May 2008 Archives

With gas going from $4 to $4.20 or so in a matter of days, I'm more resolved than ever to take the Orange Line bus to work as often as possible.

Yesterday Ilene dropped me off on the way to her father's house, which is in the middle of nowhere (aka West Hills), and I took the bus home. It takes about a half-hour to get from the Warner Center Station (aka Owensmouth Avenue across from the Promenade mall) to the Van Nuys Station.

Today I'm taking the Orange Line both ways.

Yeah, it adds 20 or so minutes to my commute, but most of that is spent walking — healthy, it is — and all the money I'm saving on gas makes it very much worth it.

Sometimes the bus can be pretty crowded, but I've gotten lucky lately and not been crushed by all that humanity most of the time.

I met David Weiss — aka David Was of Was Not Was — who is in the process of starting a blog, and he rode to the Daily News offices on an electric scooter. It was a pretty sweet ride.

I didn't ask him how much it cost, but it couldn't have been too cheap.

Back to the Orange Line. To go one way on the bus costs $1.25. I hope the MTA isn't thinking that now is the time to dramatically raise fares.

When gas was still in the $2 range (remember those days not all that long ago?), I wanted to ride the bus, but nothing motivates me more than saving $5 a day on the gas that I'm not using.

It's too profane to depict in a photograph. But if you want to know what I drove behind on Hazeltine Avenue today, click if you dare. They're called Bumper Nuts.

After years of living on what by all appearances is one of the most pothole-pocked streets in the city of Los Angeles (those Mars lander photos look a bit too familiar), the L.A. street repair crew is rolling the heavy equipment up and down our little country road in Van Nuys.

Sure the entire house feels as if it's going to be shaken into a little pile of 1940s wood and plaster, but it's totally worth it.

I had a long, rambling stream-of-consciousness post that I'm sure you all would've loved, but just as I was uploading the art (thanks for the pictures, Ilene, who blogs about it here), the $0 Laptop gave up on me, Movable Type didn't autosave more than three lines, and I basically got sent back to the first square in Shoots and Ladders.

But the long and short of it is that our bombed-out-looking excuse for a residential street is getting the once over twice from the City of Los Angeles.

And while I'm in the mood, I'd like to thank, in Precise Modern Lovers Order, our neighbor Laura for keeping all the relevant feet to the fire these past many years, Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, whose tootsies must be pretty damn toasty by now, and my pothole-filling buddy A-Dog, aka Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, frequent visitor to the Daily News newsroom, who, whether he did anything or not, get his due because he's, by all appearances, a complicated man who will risk his neck for his brother man and all that.

For the foreseeable future, Van Nuys loves you all, baby.

Ilene did a fine job chronicling our time at this year's Pierce College Farm Walk. Here's a picture of our little one communing with a goat. On the same topic, goats now clear the hillsides at the Getty Museum. They do that.

But back to Farm Walk. Since the little girl recently announced that she's no longer a vegetarian like Ilene and I, she's been sampling all kinds of meat. She doesn't like anything but chicken thus far. She continually describes meat as "delish," even though she rejects all that isn't chicken. And mind you, she only gets to sample meat at school, since we don't -- and won't -- fire it up at home or when we go out.

We did take the girl to see the chickens, but it didn't really register. She's only 4, but with a will of iron. We've just got to ride this one out.

See Ilene's entry for why we're considering installing a chicken coop in our Van Nuys manse.

Don't miss Pierce College's annual Farmwalk, beginning 9:30 a.m. Sunday. The earlier and the cooler, the better, I say.

Same Starbucks, different day, no dark roast.

Once again, the Canoga Avenue/Oxnard Street Starbucks had Pike Place and House -- no dark roasts.

I tried the House today, and it's better than Pike Place. House has a little more character.

So I go to Starbucks yesterday, Canoga Avenue and Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills, pretty much across the street from the Daily News. I was much kinder to Pike Place Roast than I should have been. It's pretty weak. I mean that literally. But there's always the dark roast of the day.

Not so much.

My choices were Pike Place and House Blend.

No dark roast.

Starbucks, are you trying to kill me? This isn't going to help profits.

Actually, it is, because the very helpful barista suggested that I add a shot of espresso. That made it go down better, except for the fact that my $1.90 coffee now cost $2.50.