Autumn Random

A lot of things happen, here's some from my recent photos. I've got more.

When we were at the park most recently, after the remnants of a storm had blown through, there was a rainbow!!! It appeared a little subdued, like the one I'd seen in Catalina.

A couple of months ago, surrogate got a car of his own!!! Honda Accord V6, older, but not a lot of miles. It's got a sunroof, which he's usually got open. Also, it has a wire coming out to a little square adhered to the roof. The guy he bought it from didn't know what it was, and none of us could figure it out, either, but it looks legit so it's staying there!!!

Hadn't realized it's been 5 years since I made up the easy to recover claw post!!! It had been getting pretty ragged, and I'd been thinking of re covering it, but had lost track of where I'd put the remaining sisal rope!!! Finally located it, and recovered it. Seems like every time it's recovered, it needs to be investigated before it can be used!!! Shortly after this picture, Sid clawed at it, then climbed up and sat on top of it, as he does!!!

Saw a Von Dutch bag at a store a while ago. I'd seen them have the winged eyeball logo before, but this one had a flaming eyeball!!! I think a copyright infringement lawsuit is in order!!!

I'd made mention that I was thinking of doing a redesign on the phone holder in Kutcher to move it a bit further back, and I did. Just a new threaded hole is all it took!!!

Got advance warning today that they're calling a red flag day tomorrow, so I was able to move the cars around before it started. Once again, I don't think conditions will meet their definition, but no one cares. The deep cycle battery in the Falcon was completely dead, which made for a pain getting it moved. Swapped in the one I'd pulled from Kutcher that I've had on a trickle charger. The one in Zonker had gone dead a while ago (I'd forgotten to unplug the charger, and it has a blue LED light that I'm pretty sure killed it), but I'd gotten it going and hadn't had an issue since then. Put a booster on it (which had done nothing for the Falcon, it was dead dead... also, the terminals were both loose, which I don't remember being the case, so strange) and it first set off the stupid horn alarm, then fired right up.

Had to smog Kutcher again. Took it to the place that did Zonker last time, and as far as I could tell there was nothing that would cause it to not pass, and there were no codes in the computer. After a bit, the guy comes in and tells me it failed. It didn't actually fail, but they spotted the O2 sensor spacer I'd put on last time, and apparently using one of those to get it to read correctly isn't legal, so they'd failed it on visual inspection. They didn't charge me, or even enter the information into they system, so once again, they've got my enduring business!!! Took it home and removed the spacer, took it back and it passed without issue. Afterwards, the check engine light started coming back on. Sigh. I think I'll make a catalytic converter anti theft shield so that spacer can't be seen before I take it in again!!!

On the other side of the canyon, there's been a vacant lot between a couple of houses that's been that way since we've been living here. Back in the early 70's, there had been a mudslide over that way that destroyed several houses, I'm not sure if this lot had one or not, but it did look like there had once been a house there. Several months ago, they brought in a backhoe, and were moving dirt around the lot for quite a while. A month and a half or so ago, they poured a foundation, and have been building a new place on it, and it's gone up quick!!! I've seen several places around here being built, and it seems like a lot of them drag on for more than a year.

Younger finally got his learner's permit, and has been doing some driving, I think he's pretty much got it down. Anyway, He was driving and I was passenger, and I got a look, they're actually building two houses, the one pictured here, and another facing the next street over. The one pictured looks like there's a detached garage with either an upstairs deck, or an auxiliary dwelling unit included.

Since I'd recently mentioned Colby Jack (renamed Simba), I thought I'd post a pic of him!!! He's got some quirks. Like every cat.

We were having lunch recently, and someone dressed as The Grinch with a head on a stick scepter rode by on a bike!!! Deliciously random!!!

For my birthday and my sister's birthday, we got together with my mom, and all went to the John's Incredible Pizza that's near where she lives. Here's younger (in his Counting Crows shirt, I think I was wearing my Gaslight Anthem one that day) on the spinny ride. I didn't want to go on it, because I'd eaten a lot of pizza!!!

We were at the Goodwill a bit ago, and they were already getting ready for Halloween. They had a lot of costume ideas set up on the end caps, Pee Wee Herman and the Brawny guy are the two I remember. They had costumes on one rack, and younger put on a hot dog costume and witches' hat, grabbed a machete', and was going around saying, “I'm the Wicked Weenie!!!” It was pretty funny, but there was another hot dog costume and witches' hat there as well...

Sid usually doesn't get out into the front room, but occasionally he'll get out there, and we usually let him hang out for a while. He was out there, and saw that one of the shelves on the newly painted bookcase was still vacant, and decided that we'd left it that way for him!!!

There was a partial lunar eclipse at the end of August, and I headed out to go on a walk and check it out while it was going on. I tried taking some pictures with my phone's camera, but on most of the preset settings it was totally blown out. Messing with the advanced settings, I could get pictures that showed the actual shadow, but none of them were that great. I was over by the canyon, and there were more people there than I've ever seen!!! I went around Sea View, and as I was coming out, a bit of cloud cover was developing, and it allowed me to get a fairly decent picture.

A week or so ago I was searching for an EP that Brian Fallon had released a while ago, and found out he'd just come out with another disc as Brian Fallon and the Painkillers. In another venn diagram moment, one of the songs on it features Brandon Flowers, from another of my favorites, The Killers!!! Of course, I picked it up, and I've got a few favorites off it already.

This is one of the houses across the bay from Horny Corner. I like the turret.

Sand and Sea

Back near the beginning of summer I'd posted about this year's return to the beach, for movies on the beach. It was a good time, but it was night and didn't feature the sun and swimming of a proper beach trip.

Went through most of summer without making a return trip, either for conventional beaching, or for a movie. Before it ended, however, I managed to get two trips in!!!

Both trips were to Horny Corner. The first time surrogate was arranging for several people to go... then his car broke!!! On the day he'd been planning, I asked if he wanted me to come by and pick him up, and he said he wasn't going, and everyone else flaked out, too. I had been looking forward to it, and younger came with me.

It wasn't crowded at all, and it was a very high tide!!!

There's usually seagulls perched on some of the swim area buoys, but this time there was a pelican on one of them!!! We usually will swim out to the buoy line, and when there's a gull, we'll see how close we can get. Often, I'll get within around 6 feet and they'll be getting a little sketchy, then I'll go under and swim under to around the same distance on the other side, and they'll fly away while I'm under. Got this picture of a pelican on the wing after we were out of the water.

We mostly got there, got in the water, and swam most of the time!!! Out to the buoy line, then down to the bridge. Last year one time when surrogate and I had gone with just us, we'd done the same swim, but this was the first time for younger. Swam back, dried off, then went for burgers at Grill 'Em All!!! I got the same as last time, the Witte, and younger got the Long Beach Dirtbag, a chili burger with bacon, chipotle ketchup, and garlic aoili. And, of course, the primate fries. Once again, I was craving a premium burger, and once again was not disappointed!!!

Two weeks after, we went again!!! This time, surrogate came as well. Got there, and went straight into the water and out to the buoy line!!! Scared off a seagull by swimming under it, swam down to another, and we got really close to the buoy and gull!!! This guy (actually I think it was a girl from the coloring) was pretty bold!!! While we were there swimming around and talking to her, another gull flew up and tried to chase her off, but she stood her ground!!!

The first time we were there, they had the inflatables up, but they were gone the next time. We swam over to the float that they stage from, and climbed up and jumped off it a few times. It's got an unusual construction, with two floats joined together with a wide area of grating between them. I swam under the grating area, and it's a bit strange and claustrophobic under there. Younger swam in after, and I went back under, and surrogate finally came under again. After that, I went back to shore, dried off, and re positioned a chair in the sunlight. As the summer comes to it's end, the light fades faster!!! The sunlight was right to the edge of the water, and I turned the chair towards the sun for a selfie. Oh yeah, it was a fairly high tide again!!!

The guys were still soaking, and I was mostly dried off, so I went and changed. On the way back, I spotted a snowy egret hunting along the water's edge. I went to take a picture, and he was heading off. I followed, parallel to him, and finally caught up for a decent picture.

I really like the burgers at Grill 'Em All, but it's a little expensive!!! After we finished up this time, we headed over to the local In-N-Out for some also great burgers, at a considerably lower price!!! One of my favorite summertime activities (besides hitting the beach!!!), I've realized, is dining outdoors when the sun is down, but the temperature is still up!!!

Back to the Beach

I hadn't been to the beach yet this year, until last week. On my birthday 10 years ago, I'd taken the family to see Toy Story on the beach in Long Beach. For some reason, I'd happened on the post where I'd mentioned it, and wondered if they were still doing it.

They are!!! I asked surrogate if he would be available, but he had to work. Hit up a couple of younger's other friends, and they were up for it, so we went.

Got there early enough that we'd be able to stake out a spot before the movie started, and got to enjoy the sunset!!!

And the movie that was playing??? The Breakfast Club!!! My wife and I have watched it probably over 50 times, I think she'd made younger watch it, but the friends hadn't seen it. The girl liked it, the guy was off at the bathrooms for the end and didn't like it as much.

It was a good way to spend the evening, and get back to the beach!!! They're doing it for several more nights this summer, and there's a good chance we'll head back again!!! Of the upcoming movies, Lost Boys is one I'd be up to see again, and A League of Their Own will be shown. I haven't seen that, and it's supposed to be good, so I might be up for that as well.

Going Back Backstage

As previously mentioned, on last year's vacation, we took the Casino backstage tour again. The first time we'd taken the tour was on our 2013 vacation. Once again, here's a remix picture of the outside as a line drawing!!!

I likely could have made a post about just the tour on the previous trip, but never did. I remember our guide on that particular tour was a girl named Porsche that my wife really liked. The closest I did was the years later tale of the Chime Tower post, which I first heard on that particular tour.

As outside, so is it inside!!! A beautiful building, with fine construction. The ground floor houses the theater, which is a work of art. It is also nearly acoustically perfect, and on the tour it was mentioned that it was measured to use the same geometry for some other auditorium, possibly Carnegie Hall or maybe Radio City Music Hall.

Murals adorn the walls, and the ceiling is adorned with gold leaf.

Centered at the top of the stage is a depiction of Botticelli's Venus, our guide noted that the designer had depicted her as a redhead!!!

The construction was right around the time of the transition from silent movies to the talkies, so naturally an organ was included. It's being worked on currently.

Our tour guide had pointed out from the theater the private suite of William Wrigley Jr., but noted that he generally preferred to be out mingling with the guests. This is the view from his suite.

This was also during the big band era, and there were several posters of bands that had preformed there.

The projection room featured several generations of projectors, from arc light projectors to digital projectors. This was our tour guide, I don't remember his name, but it might have been Tom. He did a great job. The wall behind him has several people that have signed their names. Most of them, he said, you probably don't know, but prominently in the middle was the signature of Stan Lee!!!

There were displays with several vintage pictures of the area, and construction of the Casino, as well as the original structure that was there.

On the top floor, the world's largest round dance floor!!! Something new that they're doing now, they've re-purposed it as a skating rink!!! There's a spinning ordainment in the middle of the ceiling that Surrogate wanted to get underneath and take a picture of. There weren't too many people skating up there, and I told him he probably could just stride out there like he was supposed to be there, lay down and get his picture and no one would give him any trouble!!!

The tour finished up on the outside promenade. Our guide was fielding any questions, and I asked him if he was familiar with the story of the Chime Tower, and why the ramps were no longer carpeted. He wasn't, and I was able to relate the story as I had been told on our previous tour.

After the tour was over, we worked our way down to the next level where the restrooms are located. They had this nice bar area, where they had a video playing about the old days of Avalon and the Casino.

And as teased in the previous post, the selfie in the restroom mirror!!!

Remix Review

I've been using the photos remix tool quite a bit. The younger says I'm a Facebook mom with it, that's fair. I figured I'd do another “instant” post with some of the pictures from the past year re imagined.

To start off, I took the picture of the Simian Button Man from the cover artwork of Down at Flathead, from the literary stack post. Looks like it changed 'em into a rodent Button Man!!! I enjoyed the read, but it felt like it lost the thread and found other threads. When we were on Catalina, I asked a few of the locals if they knew the author, I wanted to ask him what happened to the moon buggy!!!

I'd made mention of having gifted a stuffed Alan to a friend, who now has it on her shelf next to a plastic Perry the Platypus. Since platypuses are already a strange mix, remixing the picture made him into a duck!!! And Alan looks a bit like a dinosaur.

On the same post, I'd shared the X-ray of my broken metatarsal. It got the break fairly accurate, but I'm missing my second toe!!! It's hard to believe that it's been a year since I broke it, it's mostly fine now!!!

I'd made a post from a couple of events, the belated Valentine's Day dinner, and our trip to a Kings game. From the first, I took the picture of my wife with her chocolate malt, and it changed her into a Disney mom!!!

I took the picture my wife took of me doing the re creation of the burrito and quesadilla attacking pictures, and... well, it took it from a side view to a front view, and less of an attack on the food!!! Also, now that I think about it, kind of made me into a Disney dad!!!

And, the selfie of us in the stands at the Kings arena...

And Bailey waving the Kings flag!!! I'd done it as a claymation look, too, and it changed him into a human!!!

I did a lot of car stuff this year. Most of it was on the Studebaker and Kutcher. The main thing that I accomplished with Zonker is to get her to pass smog!!! At some point in there, I'd decided that I didn't have nearly enough pictures of Zonker with the top down, so I took some time on a sunny afternoon and drove over to a local park and took a few shots. As always, the drawing look of remixing the picture yielded a nice result!!!

Another shot, it made it into a hard top!!! As far as I've been able to tell, only the Pontiac sibling came as a hard top. There have been a couple of companies that have done hard top conversions, but you know what??? I don't think I'd want it as a hard top!!!

Had the engine rebuild and swap done on Scruffy, as well as replacing the battery and getting some junkyard parts (including that very cool instrument panel!!!) for her. More on the engine swap to follow...

Another thing that I did a good amount of this year was going to the beach!!! I had been thinking of going there today, for New Years, but it was drizzly most of the morning. Anyway, I did another line drawing of the composite picture I'd done of the younger and friend at Horny Corner, and it came out pretty good!!!

Did a second of the same picture in the claymation style, and it came out funny!!! Looks like they're buried in the sand!!! To be fair, the original was only from the waist up.

Did the picture I took at Grill 'em All of Surrogate giving his sister the side eye. Not bad. Funny, it put a boat in the background with an umbrella instead of a sail!!!

And a shot of the sunset at Santa Monica beach as a painting!!!

And the inheritance of the Studebaker... has ended up taking up a good amount of my time!!! I have yet to finish the intended upgrades to the fuel system, and once I do hopefully it will be fairly roadworthy!!! Remix made it into a cartoon!!!

And in the drawing style, it came out great!!! Also got the Falcon in the picture!!!

The Gaslight Anthem and Counting Crows concert was a great show!!! The drawing of Adam came out great...

The claymation look rendering of the same picture, not so much!!!

I love the way this picture of the Casino from Descanso beach came out in something of an art deco style!!! This is actually an older picture, because we never made it over to Descanso beach this year. I had done a drawing style of a picture I took from the ocean side, and it came out pretty good. Then I did the same picture in the claymation style, and it came out looking not the same... it showed the front side, with a sign on the top, “Avalon Casino”.

I love the way the picture I took of Surrogate making breakfast came out!!!

Not shared, but one of the pictures I took while we were on the Casino Tour was of one of the restrooms. It looked very period correct, and upscale from what you see today. If I ever do manage to do a full post on that, it may be included, but for now, here's a selfie of us in the mirror, remixed as a drawing!!!

And the picture from when we bought our hats in 16-bit!!!

And from the ridge tour we went on...

And Sid!!! Can't forget the world's greatest cat!!! Here's how he'd look in his tube in 16-bit!!!

The picture I took of the guys in their Halloween costumes came out looking great, they look considerably more menacing in the remix!!!

When I had the engine swapped, I'd asked the guy to hold onto the engine he took out (which, if you're keeping track, was the one that originally was in 3). I'd not followed up with him afterwards, and had figured he'd probably recycled it by now, but he called me about a week ago about it. I asked him if he could break it down and give it a cleaning, and I'd pick it up. This Monday I picked it up, and it's much easier to move around when it's in pieces!!! As predicted, the crankshaft is scored, but he says it'll clean up no problem. Anyway, I stored the block, head, and crankshaft in a basement corner and took a picture before I put the box of covers and internals on the top, and remix came up with an interesting take!!!

And that time that Sidney was curled up in the trash can!!!

From our trip to the fondue place on our anniversary, I actually had AI modify the picture. I asked it to change the pot to a cauldron full of a questionable green liquid, and put a hooded cloak on me!!!

Keeping in the same theme, I took another picture from years ago, our crow friend on the iron chair, and it remixed it to be quite Halloween-ey!!