Mystery Machines

My new (used) Prius, named Clifford, wanted to pose with his friends in the parking garage at the office.

Lost Souvenir

Today I got a new crown at the dentist’s office. I have no complaints. It fits snugly, is the right color, and nothing hurts.

Nothing hurt before, but the dentist had pointed out the old porcelain inlay was cracking, and the end of the year insurance reset was imminent, so I went ahead with the crown.

Why does this matter? It doesn’t really. But…

The porcelain inlay was from 2001.

I got it in Cape Town after 16 days on the DAL Kalahari freighter ship from Germany to Cape Town. I was on the first MariesWorldTour, month number 9, and the shipping agent had a dentist they recommended. My old amalgam filling was aching slightly, and the Cape Town dentist pointed out that given I was headed north for a four-month trek on buses and share taxis all the way to Cairo, he figured I was better off dealing with it there in Cape Town rather than having an emergency out in the bush or in the Sahara.

I always liked having a little piece of Africa with me all the time. A tiny porcelain reminder of what my life once was and may be again one day. And now I’ve traded it for a tiny piece of Burbank, which really isn’t the same.

Burbank Holidays

Craft fair weekend, y'all.

(I don't sell pottery, but I might buy some.)

2023 National Bundt Day at the Comics Factory

Today's National Bundt Day was a good one.

We had 7 Bundt cakes, my half Tunnel of Fudge, and a box of mini-Bundts. Everyone who works in the area with DC publishing, or ancillary to DC publishing (including facilities) was invited, but because everyone is hybrid and not all in the office on the same days, just enough people showed up to fill the room.

Here are some before, during, and after photos.

Happy National Bundt Day to you and yours!

Cake Oops

Year two of Tunnel of Fudge disaster.

Vanity In Flight

I can watch myself at 40,000 feet. I'm interviewed in the documentary on the left. 

I won't, because like most everyone else, I don't know how to react to video of myself. But I could. Which is both kind of fun but also weird.

Halloween at the Office

Sometimes I think he’s too accepting.

Just Say No

I went to see writer Sean Howe talk about his new book tonight, over in Echo Park. I thought it would be a record of the magazine HIGH TIMES but the book is about its enigmatic founder, Thomas King Forcade, who was a radical in the seventies, or possibly a grifter, who can really say? Anyway, it reminded me how in the seventies there would be smoke-ins on the national mall, and how pot was everywhere in those days and was nearly legalized under the Carter years. This isn't a book about pot, though, that's just part of the story.

Of course, the Reagan era was coming and the world was about to change a whole lot. Anyway, the book sounded great so I was fortunate enough to buy the last copy at the bookstore and get Sean to sign it.

But you know what makes this book extra-special? Cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz! (Sean let me have one of the posters.)

Eco Horror

I took my empty supermarket plastic clamshells to the farmers market, and filled them with berries. I got away with acquiring no new plastic! But I did get strawberries, blueberries, grapes, plums, and apples.

But I drove my car instead of taking the bus. Can’t win.

Pottery Fail

Win some, lose some.

Unexpected Dilemma

Remember I surprised us all (mostly surprised myself) and bought a used Prius?

Well, turns out California is in some kind of simmering insurance crisis. I have questionable short-term car insurance, but I've been essentially on hold for weeks with my regular insurance company, which I've had various forms of property or car insurance with since 1992.

This week, I'll have to go to one of the agencies (AAA, for example) known for still doing business in California if the underwriter doesn't get a move on. It's confusing and weird, and there are a few articles about it, but mostly, people aren't really talking about this. To know about it at all, you'd have to be either in the middle of switching or you'd have to be applying after not having car insurance for a while (or being a new driver, or maybe moving here from out-of-state).

Anyway, it's annoying. I'm sure eventually I'll be fully insured and I can drive my hybrid with wild abandon, drag race on the 6th Street viaduct, pick up large groceries, that sort of thing.

We Call It Rub & Smell

I've been trying to convince my editorial team to do a fart scratch-and-sniff cover, but no one seems interested. 

I have clearly lost control of the troops.

But Is It My Legacy?

My job isn’t backbreaking hard but it can be challenging in unexpected ways, sometimes wildly unexpected ways. Sometimes exhausting ways.

And then there are days of unbridled fun at putting out books full of creativity by staff and talent.

Stand and Deliver

Here is my Wednesday work poem.* 

Blue Prius
Thin Lizzy
Look the Mystery Machine
Gotta go to P3
I'm late for Looniversity**

*I got a lot of mileage out of saying everyone else had to write a work poem too, but only Editor Katie stepped up.

***For the uninitiated, I bought a used blue Prius, the Mystery Machine (x2) lives in the parking garage at my office building, and the Looniversity is the school attended by Looney Tunes characters, also in my office building. Thin Lizzy? I figured out how my car stereo streams my phone.

Remember the Lines Down the Block?

I thought climate change, me having a real job, and the loss of groundwater were signs of the apocalypse. But nothing prepared me for this. 

In and out of the DMV in four minutes.

An Unexpected Turn of Events

Stop the presses! I did something unexpected. Even I didn't expect it.

I bought a car. A gently used 2016 Prius from a friend's mom. I take possession tomorrow, Sunday.

Why? Even I am not sure. I have done just fine without owning a car in Los Angeles, and I've learned so much about the region by having to navigate it all on trains, buses, Lyft, and rental cars about 8 times a year. I've been to spots longtime Angelenos haven't even visited, more due to my exploring instinct than anything else.

I nearly bought cars a few times over the pandemic, when I didn't want to get on a bus or train, but in the end, there was nowhere to go. I live in what some call a walkable 15-minute neighborhood, near three supermarkets, a weekly farmer's market, multiple restaurants, my office, nail salons, coffee shops, a deli, and in case I'm feeling in need of a greasy spoon with car show, Bob's Big Boy. There are three bus lines nearby, and all of them go to transit hubs--the metro, Burbank's wee airport, the commuter rail, Amtrak.

The only times I really miss having a car are when I want to go to pottery class, to meet someone on the West side, or carry a box to the post office. But I have a wheeled luggage cart for the post office—which is also within ten minute's walk.

So why buy one at this point, eight years into mastering Los Angeles without a car? And when what I was really looking for was a manual transmission, possibly on an ancient VW Bug?

All I've got is the Prius fell into my lap. I went for a test drive and it was silky smooth on the road. And at some point, I'll need to drive home. As in the other home.

Today, I caught the 155 to the Red Line to the 2 bus to Echo Park, and after that took the 4 back to the Red Line to Hollywood/Vine for the 222 bus back to Burbank, then the 155 to the foot massage place and finally walked home. My last hurrah! And you know what? The buses are unchanged, but the Red Line is shockingly filthy and gross still, which happened during the pandemic, and two men had a fist fight at Hollywood and Western.

Nice of the metro to celebrate my last big day on it.

So Far, So Good

Today's semi-dull update: I took an hour of my rainy Sunday to scrub the wheels on my Aeron chair. (A used one I bought off Craigslist early in the pandemic.)

I did this because the gunk had built up and was leaving little marks on my bamboo floor. Eww, gross. I guess I didn't know you had to clean chair wheels. They're clean now.

Unfortunately, it was a real struggle scraping out all my long hair that had wound around the casters. So I ordered some inline skate wheels for my Aeron chair to see if that makes a difference. Will they get gunky? Will they collect hair? I've switched them in--I guess we'll find out.

And Then What?

They promised us a hurricane but we got an earthquake.

Before Storm Hilary

An ambient thickness enshrouds the Los Angeles metropolitan area tonight as we await our atmospheric destiny. Most of the birds seem to have taken shelter wherever they go when they sense danger, and the supermarket's bottled water has vanished too. Though I know where that’s gone. At least the shelves are not bare of toilet paper on this occasion. Probably because everyone bought bidets in 2020. Disaster is no longer novel.

I have about 10 days of earthquake supplies stashed in a corner base cabinet, and I’ve dug out a big candle and lighter. Every mobile device is charging. I recall the robocalls Jersey City used to send out requesting I take in my patio furniture, so I tied up the condo complex’s umbrellas and stacked the chairs. I asked the HOA manager to send out a mass email requesting people move their plants off their balcony walls, and to my surprise, everyone complied.

And so we wait. Floods are inevitable, as in Baja, but Hilary has already been downgraded to a tropical storm, so perhaps the effect on LA will be similar to the dramatic winter thunderstorms we get. We’ll find out tomorrow.

New Problem

I recently learned about little flies that inhabit plants when one waters their plants too much. 

Which I did because I was leaving town, and now I'm learning about how to get RID of these little flies.