25 December, 2009
21 December, 2009
An Observation Of The Los Angeles Driver.
I noticed it a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's a holiday season thing.
I was driving back from a gig on the 134 freeway in Burbank which happens to have a carpool lane, when I saw something I hadn't seen for quite sometime. Someone driving in the carpool lane who was alone (not carpooling) and wasn't a hybrid with the fancy stickers (for those not familiar, there was a program in California when hybrids started coming out that you could enter a raffle of sorts and win stickers that allowed you to drive in the carpool lane and not be a carpool). My first thought was, "What a jerk", of course the language was more colourful at the time, and this is a family blog, but since I was sitting in traffic, my mind began to wander and think about this solo driver in the carpool lane.
Lots of people, most of whom don't live in or have never driven in Los Angeles traffic say we are the worst, the craziest, most self centered egotistical drivers in the world. While I agree with most of these things, I did realize that for the most part, L.A. drivers obey the carpool lane. It's free game in the regular traffic lanes, people cut each other off, speed uncontrollably (when not crawling in traffic), tailgate, change lanes without signals and the like. But most observe the carpool lane and don't drive there unless they are carpooling. THEN, it's one stake higher with the free game of normal traffic compacted into one (sometimes two) carpool lane(s)... Tailgating, changing into regular lanes over the solid lines, changing lanes without signaling.
Which is to say, you have to be a real genuine, grade A, premium quality, self centered egotistical boob to drive in the carpool lane as a solo. Makes me think his parents didn't raise him right.
So take that to heart fellow Angelenos, though we may be bad drivers, we still have some respect, even if it is just for the carpool lane.
Now parking in handicap spaces in front of stores and offices, don't get me started.
I was driving back from a gig on the 134 freeway in Burbank which happens to have a carpool lane, when I saw something I hadn't seen for quite sometime. Someone driving in the carpool lane who was alone (not carpooling) and wasn't a hybrid with the fancy stickers (for those not familiar, there was a program in California when hybrids started coming out that you could enter a raffle of sorts and win stickers that allowed you to drive in the carpool lane and not be a carpool). My first thought was, "What a jerk", of course the language was more colourful at the time, and this is a family blog, but since I was sitting in traffic, my mind began to wander and think about this solo driver in the carpool lane.
Lots of people, most of whom don't live in or have never driven in Los Angeles traffic say we are the worst, the craziest, most self centered egotistical drivers in the world. While I agree with most of these things, I did realize that for the most part, L.A. drivers obey the carpool lane. It's free game in the regular traffic lanes, people cut each other off, speed uncontrollably (when not crawling in traffic), tailgate, change lanes without signals and the like. But most observe the carpool lane and don't drive there unless they are carpooling. THEN, it's one stake higher with the free game of normal traffic compacted into one (sometimes two) carpool lane(s)... Tailgating, changing into regular lanes over the solid lines, changing lanes without signaling.
Which is to say, you have to be a real genuine, grade A, premium quality, self centered egotistical boob to drive in the carpool lane as a solo. Makes me think his parents didn't raise him right.
So take that to heart fellow Angelenos, though we may be bad drivers, we still have some respect, even if it is just for the carpool lane.
Now parking in handicap spaces in front of stores and offices, don't get me started.
...
15 December, 2009
Holidays In The Get Toe.
As you know from years past, we go to Hawai'i for the holidays. Have yet to miss a Christmas. This one will be sort of special. 40 years of Christmases in Hawai'i. I hope I can double that number.
But that doesn't mean we don't celebrate Christmas in Los Angeles either. We have a tree and decorate the house. This year we went a bit over the edge and bought a bunch of LED lights from Target and lined the house and gate. I had some left over regular Christmas lights so I ran those along the wall in front of the yard. As a matter of fact, here's a picture of the house all lit up.
Wait a minute... Do I have a bunch of bulbs out?
WTF?! There's a bunch of bulbs missing! Who the hell steals a bunch of light bulbs?
Sometimes my neighborhood can be so ghetto. Don't get me wrong, I love the location and some of the houses around us are really nice. But there are some shady people who live around here who I would put it past them to steal a bunch of Christmas light bulbs off my string. Jeez, they should have just cut the cable ties holding the bloody thing up and taken the whole string. That would at least have made my display look semi decent.
As a matter of fact, that's what I'm going to do in the morning. I'm going to take down the string with the missing bulbs, put it back in the box, and leave it on the wall with a note saying:
"Dear person who stole a bunch of light bulbs from me. I'm going to assume this recession has hit you particularly hard and are unable to buy light bulbs for your own Christmas light strings. So in a gesture of good will and to show my holiday giving spirit, here is the whole string and the 9 light bulbs you didn't have time to unscrew. I know this happened during daylight hours because of the 16 bulbs you took, three of them weren't working. Something you probably didn't notice since we have the lights off during the day. If you want to replace those three bulbs that were already blown, I'd suggest going to another house with similar lights. I bought this string at Target, so it shouldn't be too hard to find matching bulbs. Good luck, and have a happy holiday season."
But that doesn't mean we don't celebrate Christmas in Los Angeles either. We have a tree and decorate the house. This year we went a bit over the edge and bought a bunch of LED lights from Target and lined the house and gate. I had some left over regular Christmas lights so I ran those along the wall in front of the yard. As a matter of fact, here's a picture of the house all lit up.
Wait a minute... Do I have a bunch of bulbs out?
WTF?! There's a bunch of bulbs missing! Who the hell steals a bunch of light bulbs?
Sometimes my neighborhood can be so ghetto. Don't get me wrong, I love the location and some of the houses around us are really nice. But there are some shady people who live around here who I would put it past them to steal a bunch of Christmas light bulbs off my string. Jeez, they should have just cut the cable ties holding the bloody thing up and taken the whole string. That would at least have made my display look semi decent.As a matter of fact, that's what I'm going to do in the morning. I'm going to take down the string with the missing bulbs, put it back in the box, and leave it on the wall with a note saying:
"Dear person who stole a bunch of light bulbs from me. I'm going to assume this recession has hit you particularly hard and are unable to buy light bulbs for your own Christmas light strings. So in a gesture of good will and to show my holiday giving spirit, here is the whole string and the 9 light bulbs you didn't have time to unscrew. I know this happened during daylight hours because of the 16 bulbs you took, three of them weren't working. Something you probably didn't notice since we have the lights off during the day. If you want to replace those three bulbs that were already blown, I'd suggest going to another house with similar lights. I bought this string at Target, so it shouldn't be too hard to find matching bulbs. Good luck, and have a happy holiday season."
...
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