Fire Behind Me

I started smelling smoke through my home office window, then saw flashlights in the yard below me, closed all my windows and ran out to open the gates for the police, told them it was the neighbors place behind me. The police went back to investigate while I stayed in the fresh air. They told the firetrucks where to go, who then had at it. Sounds of saws cutting into the garage roof. Well, it use to be a garage. My landlady just told me that a family was living in it. Not tonight. Finally came back upstairs and found my camera in time to see them mopping up. Sorry folk, no flame pictures for you. I'm going to need to air out my apartment once the smoke from next door settles down, yuck.

In the Public Domain

I've been lurking on http://www.librivox.org/ for a couple of years now, enjoying an old book now and then from their ever growing catalog. Well, last night I finally contributed by reading in their weekly poetry reading. You can hear it all who recorded this weeks poem in this thread here. The professionalism some put into this free audio book hobby is amazing. I am grateful that they also encourage amatuers like me to contribute. Check them out, you may find something worth listening to, or even participate in reading for.

Have a Safe Memorial Day

Hug a serviceman today. Though, not from behind, or you'll be thrown to the mat and have your life threatened.

But How?

Hey Uncle Proto,
How did you geocache in the olden days?
With a compass and a paper map, that's how!
And we liked it!

Mariah

And then, the winds came. The winds stayed for the first five innings of Wednesday night's game. Took a little washed out video with my cheap camera. Notice how the flags are just streaming in flat out. Debris was flying everywhere at times. Grounds crew kept it as nice as they could between innings.

Ran Me Off

Woke up starting to blame my lack of poker playing to gypsies and armenians gambling in the micro and low limit games and not taking them seriously enough to play the game. Then I started to rationalize not playing by buying another set of baseball season tickets and a continue making payments on a year and a half old car [my favorite toy ever!], but none of this explains the waning interest in poker. To get the feeling waxing again, I've started re-reading the books I have, again watching the dvds, and to remember the passion I had a few years ago for this game. The passion was ruined by my lack of understanding of the other people playing the game. The game isn't about cards and chips, but people. I may even try to do some of the things that Daniel has done, and not play the cards, but ignore them, ignore the chips, and react and provoke actions, of the people. Some of that, but I want to start playing again, and win a few more tournaments.

I am Iron Man

Cool flick. A nice story line, similar to most other superhero story lines, yet just enough of a twist to keep me interested even through the added scene after the credits finish rolling. I think this movie has made enough money that a sequel is coming. And I hope it does just as well. Now, where is my torch, hammer, and power source, it's time to build another suit...

Wandering Week

Listening to the Dodgers lose five straight is never fun. Though there were moments of fun. Streak finally broken in Wisconsin this evening. One more game there on Thursday afternoon before moving on. Enough of baseball for today. Took mom out to a nice restaurant last Sunday afternoon and got current on family history. We are flung all over California, with some in Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and soon New Mexico. Arizona was so forty/fifty years ago for any of us. Southern California Electric is now billing a tiered system. If you use a nominal amount, which I do even with all these computers because no air conditioning, one stays in tier one. Use a lot of electricity in a month, and you could get a bill that includes tier five rates. Here in the LA basin it is not so bad. In the San Fernando Valley, it gets very hot, very quickly, and longer to get to tier two to make it 'fair'. Fair is a concept that eludes me. Whenever a large organization, like a utility, tries to be 'fair' someone is going to feel put upon. I haven't heard a major outcry yet, but this next month should be a good test as we start having triple digit days and very cool and breezy evenings. If I ever get my air conditioner rolled out of the closet and hooked up, I may jump straight to tier three rates and have a lot of fun figuring out my bill. It might even be over thirty bucks a month! Sure was lucky to find a place upstairs with windows on all four sides. If only it was closer to the beach, like fifteen miles closer. Or to the mountains. No, it would only add to my commute four point five days a week. And paying fifty bucks for twelve gallons of ninety one octane is about half-way to my point of consideration of an alternate method of transportation. In the mean time, the cooper is still my favorite toy.

Weekly Fun

Another fun week so far at Dodger Stadium. No more whining about being in last place as for the last two weeks they've been the hottest team in baseball and worked their way up to 2nd in the west. Just took two out of three from the Metropolitans and pushed them from tied for 2nd in the east to tied for 3rd. Poor Mets. They'll do better elsewhere. Today was a day game, so I took a vacation day from work and enjoyed sleeping in late, and being served my brunch and brew all game long. Fun, fun, fun. Until we lost the game, but hey, it's not what's happening, it's who you are with, and I was with folk whose company I value. Just a few snaps above, one is a railroad map that I finished working on and uploaded to hooked gamers railroad site, two of them are folk playing the baseball video games on the club level of the stadium. Yes, they play those while the real game is going on. The second machine from the left had the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death blinking, so it wasn't working so well. Sometimes when I walkby, I may pull a trigger or two pitching and batting who knows who to who knows what. Today I snapped photos of those staying at it a bit longer than I do. The fourth picture shows last night in the parking lot where a helicopter with a search light [night sun] leading in a few police cars to break up twenty folk from having a post game tailgate. Too bad the story does not come out in my cheap little camera's attempt at capturing it. I would get a new camera, maybe one with an optical zoom, if I knew I was going to use it more than once a month like this one. I take it with me a lot of places now, just haven't been using it. Maybe I'll break down and buy a cell phone that would do the work too, and send it to this site. Nay, it's the old circle. No cell phone, no girlfriend, no girlfriend, no cell phone needed.