Minor Luck

I am, I suppose a lucky person. I have reasonable health, I have lovely friends and I live in a place with a wonderful village feel. I know "minorly" isn't a word, but I would consider myself "minorly lucky." Today I had two instances. I went to the car wash which has a two-dollar weekly special. I noticed something stuck in the coin return in the bay I parked in and when I used my nail to pry it out out came two golden dollar coins! Free car wash- whoo-hoo! 

Then I decided I needed to eat (hadn't yet) and went to Jack in the Box (they have unsweetened iced tea on tap.) I ordered a fish combo from the kiosk and took my slip to the counter to get my drink cup. After giving it to me the manager exclaimed "oh no!" Apparently they no longer serve fish and no-one had reprogrammed the kiosk. So he offered me any another combo whether higher priced or not and a slice of cheesecake. I ordered something chicken and no bun. It came out on a bun. The manager came out with my no-bun burger and told me to keep the second one and handed me some coupons for more free jack food.

So you see what I mean about "minorly" lucky. I didn't win the PowerBall last night, I did not get a high-paying job two blocks from my house and I won't wake up tomorrow looking like I did 20 years ago. But I got a free car wash and a fast-food chicken sandwich.

Sometimes you have to just accept that your luck is minor.

Clean car photo from my iPhone

Freedom

Today, Wednesday I awoke to a State where one of my rights which had been taken away by a popular vote was reinstated. It's not a right that I was in any danger of exercising. It was not my right to vote, my rights concerning age discrimination or my rights concerning the fact that I cannot be fired in California simply for being gay although in 29 other states I can be. I was my right to marry the person I might love.

I know that there are people who honestly feel that the sanctity of marriage is compromised by this ruling, but it's not the job of the state to sanctify anything- that's what a church is for. I neither wish to nor expect to walk down the aisle at Good Shepherd until the church decides to allow it, if they ever do. If I meet someone and wish to, I'll do it at city hall. The idea that I actually might have the option to marry says absolutely nothing about anything but my civil rights. Why are stable, long-term same=sex couples denied the right to marry when Kardashians and Britneys can do so on a whim and back out in a few days?

The day Obama was elected was a happy one for this Democrat. However it was tempered by the headlines that Prop 8 was (barely) passed. My straight friends and colleagues (the democrats anyway) were so happy. I was too, but there was that nagging "get to the back of the bus" thing that took some of the sweetness out of the day. Today's ruling was sweet indeed.

How To Do It, and How Not To Do It.

Back in the day when GM was struggling, one of the true believers cut some footage into a short film that I believe was shown at a in-house gathering. It was so good it made it to the internets and I believe to broadcast. It was perfect- it showed in a brief, snappy way what the company had achieved and where they were going:

Then the marketers decided that a sequel was necessary. I hope the original people didn't have anything to do with it. I'd like to think that some department above them thought they could do better, because the second one was everything the first wasn't: bloated. self-referring, celebrity-driven, obvious in it's use of stock footage and worst of all, more about self-congratulating crap than about the promise of the product coming up. See below:

But I have to write that the best commercial for a automaker in the past 20 years was in my opinion the Cadillac commercial "Moments". See below:

Those Saarinen staircases of the design center and the jewel-faceted cars. Cole Porter and rappers. Movie premiers and a kid clutching a model '59. Brilliant. I think it should be up there with the Apple "1984" ad in that it's telling people this is the new Cadillac. A company that knows where they've been and know where they're going.

As an ad for a brand it should be studied in marketing classes.

Trying (and Perhaps Failing) to Not Sound Bitter

Jason Collins came out.

I'm glad for him personally and happy for what that might mean for LGBT people in sports. I am glad that the President even phoned him to express support. While I am sure that he's no going to be asking me out anytime soon (although Jason I am single and like tall guys.. just sayin') I do have do ask what's the fuss about? He's gay. So am I. So are millions of people on the planet. We live here, we do our jobs, and we contribute to society. We're in Congress and we collect your trash. Sometimes we don't do your hair- we tune up your car. Or sell it to you. Or design it for you. We're your co-workers. We're your friends. We're your family. We won't get a phone call from the President congratulating us on our courage coming out; yours would be enough.

Dogs and Wagons

A recent post on FaceBook reminded me of something from my yoof: family drives with the dog. In this case it was the seventies and summer drives in our "beach" wagon (as it was referred to) with our family dog Jackie. Dad would drive us to various destinations of scenic beauty while us kids in the grand tradition of the last century roamed unfettered by safety restraints between seats and cargo areas. We'd go to the Berkshires, to the Quabbin reservoir or to Rockport in a day.

One of the things I clearly remember is Jackie navigating. He's plant his butt between Dad and Mum with his eyes on the road and his nose in the AC vent, scouring the terrain for any objects he might have to warn us puny humans against.

Except when he'd fart.

In the seconds before we could smell it, we'd know it was coming- Jackie would decide that the best place possible to be in this rolling living room was in the waaaaaay back, and this was the sign to roll all the windows down. Even the tailgate. even at the risk of exhaust entering the cabin. Because while exhaust can poison you Jackie's farts could melt your face.

Of course, in retrospect it didn't help that we would insist that Jackie had his own cone at the Tastee Freeze like the rest of us (he preferred butter pecan). Jackie at least had the good taste to look a little abashed.

While I know that this era of strapping the kids and the pets and ourselves in is the safest way to be (and I never even sit in a car without a belt) I do have a sense of nostalgia for the bad old days where "climb over" was common and farting unfettered poodles could drive a family outing.

image: wikipedia commons

Eating Out

This evening I went out to dinner with friends. We went to a local place on Wilshire here in town and I decided that for once I was going to have a starter that we'd share: asparagus in a really nice mustard sauce. I ordered meatloaf with mashed potatoes and sautéed kale.

I loved it, but wish it had been about half the size of what was served. It wasn't one of those Cheesecake Factory portions that should be serving six, but I didn't come near to finishing it, and knowing myself I likely never will, even though I did take the rest home.

With all the talk about the obesity epidemic I kind of wish places did half-sized entrees. Wheeling out a plate the size of a truck tire heaped with food may make people feel they "got their money's worth", but giving me something that is a third the size at half the price will make me comfortably full, save food and money being wasted and just generally make more sense.

Image: my iPhone

The Great Outdoors; I'll Pass, Thanks.

I am not one for the outdoors. By outdoors I don't mean sitting in the park on a warm spring day reading a book and sipping a frothy-frozen coffee beverage while in the back of my mind plotting my next meal. I mean the Great Outdoors. I do not camp. Well, not that way.

I was lucky enough to find this out early. I had (have) an older brother who loved all that stuff. Being the younger sibling I insisted that I was included on some of these trips to the outdoors only to be bored rigid. I can remember one where we went fishing on the Mill River in our little town. I can remember sitting in the boat with my pole and looking up in wonderment at the underside of the bridge spanning Meadow Street. 36 seconds later I realized that for me fishing was the most boring and pointless thing in the world. There are fish at the market and since this was the Mill River in the 70's any fish that might have survived the level of pollution most likely would be toxic to eat.

Then there was camping. My brother and a his friend went camping and I wanted to go. My parents basically forced them to allow it. They sat in the tent whittling or telling stories or whatever and after about 12 minutes of this I realised I was cold, the ground was lumpy, I was bored and we'd had the better part of 200 years of being a country so that we could sleep indoors on our Sealy Posturepedics and chat with our friends on our touch-tone Trimline phones while enjoying steam heat.

Luckily the campsite was in our backyard, so I could drop this idiocy and go have a sandwich and watch "Rhoda."

So I learned my limits early. I'm not likely to climb Runyon with you when I can be using an elliptical while listening to techno music. I would like to visit Yosemite, but would do so only to stay at the Ahwahnee. If I am on a boat it had better be flying Cunard colors.

Because my idea of roughing it is going someplace where there isn't a Trader Joe's.

Image: Internets

Winter in Los Angeles

I love winter in LA. It's certainly not terribly cold, although it can get down to near freezing at night and most older buildings aren't built with insulation, so heating can be expensive- I don't use mine.

What I really like is watching people at this time of the year. You'll see natives pulling out parka when it's a little over 60º while tourists from places like Wisconsin are in t-shirts and flip-flops.

This is the time of the year that it rains. Rain is greeted here as, say Tokyo regards the arrival of Godzilla. Action McNews blares headlines about "Storm Watch 2013" while darkly warning about the impeding storm as if it were a shower of man-eating clams rather than water.

Granted, storms here can be fraught. We've had mudslides, trees uprooted, and flooding. Traffic will come to a stand-still because half the people on the roads will go three MPH while the other half will go 20 miles over the limit, presumably because they have not been informed that automobiles are not water soluble.

But the main thing that I like about it is how clean and clear the air is here after the rain, and that I can see snow on the mountains to the east.

From the comfort and safety of the 65º temps on Santa Monica and Cañon...

Image: My iPhone

You Like Me! You Really Like Me!!

Found at HuffPo: they liked my writing on PST and the Posse.

Validation is great; a salaried position doing something I love would be great..

Image stolen from Huffington Post.

YouTube finds: Electric Dreams

I just spent a couple of hours watching the fascinating and wholly excellent BBC Doc "Electric Dreams". It takes a typical Upper-Middle class English family of 2009 and plunks and re-does their home back to 1970. From there, they will "age" technologically one year for every day, until they hit the year 2000.

It's fascinating because the parents long for the days when families would be more together as they remember it, but forget that a lot of the time-savers they take for granted in 2009 weren't standard equipment in 1970- they start out without central heating, an apartment-sized stove, no freezer and with a car they can't find second gear in.

As the go through the weeks they are delivered technology as they would have according to statistics. Color TVs, VHS recorders, computers, game consoles, and mobile phones.

What's really nice about it is that these people seem really, well, nice. They aren't out for camera time and while they might be occasionally petulant, you can tell they really love each other. You'd be thrilled to have them as neighbors.

All three installments are viewable on YouTube:

The 70's

The 80's

The 90's

One of the things I like about it (in addition to the fact that as a kid of the 70's it resonates) is that it is flawlessly scored with period-correct music. Which I enjoyed, even if it made me feel older than dirt.