Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Rain Yesterday, Sun Today - Random LA Images

The title's inaccurate.  The images aren't random.  They're ones I picked because they made a point I wanted to make or I just liked them. 


I thought that during the Super Bowl the freeway traffic would be lighter.  But getting onto the San Diego Freeway just before game time proved slow.  But the sky was very clear and the temperatures a delicious and dry mid 70s. 



Car stuff in general reminds me why I live in Alaska.  One reason we came down was to help my mom when she went in for some elective surgery.  She's in a private hospital in Santa Monica where parking is horrendous.  So many streets have permit only parking.  The others have meters.  Finding an empty space isn't easy.  When my mom is with us, I have no problem using her handicapped sign, but I won't use it when she's not with us.  (The handicapped sign has all sorts of benefits

including not paying for parking meters.)  But yesterday I couldn't find a parking space after wandering around, so I tried the parking lot.  $2 for 15 minutes!  Providence Anchorage - thank you for your free parking.  On the other hand, if traffic is so bad and parking so difficult, maybe more people will experiment with the bus or with a bike.  Today I biked up.  When people drive, they really don't think about how far things are.  It only took me 20 minutes on my second hand utility bike.  And parking was right at the entrance for free.  (Mine's the bright blue one.)




Yesterday it rained.  It was a nice break from the relentless sun as Dan Bern sang about it in The Wasteland.


This is the entrance to St. John's, with wet pavement.  They even had plastic umbrella bags at the entrance even though it really didn't rain hard enough to soak below the soil.









Sunday we had breakfast at the Mar Vista Farmers Market.  I also got my stem tightened on my bike by the friendly folks from Bikerowave , a do it yourself bike shop, that had a table there.  Also got to talk to some folks from the Mar Vista Community Council.  Hey Anchorage, we had them built into the Charter in 1975, but LA only got theirs into the City Charter in 1999. 



I just liked the way the sun was lighting up this mass of Birds of Paradise.







We had take out Monday night from Thai Vegan on Main Street.  Great prices and decent Thai food.  We even had mango and sticky rice for dessert. 
















And after yesterday's grey, I couldn't resist getting this bright yellow house and equally bright blue sky this morning on my morning run - which I had had to skip for a few days. 

By the way we decided to move the car.  We had to wait a looooooong time for the car in front of us and then the attendant spent a long time counting money before serving us.  It was $4.  I asked how long we'd been there and when she saw it was 16 minutes, she said $2 would be fine. 

1 comment:

  1. There was a terrible accident on the 101 Freeway around the time you were having issues on the 405 that probably messed up your driving. I passed the issue on the 101 around the time you are discussing on SB Sunday.

    Hope your mom's surgery went well. SM parking IS annoying.

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