Friday, September 30, 2005

Timing really is everything.

I'm off to an out-of-state wedding. I'd been bitching about having to go (not so much the wedding - more that I really hate flying), but now it's starting to seem like a great idea to get out of town for the weekend.

The air in Los Angeles is about 45% smoke today (there's a layer of ash on my car right now), it's hotter than hell, and the sky is a really gross color.

Hopefully, this fire will be out by the time I get back on Sunday night, and no one in or near the burn areas will lose homes, pets or loved ones.

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Fun things to do with idle days....

In Los Angeles any fruit which is accessible from a public area (sidewalk, parking lot, etc), and can be picked without trespassing is, by law, public property.

Fallen Fruit is a website which maps locations of publicly available fruit.

Since I'm not working today, I'm off to pick some free avocados!

Monday, September 26, 2005

I'd like your finest fried food, please

Saturday was a girls' trip to the LA County Fair!

I hopped in the car with a few friends and we headed out to Pomona (drive 10 miles past east bumfuck and make a left). We got to the fair about 11 am, and it took us a full hour to get from the car through the ticket lines and into the fair itself.

The LA County Fair was enormous. It had to be over a mile from one end to the other, and the trams were too crowded (and the line for the chair lift was too long), so we ended up walking all day.

The midway was colorful, but I skipped the rides - a few years ago, I worked on a commercial with a bunch of carnies and they scared me so bad I'll never again set foot on anything they've touched.

Instead of sitting on the ferris wheel, I decided to spend the day eating deep-fried food.

The deep-fried snickers bar was not really my thing. I'm more into a food that would be healthy were it not fried - that way I don't feel so bad about eating it.

Over a span of about 7 hours, I ate the following items that had been deep-fried: An avocado (not so good), artichoke hearts (not bad with hot sauce and vinegar, awful with that horrible packet of ranch dressing), an onion (very tasty), and a banana (very, very tasty).

I also had some beer, some wine, and at least a gallon of water.

The official temperature was 85, but with the asphalt and the crush of humanity, it had to be over 100.

I spent a lot of time in the barns, looking at the cute baby animals and getting the hell out of the midday sun.
I also watched a horse race from the outside rail of the track - right next to the winner's circle (where the poor panting, shaking winner had to have his picture taken before he was allowed to go back to the barn and rest), and I got to pet one of the Budweiser (tm) Clydesdales.

On the way home - stuck in traffic, of course - we started talking about what LA will do if the "Big One" hits us.

We, as a city, have always been told that after a large earthquake, we'll most likely have to fend for ourselves for a few days (this was true in 1994 - the power in Hollywood was out for a week, and although there wasn't looting, no stores were open), so we need to have supplies laid in.

After I got home, I surveyed my 'earthquake supply closet'.

One bottle of diet peach Snapple
One half-eaten box of Ritz Crackers
One can hearts of palm (which I ate while contemplating the shitty state of my disaster supplies)

One half box of bandaids.
Empty tube of neosporin.

Compare this list to what the LAFD tells me I should have.

Yikes. Were 'the big one' to hit tomorrow, I'd be totally fucked. So, Sunday I went out and did some of my earthquake shopping. I got six gallons of water, a bunch of canned food (all low-sodium. The LAFD recommends only low sodium food so that you don't drink too much water), some peanut butter and two boxes of a cracker brand that I don't like (Wasa rye) so I won't be tempted to eat it.

I still have to stock up on first aid supplies and a camp stove, though. That'll be another paycheck.