stoke

after a painfully long dry spell, i packed up my gear and headed up the coast this weekend in anticipation of a strong northwest swell that had walloped hawaii a day or so earlier and was expected to march along california, bringing much-needed surf to our wave-starved souls. zuma on saturday proved disappointing, with mostly walled-out conditions and a few rogue bombs rolling through to clear out the lineup. on a longer journey the following day, i scored in ventura county at a fairly uncrowded spot that managed to focus the swell energy without offering up only closeouts. with a nice set rolling in as i pulled up, i had worries that it would be a rough paddle out, given my general lack of swimming stamina of late. but the waves proved a bit inconsistent, and i was more than happy to accept that fact, given that i only had to duck-dive once on the way out. a few monster sets caught me inside, but the waves weren't as steep as zuma and i easily ducked under most of them. storm energy is supposed to start fading through the next few weeks, so it may be a return to business as usual as far as this winter is concerned. so much for working on my stamina.

eject

the bathrooms in this place are absurd. i fully understand and support the concept of water conservation, but these auto-flush toilets are creating more waste than a standard push-handle model. for one, the things somehow manage to pick up my presence moments after stepping into the stall, and flush at least once before i even sit down. after i stand up, they flush once again, but don't quite get the job done (i apologize for the image, but it had to be said). so i'm forced to hold my hand in front of the sensor, which has now apparently fallen asleep on the job. after a few minutes of frantic waving, the thing finally registers movement and finishes up the task. to sum up: at least three flushes per visit. hardly efficient in my book.

jejune

along a tired stretch of venice, two young boys, not more than four or five years old, maybe twins, even, were being tugged along the sidewalk by their mother, their heads turning to stare at the world passing by, more interested in the auto tint shop and gas station than wherever they were heading. i marveled at the innocence of my own childhood, at the memory of climbing onto the school bus after the peach blossom festival in fresno with my classmates, having dutifully recited our christmas song or poem or whatever our teachers had plugged into our minds. i must have taken a seat near the rear, because i remember hearing excited chattering and giggles and turning to see a handful of boys gesturing and craning at the back windows. someone whispered in my ear, there's a condom on the ground. i joined the group and peered through the scratched glass, my eyes roving the asphalt for what i knew only as one of those mystical, recondite items associated with sex. where? i asked frantically, afraid the chaperones might conclude their headcount at any moment and signal to the driver to hit the road. there! someone said, pointing gleefully. my heart sank as i swept the pavement, back and forth, registering nothing except a greenish clump of shiny plastic resembling a deflated balloon. the engine roared and grayish smoke hazed my view of the parking lot as the bus pulled away. i laughed along with the other boys, feigning delight in our bawdy discovery. but i knew i had missed it, that i had missed my one chance to see this mysterious object, to finally be in on the joke.

taut

surf is washing up on the shores of southern california, and i'm stuck in an office building. such is the life of a working stiff. after managing to successfully lock myself out of the apartment yesterday evening, with a good four hours before the girlfriend was due home, i decided to take a little stroll. now, mind you, this is after a solid 45-minute workout and a three-mile run. but heck, i thought, why not kill the time by walking to the beach in santa monica and back. which, if you add in the run, calculates out to 12.5 miles. a bit more than i had anticipated, to be quite honest. i'm paying the price today.

doldrums

the air in los angeles has been scrubbed clean of late by plenty of rain and a bit of wind. driving along the 10 freeway and gazing north toward the hills and mountains of the san gabriel and santa monica ranges, one can almost imagine the untouched beauty of this place before man descended with asphalt and steel and concrete and plastic. and a few measly strips of sod here and there. of course, there is a beauty to the metropolis as well: the gleaming office towers lit aflame by the setting sun, the streaks of red and green reflecting on rain-soaked streets, etc.

fridays, while certainly welcome at the end of a long week, have a malaise about them, a tendency to let each minute slip away begrudgingly, clinging to every moment until the last gasp of the afternoon gives way to darkness.

shaking things up

got a jolt this morning in westwood; nice little 3.1 quake in the santa monica bay. i didn't feel it at work, but the girlfriend said it felt like someone gave the bed a hard shove.

on an unrelated note, my thoughts are being punctuated by angry chanting and whistles from a crowd of protesters picketing the entrance to my building. not sure who they are protesting, but their signs decry unfair compensation and labor practices. it's a big building (30-something floors) with lots of employers, so it would be helpful if they included a bit more information.

feudin juden

i think two of the aforementioned old jewish guys who ride my commuter bus in the morning might be feuding. where once they sat in scarf-clad tandem and murmured in hebrew (or yiddish?), now they sit at polar opposite, with nary a word passing between.

friday is upon us and it is good to have this week nearly in the bag. it's been such a drag readjusting to the early schedule after two weeks of blessed vacation. work seems to be picking up, and i got to interview a couple of folks yesterday, so i almost feel like i'm back to being a newsman. if only the job came with my previous hours. that is, stumble out of bed at a quarter to 10, roll into the office an hour later, and plug away until the paper is put to bed. with the occasional break for bodyboarding, should the surf be up, of course. ah well, the health insurance, 401k, bigger paycheck, and more vacation time will have to do instead.

spare the air

its as if one of the old guys who hops aboard my commuter bus at santa monica boulevard every morning takes a quick rinse in aqua velva before heading out for the day. can barely breathe between the cologne fumes and the blasting heater that roars like some incontinent beast from the rear of the cabin. might be worth it to cave and find a monthly parking lot around the office. but that would be bad for the environment, and at least this way i'm not shelling out for gas and repairs from wear-and-tear. plus my employer graciously chips in on public transit expenses. maybe i can convince the dude to tone down his aromatics.

here comes the sun

the warmth returneth. after one of the wettest decembers on record, we're finally back to that good ol' southern california climate. now is it too much to ask for a decent wave or two? looking forward to the next few weekends; my brother visiting and then back to fresno for a belated family christmas celebration. i'm glad to spread the gift-buying pain out a bit, though, especially with the transition to a new job and some delayed moving expenses. still lots to do on the new apartment, so there will be plenty to spend all this new cash on in the coming months.

dragging this morning. its a cliche, sure, but somehow i don't really feel alive until i have gulped down that first mug of coffee and spent a few minutes scanning the los angeles times site. after my body readjusts its internal clock to rising in the wee hours of the morning -- rather than, say, an hour with more than one digit, as was the case through much of my winter break -- i'll try to squeeze in a quick run before work. might need to pick up a few long-sleeve shirts and some workout pants though. bit too chilly these days for anything less.

mmxi

starting out the new year with freezing feet in this downtown los angeles office building. better than sweating feet, i suppose, mostly for the sake of those around when said feet are pulled from their shoes and socks at the end of the day. rain appears to be clearing up, with the clouds slowly splitting into a patchwork of blue and white. here's hoping for some swell this weekend, although given the winter season thus far, there isn't much hope to be had.

the new job is trucking along. that is, plodding, really. slow days of late, but i'm expecting that all my efforts to stir up work are going to backfire when all that work finally comes crashing down. i'm giving this whole "posting on my blog" thing another try, but given my track record, don't expect much. i was almost surprised to find it just sitting here, unchanged since i left it. isn't blogging an outdated form of expression by now? sheesh.

rain brain

it's surprising how many people drive without lights during a rainstorm in los angeles. for all the drivers who flipped on their headlights in a show of responsibility, it seems as if half of those behind the wheel rolled out of bed with a death wish, choosing to hurtle along the freeway as a dark, oblivious missile barely visible to those around.

day seven

the rain is falling in two directions outside my window, gusts of wind rudely shoving sheets of water northward and an unseen force rudely shoving back, spattering droplets across the pane in mismatched confusion, wedging under the meager protection of umbrellas carried by pedestrians below, wetting their pant legs up to the crotch.

the return

and he's baaaaack! wow, it's been more than a year. i don't know if this means a return to regular postings, but i'm bored at work and just wanted to do something. so after perusing slate.com, nytimes.com and a few other solid sites, i ran out of entertainment and found myself reading old posts on this site. quite entertaining, to say the least. incredible that there was still ash from the zaca fire blowing around when i last posted. who knew i would have covered three more wildland fires, all far more destructive than the zaca.

it's a friday, which means i'm kicking things into a lower gear and getting ready for the weekend. i've been covering the news-gathering duties for the sound for the past few days, as my fellow reporter is out on vacation until the middle of next week. fortunately, it's been pretty slow. and after a week of similarly slow surf (flatter than huntington lake out there), we're supposed to see a bit of swell in the water this weekend. thank the lord. i'll get a few long sessions in, hopefully.

well, if anybody is still checking in on this thing from time to time, drop me a line in the comments section so i know whether i should keep this thing running :)

unconscionable

how something like this can happen is pretty unbelievable.

crush

it's a slow day at work, so i figured i'd throw up a little update. the waves were on the upper limit of body surfability, meaning i got beat up quite a bit on sunday. probably 10 footers or so. it's hard to estimate when a huge wall of water is threatening to pound my head into the sand. but i had a super long ride, at least 15 to 20 seconds, so it was well worth it. this weekend we'll be heading up the coast to aptos for a family visit. probably bring along the wetsuit just in case conditions are nice. well, probably time to get back to work. not much else going on, other than the rapidly approaching santa barbara film festival. that's going to be a handful.

irony manifested

it takes quite a bit from our current leader to surprise me these days, but he managed to pull it off. preznit is in saudi arabia to encourage middle east peace talks. at the same time, white house officials are formally announcing a $20 billion arms sale to six middle east states. so...we hope you guys are peaceful, here's a shitload of weapons. good luck. that's just insane. unbelievably insane.

Sound Off

hey, here i am again, not too long after the last check-in. just came off a nice long break for the holidays, nonwithstanding a few short days of work in the middle of last week, and it's back to the grindstone. my fellow reporter is out for the rest of the week, so i'll be handling the flow of news for the daily sound in his absence. so it promises to be a busy week. luckily, i'll have tomorrow off. unfortunately, i don't get new year's day off, which is a pain not only because i can't get completely hammered the night before, being that my girlfriend is leaving, again, in some ungodly morning hour on the first day of the year for a week in hawaii after returning from a five-month study abroad program merely weeks earlier and i'll likely want to drown, with some sort of fermented beverage, the sorrow of not being able to kiss her at midnight, but also because usc plays illinois in the rose bowl on tuesday and i'll have to train myself to write brilliant journalistic prose while fervently glancing over my shoulder at the television to see exactly how the trojans decide to trounce the living daylights out of the fighting illini.

Monthly Briefer

another slow day at work. things always seem to drag to a standstill around the holidays. luckily, or unluckily, depending how you look at it, a kiteboarder had to be rescued by firefighters, winds are starting to stir up dust and ash from the zaca fire, and a bunch of new traffic laws are going into effect in january. that and an update about the plane crash in panama that killed two santa barbarans and injured another should be enough fodder to fill the paper to a respectable level for tomorrow.

the waves were pretty sloppy and gnarly on christmas day. went down to the beach during high tide and caught some wild ones, getting tossed about and beaten up by a few. there were a few surfers out there too, but we were the only people crazy enough to body surf. my feet and hands are usually numbed beyond belief by the time i decide i might want to get out of the water for a bit to warm them up. had to head into the office for a few hours of work on christmas as well, which wasn't fun, but wasn't a huge ordeal. there wasn't much going on, so it was a quick day to say the least. and this week is almost over for me. it's always nice having a two-and-a-half-day work week.

well, i'm writing this on my work laptop, so i better get back to it before i'm spotted. and i'm considering an attempt to post more often here. but i've said that about 20 times prior to this, so don't expect much.

Ages

well, here i am, about a month and a half after my last post. plenty has been going on in recent weeks, from the city council election finally wrapping up to my trip to scotland to a lot of college football. so lets start from the top. the election ended the night before i left for the airport, so that was a very high-stress way to start my vacation. running about trying to talk to all the candidates who won and a few who lost, then scrambling to type it all up in an hour to make deadline. then going home to wash laundry and pack before taking a bus the following morning to lax. the trip was incredible. plenty of cold scottish wind but surprisingly nonexistent rain. saw some castles, old buildings and my favorite person in the world. the trip back was pretty dreary. late evening flight into heathrow and everything was shut down. took about an hour to wind my way through the maze of terminals, asking for help from workers buffing floors and being turned away by more than a few locked doors and blocked passageways. but i finally made it to the right terminal and found a nice, hard, wooden bench with metal arm rests to completely prevent it from being comfortable in any sense of the word. luckily, my flight was not delayed, and after a brief struggle through customs at lax, i made my way back to santa barbara by way of traffic-plagued bus. the past few weeks have been incredibly lethargic, with a touch of jet lag, plenty of sitting around and watching football, and a three-day weekend for thanksgiving. but it's about time i get back into the swing of work during the week and back into praying for good waves on the weekend.

Old Salt

don't feel much like posting here after work. saving all my creativity for the paper i guess. i don't know how people manage to write books. well, we moved to our new office, everything looks great. getting lots done and beating up on that other newspaper in town. really windy today or i would've done a little body surfing. hopefully it will be nice tomorrow. hit the waves for a few hours before the usc game starts.