Stan’s Obligatory Blog

After work this evening, I had a little free time before the main part of my evening began, so I went for a short bike ride. I did my usual route down through San Marino and then up the water tower hill in South Pasadena. Then up to the Rose Bowl. I rode around the Bowl two or three times before it was time to head home to get cleaned up. Then I took my usual route home through Altadena. It was a weird day. The sunlight and the sky were reddish, like there’s a big brushfire somewhere far away. It made everything look strange, but there was not smoke smell, so it was fine for riding.

26 miles.
cycling

…but I’m sure that’s the idea.

And it’s also kind of hot. Which I guess was also the idea.

Today’s bike ride was an old favorite. Out to Glendora for a snack at Classic Coffee in Old Town. We also decided to take a little side trip to see Rubel’s Castle.

It was a perfect day for riding. We started out from the park, and we saw a nice abandoned couch on Sierra Madre Blvd. Then we continued on out through Arcadia and Temple City to Irwindale. We saw the topiary teddy bears along the way. We also saw the original hot rod mailbox.

We stopped for our snack at Classic Coffee, and then we headed up the hill to Rubel’s Castle.

The route back was the standard route through Monrovia and Arcadia. When we got back to the park, I had 37 miles and nothing pressing to do. So I kept riding. I rode down to South Pasadena with Jon, and then I headed up Arroyo to the Rose Bowl. I went around once and then went up the hill to collect the hot rod mailbox I’d seen last week. Then home through Altadena.

It was a nice little ride.

60 miles.
cycling

I went riding this evening after work, but there are no pictures. About five miles out, I realized that I’d left the camera on top of the filing cabinet by the back door. D’oh!

I rode down to the Rose Bowl to meet up with some other riders, but on the way there, I saw smoke from a brush fire over the hills behind the Bowl. So as it turned out, Verna was the only one who showed, since the others she had talked to had decided not to go after seeing the smoke. So we rode around a few times. The north end of the loop was kind of smoky, so it wasn’t good for riding hard. We tried going up Lida, but the smoke was thicker up there, so we bailed and headed back. Along the way, we passed another hot-rod mailbox in the neighborhood there. And I was very disappointed that I’d forgotten the camera. So we’ll have to go back to get a picture for my collection.

After a few laps, the smoke was getting thicker, so I bailed and headed home by way of South Pasadena and San Marino. There was no smoke there, and the ride home was fairly pleasant.

So it was an all right ride, but not especially good.

31 miles.
cycling

Automated systems can be pretty stupid sometimes. There is some earthquake activity going on in the Gulf of California right now, and it’s generating a fair number of messages through the Earthquake Notification Service (aka, “My Pet Project“). In the messages, it gives the location of the earthquake relative to some local landmarks and cities in the area. And now I’m getting back nasty messages from various mail systems like this:

This email has violated the RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.
and Quarantine entire message has been taken on 8/4/2009 2:33:29 PM.
Message details:
Sender: ens@usgs.gov;
Recipient: redacted
Subject: 2009-08-03 18:40:50 REVISED: (Mw 6.2) GULF OF CALIFORNIA
29.4 -113.7

Or this:

A message sent from “ens@usgs.gov” to “redacted” with a subject of “2009-08-03 18:40:50 REVISED: (Mw 6.2) GULF OF CALIFORNIA 29.4 -113.7″ has been blocked as it contains profane language.

All this because the earthquake happened to be near the town of Guerrero Negro.

I haven’t seen anything like this since the last time we had a big earthquake near the Virgin Islands.

Last year I went to the Los Angeles County Fair, and at the time, Susan and I hatched plans to enter my perfect blueberry muffins in the fair this year. Susan is out of the picture now, but the fair is coming up. So I decided to still put the plan into action. And I’ve even improved the recipe a bit since last year.

The contest rules don’t specify that the recipe has to be completely original, but I didn’t want to enter a recipe that I didn’t make up myself. The only exception here is the black walnut bread. That’s my grandmother’s recipe. I’ve never seen it anywhere else, but I didn’t make it up, either. The blueberry muffins and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my recipes that I’ve developed right here in my own kitchen.

I think this will be an interesting adventure.

I’ve long been a fan of Sandra Tsing Loh. We have a number of common threads in our lives, starting with being mixed Chinese and German to having physics degrees from major universities to having spent time working at Hughes Aircraft back in the ’80s. And now we have another – Sandra Tsing Loh is getting divorced.

This is rather disturbing to me, but from reading her article, it sounds like she’s accepted the idea that she’s just not interested in being married any more. And I don’t get the impression that she thinks that it’s somehow all her husband’s fault. Which is a good thing.

That said, I’m looking forward to the day when this whole divorce thing can just be a distant memory. Just a speck in the rear-view-mirror of life.

Today’s bike ride was an old favorite of mine. Down to Hollywood, then up the hill to Griffith Observatory, and then over Mt. Hollywood to Burbank and the Valley. This was the first time we’ve done this route since last year.

In Los Feliz, we saw a house with an unusual roofing pattern. Then we headed up the hill into the park. At the observatory, I saw solar-powered Botts Dots. I also got my picture taken with the great astronomers.

Heading over the hill into the Valley, we got to enjoy a nice winding downhill. I got some good action shots of Don and John coming down the hill. Then we went to Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake for bagels.

Coming home, we rode across Glendale and then up and over the stupidly steep little hill on Glenoaks before the long grind up Chevy Chase and Linda Vista. Then the nice sweeping downhill to the Rose Bowl, and then back to the park on Orange Grove.

It was a very nice ride.

45 miles.
cycling

Saturday night we went out to one of those redacted parties. You know. The ones that are great fun, but Not Safe For Work, so therefore I don’t write about them in detail here. And this one is no exception. But boy was it fun. Everyone I know was there, and we had a nice time socializing before heading off to ‘dance’ as it were. It was a fun night.

Now I’m going to write some more random stuff just to fill out the post with a bit more black. I think that’s what it needs, right? It just doesn’t look like so much fun if the black is just a small area. So I need to put in more blather here. Since, well, you know, this is just a tease. But if you want to know the real story, come bike riding with me. It’s really a very entertaining story. It’s what has saved my soul through this whole spirit-crushing divorce drama. And it’s the reason I don’t hate Texas any more.

Saw this on Violet Blue.