Friday, June 29, 2012

Fire? What Fire? Oh, That Fire


It was a typical Thursday evening here in Pasadena. Things had just started cooling off from the 90-degree high of the day. We had just finished a nice piece of chicken and some cornbread stuffing for dinner and we were sitting on the couch, remote in hand, one again in awe that, with the hundreds of channels on cable, there was, again, absolutely nothing worth watching.


Then the fire engines came. Now, this is not unusual, because the fire station is just two blocks away and our street (Villa), being one of the lesser traveled east-west streets, is often used by the fire department to get somewhere in a hurry: We get our fair share of sirens blazing by on their way to provide aid and assistance.


It is most disconcerting when the sirens reach the our block and stop, and, just as we had decided to pop in the Blu-Ray disc of the last Harry Potter movie yesterday evening, that's what happened. Steve checked at the window and said there were paramedics. Then another siren came. And another. And another.


"Do you smell smoke?" I asked, because I couldn't. "No," Steve replied, "but their are firemen out there."


Well, who can pass up a chance to check out firemen? So, as another two sirens approached in the distance, we went out front to watch the commotion. Most of the neighborhood had beat us to the punch, and it was like a small street fair. We noticed that there were two fire hoses running into the apartment complex next door (own by CalTech and rented out to students and faculty working and studying there). We walked back to the gate at our building and ran into one of the neighbors from our complex (our condo is one of seven in our building, with 14 units total in our HOA).


"There must be a fire," Steve said. "Oh, yeah, there's a fire," the neighbor replied, "it's way in the back." So we walked back to the last unit and, sure enough, smoke was coming through a broken, scorched window. Jesse, the resident of the back unit, had taken some iPhone videos of the fire in progress, and those are included herein.



We had six fire trucks altogether respond to the blaze, which was contained to one unit, with the unit above receiving some damage. No one was injured, thankfully, although one cat was seen scrambling out of the burning apartment and had gone missing.


The street was closed off for several hours as the firemen did their work which was nice, because it meant we didn't have any sirens screaming down the street while watching Harry ultimately vanquish Voldemort (I don't think that's a spoiler any longer).


Steve has to get up at 5:45, since he has to be at work at 7 a.m., and even though it's only about 10 minutes away, it's still a drag. Upside of this is he gets off at 3:30 in the afternoon. In any case, he's usually in bed by 10:30 or so, and I stay up later, because I am a night person and there is nothing specific requiring my early rising. I take the opportunity for Steve's early retiring to watch some television that I know he's not interested in. Recently it's been rewatching "Twin Peaks," followed by the Joseph Campbell's philosophy series, "Mythos." It's quite a metaphysical combination.


So that's the excitement of the week from Villa Street in lovely Pasadena. This is an opportunity to make sure your homeowner's/renter's insurance is up to snuff. Remember, smoke damage can be as costly as fire damage, if not more so.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Late Nights

One of the consequences of working at a home business is that your schedule becomes your own, for the most part. You have client meetings scheduled and networking functions to attend, but when you get your work done is pretty much up to you, as long as you hit your deadlines.

I am a night person; always have been. This was one of the reasons I worked so well as a theater artist, because my workday began at 2 in the afternoon and ended at 11 at night. Unfortunately, a theater career paid a dismal salary, and the politics of the arts world just wasn't my cup of tea, so I abandoned that career in my early 30s.

So, of late, I have put in a lot of late nights while working on the ASC handbook, or working on the coding for some interactive part of a web page. I look up at the clock, and all of a sudden it's 3:30 a.m. and I didn't plan to stay up that late.

The night is cool and quiet, and I find it easy to concentrate. And when I go to bed, I am really tired, ready for sleep.

The past few weeks, every other night or so, a mockingbird has taken up residence in the trees across the street: not so close as to irritate, but close enough that you can listen to the varied songs it sings, up alone and attentive to its tune.

Summer is upon us. The rest of the nation has gotten the heat before we have, although there have been a couple days when it reached into the 90s. Mostly, though, we have a morning marine layer that works its way into the valleys and keeps the temperatures in the mid- to upper-80s.

Really, there's nothing much to report of consequence. I still have several potential clients who are on the edge of moving on new websites or website redesigns. I keep networking at the monthly breakfast and luncheon meetings at the chamber of commerce and following up with current clients, trying to not be an irritant.

At the chamber networking functions, they always have a raffle at the end of the meal, and last breakfast I won a 30-minute marketing consultation with (what else) a local marketing consultant. He sent me a fairly long form to fill out, but I have to sit down and write out some questions for him about how to approach marketing.

I want to get the reputation for being the design guy you go to with any problems, a senior statesman of graphics who can take a communications problem and create meaningful, satisfying and cost-effective solutions on a one-to-one basis. I'm doing good work on my own, but how to develop that reputation, I'm not sure.

I'm thinking of putting out another mailing with a purchased mailing list from one of the many list services available online. No free sticky pads this time, but a note inserted urging business people to contact me with their communication problems.

This is a very boring entry. I'm in a hiatus from work. The mockingbird is not at its nocturnal post. With all the potential of the future swirling just out of sight, I am oddly peaceful at the moment, but not yet ready for sleep.

I'm going to enjoy this slice of surcease, because things will start zooming about me soon enough.