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.

... So I Drove Her to Boyle Heights!!!

There's this park that a lot of family friends and us end up going to on a fairly regular basis. It's actually the park where Colby Jack (since renamed the rather generic Simba) came from. Back in June we were heading there for a picnic while the Lineage Logistics warehouse was on fire for a while, in yet another show of the incompetence of our city under the current mayor.

I had been hearing about, smelling, and seeing the plume from the fire for most of the week. They were saying it was in Boyle Heights, but that's one of those localities that I'm kind of unclear of the boundaries of, and I didn't bother to look it up to see exactly where it was.

While we were heading there, I got a much better look at the plume and saw more or less nearly exactly where it was!!! Not far at all from that park, and the plume was turning the sun red!!! The way the wind was blowing, it wasn't that smoky at the park.

We went there again not long after that for the 4th of July. By this time, the fire was out, but now all the food that had been stored in the warehouse was rotting!!! Once again, for the most part the breeze would be blowing in a way that you usually don't smell it from there, but every once in a while it would shift to where you get a whiff. It's not far from the freeway, and there's a pedestrian bridge over it, which is where this picture was taken.

Went there again for a birthday a little later. Someone had a Frisbee, and it got thrown up on the roof over some tables and the restrooms, so they had boosted up a girl, then while she was up there had her throwing down candy for the kids!!!

The most recent trip there was on Labor Day, and once again headed over to the pedestrian bridge. Also on that day there was a Giratina raid close by that had a bunch of people who'd signed up with the recently introduced RSVP system, so a few of us joined in and did it.

Just before that weekend a storm had blown through and left a lot of cloud cover, which made for some dramatic sunset!!!

Another recent time we were there for a gender reveal, so there's some more smoke!!! First one I've ever been to. The smoke seemed a little inconclusive, but it's a girl!!!

By the way, the title refers to a joke I'll use for a stinky area. I usually use it for Norco (You know how to get to Norco??? Go east until you smell it, then go south until you step in it!!!)

She told me to kiss her where it stinks... So I drove her to Boyle Heights!!!

Kalos Calling

Last month, just a little before the younger's birthday, Pokemon GO was doing a live event near us, at the Rose Bowl. The GO Tour Kalos. Right around this time last year they'd had one, and I had been thinking of going, but by the time I looked into getting tickets, it was sold out. Since it was near the boy's birthday, I figured this would make another good present for him (and me)!!!

They had three areas, the City Center, the Coastal Research Laboratory, and Mountain Manor. This was the City Center, it had a fountain with water flowing out of the middle of a Pokeball.

There was some theming like that, and cut outs of team leaders set up around the area, but mostly the attractions were in game.

It had been raining that week, so some of the areas were a bit muddy, but it was mostly clear on that day. A really nice day to be out!!! Started out chilly (there was snow up on Mount Wilson) but warmed up as the day went on.

Most of the play area was on the surrounding golf course.

A couple of screen shots of the play area, the first showing the actual stadium...

And another on the golf course, on the other side of the river. You can see, there are a lot of gyms and stops, several of them for the event.

Did I mention the river??? It's the northern portion of the Arroyo Seco!!! Just a little north of there is the Devil's Gate reservoir, one of these days I'd like to check it out. You might be able to hike to it from where we were, but there were other activities afoot!!! I had an Ampharos as my buddy at the time, because it mega evolves, and having it as your buddy gives you more mega energy. It was a poffin day!!!

There's the cabin they had for the Mountain Manor area. When we were first there, there was a big line to go in. We had no clue what was going to be in there, so we weren't eager to get in a big line.

Later on the line was considerably shorter, and we checked it out. It was cool, but nothing that great.

The Coastal Research area had white boards and a computer terminal set up, as well as the three team color cylinders shown in an earlier picture.

Eggs in incubators, and shown on the white board here is something they were rolling out, link charges. They're used in mega raids, but I don't quite understand how they work...

And there's my Ampharos next to what appears to be a mossy lure module, it appears to be much larger than I'd pictured in person!!!

They had several things they rolled out that day, one of them was the super mega raids. You've got to have something mega evolved to get through the shields to defeat them, and the 'mon you catch after has a fourth level of mega evolution that you can achieve. We only did one super mega raid for a Gardevoir, which I didn't have the required amount of mega energy for it yet. I took this screen shot of the waiting queue for it, with 796 participants!!! It wasn't hard to do with that many, but they rolled out the Dragonite mega evolution afterwards, and we were unable to defeat the super mega raid with our normal wrecking crew of 4.

Another of the debuts on this day was the shiny Honedge. We did several raids (the pass we bought came with several passes, I'm not sure exactly how many, but we ran through them all!!!) and both got our shinies. Also pictured, one of the other things they've added recently is backgrounds (that only show in your own game, so...) and for the event, you could get some with the Los Angeles skyline as a background!!! Looks great!!!

Another one that we did a few raids of was the Yveltal, and the first one I got a shiny!!!

Caught in the wild was a shiny Pancham, and since it's kind of that color, I've renamed it Tancham!!!

Two mega evolutions were also debuted, one of them was the Malamar. I had a shiny Inkay already, but during one of the raids I caught a shiny Malamar.

The other mega evolution released was for Victreebel, another one that I already had a shiny of. I think I got another.

Another wild catch, a shiny Skiddo!!! Don't see many of the non shiny ones even, so this is pretty cool!!!

Another thing they were doing for the event, there were various stops with different trims of Furfrou that you usually can't get in our area. While you're near them, you can get the trims. I had two shiny Furfrous, and while we were there I caught two more!!! I was able to trim all the shinies with trims not normally available. One of the tasks that came with the ticket was to visit all the various trim stops, in a specific order. Hadn't picked up on that at first, so we ended up doing a little more walking than we would have!!! I applied the Kabuki trim to the first shiny Furfrou I'd caught!!!

A Look Back Recap

Here's some of what has happened recently!!!

Years ago, the boys had been sledding down into the canyon. A few weeks ago I was out doing some yard work, and a trio of neighborhood kids showed up with a sled of their own and did some of their own sledding!!! Nice to see area kids still getting up to outdoor hijinks!!! I didn't take a follow up picture of the unceremonious dismount...

Back in December the younger and I had gone down and visited my mom around Christmas. My sister and her youngest son also came down, and we all met up at the John's Incredible Pizza near where my mom lives. My wife wasn't feeling well, we'd all been off and on sick during that time. My cough came back and hung on for a month or so after, but when we were all feeling better, I wanted to go visit my mom again. Surrogate came along, as well. Haven't made mention, but the restaurant Stacked that we'd been to a few times didn't survive the stupid times, but while we've been in the area my mom lives, I've searched restaurants in the area, and turns out not far away there's another Stacked!!! Naturally, that's where we went!!!

They've done away with the “order on an Ipad” gimmick, but you can still craft your burger to order. I've mentioned that I'll almost always make one with sauteed onions and bleu cheese, and there was a burger close to that already on the menu, for less than I could have one built for, including bacon. I had to specify sauteed onions instead of the raw it came with, and added garlic aioli, and it came out great!!! I also like the building better, as well, it has the same look as the one we used to go to, but the windows towards the street are able to completely roll up for a fresh air dining experience, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!!! Photos came up with a look back collage of our visit, and Halloween 2015!!!

I did a whole post that was mostly about how the driver's side headlight on Kutcher has always given me trouble. At that time, I had gotten a socket that was touted as high temperature. Back in January, it happened again!!! I found out that there were some places that make ceramic sockets, so I ordered one, and got it going again. Not long after that, the headlight bulb itself burned out!!! Bought a replacement bulb, and took care of it yet again... for now (Jinx!!!)

Oh yeah, there's a shot of the new battery...

A friend of mine had bought his car with LED headlight bulbs installed, and a little after I'd replaced the socket, then the bulb on Kutcher, one of his had burnt out. He asked me if I could help him out with it, and I bought him a new set of bulbs and helped him install them. His high beam bulbs were still conventional halogen bulbs, and the set I bought had replacements for both, so I told him my tax for helping him was I got to keep the bulbs that still worked. Shortly after that, the driving light on the driver's side of Kutcher went out again. The lens has a small hole cracked through it, and it had rained, and I theorize that when it rains, cold water will splash on the hot bulb and break it. Anyway, the one low beam LED bulb I'd removed matched the driving light bulb, so it's now in there!!! Of course, it has kind of a bluish cast, while all the other three lights have the yellowish halogen cast, so it's an odd one out. One of these days, I'll get those yellow driving lights installed!!!

My wife had suggested going back to Pie 'N Burger again. Apparently, it is now our just after Valentine's Day tradition!!! They've got a lot of items with chili on it on the menu, and we hadn't tried it last time, so this time I upped my fries to chili cheese fries. It was OK, but I wouldn't recommend them for their chili!!!

We split a slice of peach crumble pie for dessert. Go there for the pie!!!

I had mentioned that one of the pumps at the local Arco had caught on fire last year. They still haven't replaced the pump, or done much with the awnings. They've got the pump boxed off, and it's been tagged up,

I had made mention that the new phone holder in Kutcher had some issue rotating out of the proper position, and I'd put in on the forward part of the center console, with the arm pretty much straight up, and that had done the trick. A few weeks ago, the suction cup came off, and I'd stuck it back. It didn't stay, so I pulled it out, gave it a good cleaning, and it held for a week, then was falling off again. Time to go to the drawing board... I took the arm portion from the previous one (it has the same ball mount for the holder part) and made up a piece of plastic with a little portion that came out, that I could mount to one of the bolts holding the center console down. It worked, but it was close to the emergency brake handle so you had to pull it up with a finger or two, and the phone was almost laying flat.

It kind of worked, but really not acceptable. I bent up a steel angle that would mount to two of the center console bolts, and used the same plastic base to mount it to the upright. Fairly solid, and a lot closer to where it should be!!! I may take it back to the drawing board again, and rotate the base a little farther back. Shouldn't be difficult.

Had the younger's birthday get together last weekend. It was pretty cool, we went on a short neighborhood walk, they played on the swing across the street, and played a little basketball (horse). I didn't get many pictures, and most of the outdoor ones didn't come out good because it was dark out. Here he is in a shirt my wife got him, after he opened the cologne I got him. He's said for years that he'd like to get cologne that smells of petrichor, the smell after it rains, and I found some!!!

A few weeks ago, they did another rocket launch from Vandenberg, and somehow it left this crazy looking contrail!!!

A few weeks ago we'd gone to Goodwill again, I forget what even for, but I found another shirt!!! It was the sale of the day tag, and my size, and in an underrepresented color!!! Interesting, the DeLorean pictured is unmodified!!! I took the picture here with the cam in my computer, possibly the first time I've ever used it for a picture!!!

I had seen this new Mountain Dew flavor, Baja Cabo Citrus, a few weeks before, but didn't buy it. When I was getting supplies for the boy's birthday, I picked some up. It's pretty good, the flavor makes me think it's heavily tangerine.