No Clever Title

Nope. No clever title: Just not up to it this week. No pictures, either. I went up to visit for a couple of days in Arroyo Grande and took absolutely no pictures. Nada. Spent my time with the moms, mostly, but did get a chance to hit the Sycamore Springs hot tubs.

Paula (my mom) seems to be doing okay for being eighty-whatever. She putters around the house and has organized her environment to take care of the daily things (like having a very reasonable shopping service, a daily dogwalker and a catalog of eateries from which you can order meals.

Kit (my aunt) is getting along, but it's obvious she's weak. She can make it from the living room to her room or the bathroom well enough that she forgets her walker which everyone reminds her to use.

I originally went up to visit the moms because they must be so lonely, but the few days I was there, folks were coming and going all day and into the evening. It made me feel a lot better that there were so many caretakers checking in on them. And, of course, my sister Kittie and her husband David were by whenever feasible.

Another unique aspect to this trip up the coast was that I drove my car. Normally I take the train up and commandeer one of the moms' cars. I drove during the day, so things weren't too bad, although you can't drive very far in California anymore that you don't run into a traffic jam on some freeway.

I got back to Pasadena on Friday afternoon and have been spending the weekend with Steve since then. He's presently attending a homeowners association meeting, since he's one of the officers this year, I think. He took a clipboard with him, so I think he's some kind of official.

It's nice here in the 21st century, though: I was away for three days and kept up on my job search on my iPhone. If I had thought of it, I would have downloaded my resume files to mom's computer, then I could have applied from there.

But I wasn't up there for that, and I would rather spend the time with the moms. And Aunt Kit doesn't speak computer, so it might have been considered downright rude.

And apologies to those of you who missed my presence. I promise to connect up on the next ride up.

Eggs on the Sidewalk

Damn, it's hot! Damn-damn. Damn hot.

It's 104 on the patio. I held off until 1 o'clock before starting up the air conditioning. I can just hear the money slipping away into the pockets of the Pasadena Department of Water and Power, but I'm feeling comfortable again.

But I shall be escaping this heat for the cooler climes of Arroyo Grande. Yes, I shall be going up to visit the moms and lul sis Kittie and her other half David. (I'd say better half, but when you do that you tend to piss off somebody or start a "no, you're the better half" cutesie argument that can become absolutely revolting in short order.

Steve's doing fine. I know he'll miss me when I'm gone, and I'll miss him, too, but I just have to get out of the house and do something different. The forecasts of mid-70s highs on the Central Coast were really the determining factor. And it's been a while since I was up visiting.

So if you don't hear anything on this page for a while, you know why. I'll try to remember and take lots of pictures so I can provide an in-depth and interesting entry when I return.

For the record, I'll be getting up to Arroyo Grande around 3 p.m. on Tuesday and returning here to Pasadena about the same time on Friday.

Until then, stay cool!

What Would Freud Do?

An Oscar Meyer Wienermobile crashed into the home and outdoor deck of Nick Krupp in Racine, Wis. on Friday morning, July 17, 2009. According to a witness, the vehicle was parked in the driveway. The driver lurched the vehicle forward instead of backing out of the driveway, hitting Krupp's deck and cracking the foundation of his house. (Tom McCauley / AP)

Summer Doldrums

Yes, doldrums. More in the maritime definition than an emotional state. Just nothing happening. What a great time to write a blog entry.

It's been hot. Not hot-hot (that will come this weekend) but hot. There are only a few hours out of the day when you just don't want to move or go outside, and by five o'clock in the afternoon things are getting comfortable again. Still, no air moving, the sun beating down, the roads and sidewalks baking, everyone looking for shade; after all, it is summer.

The Emmy nominations came out this week. It was a mixed feeling for me: one the one hand, I was so grateful for not having to go into work early and hassle all day with the extra pages this generates, but I was also feeling left out in a way; this is no longer something that concerns me beyond general interest, and I don't have much interest in the awards as a fan. I was more interested in the effect they have on the industry, the political positioning, when I was part of covering that show biz. Now I'm just kind of adrift, not knowing what my specialty is any longer. And so, the doldrums once again.

Nothing happening on the job front. Day by day I'm going through my tutorials online. Finished the introductory course on Flash, now I'm taking introduction to writing ActionScript 3.0. After this comes intermediate Flash and then intermediate ActionScript. By the time I get through those titles, I should have a fairly good handle on the interactivity of Web sites. Then I just have to marry that knowledge with the Dreamweaver tutorials and, voila, a Web site should be in the making. I'm not sure Cousin Rick's server will be able to handle the bandwidth, though, so I'll probably need to move it to another server and get my own URL once I mount the site.

Part of me wants to rush through all this, and part of me knows that, at my age, all the information will go in one ear and out the other unless I spend my time on this stuff, take notes and play around with the programs as I go. I have to keep reminding myself that I have never taken a formal class in any of the programs I work with now; they just appeared on my computer at work one day and I was told to learn them. In the early days, I'd just take the user's manual home and read through it. Now there are no user manuals (except help sites online), so the tutorials are the only way to go.

Todd Perkins, the guy doing the one's I'm taking now, doesn't do enough of explaining the syntax of the programming language, so you have to kind of guess at it as you go along. At some point it will become obvious, I'm sure. There is a point in learning every new program where you have a digital epiphany and you understand the organization of the program and how to get things done.

On Sunday, Steve and I went over to Robin and Evan's in the Hollywood Hills to visit with Aunt Kit, who was down for a visit. She looked as well as could be expected, but she's definitely slowing down and takes a while to get anything accomplished. Robin is so loving and attentive without being overbearing. It's really sweet to see. I keep meaning to go up to Arroyo Grande for a visit, but there doesn't seem to be a week yet that I can completely free things up. And until I hear from the Employment Development Department about my unemployment, I kind of have to stay close to home for the initial interview. And in August comes the jury duty.

One bright spot this week was a call from Gerry Hiken, my friend up in Palo Alto. Last week, in a fit of social regression, I sat down and actually wrote him a letter using a pen and a piece of paper (remember that?). Well, he got the letter and called me to say congratulations (on our wedding last August). When I got the call I was trolling the employment sites on the Web, and all I could think about was he's congratulating me for being unemployed. He might just do that, as we are both old hippies. Back in the '60s and '70s, breaking away from the establishment was a thing which was encouraged and congratulated, not dreaded and avoided.

He's doing fine except for some problems with his eyes, which are slowly improving. He's going to be working on an old Cole Porter musical which he describes as being well ahead of its time. It closed in Philadelphia back in the 1930s, never making it to Broadway. But he says the score and libretto are excellent (it's an antiwar theme), and he thinks its time is now.

Finally, today, one unnerving development: the direct deposit of my severance pay did not show up in my bank account this morning. I left a message for Sara Rogers, Nielsen's HR person at the Reporter, and hopefully we'll have this cleared up by the end of the day. Hopefully. I'm not panicking about it ... just yet.

An awful long entry for a week where nothing happened. But then, things did happen; just not very interesting things.

In-Depends-dence Day

Another late night trying to get tired. Steve and I are going over to Robin and Evan's tomorrow -- I mean today -- in the early afternoon. Aunt Kit is down visiting and it sounded like a good idea to drop over for a visit, even though I'm planning on going up to Arroyo Grande for a visit in the next week or two.

The July 4th weekend was pretty much like it has been for the last few years. We go over to John's place in South Pasadena for a small get-together of friends and one of his delicious strawberry cakes (which you see glowing intensely on the table below John) and hot dogs and salads, of course. Then we head out to the street to watch the upper parts of the South Pasadena fireworks. It's all very festive and over by 10 o'clock, which is just right for the evening.

Yes, there's a huge fireworks spectacle at the Rose Bowl each year, I know, but neither Steve nor I really enjoy the huge crowds, and we don't know anyone who lives close enough to view them from their home, so South Pasadena will have to do.

Let's see: In the last week I've applied for unemployment, even though I'm still receiving my severance package (you can do that in California; I'm hoping to get a small cash buffer going with a few weeks overlapped so that we can handle anything untoward that occurs in the coming months). Also, I completed the introductory course in Flash CS3 and am now moving on to the introductory course on Actionscript, which is the language that makes Flash go interactive (meaning you, the visitor to a site, can click on things to make stuff happen and put information into little boxes and process information).

At times it all seems very surreal, but no more difficult than learning BASIC or COBOL back in college. Then we had to put our entire program on a stack of punch cards and put them in a bin with a rubber band around them; then we'd some back in two days or so and see if the program had run correctly. If it hadn't, you'd have to check the readout, find the problem and the corresponding punch card, revise the card, put it back in the correct place in the stack, put a rubber band around it and put it in a bin...you get the picture.

So I've got to get my butt to bed now. I don't want to be a bleary-eyed for my visit to the Hollywood Hills tomorrow. Hopefully, writing this will calm my nerves and relax my mind.

Friends of MJ; Summons and Severance

When you go on a cruise, they use a code in the ship activities schedule for what could be considered untoward groups that meet on the ship. If you see a meeting of "Friends of Bill," that means AA meetings. If you see a meeting of "Friends of Dorothy," that means gay people. Now we have a new one: "Friends of Michael," which means folks who are so compelled by Michael Jackson's music or persona that they go to Hollywood and wait on the hot sidewalk in order to look at his star on the sidewalk.

Then there are those like me, "Friends of Friends of Michael"; folks who go to Hollywood and stand across the street from all the people waiting on the hot sidewalk in order to look at his star.

Yes, that's what I did today. I just had to get out of the house, had to do some walking, and Hollywood Boulevard in the summer is just the place to do that if you want to lose yourself in a huge crowd without paying an entrance fee. The crowds outside Grauman's Chinese Theater are usually big, but they were shoulder to shoulder today. I didn't even attempt to walk on that side of the street.

Beyond the Friends of Michael, there's the usual tourists that pack the street. They come to see the stars on the sidewalk, of course, and the footprints in front of Grauman's and the Kodak Theater, where the Oscars are handed out each year. If you look down the street, you see Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, the Wax Museum and, of course, the Hollywood McDonald's.

I took the Gold Line into Union Station from Pasadena and then transferred to the Red Line subway for the trip up to Hollywood Boulevard. I got off at the Hollywood/Highland station, which is just down the block from the scene depicted above. A walk down to the Roosevelt Hotel at the corner of Orange was far enough to take in the scene.

After that, I went down to Mel's Drive-In, which is not a drive-in at all. It's an ersatz '50s diner with passable food. Had an avocado burger (bacon cheeseburger with avocado on it), then walked down the boulevard to the Hollywood/Vine station (about a mile's walk) to get back on the subway. Just up Vine Street is the Capitol Records building.

There was talk about making this into condos a little while back, but I think it was scrapped when all the condos they've already built in converted buildings in this area did so poorly in sales.

Getting into the Hollywood/Vine station is sort of daunting, since there is construction on three sides of it (which should provide a neat shopping-living space once it's completed.

I love this subway station. This is how we do subway stations in Los Angeles. I think it's the coolest one in existence anywhere on the planet. If you ever visit Hollywood, you've got to stop at this subway station. Look closely at the vaulted ceiling in the photo: it's covered with empty film reels all painted sky blue; really looks great with the Egyptian motif. Down on the platform: a yellow brick road and film frames lining the walls where the trains stop. So cool.

From there, it was back down to Union Station (which is also a must-see if you're visiting L.A.), then onto the Gold Line and back home to Pasadena. The whole trip was really pleasant. The weather was in the mid-80s in Hollywood and not quite 90 here in Pasadena when I returned. Summer is definitely here.

But there's more.

When I got home, I checked the mail and discovered a jury summons for yours truly. Wow: everyone's paying attention to me these days. At least I have the time right now to do this most noble of civic duties. And they have made it very easy and as painless as legally possible here in L.A. county.

So I filled out the form and was dialing up the by-phone registration system when the front gate buzzer sounded. It was the FedEx guy with a package for me. It was the severance papers for my job at Nielsen. Wow: more attention.

Inside were duplicate severance documents (a contract of sorts with whereas's and therefore's and lots of painfully dense legal wording. It basically said I wouldn't tell any secrets I knew (which is none) or steal any clients or work for any competing companies or say horrible things about the Nielsen Corporation. Also that I won't come back at some point in the future and sue them for something. (What's to sue for? Providing seven years of enjoyable employment with good compensation in an exciting publication? Providing the best entry on my resume or forcing me to produce the dozens of great designs that are now resident in my portfolio?)

Now why would I do something mean or spiteful to them/it? I had a really good time while I was working there. And I can't blame them for the steps they took to make sure that the corporation stays healthy through this lousy economic period. And, hey, I made it through three other layoffs, so they knew my value. And, to be honest, this time around I'm almost sorrier for those left behind than for me. It's going to be tough to put out the paper every day with the meager crew that's left the in editorial department. But they're all extremely talented and hardworking people, and they'll make it through. (In case you didn't notice, I'm saying nice things about them/it. I don't want it/them mad at or upset with me, 'cause I need the severance pay!)

So I read over the six-page document carefully and have no problems. Just don't ask me to be one of those Nielsen families, because the paperwork is a headache (I know; I did it once for them way back when).

Steve got home for work about the time I was getting into all this paperwork. And, awful person that I am, I told him I was coming up to the office to study some more Flash tutorials, but I ended up doing this blog entry instead. Am I going to hell for that or what?

So I have a month before I have jury duty. Hopefully I don't get empaneled on some multi-month case. Although, with unemployment, it might be an interesting thing to have happen. Ooo. Oooo. How about some celebrity case that I'll be able to write a book about and make a million dollars. It could happen. I buy a lottery ticket every week, and that's a lot more unlikely.