SpookyTime!!!

Here's the Halloween recap for this year!!!

Trick-or-treating was going on in full force in our neighborhood for a change!!! I don't know if it was pent-up demand after the last couple years of insanity, but it was by far the most I've seen in our area!!! Good to see it!!!

Over the weekend the boy and I carved up our pumpkins. I had a little stream of consciousness that led me to making the eye of providence on mine.

My son had the idea to put eyes with “X” pupils and eyelashes all over his. I think this is the first year he's done his completely!!!

For his costume, he wanted to be Franken Stein from Soul Eater. A major feature of Dr. Stein is a large screw through his head. We had a spare curtain rod with threaded ends that was sacrificed for the shaft, and the head was made of the bottom of a creamer bottle and some cardboard. Also sacrificed was one of my wife's headbands to connect it. A lab coat purchased from my work and some eyebrow pencil rounded things out.

We wandered around the neighborhood, not really trick-or-treating, but if anyone was out there offering, who were we to refuse??? Also took a couple from where people had left bowls out. Came to the place where he'd discovered his love of chili years ago, and made mention to the lady handing out the candy. She tells us, “Oh, we've got a pot going in there, go in and get yourself some!!!” so that was a cool callback!!! It was, once again, very good. Came across a dinosaur lab assistant for Dr. Stein while we were out, too!!!

Oh, we had left a bowl out, too. Didn't look like anyone came by!!!

Tower Trek

I've made mention of the Catalina Chimes Tower a few times here, from it's origin story to it's prevalence over the town of Avalon. But for all the years of seeing and hearing it, I've never seen it up close.

I started checking into going up there and checking it out up close. Several people had posted about taking rented golf carts up there, and several about hiking up to it. There are a few ways up, from taking the road around the back, to taking the stairs that parallel some of the houses along the front of town.

The stairs is the way my son and I opted to go. They look like they go straight up to it, but they only go about halfway, then the foot path takes a left, then there's more stairs. After that, you are out on the streets.

None of the streets from that point are especially steep, so it's a fairly easy walk.

And there it is!!! Actually not much to it, once you get there. It has a nicely tiled roof, nice classic lines, and matching terraces around the front side.

It's closed off for renovations and preservation, but I honestly didn't see much that should really be accessable anyway!!!

You can see the chimes from the front gate. It's pretty impressive looking. We were there as it struck 6:00 PM, and it wasn't nearly as loud as you might think it would be up close.

As I told in the Chime Tower Story post, it's right across from the Zane Grey compound. Finally got a chance to see that up close, too!!! It's been converted into a hotel, and I actually looked into getting our room there, but... it's way up a hill!!!

The forward portion looks fairly original, and the back portion looks like all new construction.

The best part, though, is the views!!! Naturally, it's over it all, and what a panorama!!!

There's looking towards Descanso Beach...

And overlooking the harbor...

The sunlight fading over the hills beyond the town...

And, finally, an overhead shot of the Casino!!!

17 Shots From the Island

We took the longest continuous vacation we've been on in a couple of years last week. Went back to Catalina for the week!!!

We pretty much repeated a lot of the stuff we've done previously there, down to eating at the same restaurants!!!

The first day we went to Antonio's, which I always like because you can eat right out over the water, enjoying the fresh air and views. My son had the most epic meatball sandwich you've ever seen!!!

There's the Chimes Tower in the background!!! I notice that it's in about half of the scenic pictures you take in Avalon!!!

Afterwards we walked on down by the Casino, where I got another shot of the point past Descanso Beach.

The pathway down to Descanso Beach was blocked off with safety tape. What's up with that, we wondered.

Don't think I've ever made mention, but there's a dive park right off the Casino. Stairs lead right down into the water. Back in my younger days I did some Scuba diving. The water is very clear, and it drops off on a slant to pretty deep. There's a shipwreck, the SueJac, which sunk in 1980. The dive park was later expanded to include it. The SueJac had a ferro cement hull, go figure!!!

Another night shot of the Chimes Tower.

Took my wife back to our hotel, then the boy and I set out for an evening walk. Headed back out to Descanso Beach, which we had done last time. Of course, we walked down the street since the walkway was blocked. The place is deserted at night, and you can lay on the lounges that they rent for something like $80 for free. Just as we got to where the lounges are, I saw this deer chilling on the beach!!!

We laid down, and the deer stayed there for several minutes. There was another one in the background when I took the picture, and another one (or the same one returning) came by behind us. On the way back, we took the walkway, and halfway down it there was a small backhoe and much of the walkway was dug up.

Later on that night, I got up and was drawing the drapes so we wouldn't be woke up by the sun in the morning, and there were a couple of deer next door!!!

The next night we went out on another night walk, this time towards the Catalina Express landing, where I got a great shot of the Casino from across the water, and the Chimes Tower glowing up on the hillside.

We came back, and in the lobby the hotel has a huge old safe, with a bunch of games stored in it. We played a game of Battleship, then pulled out the rather elaborate Monopoly game and played for quite a while!!!

The next day the boy and I had gone out to do a raid in Pokemon GO near the Casino. Afterwards we noticed that the walkway to Descanso Beach was open. Took a look, and they had it all patched up!!! Later on in the day we rented stand up paddle boards and paddled around the harbor. Saw a sea lion while we were paddling!!!

Saw this crow down near the beach on Crescent Avenue, wonder if he was our friend from our last visit?

On our last full day, we were having lunch at the fish place out on the Green Pier. They sell clam chowder or chili in sourdough bread bowls, and you know I'm a sucker for those!!! I had the chili, and the fish frying smelled so good I went ahead and got myself a fish taco. While we were out there, the power went out. Apparently, for all of Avalon!!! Other people came up trying to get food, and they couldn't make it. We had been planning to go to an ice cream place, and we headed over and they were able to serve us even without juice. On the way back to our room, my wife wanted to stop in a shop right before our hotel, and she was able to buy what she wanted there, too. I was wondering how things were going to go at the hotel. Almost all the hotels have the rooms above ground level, and we were staying in the only one I'm aware of that has an elevator, since my wife doesn't get up stairs very well. We were staying on the third floor. The power came on just before we got back, but when we got to the elevator the call button only lit up while it was being held.

The elevator is in view of the front desk, and we let them know. The maintenance guy came, and assured us that they should be able to get it running. It was about a half hour later, and the door slid open. Got in, but it didn't go, and the car was riding just a little low in the shaft. They tried a little longer, then the staff told us they were going to take us up in the freight elevator.

Walked us around the outside, and up we went!!! The next morning it still wasn't going, but going down stairs is much easier that up.

It was a great trip!!! More to come...

September Random - 13 Shots

As I said, I have a lot I could have made posts on, so I'm going to go a little random to do a recap here!!!

Back at the end of March we had another range day. The night before it was raining, and was precdicted to continue. I thought it was going to get scrubbed, but others weren't to be deterred by a little rain!!!

It had the cool effect that you could see where your bullet was hitting!!!

It started clearing up later on in the day, and turned into a really beautiful day!!! There was a big puddle on the road in and out, and a bunch of rocks had become disloged from the sides on the way out.

Came upon a patch of the rocks strewn across the road, and was unable to avoid one of them as I was rolling through. Predictably, one of them popped one of the tires. Got to see if the spare and the tools in the Matrix (wasn't going to take Scruffy off road!) were up to the task, which gladly they were. We stopped at the strangest Del Taco for some lunch on the way back, and then ducked into the place I usually buy tires these days, and got a replacement put on.

At the beginning of April the boy and I went to an Angels game. It wasn't a particularly wet winter, but a little drizzle started towards the end, so we left early.

At the end of April we went up to Running Springs again for a couple nights.

It was a pretty good low-key vacation.

The boy and I went on a night walk, and we went to Lake Arrowhead and a thrift store in Blue Jay. Of course, we had breakfast both days in the best coffee shop in Running Springs!!!

Just for fun, here's a picture I took of the front of Scruffy reflected pretty nicely in the back of a truck, reminiscent of a shot I took years ago!!!

I noticed that post I've linked has the keyword "potato" for some reason. Guess I'll have to have it in this post, too!!!

Went to the beach for my birthday. Dug holes and made a sand sculpture and splashed around in the water, then went to In-N-Out Burger for a late lunch!!!

Early June my wife went in for back surgery again. They connected everything from the neck to the pelvis!!!

Since it was the second time going in, the surgeon enlisted a plastic surgeon to work on the closing. If that's the result you get from plastic surgery, I don't think it's worth it!!! Told her if she ever wants another tattoo, she could get a zipper pull drawn on the end!!! She was in for both her birthday and the 4th of July. The surgeon wanted her up and moving as soon as possible, and the plastic surgeon wanted bed rest for as long as possible!!! I think she was up and around the quickest I can remember from this surgery!!!

At some point during the summer, my work announced that since things have been economically rough these days since we have clowns running the country, they were going to have a cash profit sharing mid-year this year!!! As always, the man took his chunk, but I still had a good amount of gravy left over!!! I was thinking that since (1) I don't really have a spare car these days, I could pick something up, and (2) since I've never owned a true convertible, I could get one!!! Since they aren't making them anymore and I've always liked the look (not to mention, it would keep with a theme I've had going for a while now) I was thinking of getting a Saturn Sky. The budget range I was thinking I'd like to stay in was around $5,000. You can find 'em around that, but naturally not pristine. Of course, there's the ugly duckling sibling, the Pontiac Solstice. Found this one that was in the range.

My wife made mention that it's not a super-practical car (kinda the point!!!) and kind of a vanity type thing. I considered it, and yeah, kind of. I considered what else there was, the Toyota Solara and it's Lexus twin have that Toyota reliability, if you believe the hype, but if you thought the Solstice was ugly... Then I remembered, they had made a convertible version of the PT Cruiser!!! I know, they have a polarizing style, but my wife and I have always been on the positive end of that polarization, and we liked the rental we had when we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I've always thought the classic was better looking, but I could deal with the convertable!!! A little more practical, and still a drop-top!!! The convertible isn't super common, but almost all of them are below the price threshold I'd set. Found this one that's being offered by a dealer for $3,999 with under 92k miles, and as far as the engine goes, it's the one you'd want!!! Kind of love the color, too!!! Not so much that I've actually called about it, or looked into actually going to see it...

Bool Disposal

During this week the drain for the kitchen sinks got clogged and backed up. It's been a while since I've had to work on that plumbing, but I have a shorty snake and my trustworthy hydraulic drain cleaner. To use either, I was going to need to undo the P trap and the elbow on the pipe going back into the wall. Not long after I started working at my current job I'd done some work down there, and have replaced that pipe with some nice schedule 80 stainless steel pipe, so it's heavy duty. I had my boy take all the crap under the sink out and put it in a box before I got off work the next day. That project spiraled, but I got it back together after much work.

Among the crap down there was this potion bottle. I don't remember the origin, but I'm pretty sure the boys had it in their room for a while. Might have found the bottle at the dollar store and put water and food color in it. I think it used to be a dark purple and it's faded over the years. It was grubby from being down there, and no one has much of a connection to it. I had the idea to just clean it off and stick it by the bleachers at the basketball court in the park across the street. I've done that with other stuff that seemed too good to throw out, such as the radio that was in the Matrix when we bought it, and it has worked.

My wife cleaned it off and it was on the counter. I saw it today and had a better idea. There's a swing over there, too, with a sand area beneath it. I went over there this evening (after yet another project that took far too long, the alternator in the Matrix had gone out. At least the rain that they had been predicting for today had all blown through yesterday!) and dug a hole and buried it off in the corner of the sand, with just the top peeking out!!! I hope a kid finds it and is filled with awe and wonder!!!

The Obligatory Jury Duty Post

They got me again with jury duty. As I've said before, I don't mind a little break in the routine! Only this time, I never got a summons, just a postcard with draconian language about $1,500 fines for a summons I never got. I emailed them and told them as much, and they replied to just use the information on the postcard to sign in to get re-assigned. Of course, the first week was when I had something planned a couple of the days, so I requested to be moved, and they put me on call for last week. I think it was right around when a 3-day weekend was coming up last time I had jury duty, too, and it got to the end of the week calling in and not having to go in, and I was thinking, "surely they won't actually be doing much work right before a 3-day weekend, will they?" I don't think they were, but I was called in anyway. I have been having a terrible year keeping up with the blog, so I thought I'd get this one going while it's still fresh!!! I've got 3 or more that I could put together, but haven't made it yet, so here we go!!!

To start off the Obligatory Jury Duty post, here's your Obligatory Disney Concert Hall pictures!!!

While we were in the area for the Community Day, I had taken a few pictures of a couple of structures across from there, new since last time I've been there. It is done in yellow and gray-silver colors, kind of in what makes me think of a building block style. Never posted any pictures of them here, but in the second shot, you can see them reflected in the biulding across the street!!!

On my way back from my wanderings and jury duty "service", right as I was leaving Grand Park, there was this pretty cool trike parked there!!!

Years back, I'd bought myself a folding box cutter knife with a belt clip. It's pretty handy, and being a box cutter type, it has replaceable blades so you can always have a nice, sharp blade. On my way out, I was thinking to myself, "When you park, grab the phone charger cable from the center console, and leave your knife". I remembered half of that. Before I entered the courthouse, I remembered, and thought that maybe they wouldn't have an issue if I just tossed out the blade. The one guard at the metal detectors asked the other one, and they gave it the no-go, but they checked it and gave me a slip to pick it up on the way out.

And wanderings... I did a little!!! Found a couple of buildings with interesting architecture I hadn't seen before, this one with an overhanging edge with what looks like a hanging panel.

This is my first time on Jury Duty since I've began playing Pokemon GO, so that gives you incintives to do some wandering to areas you might not otherwise!!! While I was in line to check in, there was a one star Rockruff raid within distance that I did solo, since you don't see Rockruffs out in the wild. From the assembly room there were a few stops I was able to spin to keep my bag full, and I even used one of my lures on one since I don't usually sit in one place for that long. Of course, I got distracted on other things once I'd used it and didn't get many results!

So, onto the wanderings!!! When I got out, I saw there was another one star raid, off in a direction I've never walked from there before, towards Little Tokyo. I've been wandering in Little Tokyo before, but never from the courthouse. It was towards Phillippe's, and I apparently haven't been there since 2006, and was ready for breakfast so I considered making that another side trip!!! Another thing I'd seen from the courthouse was the OOMO Cube, a giant Rubik's Cube statue in Little Tokyo. I believe there's a Pokemon GO gym there, and I was thinking of spinning the photo disc to get a gift from there, but I never did. I was looking up on maps "giant Rubik's Cube statue Little Tokyo" and all it came up with was toy stores. Oh well.

Here's another interesting building, with some of the floors on what looks like a 30° angle!!!

On the way back, I saw there was a 5 star raid for Deoxys going on at the City Hall gym. There were already 7 or 8 other players waiting for the raid, so I was keen to join in. I was already on the area directly to the south of City Hall, but still far enough from the gym that it was requiring a remote raid pass. There was about a minute and a half, so I walked closer so I wouldn't have to use that remote pass, and joined. I think there were 13 or 14 of us by then, so it went easy!!! Nice!!!

Got a shot of City Hall from a direction I normally don't approach it, along with the flag.

I've never noticed this thing before, either!!! Looks like all it is is a cover for the escalators going to the train station. I should have inspected it closer, it may have some closeable louvers for if it were to rain!!!

Speaking of weather, we've been in the midst of our September heat wave, and it's over 100°. I probably would have done more wandering if it hadn't been so hot.

As I had suspected, there wasn't a lot going on at the courthouse. In the first couple of hours, they called one batch of prospective jurors. A little later, they called another batch, this one for a special jury. This case was expected to take around 40 days!!! They had filtered based on the summons survey for prospective jurors that would be likely to be able to serve, so I wasn't on their list, since I only get paid for 5 days (per company policy; however, I've always been told, "if it goes longer than 5 days, we'll work with you", but I have no idea what they mean by that). They were looking for prospective jurors who would be asked to return in a month.

A little later, before we would break for lunch, they started calling up people to one of the windows by groups of 6. The third group had me in it. Got to the window, and they checked my name off their list, gave me my completion paper and thanked me for coming. Not bad!!!

On my way back to the parking under the Disney Concert Hall, I passed by the dry fountain I'd noted in my previous post. It's still dry, but the newly added splash area below it was going for cooling off!!! Now I wish I'd brought my swim trunks!!!