Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today at lunchtime I rode my bike over to the old Kresge Lab in the San Rafael hills in Pasadena. This is the old seismo lab, and I’d heard that there are deer that graze on the property. So I wanted to take a look. When I got there, I could see lots of trails up and down the hills, and lots of little hoof prints on the trails, but no actual deer. Still, it was interesting to see the place again.
 
And just to prove that there are deer there, here are some pictures of them that my friend Anthony took yesterday: www.gps.caltech.edu/~aguarino/

Later on in the day, I had to fix one of the computers, and while it was self-testing I had a look in the Media Room. The Parkfield earthquake last week had made for a busy time here, and there were still signs of all the activity.
 

Today’s ride was through Highland Park and Los Feliz to Griffith Park. Then we rode up past the Greek Theater and over Mt Hollywood Drive until we came out by Travel Town. We had a snack stop at Priscilla’s in Burbank before coming home through Glendale and La Canada, complete with the climb up Hospital Hill. The main ride was 45 miles, and I did a short 10-mile warmup before the ride, so the day’s total was 55 miles.

We went to the latest opening party at The Underground Arts Society in Altadena this evening. The featured artist this month is Susanna Eggli, and she works with bones, shells, and other such odd items. She had pieces with crab claws and fish heads, and a whole series with what looked like rat skulls. It was interesting and amusing.

Being a transplant from Back East, it took me several years to get used to the idea that citrus fruit just grows on trees in peoples’ back yards here. I’ve accepted this. But this evening, I needed a lemon from our neighbor’s tree, and I saw these weird-looking mutant lemons growing on it. You won’t find these for sale in the produce section:
 

After pestering Gene for several weeks, he agreed to do the La Tuna Canyon ride again. So today was the day. We had a big group going out. 13 at the start. We had a lot of stops to regroup when people missed turns or took wrong turns. Still, the climb was fun, and it was a good day for it. The snack stop was a Paradise Bakery in Glendale, where I had two chocolate eclairs and a quart of water. When we got back to the park, I had 46.5 miles, so my neighbor James and I rode just a little bit more to push the total over 50 for the day.

Today’s ride was a pleasant flat one. We went south through Arcadia and Temple City to near Whittier Narrows. Then back north through San Gabriel. The snack stop was at Il Fornaio in Old Town. After that, we came home by way of Arroyo and Altadena Drive. 40 miles.

The Wartime President Song:

www.jenpet.com/warprez.html

Went riding with Foothill again today. This time, I did a short warmup ride beforehand, so I got in 10 miles before the real ride started. Then we did a ride out through Irwindale and down the San Gabriel River bike path. The way back went through El Monte, Arcadia, and San Marino. The snack stop was at the Coffee Bean on South Lake Avenue. When we got back to the park, I had 48 miles. So I rode just a little bit more before going home, just to get to 50. This is the first time in years that I’ve seen this:

Today’s ride was the ‘Toluca Lake Inverse’. This went through South Pasadena and Highland Park to Griffith Park. Then we rode past the L.A. Zoo, Travel Town, and Forest Lawn to our snack stop at Priscilla’s in Burbank. Then we came back through Glendale and La Canada, including riding up the infamous ‘Hospital Hill’ on Verdugo Blvd. I got a flat on the way out. I put on the spare tube, which turned out to have a slow leak, but I was able to make it the rest of the way and only had to stop to pump once. 42 miles.

Today we went to the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. In the American history hall, they had a small exhibit about transportation, including a license badge for cars produced under the Selden automobile patent. This patent was taken out in 1895 by George Selden, and it covered the automobile. He never built a working model, and he had no intention of going into the automobile manufacturing business, but he knew other people would be in years to come. So he got this patent and then proceeded to shake down the car makers for license fees. For some years, they paid, until Henry Ford challenged it in court. In the end, the patent was ruled invalid, since it was basically just a form of legal extortion. But it’s a lot like the current SCO case against Linux.

Later on, we were in a different part of the museum, and I saw a display of a stuffed hawk that, sadly, didn’t look very lifelike. The cobwebs sort of gave it away.




Still, it was a fun day, and Lucinda had fun. Pictures in her photo album.