A Saturday night party in Los Angeles...and other things of note

Here, my wife Cruz, hams it up with "Two Jacks".

Throw in a Tom.

Me, Dan, and my wife, Cruz.

The party was here, at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, in downtown Los Angeles.

We could see the famous Hollywood sign right out of the window of our room...in the hills beyond.

Part of the show.

Dan and Allen, my neighbor from the Garage. Allen is stiking a pose for our make-believe garage band, the FonTones.

...and did I say our Granboy had a birthday number two? Here he is...do you think he can tell that he is loved a whole lot?

--Dan

Halloween stuff

My neighbor, Allen, has a daughter, Violet. Here she is on Halloween! She is famous now!

--Dan

23 and counting, Dan & Cruz

October 27th, 1984. Twenty-three years ago today, this was the scene. The child at right in photo is our niece.



Only days later, Clint Eastwood was filming Pale Rider while we were on our honeymoon. We missed him by one day, as we visited a town in the Mother Lode region of the California gold country (Columbia). We did not know he was there, nor about any filming. We went into a Wells Fargo bank to look around, and were told that he was just there the day before, in that bank. He was filming a scene where he tosses his preacher's collar into a deposit box, and retrieves a gun. That was that bank. Too bad, he coulda met me! It might have changed his life. Yeah, right.



A day or two later than the "Clint Eastwood bank thing", we were visiting Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. It was early November by that time, but no snow yet (except glacial ice and higher elevation snow). Yes, that's me coming out of the outhouse. It was built to deal with a bit of snow depth, but otherwise, use the ladder...!

Altogether we toured the high desert region around Apple Valley, went to Bishop, on to Lake Tahoe (minimal gambling at Harrah's, South Lake Tahoe), Donner Pass, Grass Valley, Truckee, numerous "gold country" stops (mines everywhere), Yosemite, Morro Bay, and back home. A great road trip.



My wife, Cruz, in Morro Bay, Calif., I'm not certain of the year, but it was around the time of honeymoon days.



Long lost brothers? Dan/Pete? That's me, 1990. The other guy is a Mirror Boy.

See ya,

--Dan

My wife's birthday balloons and more

If anyone has maybe kind of noticed, I have tried to blog at least once a week, usually on Saturday. I have been a bit giddy this week, and Saturday's blog (as well as more that I lightly did) happens on this evening, Friday, right now.

My wife, Cruz, celebrated her umm, "number xy" birthday a couple of days ago. I decorated the remaining celebretory balloons with a hand marking pen for the little boy, our grandbaby. He is not quite two years, now. He likes elephants and all animals.

I like to make quickie cartoons, and kids like 'em too. In both of these photos, the Little Boy is liking the image of the elephant, though there was a dinosaur and a cat.

I hate balloons somehow...kids love them so immensely, quickly and happily, then they inevitably shrink or pop, only to bring tears.

We'll see.

Anyway, I made sure the Disney video "Jungle Book" was loaded for him to watch, and Rachel, one of my now very grown kids, forwarded the VCR tape to the elephant part. Joy, joy, joy!

There is a very long interesting story concerning that old Disney video tape, but I am not in more of a typing mood. Maybe later?

--Dan

WW II, US subs, photo by my Dad

My scanner is very abnoxious, and suspect of many things, but I managed to get this scrawly photo anyway....

A photo taken by my Dad in WW II, US subs at the ready.

I love this picture, it is a rare one. Click on it, it will "grow", but it coulda been better with a better machine scanner. I am otherwise pleased as punch.

--Dan

Something to Post

I was looking for something to put up on the blog, and I ran across this old sticker. It has never had the backing removed. I should place it on ebay for 1,000 bucks.



Maybe not.



I went to see McCartney & Wings in 1975 at the Forum in Inglewood, CA.

Now for other stuff...

My neighbor, Allen, is playing the Neil Young stuff in the garage. This was recorded on a dinky cell phone with horrible sound, but you get to visit The Garage, just the same... last April, 2007.

--Dan

A Visit with History...and the Now

Hey music fans, notice anything here...besides me blocking the view?

Here is the car I was blocking in the above picture. It is an old Don Garlit's dragster. My daughter and I were visiting the NHRA Hot Rod Museum and Cruise Night on Wednesday.

Hey, little Cobra!

This car was juiced up to 183 miles per hour at Bonneville salt Flats in 1960. It is a 1957 Plymouth. Looks a LOT like the old car they brought out of the ground from that time capsule in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This car looks gads better.

My youngest, Marion, stands next to a famous old dragster.

The future is now! TV at the gas pump (petrol, for some Euro-folk). This was KTLA channel 5, a Los Angeles station on the way home from the car stuff.

A blast from the past: This is a picture of General Joe Engle (Astronaut, X-15 pilot, and associate of Chuck Yeager...the sound barrier guy), my daughter, Michelle, and me, Dan. It was around 1996 I think. The very next year I caught up with Joe again, and while he was being escorted away from the VIP stands, I held up this photo...it caught his eye, he stepped over to me...and signed it! This scan of the photo was before he signed it, of course.

--Dan

Now, I know cell phone camera are not the best for picture taking, but it was all I had. This place, Cow Canyon Saddle, is really not much to scream at, at least it wasn't during this visit. It was only 97 degrees there, as the elevation was a bit above the 109 degrees back at the house. The date was about three or four weeks ago.

So why post this photo? Because...

This spot is very near to the location of a very interesting historical event. It seems a definitive measurement of the speed of light was determined not too far away, way back in the earlier years of the 20th century...

In 1922-1927, Albert A. Michelson used Mt. Wilson to determine the speed of light more accurately than ever before. He did this by timing how long it took for a beam of light emitted at Mt. Wilson to return from a mirror at Lookout Mountain on the south ridge of Mt. Baldy. In order to compute the speed of light accurately, the distance between the two locations also had to be very accurately measured. The distance was measured by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey by triangulation from a 40 km baseline in the L.A. Basin. This 22 mile distance between Mt. Wilson and Lookout Mountain was measured with an error of only 1/4", the most accurately surveyed distance in the world at the time.

The precise measurements yielded a speed of 186,285 miles per second (299,796 kilometres per second).

Above, Albert Einstein and Albert Michelson met at Mount Wilson in 1931, just before Michelson's death. From left to right are Milton Humason, Edwin Hubble, Charles St. John, Michelson, Einstein, W.W. Campbell and Walter S. Adams.

I understand some of the metal tubing once used for the experiment is now being utilized as drainage piping for Mount Wilson!...Mt. Wilson is not shown in photo (photo ref. UCLA dept. of Astronomy).

--Dan

Musings, by the way, it SNOWED last night in the mountains above!

First of all, my grandboy. No pictures of snow, yet. It was only well over 100 degrees just a few days back, now...snow? Must be GOBAL WARMING! Hey Mr. Koos (fine blog fellow in the Netherlands)...you see that? MUST be global warming!





Table set for the big food tasting event, Westin Bonaventure Hotel. I am a member of an event planning committee, and was part of planning the menu for a very large event. I was stuffed after the dust cleared.




Some grumpy guy grocery shopping or something.

What can I say? Here is a picture before the fire of a few years ago, looking towards the south and out over the valley. I know it does not look like much, but you hadda been there.

--Dan

There are places

There are places we go, things we do, people we meet...that make for defining moments in our lives. If not for this simple small patch of land in California, I would not be quite what I am in my life today. This single place is quite simply...the land of so many things that I love. It is the things of finest memories, some great sorrows, lovingly worn slowly into my being and rekindled often by scent, sight or touch in more places than one.

There is a lake, a dam (whatch your language!), many countless wildlife abounding, wonder, peace, solitude, belonging.

--Dan

Some recent acitiviy, Big Bear Lake, CA, and birthday number 50

At the cabin!


Looking out our cabin window while lying on the bed


In the cabin (Cruz, my wife)


Arriving


Out the door at breakfast

Solar obsevatory

Click on this (above), an aerial in a crazy place...look at the tree!

It WAS good!

--Dan

Heading Towards Fifty and the Twilight Zone

On soon to be turning fifty:

Those famous words from Arelne Martel in the episode of The Twilight Zone...

"Room for one more...honey"

...as she holds open the door to the morgue. You may also recall her as a confidant to Col. Hogan in Hogen's Heroes, and T'Pring (Spock's Fiance), in Star Trek.

I know, things are not that bad, I plan on being around for much longer. I am stubborn that way.

On Wednesday of this last week it was 115 degrees F. here. That, my friends, was the hottest place in the USA. Death Valley was only 112. Phoenix was only 111. It may be hotter still in the coming days, especially today.

Summer is brutal at this time. What if I went back to my origins? What was it like then? I'll be fifty years in this world this Thursday. What about fifty years ago?...

I do not live in Los Angeles, but here is the data from my real first day at birth in this world. Add about 10 degrees for where I live, and it will be close.

Los Angeles Downtown, CA
on Friday, September 6, 1957

Max Temperature
84 °F

Min Temperature
65 °F

--Dan

California Desert

Me, Dan, and my future wife to be, Cruz, in the California desert during the winter, circa 1981 or '82. We were situated about 60 miles or so from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The scan of this image was very messed up, so...I apologize. I tried a very long time to fix it...but it did not happen.

--Dan

The Garage and Music

Allen, in the garage (next to my house), holds the CD case for the music of the night. Joe Walsh is the center of attention. You can see Joe (right) and his friend on the motorcycle on the top of Allen's CD player. The "hula guy" next to the CD is stuck to the player somehow, so he is acting as a mascot.

--Dan

The B9 Robot!

Photos ref.:

http://www.lostinspacerobot.com/index.html

To see them in action, go here....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VibCEXarHbg

Everything is automated these days. Danger, danger!

Oh, and look for the big meteor shower this weekend!

--Dan

Our Neighbor, Allen, at Dan's House

Allen plays Neil Young next to our piano at my house. The piano was given to us from her Dad's home as my wife, Cruz, endured her father leaving his house and moving to Oregon...to be cared for by family members. Her Dad was born in 1917.

The photo is Allen playing along with the vinyl LP from Neil Young's DECADE album. It was fun.

--Dan

More mountain photos

Here are some more Mt. Whitney pictures from July. That place is so great.

--Dan