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Santa Ana’s

February 1, 2017

This a story about a weather pattern in Southern California called the Santa Ana winds. This story is primarily for my readers who don’t live in the greater Los Angeles area. This is when the winds are blowing out of the east north-east. This happens when there is a high pressure system parked over Washington State or Oregon. In a high pressure system, the winds blow clockwise around the system (in the northern hemisphere).

That means for the folks in our neck of the woods, the winds are blowing out of the East Northeast over the Mojave Desert. The Mojave is between LA and Las Vegas. When this happens in the summer it can be brutally hot and windy.

When it happens this time of the year, it means the rain stops and we get clear dry winds. Temps the last couple of days have been the low 70’s.

The winds also blow all of the smog out to sea. That means visibility is greatly improved. One can see the mountains east and north of LA. The picture above is the view from our Masonic Lodge in San Pedro. If you look closely, you can see the snow capped mountains.

Oh one more thing, we’ve been getting a lot of rain lately out here. That means all of the brown grass has turned into green grass. Green is beautiful!

Categories: California, Los Angeles
Tags: weather

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Wild Fire

July 25, 2016

Well, it occurred to me that our friends back east might be wondering whether we were affected by the current wild fires in Southern California. The current fire that is called the “Sand Fire” is big in the news out here. I am not always quite sure how the locals come up with a name for a fire. But they’re fighting the fire, they can name it whatever they want.

The local hour long news this evening spent about 45 minutes covering the fire. Then the national news led the program with news about fire in Southern California. Okay, Los Angeles is a huge area. LA County is about as big as Rhode Island.

So here’s a map of Greater Los Angeles.

We live down near Long Beach which is mostly an urban area. Not much chance of wild fire. The current fire (called the “Sand Fire”) is up near Santa Clarita. The 14 freeway that runs from Simi Valley to Palmdale has been shut down due to the fire. Many people have been evacuated due to the fire.

There is certainly a risk to owning a home up near the mountains especially now due to the drought. Risk is much less for us down south in an urban setting. A lot of the people that live up there own wild stock, horses and the like. So, evacuating is not easy.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro
Tags: Fire, Wild Fire

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Date Night

April 24, 2016

Jungle Book Saturday was date night. We really needed to get out without Mom even if only for a couple of hours.

So, we went to see the movie “The Jungle Book“. I guess we are getting cheap in our old age. Jungle Book was available in iMax 3D, Regular 3D and old plain 2D. 2D was $7 a person for Seniors. iMax was $17. We did the old fashioned 2D. Characters were voiced by Bill Murray, Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Christopher Walken and many more fine actors and actresses.

The film is rated PG and rightly so. There are parts that are pretty violent and might be a bit scary for little kids. I wouldn’t take a kid to see it under the age of 8 or 9.

We loved it. We went to a 4:45 showing and there were a lot of families with kids in the theater. I particularly liked Baloo voiced by Bill Murray where he starts singing the “Bare Necessities”. We also liked the scenes with King Louie.

Here’s the Bill Murray version from Youtube. I will be playing this tune at Lodge in a couple of weeks.

When you compare this version with earlier versions you can readily see how far the animation technology has come. This film was filmed completely in Los Angeles.

I would give the film 8.5 stars out of 10. We loved it.

And by the way, you can download the Kindle version of the Rudyard Kipling Book from Amazon for $.99. What a deal.

Now for dinner part of date night. We had hoped to try the Hopsaint Brewery restaurant in Torrance. Saturday night was not a good time. We couldn’t even find a parking space. We’ll try another time when it might be less busy.

We came up with a plan B. We decided to go to the “San Franciscan” in Torrance. I was itching to have a good steak. We don’t have a barbeque grill at our place (forbidden my HOA). It was busy too, but at least we found a parking space. Had to wait 20 minutes for a table.

I had a 9 oz Filet Mignon. Paula had something called a “Drunken Sam”. The menu descrbes it as

“Filet mignon, pan fried in burgundy wine and brandy. Served atop fried eggplant and topped with an Ortega chile and jack cheese”

I had a taste. It was very good. Paula cleaned her plate. This is not fancy and the decor is rather plain but food is excellent. This is our place to go to when we have a hunger for steak.

Categories: Books, Films, Food, Los Angeles, Movies, Reviews
Tags: Hopsaint, Jungle Book, Review, Rudyard Kipling

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Rain

January 10, 2016

This post is intended for my friends on the east coast. It is raining in Los Angeles. It has been raining off and on for last couple of weeks. It’s been snowing in the mountains. This is good for us. That doesn’t mean that I like it.

So I am a “blow-in”. I moved to San Pedro in the summer of 2012. The term “blow-in” is a somewhat derogatory term used in many suburban towns in Massachusetts. A “blow-in” is some one who has blown in from somewhere else and insists that they know how things ought to be run.

The opposite of a “blow-in” is a “townie”. A townie is someone who has lived there all their life along with their parents and the parent’s parents. A townie has had the same teachers in school as their parents.

But I digress. Back to the subject at hand, rain. Up until last week, I hadn’t seen rain in the better part of a year. I had almost forgotten how to turn on my windshield wipers. I had to dig out the umbrella from the back of my Jeep.

One way, we can tell if we have had a rainy winter is that one can see green grass growing on the hillsides. The same grass will be golden brown by August. This rain probably won’t mean the end to the drought, but it will help.

As many of you have heard that our rain is due to El Nino this year. El Nino changes the jet stream such that low pressure systems that would normally turn left at the Pacific coast and head up to Washington and Oregon. Now the low’s head right for LA.

In Mass. one never sees any old VW beetles. They have all rusted away. In LA, 30 year old beetles are common. No rain means no rust.

The other effect of the rain is mud. After the wild fires in the summer, all of the vegetation is gone. So when it rains in the winter, there is nothing to hold the earth in place. The end result is mud slides. A very nasty mess.

I will close with a humorous video I recently found on youtube about how LA people react to the news of rain.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Silly Stuff
Tags: California, Rain

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Grammy Museum

November 2, 2015

It’s been a busy weekend here in LA. Paula, Andrea and I went to church then lunch at the Gaffey Street Diner. We then went home so that Paula could check on her mother. Then we headed to the Grammy Museum in downtown LA. We wanted to see the Frank Sinatra exhibit. The Grammy museum is located downtown near the Staples Center and the LA Convention Center. There was some sort of event at the convention center. It was some sort of comic-con event. Lots of people dressed in strange costumes. We thought, oh oh parking may be a challenge.

Not so, we got into a parking lot nearby for $10 for three hours. So we got in for $10.95 for senior tickets. Nobody ever cards us to prove we are older than dirt. This is the second time we’ve been to the Grammy museum. Three floors of recording star memorabilia. Always interesting. The displays change from time to time.

We had been here a few months ago to see the exhibit on Whitney Houston. A very sad event indeed. Usually they start you on the fourth floor and work your way down. The Sinatra exhibit was on the second floor. That’s where we started.

There was lots of Sinatra memorabilia from the early days to the later period. They were showing a short video in the Clive Davis theater of a Sinatra concert. Here are some pictures.

Here’s a youtube link to Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York”

After we were done with the Sinatra exhibit we went up stairs to look at the exhibits on “The Supremes”. Here are some pictures. I loved the gowns.

And finally a youtube clip from the Supremes.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Museums
Tags: Grammy, Museums, Sinatra, Supremes

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Getty Museum

October 30, 2015

Our friend Andrea flew down from Sacramento for the weekend so that we could visit the Getty Museum in LA. Our primary goal was to see the Hellenistic Sculpture exhibit. Photography not allowed in the exhibit, so best I could do is take a picture of the poster.

Admission was free. Only had to pay $15 for parking. What a bargain.

The museum is located just off the 405 north of LAX in the Santa Monica mountains. This is some prime real estate with views to die for. So you park in the garage and take free shuttle to the center. The center has free WiFi and is probably the fastest public WiFi I’ve ever seen.

We went on a tour of the sculpture exhibit with a very knowledgable docent. The tour was free too. Here is a link to the Getty web site that many pictures of the sculptures. I expect that link will come down soon after the exhibit closes on Sunday. So go surf the Getty images on their web site while you can.

Here are some pictures of the architecture and the grand views.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Museums
Tags: Getty, Los Angeles, Museums

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Saturday

August 29, 2015

Our friend Andrea is still with this Saturday. We started off our day with a visit to the Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro.

The Bell is located on South Gaffey Street in San Pedro. It was a gift of the Republic of South Korea in 1976. It is sited on a beautiful park with views of Santa Monica and the LA Harbor. We could actually see Santa Monica today.

Once we were done with the Korean Bell, we headed to Santa Monica to have lunch at Gladstones. As is common on any day in LA, the traffic is always heavy. Gladstones is one of the best sea food restaurant in LA with a view that can’t be beat. Andrea and I both had fish and chips, Paula had a shrimp louis salad. So we arrived at Gladstones at about 1 pm. We were seated immediately.

Once we were done with lunch, Paula and Andrea went for a walk on the beach. I sat in the shade in the clam shell pictured above. Of course, we paid the price of traffic on the way home down the 405 and the 110. So mote it be.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro
Tags: Gladstones, Korean Bell

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The Grapevine

August 13, 2015

If you live in Southern California, you know about a stretch of road called the “Grapevine”. This post is more for my east coast friends who have never been west of the Mississippi. The section of road runs through the Angeles National Forest from the urban sprawl of Los Angeles to the acres of farmland in the California Central Valley. The road can be particularly nasty during winter months with ice and snow (but not so much of recent years).

Often times we will stop at the town of Castaic for lunch. Castaic is the southern terminus of the Grapevine. Castaic is the last bit of civilization before we hit the Grapevine.

So we will be heading up through the Grapevine on our way to San Francisco for an OES reception on Saturday.

Here’s the map.

And while we’re on the subject here is in a blast from the past, Marvin Gaye singing “I Heard it though the Grapevine”

Listen and enjoy.

Categories: California, Los Angeles, Music, Travel
Tags: Grapevine, Marvin Gaye, Oldies

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S.S. Lane Victory

June 26, 2015

Paula and I were feeling kind of bored this morning. We were all caught up on our errands. Nothing on our OES or Assistance League calendars. And, Mary didn’t have anything on her agenda. Seeing as we didn’t just want to just hang out. We decided to take a ride down to the harbor and take a tour of the SS Lane Victory. The Lane Victory was holding a grand celebration of the 70th anniversary of her launch at the end of WWII

The Lane Victory is one of only six remaining Victory class cargo ships built during WWII. There were over 5000 victory ships built during the war The Victory ship design was based on the earlier Liberty ship. The Victory ship had a larger engine and slighttly larger cargo capacity. Faster speed allowed them to better evade German U-Boats. Victory ships could do about 14-16 knots while Liberty ships only about 10 knots.
We had a personal tour done by Art Morrison. .Mr Morrison is one of the few remaining veterans of the US Merchant Marine and served during WWII. He did pretty good for a 90 year old man going up and down the steep steps.

We started with a tour of crew quarters, then officers’ quarters then up to the bridge. There were a few modern devices add to the bridge (eg. ship-to-shore radio). Here’s the views from the bridge.

Then we headed down to the number 2 hold. The hold is set up as a mini-museum with four Jeeps, a steam engine, a torpedo and a mine plus a ton of other memorabilia.

Here are a few more outside views.

Finally, we finished our tour with a hamburger, chips and a beer that was being served as part of the anniversary celebration.

Categories: Los Angeles, San Pedro
Tags: LA Harbor, Liberty Ships, San Pedro, SS Lane Victory

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The Moving Wall

May 23, 2015

This morning, Paula and I visited an exhibit at Green Hills Cemetery called “The Moving Wall“. The Moving Wall is a half sized replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. It is intended for those do not have the resources and/or ability to visit the Memorial in Washington DC. It will be in Rancho Palos Verdes at Green Hills until May 25. Go to the web site to find out more about the Wall and the its schedule.

I have never visited the memorial in Washington. Visiting Washington is not high on my bucket list. So this is the next best thing. There were only a few people viewing the Moving Wall. I thought there would be more on Memorial Day weekend.

I can only imaging how the full size wall looks. I just looked at the number of names in awe. I never served in the Vietnam. During that time, I was getting pretty fed up with our leaders with respect to the lies that they were telling. Looking at the wall you get a feel about how big a number 58,000 is. And that it represents the brave men and women who died for a really, really bad idea.

The wall is sitting at the top of a hill at Green Hills, with a spectacular view of the Los Angeles harbor. What a shame that some of those service men and women are not here to enjoy the view.

For my friends in the LA area, drop by the Green Hills Cemetary to see the wall.

Here are some of my pictures.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Categories: California, Los Angeles, San Pedro
Tags: Memorial Day, Vietnam

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