A moment of calm before D and I set out for our busy but fun day. This is where Dodger and I sit to write and contemplate these days. My studio gets too hot in the summer.
Drove about 100 miles to have lunch out with D’s family, then a bit further south to hang around at their house until it was time to go to Pasadena for an evening birthday party. Dancing!
A pair of quail! On our deck. These two seem to have decided our place is a good hangout.
[What’s up with 43Things? Half the stuff I tried to post last Thursday and Friday went missing.]
D flew in a B-17!
I’d read a little article in the Los Angeles Times last weekend about Wings of Freedom being in Long Beach. They had a little notice that they’d be in Lancaster, just 20 miles from us, this week.
Well, the planes aren’t getting any younger, and the price of running them is rising as fast as gas prices, so I encouraged D to take the ride. We went out Friday afternoon and I was able to walk through it before it took off. A bit too pricey for both of us to do, but this was a dream come true for him, and I was happy to stay on the ground and take photos. The grin on his face when he deplaned was completely worth it!
The B-17 is the one on the right.
My parting shot. One of the big concrete balls in the courtyard of Lancaster Superior Courthouse.
I didn’t even get to the voire dire process. It was an interesting looking case and I actually would have liked to have served, even though I would have had to use my comp and vacation time to do it. It was very emotional at times to listen to the things the jurors had to say about their brushes with crime.
One man actually brought me to tears. He was very unhappy, uncomfortable and ashamed, but said that ultimately he thought that it would take more convincing for him to believe that the defendant was not guilty because of his ethnicity. The prospective juror had been jumped and beaten by a group of African American students in high school. It wasn’t easy for him to admit.
One of the judges came to the jury assembly room and talked to us. He told us that only six countries in the world guarentee their citizens a trail by jury. U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
With all it’s troubles, I’d say that this is a big count in the U.S.’s favor. I’ve been called for jury duty 4 times and have served on one jury. People really do take the responsibility seriously once they are there and try to do their best to do the right thing.
Yup, I’m on jury duty. Nope, I didn’t remember to call in to see if I had to report until Tuesday morning…after I’d driven 45 miles to work. Sigh. So I had to drive all the way back, plus the courthouse is another 20 miles north of my house. Thank goodness I could talk on the phone with my mom the whole way.
I talked to the guards behind the information desk a little during lunch. This building is 3 years old, but it looks brand spanking new. Very nice. But they have to sit in this big glassy lobby and they said it’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Wasn’t built by anyone who knew the extremes of the high desert. It gets as hot as the 120s in the summer and as low as the 20s in the winter.
What's really weird about this court house is it's location in the middle of Joshua tree spiked desert. And the main entrance doesn't face the road! I suppose, given development rates out here, in twenty more years this will make some kind of sense. Right now it just seems like they're making it pretty hard for anyone without a car to get out here and support a family member.
Welcome to L.A. County, which boasts the largest county court system in the United States.
This is the quail that flirts with Dodger from the roof of our garage. Not a great shot, but the one I was compelled to take this day.
Dodger likes his new toy so much that I couldn’t get a shot without blurs. But the little movie I took of him playing turned out well.
Just realized I missed posting Friday’s photo.
This is one of the ground squirrels who lives under our deck. We’ve taken to feeding them Dodger’s leftovers in an attempt to keep them out of the bird feeders.
The reason we call him Hoover should be apparent.
I posted a different photo for this day, but I was looking back, and I really liked this. These two guys were enjoying the afternoon outside of the coffee house. Amazing dreds.
I have this feeling I should know their names.
Not that we saw her or anything, when we pressed our lenses through the fence above Shambala, her animal preseve, but she’s still doing press releases and is performing in an upcoming spoof of The Birds…with Suzanne Pleshette, no less. I was only concerned about this because some one on the train said that Tippi was dead.
We were astonished that our little Kodak digitals got such great shots, all the way from the road above the preserve. This photo isn't cropped, and we were about 100 yards from this fellow. Shambala is only about 5 miles from our house. We must make reservations and take the tour from ground level. Check it out for yourself at www.shambala.org
Okay, here's another thing I heard on the train, but I don't know if it's true. A guy said that the mansion pictured below (taken from Vasquez Rocks--D and I went on Saturday) is owned by Justin Timberlake. He said he knew this because his friend owns the company that installed the copper tubing underneath the driveway...to heat the driveway in case of snow! This is one long driveway, folks.
I stopped on the way home last night and hiked around Vasquez Rocks for about an hour. This park is only about 15 minutes from my house, and I drive right by it every day.
It was overcast and cool yesterday. Really nice hiking weather. I explored for an hour, climbing up high, following trails marked only by the wildflowers that have filled in during the spring rains, cutting between boulders to get back to the parking lot. It's easy to get your bearings because all the rocks point in the same direction. There was some crazy earthquake action here back in the day.
Hiking like this, where there are lots of little side trails and places to go right over the rocks, is good for your mind as well as your body. The time really flew because there was always some new perspective to enjoy.
D and I are planning to go back Saturday morning. He has to see how the green and the flowers. The last time we hiked there it was about 107 degrees and we were pretty beat by the time we finished.
Innocent erosion or weird scary monster footprint? You decide.
Oh, and yes. This is where Kirk fought the Gorm, for all you old school Trekkies out there. (Screen capture is from the Internet, of course!)
One of the coolest production gifts I’ve ever received. I’m already in love with my new toy!I downloaded Bookworm and The Business podcasts from KCRW and listened to interviews with Kurt Vonnegut, Octavia Butler, and Ron Howard on my commmute.
And then! I was able to use the voice recorder function to make note of a thought I had about the book.
As I got out of my car in the morning, ready for a long day of work and then writing group dinner, I noted that I was packing an MP3 player, a cell phone, my laptop computer and my digital camera.
Did I mention that I like tech toys!?
Some of you may have had your fill of flower pix, but I have to explain. I never cared that much about them either until I bought a house with some flowers in the yard. They just pop up! At some point, boom there they are!
There are about a dozen mini roses in each of these little clumps.
This last shot is to give an idea of the scope of the plant. There are also a lot of shorter branches off to the left that haven't bloomed yet. They get more shade, I guess.
Never heard this term before, but it sure applied today. This morning it was fairly clear where I live, but then I dropped down into the fog.
Jeez, look at that skid mark. What do you suppose that jerk was doing?
Um. Taking photographs?
A real live person. Possibly an illegal immigrant. A human being who deserves to be treated decently on the job, which means simple things like being provided with water to drink, a place to take a break out of the sun, a reasonable workday length and toilet facilities.
It seems like documenting immigrant farm workers would make them less vulnerable to unscrupulous employers. We should be watching the employers and demanding that they treat workers in the way any of us would want our kids to be treated if they were hired.
The situation is what it is because we’ve allowed it to continue. I think it’s a good thing that we’re talking about finding solutions.
I have to say, though, that my Day Without an Immigrant involved significantly less traffic. An unitentional side effect.
Traffic was light this morning. What tha?
So I stopped at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf a few blocks from where I work to refresh my supply of their Chai and Carnival Mate.
The counter guy was very friendly. Impressed that I stopped there even though I work above Priscilla’s Coffee House and across from a Starbucks. CBTL has good loose leaf teas. Starbucks and Priscilla’s only carry Tazo in bags.
I did buy a rare cuppa Joe this morning. Mmm. Smooth rich slightly bitter dark roast.
Hmm… I took this for a weekly challenge (this week: photographing body parts), but I didn’t use this one. And it turned out to be the only other one I took yesterday!
I left work early and got home in time to write for about an hour. I really don’t ask a lot of my life, but time to write is really crucial.
Maybe this photo is of me asking for a little help from the universe in getting through this endless, sometimes soul crushing rewriting process. Writing is voluntary manic depression. You have these incredible highs and lows as faith in your story and your ability to tell it waxes and wanes.
