Dumbfounded: Arcadia Oaks Have Fallen

As I sit here today at the computer, I cannot believe that this has happened right next door to the city that my business is in.  The idiots/evil people at the Los Angeles Dept. of  Public Works and the LA County Board of Supervisors have leveled 11 acres of Oak Trees, Sycamores and all other vegetation and removed the homes of countless critters and bugs.  I don't want to think of how many plants and animals died yesterday and they didn't have to.  Damn them all for not choosing a better solution.  Some of these trees have been living here for over 100 years.  

Courtesy of Camron Stone who took photos of the area before he was asked to leave the site.  You can see his pics HERE

This morning after logging out of my email it always goes to the msn homepage and there at the bottom in small type, I read, "Four Tree Sitters Were Arrested in Arcadia".  I'm like, "HUH"? clicked on it and couldn't believe what I read.  I never heard anything about it.  Amazing more people from Arcadia, other Los Angelenos and more tree lovers weren't there to protest.  It surely didn't get much press or I'd have heard about it and so would many other people.  That was no doubt part of their plan.  In fact, according to what I've read the LADPW didn't notify the residents correctly or have the correct studies that were required by law.  BUT the damage is already done.  You can't bring back the life from yesterday's stupid massacre. 

Yes, we need to clean out the area above the dam so it doesn't burst open and flood but other solutions could have been figured out.  The government is getting too big and they don't listen to "We The People" and just bully their way through.  I'm just disgusted at the whole thing.  When I calm down I'm gonna write letters to 'em all. That will get it outta my system.

They held a candlelight vigil last night and even the actress, Darryl Hannah showed up.  Where was I last night?  Shopping at Target.  Wished I'd have known about this before today.  BTW, it is really pretty up in the canyon and in the foothills.  You don't feel that you are close to any city when you are there.  At least they didn't demolish that.  The neighboring community of Monrovia was smart and has purchased some land just below the foothills to keep the area in it's rural, natural state. 

The ironic thing here is that we have 2 extremely large Cypress trees in our front yard that are right up against the pillars of the house and have to be removed and I've been stressing over taking them out and the $ it will cost to do so.  We will plant 2 trees in their place but still I don't like killing plants!

Well, it's the end of work day and I need to do something creative and make myself feel better.  An evening of crochet is in order!  Truly hope your day was better than mine.

PS.  I want to thank those from the bottom of my heart that tried their best to save the woodlands, thank you, thank you so much!

A quote from John Muir: God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanche and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

My DHL Birthday Day

Gosh, I've been busy!  It was my b-day last week and it was nice turning 29 again.  Actually the age I liked was about 35 or so really.  No aches or pains, energy at the end of the day, still had more than half my life to  live!  No more diapers, the kids old enough to talk in full sentences, able to get some food on their own and I just had to tell 'em to, "grab a sweatshirt, use the bathroom and grab a snack if you want" before going someplace.  No more carrying around everything except the kitchen sink!  Remember cutting up your kids meat?  Keeping their food separate and not touching each other?  Those days are over but there is always challenges in young adulthood and you never really "outgrow" your need to connect with your parents at any age.  When they are no longer "earthbound" we connect with them through our memories of 'em. 

I didn't do anything special as far as b-days go, a regular workday except we did go to a DHL (international shipping company) open house at the Los Angeles airport DHL terminal in the morning.  It was like continuing education really.  US Customs spoke about the fake trademarked merchandise that they stop from illegally coming into our country.  They look for obvious things like the name spelled wrong for instance.  They showed us a fake Louis Vuitton purse that had this thin layer of brown plastic with little designs similar to the trademark but not close enough to keep from coming in but when they did a closer inspection, the layer could easily be removed to show the counterfeit real looking LV purse underneath.  Those clever bad guys!

We got to go into one of their cargo planes a Boeing 767 and see the sort facility, all their offices; boy, it sure takes allot of people to move goods around our spinning ball we live on.

A knowledgable DHL staff member told us that this is the historic building they used as the set for the airport (in Cuba) for the movie Casablanca.

They even fed us lunch and gave us a goody bag!


















Just what I needed, a new truck and airplane!

I use DHL exclusively for international shipments.  They're good, fast and have been doing it longer than either UPS or FEDEX.  They also have a larger fleet and are better known in other countries, kinda like we think of UPS and FEDEX here in the US.

Thanks for stoppin' by!

The Fountain

Here are some pics of the renovated Griffith Park Fountain, William Mulholland Memorial, that sits on the corner of Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Blvd that I took this morning.  I drive by it everyday on my way to work.  It really is pretty and I get so used to driving by it all the time and busy watching the traffic that I don't notice it all the time.  I wanted to share it with you.  I was shooting into the sun so the pics didn't turn out as good as I would have liked.

Taken from a website:  William Mulholland (September 11, 1855 - July 22, 1935) was the head of the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles, CA.  He was responsible for building the water aqueducts that allowed the city to grow into one of the largest in the world.

These last 2 photos are borrowed from a site that said it was ok to copy.  This pic looks to be before the renovation.

These are much better than my pics!  Hope you're having a great day...

Update (More info):  Today 10/24/09 I had a customer come in and while I was faxing his papers for him, I noticed he had on a t-shirt from the Department of Water and Power.  I asked him about it and he told me he's been retired for about 11 years but that he was 3rd generation working for them.  His Grandad and father had both worked there.  I told him I had started a blog and that just yesterday, I had taken pictures of the fountain and wrote about it on my blog.  He told me that under the fountain there is an electrical switching station and he remembers going there with his dad when he was a young kid.  It's a large room with all kinds of controls all around.  He doesn't remember how he got down there exactly but he does remember steps.  Geez, I never knew there was an underground room under that fountain.  See... ya learn something everyday!

It's the 1st day of Autumn and my 1st Post!

Hi, I figured that today would be a good day to make my blogging debut since Fall has been my favorite time of year for quite awhile now.  Although it can still be hot here through October, the heat is almost over, vacations are over, the kids are back in school and everyone's getting into a new normal.  My plan is to write everyday and would appreciate reader input.  The internet still fascinates me and I've already made friends online and we too, can be friends. 



I'd better get going, it'll soon be time to open my shop and I have a display box to paint red this morning...

I hope that your Fall is filled with good-natured ghosts and goblins; great food, drink and happiness always.  Come back tomorrow and say, hi!