cold enough that when I left my house, I only got two blocks away before I had to go back to get my jacket.

We met at Michillinda Park in Arcadia and set out. We rode back up into Pasadena, passing right by my house. Then it was up into Altadena and on into La Cañada. Then down Hospital Hill into Montrose, and around a loop there to end up down in Glendale.

We took Glenoaks up and over a short, steep hill to get to Chevy Chase, and then up the hill. About half-way up the hill, we stopped for the official snack stop at a little convenience store near the golf course. While we were sitting there, we saw Charley riding by. He had somehow gotten ahead of the rest of the group, and he didn’t stop. We figured that we’d catch up to him later. I also had Silvio take a picture of me with Susan while we were sitting there.

Continuing on up, we got to the top of the hill in La Cañada. We took a short rest there, and then headed down the other side. We took Highland back to the freeway, and then crossed over to get on Oak Grove, which brought us back into Pasadena. By the time we were going down Allen, Silvio and I turned off to go home. We both live close to there, and we didn’t feel like riding all the way back to the park in Arcadia just to ride back up the hill to Pasadena.

It was a pleasant, if slightly chilly ride.

40 miles.
cycling

Todays’ L.A. Times obituary page has the story of Ted Key. The headline says that he created the cartoon character Hazel, but I’ll remember him as the creator of Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

As always, we have to acknowledge the contributions of those who made major contributions to our culture.

Today’s ride was down to Griffith Park and then up and over Mt Hollywood, with a short sightseeing stop at Griffith Observatory. It was cool and overcast in the morning, and it never really did warm up.

We rode down through South Pasadena and Highland Park, passing Chicken Boy along the way. Then up Riverside Dr towards Griffith Park, where we headed up the hill to the Observatory.

At the observatory, we stopped to regroup. Susan and I were matching in our Foothill Cycle jerseys today, so we took a souvenir picture in front of the Hollywood sign. Then we all headed on up the road to the top of the hill. We stopped to look at the view for a minute, and then we headed down the other side. On the way down, there was a big tree that fell on the road, as well as lots of potholes, sand, and so forth. It’s a nice descent, but you have to pay attention. And when I got to the bottom, my back brake cable was feeling weird, like it was about to break. This was not a Good Sign.

Riding by Forest Lawn, we saw the City of Angels Fun Ride pass by going the other way. Then we stopped at Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake for the requisite bagels, orange juice, and so forth.

The route home was supposed to go up Linda Vista and down Lida to the Rose Bowl. But with my gimpy brake cable, I thought it might be better to not have any big downhills on the way. So we came back by way of Eagle Rock, where I saw a nice abandoned couch on Yosemite Dr. Then we headed up the Colorado St hill and back to Pasadena.

It was a nice ride, although I need to visit the bike shop to get a new brake cable.

44 miles.
cycling

After the bike ride this morning, Susan and I went to the JPL Open House. Bein’ nerds and all, this was great fun.

We saw models of the three generations of Mars rovers, from the tiny Sojourner to the current Spirit and Opportunity rovers, and the relatively huge Mars Science Laboratory rover. They also had photos of Mars in 3-D. They gave all of us anaglyph 3-D glasses to use for viewing these.

We got our picture taken with the Sergeant missile. We also had a laugh at the “Rover Xing” signs. One building had a small exhibit of art projected on blocks of aerogel. And outside they had a rover demonstration where the rover drove over kids lying on the ground.

Finally, we got our picture taken in 3-D on Mars. It was a fun afternoon.

Today’s ride was the Around Puddingstone Reservoir route.

It was a perfect day for riding. We had a big group today. Steve said something like, “we have a lot of people to drop today” or something like that. The Saturday rides go that way. We start out with a big group, and then it breaks up into smaller groups who go at different paces.

We headed out from Live Oak Park and got on the Rio Hondo bike path for a short time. Then we took Lower Azusa Road east some more before going south a bit. Then we took Badillo St all the way out to San Dimas. There, we turned south on San Dimas Ave. All of us except for Steve and Susan, who missed the turn and rode off into the distance. I went and looked for them, but they were out of sight, so I figured they’d take another street south and meet us by the L.A. County Fairgrounds. So I rode back and followed the route around the reservoir to the point where we would have met up again, and we waited there. A few minutes later, they came down the street. They had realized that they’d missed the turn, so they doubled back and followed the route to where we were waiting.

From there, we took a ’shortcut’ past Brackett Field and into the park. It’s shorter, but a bit steep in places. We had to go around a few fences, but we got to see some nice flowers blooming, which was nice. Then we got on Via Verde for the ride through the park and on into West Covina. That was where we caught up with Charley, who’d left about a half-hour before us.

Our snack stop was in Baldwin Park. Most people just had coffee or some other drink, but some of us had lunch. Susan and I both ordered food, since we were planning on going to the JPL Open House later in the afternoon. We figured that we had to have lunch somewhere, so it might as well be there.

After the stop, we headed back home. When we got back to Pasadena, Susan got a flat. This marks her first appearance in the Flat Tire Gallery, so it was an auspicious occasion.

It was a fun ride.

55 miles.
cycling

Some people have been asking for more detail on that heavily-redacted party report:

On Saturday night, Oh come and I went to a on party at you don’t in North Hollywood. really expect me to put the real these events, and she text in here so you can highlight it and read it. Do you?.

We socialized some, and I introduced La!La! to all my friends there. Later, we went I can’t hear you! It’s a secret. I’m not telling. and Nope. Still not a bit. When we telling. After all, what’s life without shoesa little mystery? Huh? looked Heh heh.

It was a very fun time.