Very very windy and a bit on the chilly side.  A brush fire sprang up in Saugus, but they got it beat down in an hour or so.  I did get to see the super-scooper planes flying by a number of times, along with a bunch of helecopters, so that was kind of cool ( Read more... )

Furtech drove me up to Mulholland yesterday in an attempt to see the space shuttle do its fly-by.  Unfortunately, we got there too late so we didn't see anything.  So he tossed the frisbee around for the dog, then we went to Gelson's.  In addition to my usual deli turkey, I tried one of their fresh-made pizzas.  Not bad-- maybe a little bit too ( Read more... )

I went down there yesterday with a friend, who was taking some estate items to be appraised.  Going all the way down to Long Beach in the middle of the week is generally something to be avoided at all costs due to traffic, but when the show is only certain days, what can you do?  Of course I was too broke to buy anything, but I've always been an ( Read more... )

Forget longer days and warming weather.  The signs of spring here are the peach trees blooming, and the painted lady butterflies start moving through the LA area.  If I'm sitting in the back yard I watch them fly through, always heading in the same direction (north), maybe one or two a minute.  Some years there's tons of them-- this year not so ( Read more... )

Went down to Lake Balboa for a walk today.  Lots of people out despite it being the middle of a weekday-- retired people, housewives or nannies with strollers, joggers and the shiftless or unemployed.  Saw a pair of ring-necked ducks there-- the first I've seen at that place.  4 mute swans.  About a billion coots, and a ton of American Wigeons, ( Read more... )

When I was at Trader Joes the other day there were a bunch of people in the area stumping for Ron Paul, including one guy who was screaming (literally) about the war in Iraq being illegal.  For all I know that could be the case, but I'm just too apathetic at this point to care.  I did entertain the idea of going up to them and congradulate them on ( Read more... )

When I was doing my daily constitutional at the local park I came across no fewer than 6 people hiking with ski poles.  What is up with that?  I find it hard to believe that many people are training for cross-country skiing here.  Is it some new hiking fad, to hike with ski poles?  Are they for protection against dogs, mountain lions or serial ( Read more... )

Some years ago (a lot of years ago, really) Stephen King wrote a novella called Apt Pupil.  Part of the story involves an older teenager in Southern California that becomes a serial killer of homeless men, dispatching them brutally with a kitchen knife.

So, in Los Angeles, there's been a spate of murders (3 so far) of homeless men that were stabbed ( Read more... )

John and Ken (local LA cynical talk show) is talking about the German guy caught setting all those fires.  Apparently his mother is being deported back to Germany....because she did not pay her bill for breast implants!  (John commented on the Germans taking their laws seriously!)  Not only that, but the way she made her living in LA was doing 'hot ( Read more... )

I sent my ants in today to the ant survey thing.  I wasn't sure how to answer when they asked if i had anything 'hazardous' in my mail.  Do dead ants count as hazardous?

At the post office  there was a very chatty woman in line behind me, who apparently just moved to the area and wanted tips on mailing things.  She said she actually saw me getting ( Read more... )