Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike ride was the somewhat notorious “Mountain Lion Ride“. This is the one that goes way up the hill in La Crescenta, where they have signs warning that lions have been seen in the area. And because of that, we always try to maintain a brisk pace, which is difficult when going up a 20% grade. Also, we wanted to tour the mud and debris flows that had come down Ocean View Blvd in La Cañada yesterday.

It was chilly, but clear and sunny today. So it was pretty good for riding. We headed out, up into Altadena and then across to La Cañada. Then we started up the hills. When we got close to Ocean View Blvd, we started to see a lot of mud on the street, and occasional basketball-sized rocks. A lot of the houses had sandbags and K-rails in front of them. When we got to Ocean View, it was obvious that something had happened there. There was mud all around, even though a lot of it had already been cleaned up. There were trucks and earthmoving equipment heading up the hill, and there was a pile of random debris. Tree trunks and rocks piled up.

We headed down the hill and then took a shortcut across the wash on a pedestrian bridge. That brought us out in La Crescenta, where we started back up the hill. There wasn’t much mud there, but there were a lot of small rocks on the road, and it was still obvious that great quantities of water had been flowing down the streets yesterday. We rode all the way to the top of Pine Glen Road, which we refer to as “Mountain Lion Hill”, since that’s where they have the ‘Beware of lion’ sign. Then we came down Pine Cone Road, which ends at the Genofile house, which was the subject of one of the stories in John McPhee’s The Control of Nature.

From there, we rode west some more, into Tujunga. Then turned south, passing the Hobbit House and making a loop through the flat part of Tujunga. That was where I got a flat.

After fixing the flat, we rode down through Montrose and up Hospital Hill to Goldstein’s Bagels. We sat at a table in the sun, and it was very pleasant. Then we rode back to the park. It was a nice ride, although a bit more climbing than we usually do.

41 miles.
cycling

Today was a random day off for Pasadena schools. For the past two years, Lucinda and I have made a tradition of going to Disneyland on these random days off. Since most other schools aren’t off, the parks tend not to be very crowded. But this time, our friend who works at Disneyland is off on family leave with his new baby, so he wasn’t available to let us in. So we decided to try something different and go to Universal Studios. I haven’t been there since 1996, and Lucinda has only been there once before. So we got her friend Kymber and the three of us went there today.

The school schedule dictated when we had to go, and the fact that it started raining today wasn’t going to stop us. It was cold and wet there, and we got pretty soaked walking around in the rain. But we still had a fun time. A lot of the rides are indoors anyway, so those gave us a chance to get in out of the rain for a bit. We rode the Simpsons ride twice, and eight times on the Mummy ride. In the afternoon, they opened the Jurassic Park ride, and we rode that one three times. Well, actually, Kymber and I rode it three times. Lucinda didn’t come the first time. But we dragged her along for the second time, and she decided she liked it enough that we all went around for a third time. This was the upside of the rain and cold. There were no lines for anything today. We just walked up and got on.

So even with the wet and cold, it was a fun day. The rest of the pictures are in Lucinda’s photo album.

This evening, Kathleen and I met up to go hiking with the Tuesday evening hiking group in Griffith Park. I’ve gone hiking a lot with them over the last two years. And since Griffith Park is about halfway between my house in Pasadena and her house out in the Valley, it seemed like a good weeknight date.

The group meets at the parking lot by the Merry-Go-Round, and it’s usually just us hikers there. But tonight there was some filming going on nearby, and the parking lot was filled with dressing room, prop, and food trucks. And there were a bunch of NYPD police cars parked there. So I guess it was a movie or TV show set in New York. Still not quite as weird as when I saw the New Jersey Transit commuter train at Union Station in downtown L.A.

This evening’s hike was the ‘easy’ one. Rolling hills on a fire road, ending with a short but steep stair climb up to Amir’s Garden. After doing the U.S. Bank Tower last fall, I’m not intimidated by stairs, but most everyone was panting on the way up. At the top we had a short rest and looked at the city lights. Then we headed back down by way of a fire road.

It was a nice evening.

Ever wonder what it would look like if the pan of muffins you were taking out of the oven slipped and fell?

Today’s bike ride was the ‘Relatively Flat’ route. This was the first time we’ve done this route since last May. It was a bit colder today than it was back then, but it was still a nice day for riding.

Not much interesting happened along the way. This ride doesn’t go anywhere in particular. We passed the topiary teddy bears in Glendora, and that was about it for weird sights.

Our snack stop was at Merengue in Monrovia. I got an eclair there. It was good, but still not quite as good as the ones at Paradise Bakery in Glendale. But that’s all right.

It was a nice ride.

43 miles.
cycling

It’s winter, and that means it’s time for the egret to make its appearance at the ponds on the Caltech campus. The ponds are stocked with little mosquito fish, and apparently they make a nice fun-size egret snack.

About six months ago, I told Lucinda that when the divorce was finalized we would celebrate by buying another pinball machine. So when it was all done, I went on Ebay and started looking around. And I found this little diamond-in-the-rough. It’s a 1993 Data East “Last Action Hero” game. It was a promotional item for the movie that almost nobody remembers, but it features Arnold Schwarzenegger, aka “Der Governator”. When we turn the machine on, it says, “I’ll be back”. And the camp value of that just defies description.

So today, I rented a pickup truck and Lucinda and I went up to Pacoima to pick it up from the freight company that brought it here from New Jersey. We brought it home and unwrapped it. Then my friend Nick came over and helped carry it inside. We set it up and started playing. There were a couple of minor mechanical problems, but I fixed them, and we had a fun evening with it. It’s going to take us some time to fully understand the game and know how to play it well. But I think we’re going to have some fun with this.

On my way home from work today, I turned a corner and saw a small pile of snow around a light pole. Since as far as I know it hasn’t snowed around here since 1949, this was a strange sight. The last time I saw something like this was when they were filming a scene involving snow up the street from my house. But there was no sign of any filming, so it’s just a very small mystery.

Today’s bike ride was a sightseeing trip in to the Hollywood Hills to see the former Lookout Mountain Air Force Station. This was a small film studio run by the military during the Cold War. Since I like to collect Cold War memorabilia, this looked like an interesting piece of history.

It was chilly in the morning, but clear and sunny. There was snow on the mountains. It was the kind of day when they take postcard pictures.

We took the most direct route out there, riding straight down Hollywood Blvd, which is all right early in the morning. I collected a new entry for my collection of amusing signs. There was a crew filming something right in front of the Chinese Theater. Then we turned up Nichols Canyon for the ride up into the hills. That’s where we saw the teepee up on the hillside. That was strange. Coming down into Laurel Canyon, we passed by the former site of Houdini’s house. Then we headed up Lookout Mountain.

The ride up Wonderland Ave was a slog. Only moderately steep, but the hill seemed to go on forever. We passed the site of the 1981 Wonderland Murders, and then I saw a garage door with a fallout shelter sign above it. That was the back entrance to the former studio, which has been converted into a very large house. They had a fence around it, so we couldn’t see too much inside. Just a little peek over and through the fence. It looked like a 1940s-era military building. And it must make a very funky house.

We rode back down Wonderland and then up to Mulholland Dr. On the way, I saw a mailbox that looked like something straight out of thereifixedit.com. We stopped at the Fryman Canyon overlook for water and to take a group picture. Then we headed back down Mulholland Drive. We took a shortcut down Woodrow Wilson Drive at the end, and that’s where we saw the tile house. That was very strange.

Our snack stop was at Priscilla’s. It was still chilly, but we sat in the sun and it was nice. Then we headed home by the most direct route possible, which meant riding up and over a fairly large hill in Glendale. We were all pretty tired from the slog up Wonderland Ave, but we made it. And yes, it was a nice ride.

48 miles.
cycling

I signed up for the ‘Scale the Strat‘ stair climb up the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas. When I did the U.S. Bank tower stair climb last fall, some of the other climbers told me about the Las Vegas event. They said it was fun, and I think it looks like it will be.

It’s a two-part event this time. The first round is on Saturday, with a ‘climb-off’ for the top 50 runners on Sunday. I was in the top 10% at both the U.S. Bank and the Aon Center stair climbs, so I think I have a decent chance of making the cut.

As always, it’s a fundraiser for the Lung Association. It’s a good cause, so if you can, please stop by and make a small donation to them. The page for that is here

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