Heading to MI

Waiting for the taxi, who is late. 15 minutes in taxi time means 30.

Hiking With a Twist

Drove to Malibu again and Malibu Creek State Park, in Malibu Canyon. California State park fees are $12 daily and $120 annually. About 4 times as high as MI. So I turned around and drove a couple of miles and joined a hoard of other cheap-skates who had parked on the side of the road, crossed the road and jumped on the trail-head.

The trail-head was actually a narrow path that led to the main trail after half a mile or so. On the way I noticed a big brown rattle snake that had lain across the path and hearing me it slithered into the brush! Uh-oh. "Umm ... excuse me, but I was I was told there would be no snakes!" were the words I would have wanted to say to the critter, but actually, I read there would be rattle snake and people should stay away from them. Yes, Cal State parks actually charge you $120 bucks in fees to post signs that advise people to stay away from deadly reptiles!

The main trail is wide enough to drive on. But it's only used by hikers and mountain bikers. It runs for hundreds of miles, clear on the ridge tops of the Santa Monica Mountain range. 

The view was breath taking. The air and the skies clear, temperatures just right. You could see the ocean on one sides and mountains on the other. I was beginning to think "I like this place, you know." 

This I assumed to be a remnant of the gold-rush  days. But what do I know. It could be anything. It does make for a good story though.

Yeah, yeah, we get it, more scenery...

And then some ... getting a bit trigger happy on the iPhone's camera...

But this you have to see! Happiness does not exist, unless it's shared. This is the Malibu Canyon road snaking (oh no, snakes!!) through the valley and flowing ocean ward. Mountain flowers in full bloom. Heaven!

These little critters are everywhere. They think they are blending in, they are cool in school. But then they just twitch and jerk away, screeching "Yowww, you saw me! I'll run and stop suddenly over here. Now you can't see me. Yikes, you saw me again, I'll jump and jerk that way then..."

Like the great wall China, the trail twists on the ridge tops as far as the eye can see.

At times the trail is broad and smooth. Other times it's rocky and washed away, or narrow and overrun with brush.

Then I noticed a twisted piece of black wood on the side of the trail. As a life-long snake-phobic, my  senses are tuned to examine every stick and twig to ensure it's not a snake, and this one was! A diamond-shaped head, black and sinister looking rattle snake. I jumped back a few steps, heart racing, which is my usual uncontrolled reaction. I cussed out loud at my cowardice, but I couldn't control my fear.

The thing about some animals like the great white sharks or the grizzlies is their arrogance in their utter dominance over their domain. The cavalier "I don't give a rats who you are, I'll kick your ass just to have something to do" attitude. This guy was one of those. It laid there without a care. I stamped my feet, shouted, threw a rock his way, he wouldn't budge. (I don't know its gender, let's assume it was a "he" to avoid offending any female readers). A couple of kids on mountain bikes came along and stopped dead in their tracks. We argued over who should go first. I encouraged them to go first since they were on bikes and it's a scientifically proven fact that rattle snakes are afraid of bicycle wheels. Finally one of them got his courage up and in the most shaky fashion rode through. The snake cocked his head a bit, almost smirking. The other kid was still unconvinced. Sometimes courage is swallowing your fears. This wasn't one of those times. Courage was to be too afraid to look afraid and stupid. I slowly inched my was forward, like a slinking dog, tail between the legs, tiptoed across the bow of the dragon. The snake peered at me as if to say "Yeah, that's what I am talking about. You better slink and bow your punk ass and show some respect beeach!"

I was out of breath by the time I was across. It felt like the snake was going to make a little jerk and say "BOO" just to hear me scream and run and hear his laugh behind me.

I wanted to run, then the thought of more snakes ahead had me paralyzed. I felt like a hobbit walking in Mordor. Then the thought "how am I going to go back?" crossed my mind. "We are not going back, Sam" said Frodo.

After another hour of hobbit steps I turned around to go back. I felt like a death row inmate making the deadman's walk. It seems silly now, but the irrational fear was all consuming. I don't know who had kidnapped my mind and body, but every twitch of crass, every stick of wood had me jumping, hyperventilating and completely out of control. I had picked up an anti-snake rock and I noticed my knuckles were turning white from squeezing it. The scenery seized to exist. My scanning eyes were fixed on the trail. This was no fun.

There was a movie where there were these beautiful people living in this beautiful land. Everything was wonderful, except for these monsters who'd come out of the caves and grab a few of  them every once in a while and take them down into the caves for food. This I thought was California. The beautiful land of sun and sea. There were sharks in the ocean, snakes in the mountains, $120 park fees, gridlocked highways and strange realities in dream jobs.  The under belly of the truth.

Was it still worth it?

I relaxed a bit by the end of the hike, and even got to enjoy the trail tails scenery again.

In Malibu I pulled over to the side and bought a crate of fresh strawberries and mangoes from the back of a van.

Minutes later I was on my favorite boulevard, San Vicente, in Brentwood, heading home. A good day. I guess.

Going Hiking

On another beautiful day in sunny Santa Monica.

Organic Wine Tasting

The company hosted an Earth Day organic wine tasting evening at a wine tasting bar downtown, on Santa Monica blvd just a block from the ocean. You get a credit card and stick it in various machines that drop a few drops of wine in a class to taste. I was under the impression that $6.00 meant a full glass, and when I didn't get enough, I pushed the bottom again, another $6 came off the card and I had a few more drops. Anyway $36 later, I had only amassed a little buzz. Thank god this was other peoples money! The organic earth-friendly part was lost on me. Filled up on tatertots which tasted like the usual Gordon foods variety.
Feeling a bit queezy now. No dinner tonight. Today I had fruit bars for breakfast, those cups of Raman
noodles for lunch and tatertots for dinner. Saving the earth on junk food.

First Run in FourWeeks

Went for a run today. Just a short and slow jog down St. Vicente in Brentwood. Lovely day again. No leg pain! It was great to run and not feel the damn thing for the first time in decades.

This tree almost killed me. The massive root system bulged up the side walk to an unreal level. I tripped and almost went headlong onto the concrete. I took this picture of the assailant for future evidence.

Came across the cool, uppity, hippity Brentwood farmers market too. On my way back I stopped and bought some organic-non-genetic-egineered-loved-and-cared-for-and-kissed-twice-daily-vegetables. 

Earth Day Celebrations at the Promenade

CODA's booth was by far the most popular auto booth.

The board was covered with signature of Earth Savers, well wishers and future buyers.

What California Looks Like

> If you asked me today what California looks like, I would say it
> looks like a line of cars parked on either sides of Barrington and
> the traffic lights on Wilshire. That's what I've been seeing for the
> past ten days of my life. It could be worse.

Malibu Beaches

Surf's Up!

I went in to work, but no one was there. I had no keys, so it's a forced weekend. I drove to Malibu and watched the surfers. I drove up and caught signt of several pods of killer whales slowy moving north, very close to the shore just beyond the kelp line. It was pretty cool. The mountain flowers are in bloom and the whole area is lit up like a scented Christmas tree. Now I have to buy a fancy camera.

It was overcast this morning, which was a welcome change. All these sunny days can get monotenous. NOT.

I am back in the apartment, cooking up a storm for the week. It's bright and sunny outside. Not a cloud in the sky and the temps are in the mid 60s, as always.
 

Those dots are surfers

Week 1 is done

It's was a strange and interesting week. I got to work at around 7:30am and left work at 6:30-7:00pm almost everyday. The commute is 10-15 minutes. No time to cook at all this week. All that food that I stocked up in the fridge is getting old and stale. If I only knew then what I know now. Lunches were the free snacks at work for three days, Indian and a deli sandwich on the other two days. Not much workout to speak of. No surfing at the beach or any of the other glamorous SoCal activities. But, the work has consistently gotten busier and more interesting. We are launching a car company from the ground up after all.

The apartment evenings are chats with the roommates. My first roommate is cool Chinese-American kid who is very excitable and high energy. "This is just like college. This is the dorm. CODA is like the university, where we run into each other on campus. We all have different majors." Is the way he put it, which rings so true. He is a quality engineer. The other roommate, an Indian fellow, sleeping on an air mattress in the living room, is the PLM manager and I am the head of the electrical systems. All different majors.

I'll be working this weekend too, but I might take a half a day off on Sunday to do something fun. A short road trip or maybe surfing in Mahattan beach. We'll see.

Some saving the earth goodies I got on my second day

The view outside from work

And the earth moved beneath his feet

I was waiting for the elevator to get down to the parking lot. The elevator was making a terrible rattling sound coming up. The floor felt like it was vibrating and I felt sort of disoriented and dizzy (kind of normal for me). Felt like the ground was swaying around. "Peculiar." I thought.

Come to find out later that I had just participated, well was rather just an innocent by stander, in California's slow attempt at succession from the US by slowly sliding beneath the Pacific Ocean. Yes, it was an earth quake. Too bad I didn’t known it at the time. Missed a perfect opportunity for running around insanely, screaming and flailing my arms around. Well there is always a next time!

Made It to The Ocean

I am happy to report that the ocean is still here. The air feels cool, crisp and dry; slightly hazy. There are hordes and hordes of  tourists taking pictures and posing in front of anything.
It feels strange to me to think that I now live here.

And now, a little Pearl Jam...(Song here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C2NiI4I4VE)

GIVEN TO FLY

He could’ve tuned in, tuned in but he tuned out

A bad time, nothing could save him

Alone in a corridor, waiting, locked out
He got up outta there, ran for hundreds of miles

He made it to the ocean, had a smoke in a tree

The wind rose up, set him down on his knee

A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw

Delivered him wings, "Hey, look at him now"

Arms wide open with the sea as his floor

Oh, power

Oh, he's flying

Whole. High. Wide

He floated back down 'cause he wanted to share

His key to the locks on the chains he saw everywhere

But first he was stripped and then he was stabbed

By faceless men, well, f****rs

He still stands

And he still gives his love, he just gives it away

The love he receives is the love that is saved

And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky

A human being that was given to fly

High flying

High flying

He’s…flying

I'm heading out to the ocean making sure that it's still there I'm
dictating these words using the iPhone's dictation tool very cool I
don't know if it's going to recognize everything correctly I will be e-
mailing this text directly to my blog and it will be automatically
posted so this would be a completely hands-free speech to blog
transaction.

Ali

AAAAAAAAWE....Ralphs

Blessed be Kroger and it's satelites. We're not worthy...we're not worthy...

This adventures reminds me more and more of my time living in Germany, minus the Germans. Not knowing my way around, apartment living and making many trips, hauling groceries in a suitcase bring back memories. I drove around Munich with my trash in my trunk for a few days, not knowing where to get rid of it. Finallly, I spotted a trash bin in front someone's house, I quickly dumped the trash in their bin and took off, speeding away from the scene of the crime.

Walmart at last!

In my quest to find "cheap" I followed the google maps to the nearest Walmart, 18 miles away in Crenshaw. Turns out Crenshaw is the place where the Japanese and German tourists who want to see the real America, get their asses kicked.

This was by far the worst Walmart I have ever been to. There were no shopping carts outside. The grumpy old lady greeter grunted as walked by  her and asked where I could get some carts. "Go outside and wait for people to return their carts!"
"Aha! I'll take a basket." I replied.

I did a bit of shopping but soon realized that I couldn't haul all these bags to the car and neededa cart. Went back down and left the basket by the greeter and went outside in search of cart. I foud a crooked wheeled cart shoved in a corner and rolled it in. "Sorry, you can't use that car here, it's not a Walmart cart." Oh great, seems like I had just stolen somebody's mobile home! Back in again, still cartless.
I limped around with the heavy basket and envyed all the shoppers who were pushing real carts around.

O' to have a cart,
O' my kingdom for a cart.

I checked out and walked to the car and got in. I spotted a cart. I thought I could go back in and finish my shopping after this long drive. I had a pretty good parking spot. I turned to get out of the my car, but noticed there was a car waiting for my spot. Dang it! "How long has this guy been waiting there?" I thought. Now I was obligated to move. Can't just wave and say "Woops, I am not moving, just realized what a great spot I have. Gonna go back in and come out one more round. Sorry. hehe." 

I moved the car to another spot! Found a cart, went back in and LOADED up on canned foods, beans, rice, bottled water, beer and such. Yeah Baby!

On the way back, I noticed that Crenshaw looked exactly the same as Detroit but completey different. I'll be back. Maybe.