What an absolutely beautiful day here in Playa del Rey. Mid 70's clear and sunny
with a nice breeze. Precisely perfect.
My computer and central hang out spot is at a counter in my kitchen right next to a big sliding door to the patio, and it's all windows. So on a day like this, I'm practically sitting outside with a great sunny view of nothing but open fields and trees to the ocean. The Pandora is MC-ing Texas swing and the Blues, and life is good. Eventually, someday we all end up on Celebrity Severed Heads Roadshow as someones attempt to strike it rich.
I pointed out my sliver of an ocean view. It's an ocean view if you're an eagle
with binoculars.
The only thing wrong with that is having no more days like this. Please after the show, mount my head facing west toward the Pacific.
Right now: 75 deg., no shirt, no shoes, and since I don't follow TOP any longer,
shorts. I could use a servant, or maybe a Danish maid to pick up a few things
around here. Strictly professional of course.
49 comments:
Say what you will about California, the weather and scenery is beautiful. If we could only do something about the people :-)
We had a beautiful day here too. The temps in the high 60's low 70's even at these elevations. We are having a very pretty indian summer. Since we bought a used camp trailer we decided to take a tour of some of the national parks and state parks in our area: scouting for possible camping locations for our maiden voyage in places nearer to our home base.
After going to the dump (I know...soooo exciting) we drove around through beautiful fall foliage at the lower elevations and BIG timber and impressive lava formations at the higher locations. We spotted several pretty spots right next to creeks, rivers or lakes. And spent much of the trip dreaming about what we would need to take and how we would be able to have enough ice for our drinks. I may even get a fishing license again!!
Ahhh, Thanks Lem. It's like you all came over to visit. Can I get you a drink? I have extra shorts if you'd like to get comfortable. Yea, enough for everyone. Kick off the shoes. I'll fire up the Jacuzzi and get some wood going in the chiminea.
I like the ceremonial dog lounge.
I'll have mojito and some shorts, please.
Thanks Bags.
Watching the Sox putting on a comeback against the Orioles.
They already clinched the playoffs, the division, home field advantage, so you could say this is a 'meaningless game'... but you wouldn't know it by their hustle. they keep winning. they aren't letting up.
I'm cautiously optimistic.
I too am a sucker for the Mojito. I like all girly drinks. It's coming right up kitten. Don't speak to any other men until I get back. Some of these guys are sickos.
Well, Lem is safe ........ as long as the game's on.
Can you stock up on gin for me?
hey April, haven't I seen you somewhere?
Ooo - they are beating the Orioles? Were the Little Sisters of the Poor not able to play?
I'm trying to figure out how you can live right there in LA, so close to the ocean, and have all that open space all around you?
You must be rich.
They have a no show color guy up in the booth, the Red Sox broadcast do.
So, I went and goggled him wondering what had happened, he had disappeared from the booth, no explanation, nothing.
It turn out his son, Jerry Remy's son, killed his girlfriend, the mother of Jerry's his granddaughter.
No wonder they have been silent about his absence. up in the booth I mean.
Lem! The game is on and the Sox are winning. (The sox are winning, right?)
Palladian and I are just enjoying the view...
Not now... I had to open my mouth.
CA was always a place I wanted to live when I was growing up.
I drove out to LA with a friend when I was 16. We were broke as could be and stayed in all these horrible grungy motels each night. We had a blast, though.
My uncle flew me out to northern CA when I was (15? I cannot remember now). He was gay and lived with his companion in San Francisco over the summer. My mom had a fit and only allowed the trip if I could stay with someone else. So I stayed with a woman down in The Mission. My uncle, his partner and I traveled all over northern CA by car - it was beautiful.
Your dogs look like one happy crew; they must love having all that space to run around.
"I'm trying to figure out how you can live right there in LA, so close to the ocean, and have all that open space all around you?
You must be rich."
When I bought this house in 1995, I was supporting a family of four on less than 40K.
I live right next to LAX airport, and all that land you see is a sanctuary for the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. I shit you not - look it up.
All that land used to be houses - middle class houses, but some with great ocean views. In the sixties, they bought them all out and tore them down because the expanding airport would be too close. I live on the last street they left standing. It is expensive now, but I got in early and cheap. When I moved in here, the kids said what about those planes. I said the planes are our friends. Without them so close we could never afford to live here.
You don't really notice the planes. They takeoff right behind my house, but about 2 miles away. Anyway, one man's noisy too close airport is another man's 1000 acre dog run. It is probably the biggest undeveloped area in L.A., and that's exactly why I chose it. Some people actually ask me if I own all that land, but I only have a tiny city plot, but I tell them of course I do.
BTW, you never see the owners of that land - Mr. & Ms. El Segundo Blue - tiny little butterflies that a house wren swallows in one gulp. They are pretty, but rarely seen. I think because they're very uppity types, and don't hang with us mammal riff raff in the neighborhood.
That's a dream spot, Bagoh. Wow. I totally get the trade-off with the planes.
I'm not Danish, but I've got a Swedish last name. I'm also not a maid, but... how many acres did you say you're adjacent to?
...another man's 1000 acre dog run. It is probably the biggest undeveloped area in L.A.
That is very cool.
I heard once that butterflies make excellent neighbors.
Paddy O - He's got shorts, too. and he makes excellent girly drinks.
What's great about that plot is that there are other places in the LA region that are adjacent to wilderness. But almost all of those risk major fire danger.
Christie is fighting beach front home owners who now don't want dunes to block their view of the ocean.
The dunes that may save their home when another Sandy like storm hits.
Unbelievable.
Lem - Those dunes are beautiful. If they provide shelter isn't that a win/win?
People.
Bagoh was not shittin' us.
So that link says the sanctuary is 200 acres and that's about 1/3 of the area back there so not 1000 acres, but maybe 700 - 800.
So I tried this crazy little idea at home that I saw in Vegas, and it worked. I took this video and prickly photo just tonight. You guys stopping by to visit inspired me to post something to my blog for a change.
Water on Fire
Say what you will about California, the weather and scenery is beautiful. If we could only do something about the people :-)
I've been in the Mojave Desert many times in the summer. I'm not sure I'd buy that. And the last time I went through the Central Valley (about four years ago?), it looked worse than the Mojave.The stuff north of Marin County looked good, though.
hey April, haven't I seen you somewhere?
Probably in that burger joint where they served five dollar milk shakes, back when five dollar milk shakes were unusual.
I prefer stout beer, but am not averse to girly drinks if the setting is right. The shorts thing is never an issue in California.
Christie is fighting beach front home owners who now don't want dunes to block their view of the ocean.
The dunes that may save their home when another Sandy like storm hits.
Unbelievable.
Lem, a great many people who own beachfront property are dumber than rocks. The amazing thing is that you usually have to be rich to own such property. Thus the term stupid-rich.
The ocean here has a nice wide beach, but then hits a 100ft cliff, then I'm on top of that at about 140ft above sea level. I wonder what would happen if a tsunami like the one that hit Japan hit here. I'm about 1 mile from the shore. I think I might be safe from one like that, and might get a great show, but not from one like in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". That shit would ruin my rose bushes.
Iowahawk
My wife's been out of the country for almost 2 weeks, and I'm really starting to get pent-up dishes.
Nice dogs!
Lem, a great many people who own beachfront property are dumber than rocks
They enjoy taxpayer-subsidized insurance that guarantees they'll get their homes back even if a hurricane wipes them out.
They aren't stupid at all. Why give up a great view when somebody *else* will get stuck with the bill for it?
I lived in San Diego for a few months, and wanted to stay permanently. But the high cost of real estate, the traffic jams and the omnipresent state government drove me away.
California has always seemed to be contradictory, at least to me. It has the most beauty, the most abundant natural resources of any state, and also the most effed up local and state governments.
I've kept California on the list of places where I can live during retirement. It keeps dropping to
the lower rungs of the list, though. States like Texas and Tennessee and North Carolina and Florida keep moving up the list.
Alaska has been added to the list, odd as that seems. Summer in Alaska, winter in Wisconsin is a possibility. My state tax rate drops to zero if I make Alaska my state of residence, plus the oil payout to residents is about $3000 annually.
"These things grow like a federal bureaucracy."
Heh.
So, I wonder what's going on in the hospital?
I have a good friend who lives at Playa Vista. It's a great location.
Allen, Trooper seems to be doing pretty well. He's probably going home soon. He seems in good spirits.
Bags, You look like a man w/ a plan.
Haz, Summers are great in Alaska. Been there twice. But that midnight sun is rough on me. Blackout shades would help that one problem.
I guess it's all relative, but San Diego traffic doesn't seem all that bad to me. Particularly when you consider there's an ocean that eliminates folks living west of downtown.
Winter in Wi??? So, you're the one who likes Wi in the winter.
Nice digs and dogs! The perfect So Cal spot with Ocean View and shy butterflies and airplanes for neighbors. From my place I can hear the planes taking off at SFO at night. If the atmosphere's right, the windows shake. After the first month it stopped waking me up. Can't hear them during the day due to the noise of humanity.
Fall arrived yesterday up here in No Cal. Definite change in the air, like summer just gave up and said fuck it i'm outta here. Hoping for more precipitation this winter. We need it.
Shweet. How is the fire coming out of the water? It looks like you stuck a butane torch under the water.
Michael -- we are working on eliminating the state income tax in NC. Keep us on your list.
Nice motorcycling roads, too.
JAL - that's interesting. Without a state income tax, Asheville would be at the top of my list. Will it really happen?
Nick - I've been to Alaska, going as far north as Deadhorse. The place has gotten into my blood. Summers are extraordinary, as long as you have a dark room at night. Anchorage in winter isn't much colder than Milwaukee; Juneau is usually a bit warmer.
Deborah,
It's natural gas and pretty simple. Just a copper tube with very tiny holes drilled in it. It goes just below the surface of the water. You need something to keep it lit in the wind, so I have a small tube with just one hole that rises just above the surface and acts like a pilot light to keep it relighting itself as the wind tries to blow it out. There are a couple small companies that manufacture and sell them on the internet. I built my own just as an experiment, and it works so well that I think I'll keep it. It uses a lot of gas though.
Fire water. That's some crazy radical living on the edge feng shui.
Thanks, bago. It looks really cool, and the wind only adds to it.
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