Periodic Musings

Until the end of time

2026-09-07T14:11:35.748-07:00

There is an ancient, well-documented rumor that cockroaches can survive a thermonuclear blast. Science tells us they can withstand up to fifteen times the radiation dosage of a human being, making them the undisputed heavyweight champions of the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

What science forgot to mention, however, is that their corpses are equally indestructible. They are entirely immune to the specialized gaze of high-end apartment maintenance crews.

Welcome to the Enzo apartments in Irvine, where luxury living meets permanent, chitinous installation art.

If you stroll down the parking structure, wander past the pristine pool, or step out of the elevators, you will see a masterclass in modern facility management. The ground practically gleams. The maintenance team treats the concrete with a level of industrial devotion usually reserved for cleaning up biohazard zones. They are out there regularly, armed with pressure washers, blasting away the sins of the world with the force of a thousand suns. The parking stalls look immaculate. The pool deck is pristine.

Yet, step into the residential hallway carpet right near my room, and the grand illusion of the luxury tier crumbles into a funny little pile of six-legged irony.

There he lies. A robust, deeply tanned American cockroach, profoundly deceased.

He didn’t just pass away yesterday. This little guy has been occupying his premium square inch of hallway real estate for a few weeks now. At this point, he has outlasted typical guest parking limits, a few news cycles, and certainly the patience of anyone paying Orange County rent. He has achieved a state of mummified permanence that local museums would envy.

It has become a genuine geometric mystery. How does a cleaning crew meticulously power-wash an entire multi-level parking garage and scrub the elevator tracks to a mirror finish, yet somehow develop a localized, blind spot exactly where this carcass rests? It’s as if he’s protected by a cloaking device. Perhaps the industrial vacuums possess a sensor that automatically steers around anything resembling a prehistoric relic.

Every day I walk past him, expecting the great scoop-up that never comes. I’ve started treating him less like a pest and more like a stubborn, unbilled tenant. He doesn't pay amenities fees, he completely ignores the community guidelines, and he has successfully evaded the broom for a fortnight.

If the bombs ever do drop, I have a feeling the Enzo parking structure might take some structural damage, but this hallway carpet—and its permanent, amber-colored resident—will remain entirely unchanged, quietly mocking the pressure washers until the end of time.

Our k-trip

2026-04-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

South Korea: A highly developed nation with a shrinking population of 51 million known for lots of cultural exports with 'k' in front of them to denote their global premium label; k-pop, k-drama, k-

food, k-fashion, k-beauty surgery. One of the noticeable aspects of their culture is politeness which is deeply rooted in Confucianism, emphasizing hierarchy, respect for elders and social harmony. This is in stark contrast to U.S. individualism that produces the entitled Karens of the world. South Korea is also a nation of intense competition, particularly in business and education. The economy is highly concentrated within a handful of massive conglomerates such as Samsung, Hyundai, LG, where all the high paying and prestigious jobs are. To land a position at one of these conglomerates requires a degree from one of the top three universities in the country, in what can only be described as a zero-sum game rat race. A huge breath of fresh air is their no-tip custom.

Seoul, the capital of South Korea that houses approximately 9.6 million people in just 605.21 km². This small area accounts for only 0.6% of South Korea's total land but holds roughly 20% of its population.

From the moment we approached the Incheon airport in the outskirts of Seoul, we were take aback by the number of high rise buildings in such a densely populated city. I took the picture above from the North Seoul tower observation deck on the Namsan mountain in central Seoul. The photo displays a dense urban landscape featuring a mix of modern skyscrapers and older residential neighborhoods. And this is the epitome of the city; a mixture of old school vs. ultra-modern, where centuries-old palaces and Hanok villages exist side-by-side with dazzling skyscrapers, neon-lit streets, and cutting-edge technology. Even within the posh areas of the city, there is ghetto tendencies on display, such as the spaghetti of wires in back alleys, HVAC units and the cell towers in full view - the Koreans expend zero effort in hiding these. The picture to the left is Elin marveling at the beauty of old Seoul in one of the alleys near our Airbnb in CentralViewSuite Residence Myeongdong, we stayed for a few days upon our arrival.

All of these unremarkable aesthetics seem to be in conflict with Korea's cultural obsession with physical beauty as well; South Korea is a country with the highest rate of cosmetic surgeries per capita globally, whereby attractiveness is a form of social capital linked to professional success. Many job applications require a photograph. And for all these reasons, it's quite understandable that I got multiple requests from family and friends in the U.S. to bring back skincare products laced with salmon sperm, developed first in - you guessed it - South Korea.

Transportation: One of the first things we noticed upon arrival was how cheap transportation was via taxi and Uber. The cost of rideshare in Korea is easily 1/3rd of that in the U.S., so we decided to take taxis, later switched to Uber for all our transportation needs beyond walking. Subway was a cheaper option, but not by a lot, plus travel time with subway was longer. Koreans use a popular taxi app called Kakao-T - the foreigner version is k.ride, which failed to function at least half the time we attempted to hail a ride, hence the transition to Uber which worked 100% of the time. Most taxi/Uber drivers were aggressive drivers, so much so that Elin threw up once after a ride to Seoul station on our last day there. And the cell phone GPS the drivers used would voice directions incessantly; I'm talking non-stop instructions. I will forever remember "kilo meeta", the Korean pronunciation of kilometer. Only one driver muted the GPS voice, and may God bless him for our only peaceful ride.

Currency exchange: I purchased $600 worth of Korean won at LAX prior to our departure flight, in what turned out to be a colossal mistake. The exchange rates at LAX blow. To further make this decision a debacle of sorts, I learned later converting the remaining Korean won to USD post-trip would result in further losses since the conversion rates are different from and to USD, i.e. if I convert US dollars to won, and immediately convert back to USD, I lose a chunk of my USD in this transaction. WTF??!! Lesson learned is, convert money anywhere but at the airport, and spend all of it during your trip, i.e. don't put yourself in a situation of having to reconvert to your local currency. Through a Google search after the trip, I learned the best exchange rates are offered in Korean private exchange booths in tourist areas, using crisps $100 bills.

Weather: Lots of cloudy days, a little on the chilly side, 1-2 days of sun the entire week, offset by the cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Picture to the left is in Busan, South Korea's second largest city. We stayed a couple of days at a luxury hotel (Paradise hotel Busan) in Haeundae, the most famous beach in the country featuring long sandy stretch lined with high-rise hotels and a lively boardwalk. This part of Busan reminded me of Miami. Across the street from our hotel was SEALIFE Busan Aquarium that Elin had forcibly targeted for a visit, which we did.

Addresses in Korea: Fuhgeddaboudit. Our Airbnb was in a building with multiple businesses and signs. We had to figure out where to enter the building to work our way to our suite, which was through a part of the parking structure and a left turn. I found myself repeatedly feeling like a dumbass from my inability to locate street names I was following on Naver Map, Korea's GPS app. And for some reason, Google Maps was another Fuhgeddaboudit - near complete useless in navigation help. To add insult to injury, the address you enter in Naver Map had to be perfect for the map to locate. Even a misplaced comma would return an error.

Seoul: There are coffee shops everywhere, chain and independent, sometimes four to an intersection. There seem to be no "exclusive use" provisions in commercial lease agreements in Korea, prohibiting similar business from operating in the same shopping center. It's basically a free-for-all. There are four chain stores we came across everywhere, even in Busan:

1. Lotte which can take the form of a department store, mall or outlet
2. CU, the largest convenience store chain in the country with over 18k locations

3. Olive Young, #1 cosmetics, health and beauty product chain store with over 1,300 locations across the country. This is where I found an abundance of facial products with salmon sperm

4. Paris Baguette #1 bakery-cafe chain with over 3,000 locations. I bought a truffle egg sandwich there, a first for me, and kept wondering why there's something wrong with the taste (it was the truffle). Consequently, I only ate the first half. I threw the other half away, which brings us to the next VERY important topic:

Lovely scenery in busy part of Seoul
Trash: There are no public trash cans anywhere in at least Seoul and Busan that I'm aware of, ANYWHERE! The half truffle egg sandwich I wanted to get rid of in our Seoul Airbnb had to be transported to the trash dude (this is the guy in charge of sorting out the trash into a plethora of different trash categories) downstairs. Separately, I bought and ate a soft-serve ice cream with honeycomb in Busan, only to find it impossible to dispose of the cup in the next 3 hours of walking around. Eventually, when we passed by the same ice cream stand I bought this godforsaken ice cream from, I held it out to the girl behind the counter, and she immediately understood what to do as she grabbed the empty cup from my hand and trashed it behind the counter.

The other peculiar thing about trash in Seoul is, trash is left in bags on the sidewalk en masse, and collected every morning. No trash cans to speak of. Just pure, unadulterated trash bags on full display like the main attraction at a land fill's Met Gala.

You're #1!

2025-12-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

After waiting my turn in line at Omomo Tea Shoppe in Irvine today, I paid for a couple of milk tea beverages, and the cashier smiled and told me "You're #1". Following a momentary bliss that must've lasted less than a second, my dopamine levels crashed when she handed me this:

It's all about dopamine y'all

2025-12-18T14:39:00.000-08:00

What's the purpose of life? If you subscribe to a major religion such as Christianity, the purpose of life is to know, love and serve God, and to prepare for an eternal life as His child. If you subscribe to philosophy, you live according to reason and virtue to achieve inner peace and freedom from suffering. And if you subscribe to science and evolution:

Who said there has to be a purpose to existence? Each of us is born not because of our choice. We simply landed on earth because someone else's egg dropped, and another person's sperm out of 20-200 million swimming upstream managed to penetrate and fertilize the egg. Then as we grew, four happy chemicals pretty much motivated everything we have done and will do. We live and act to pursue happiness or avoid pain. Happiness is a feeling we experience because of four chemicals in the brain, and they are, according to Google Gemini:

Dopamine (The Reward Chemical): Associated with motivation, pleasure, and the brain's reward system. It is typically released when you achieve a goal, complete a task, or anticipate a pleasurable event such as procreating.

Serotonin (The Mood Stabilizer): Helps regulate mood, sleep, and appetite while promoting feelings of well being and emotional stability. Low levels are often linked to depression.

Oxytocin (The Love Hormone): Essential for social bonding, trust, and relationship building. It is released during physical affection, such as hugging or skin-skin contact, and acts of kindness.

Endorphins (The Natural Painkiller): Released in response to stress or physical discomfort to alleviate pain and create a sense of well-being.

The catch is, all these chemicals and their inducements must remain in balance. You cannot short circuit the system and attempt to generate excessive dopamine for extended periods, for example. The brain's natural defense mechanisms will kick in to reduce the number of dopamine receptors as you continue in activities that flood dopamine release, e.g. the use of heroine, cocaine, fentenyl. This is a process called homeostasis. Whatever good thing happens to you that makes you feel like you can touch the sky, your party pooper brain will fight to bring back your stable mental state because too much dopamine and its metabolic byproducts will kill your brain cells. This is why drug addicts develop a tolerance to their drug of choice, and why you constantly need new material things, and can't feel content from whatever material things you already own.

Of these four chemicals, dopamine is by far and away the leading hormone that motivates action. Serotonin is a distant second.

In the The Dopamine-Deficient (DD) Mouse Experiment, researchers, notably Richard Palmiter and his team at the University of Washington, conducted a series of studies (starting in the 1990s) using genetically engineered mice that could not produce dopamine.

Behavioral Observation: These "DD mice" appeared normal at birth but gradually stopped eating and drinking after about two weeks. Despite being surrounded by palatable food, they would literally starve to death because they lacked the motivation (or "wanting") to initiate eating.

The Key Discovery (Wanting vs. Liking): The mice still enjoyed the food if it was placed directly in their mouths—they would lick and swallow it with pleasure, a reaction known as "liking". This proved that dopamine is not required for the pleasure of food, but is essential for the drive to get it.

The Cure: When researchers injected the mice with L-Dopa (a chemical precursor to dopamine), the mice would immediately become active and eat voraciously until the chemical wore off.

There you have it folks. You exist because dopamine motivated a couple of people to produce you, and you continue to exist because of your own dopamine. Pure and simple. There's really nothing more to it.

Forrest Gump's got nothing on this dude

2025-03-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Some time in early 2025, I finally tracked down this homeless dude near my house who is on a Forrest Gump-like mission. For those who watched the movie, you may recall Forrest begins running across the country for no particular reason for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days and 16 hours. Except, this homeless dude, whom I will refer to as HD hereinafter, shows no signs of slowing down after years of walking up and down Laguna Canyon road every day, all day, even in the rain.

For a while, I'd been looking for the opportunity to ask HD about his shoe size since his shoes were torn and in awful condition from all the mileage. I wanted to buy him a durable and comfortable pair of walking shoes, and maybe keep doing it, given that he'd likely go through any pair of shoes in a hurry from all the walking he does every day. I finally got my chance one day, and I parked my car a little past the Anneliese elementary school by Laguna Canyon Road and El Toro Road. If there was ever an example of no good deed goes unpunished, this fateful day would be the one. Where I stopped my car are multiple mogul-like bumps on the road asphalt that are not particularly visible to the eye. So when I stopped my car on top of one, the bottom of my car hit the bump. This caused damage to the undercarriage panel made of plastic composite called "aeroshield", and it cost me $400 to replace a couple of weeks later when the damaged part came loose and made loud machine gun-like sounds as it dragged on a freeway offramp.

Small price to pay for a good deed, but alas, I failed at obtaining HD's shoe size because he refused to give it to me. Instead, he asked that I give him the $100 cash and he'd purchase the shoes himself. And during this fruitless conversation, he barely made eye contact with me and kept walking on his pathless journey.

This picture of HD is from yesterday, on March 29th, 2025, when he walked past me as I was about to leave my condo. This time he turned his head and looked at me sideways for a good 2-3 seconds. He was wearing black sandals, which are also ill-suited for long walks.

A relevant Forrest Gump quote: "My mama always said you can tell a lot about a person by their shoes, where they going, where they been."

I am your 45th and 47th president (and the grandest experiment)

2024-11-06T22:57:00.009-08:00

November 5th 2024 election night was hardly over when it became painfully obvious Trump had won. Political pundits like to cite a plethora of reasons for this colossal democratic failure, but once again, as is always the case, it's the economy stupid, and in this case the runaway inflation. Since Biden took office in January 2020, prices are over 21% higher. Then to fight the inflation, the Federal Reserve added insult to injury by raising interest rates and made financing anything more difficult.

And here's the catch: There's nothing anyone in power could've done about this. The inflation was largely triggered by supply chain issues from the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump lost the election in 2020 because of the tectonic shock of the pandemic, and Harris lost yesterday because of the aftershock of the pandemic (inflation), and neither candidate was responsible for these events. This election result is not a verdict on immigration, abortion rights, Israel's war with Hamas, the funding of transgender inmate operations or other sideshows. Put anyone in office during these two election periods and they'd have been one-term administrations too. Jair Bolsonaro lost the Brazilian presidency in 2022 because of the pandemic, and the popular Jacinda Arden didn't even bother to re-run for the New Zealand presidency in 2023 because of the pandemic.

Now, let's turn to all the crazy shit that can happen in an unrestrained second Trump administration, because Trump will undoubtedly apply lessons learned during his first term to accomplish what he wasn't able to the first time around and then some. Below is a list of some of what he has said or is likely to enable. Let's revisit in four years to assess how close he came to fulfilling them. Before we get to the list, it's important to note Trump will push any agency or system that gets in the way of his agenda to its limit or breaking point. With the senate now in Republican control, and the House to follow, plus a sympathetic Supreme Court we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe the impacts of a few or more unprecedented and sometimes whacky - like two standard deviations from the mean - policy actions in what can only be described as a grand experiment.

And now, without further adue, what will or may happen in the next four years emanating from our unpredictable and impulsive 47th president:

o All DOJ cases against Trump will vanish, and he will not get a jail sentence for his Manhattan case hush money case convictions either

o The January 6th rioters/convicts will receive presidential pardons, and others too, as far and wide as Trump's pardoning power reaches

o Retribution against political enemies "from within"

o 13 million illegal immigrants shall be deported

o Ukraine war will come to an end with a peace treaty that cedes occupied territory to Russia

o Tariffs on all foreign imports, especially the ones from China and Mexico

o More abortion and/or abortion pill restrictions

o Resumption of cronyism and wholly unqualified and at times bat shit crazy people in top government jobs, e.g. RFK Jr. in charge of people's health

o Gutting of federal agencies and massive government spending cuts, aka cleansing the deep state

o More tax cuts and cuts in regulations that ultimately create bubbles and recessions again

o Control of federal reserve and other federal agencies under the executive branch. This could mean faster and steeper interest rate declines

o The presidency turned into a caliphate. The senate is already controlled by Republicans. If the house stays under Republican control, the magnitude of shit show multiplies by 10x. And this time around, Trump will have loyalist in his cabinet and as advisors. There will be no John Kellys to restrain him.

o More inflation and government debt

o A more empowered and unrestrained Israel - strikes against Iran's nuclear sites perhaps?

"And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God"

San Francisco; there goes the neighborhood...

2023-09-02T15:09:00.004-07:00

The last time I traveled to beautiful San Francisco was before the COVID-19 pandemic. All the popular areas in downtown were bustling then; Union Square, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square. This time around - August 2023 - it's sayonara to large crowds, businesses, and konichiwa to the homeless and smash and grab crimes.

Monday, August 14th, Han and I flew to SFO (San Francisco International Airport), deplaned and took a while to retrieve my checked carry-on. Unbeknownst to me, the cheapest tickets do not allow carry on bags in the cabin, so I was forced to check in my carry-on in JWA (John Wayne Airport). This delay almost made us miss our minibus tour of the city at 2 p.m. From the airport we took the Airtrain to the Bart, and exited a station near the Love Tour pick up spot and Ubered the rest of the way there just in time for departure by the Fisherman's Wharf. The Love Tour was aboard a 70's VW hippy bus with stops at the Golden Gate Bridge, neighborhoods such as Mission, Castro, North Beach, Chinatown, and a drive down Lombard street, while our guide/driver told us about the city's history and culture.

The following morning we boarded the ferry on Pier 33 to Alcatraz Island. En route, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the city, the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges, plus some dude in track pants who completed a dozen consecutive flash kick backflips to the applause of Alcatraz visitors on the top open air floor of the ferry. I had to do extensive research to find the name of this variation of backflip.

While on the island, we bought souvenirs, a couple of which are pictured here, and a biography of one of the reformed inmates I'm reading now. The inmate's name was Jim Quillen. He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 at the age of 22 after his escape from San Quentin and capture. Surprisingly, he was not a violent criminal. He had served 2 years of his 3 year sentence at San Quentin for multiple stupid robberies, many at gunpoint, and became an officially categorized "incongerrible" (unreformable) inmate because of his escape. He never explained why he acted as such a dumbass for not finishing the last year of his 3 year sentence. I mean, how imbecilic can one be? But what's most surprising is one prison escape on a rap sheet that was otherwise relatively benign landed him in the most infamous maximum security prison with the likes of Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, James Whitey Bulger and the who's who of society's most violent scumbags and psychopaths.

Day 3, or maybe a part of day 2 we hit Chinatown in what appeared to be the only place we could find boba milkteas. Of the 3 places over a couple of days we visited, none compared to Omomo in Irvine, not even Yi Fang there to the Yi Fang in Irvine.

The rest of the trip was to Union Square, the most delicious Gelato twice, a couple of okay restaurants and this funny haircut sign - click to enlarge:

And the following day (Friday) after our return, this visit to Ruth's Chris for my birthday dinner:

Alaska Trip July 14th through the 21st, 2023

2023-07-16T16:11:00.034-07:00

Alaska, America's last frontier with a 737K population was purchased from Russia by then Secretary of State, William Seward, for $7.2 million in 1867. With its rugged landscape and climate, Seward's purchase was widely criticized at the time as junk until the gold rush of 1900s. Today, 25% of America's oil and 50% of its seafood comes from Alaska, but economic performance is ranked 49th (2nd last in the U.S.) Despite its vast surface area that is the equivalent of California, Texas and Montana combined, most of Alaska is uninhabited.

Day 1, July 14th and 15th: First day of travel and Johanna was teary eyed at LAX because she didn't want to go. I received complaint messages from her weeks prior to this trip and all the way leading up to. Chief among her complaints was lack of opportunity to spend time with her friends this summer because of her 3.5-week trip to Sweden and this 8-day trip. Highlights of her complaints that began in Sweden:

"It's just gonna be horrible for me [Alaska trip] which will make it horrible for everyone else.....I'll go to Alaska without complaining anymore only if I get money to go shopping when we get back.....Can I stay at Bita's or something because if I go I'll have way less time to spend with my friends and if I don't hang out with my friends anymore I won't have any so only take me if you hate me and want me to lose all my friends....Also I don't wanna sit next to a random smelly person on the flight....Wait if I go to Alaska instead can you pay for my fast pass if I go to knotts?.....Why the actual would I want to go to a random glacier and land where everything is cold like it's summer.... Everyone knows I hate vacation....I'll lose all my friends because of you....I hate planes....and vacations....and stupid Alaska...and I would rather die than go....I didn't even wanna go to Sweden...If you force me to go that's being a selfish and bad parent and that's not good for you...."

We arrived in Anchorage at 12 a.m. Saturday, picked up our $220/day (highway robbery) car rental and drove to our first room rental, Ingra house hotel, that ended up fitting the profile of a hostel with shared bathroom/shower. No way Jose, none of us are taking a shower here. Our room barely fit 3 small beds - I took the middle one. We must've been by a highway as the sound of cars driving by was at the limit of our tolerance. Expedia reviewers rated this junk 7.8 out of 10. Google rating was 2 stars out of 5. We rated it a generous 2 out of 10.

We woke up around 8 a.m., washed up, packed, checked out and left for breakfast in rain. Elin picked the #1 gluten free breakfast diner, Snow City Cafe, where they serve Alaskan reindeer sausage. The wait was 2 hours, so I'm guessing this place is #1 with or without gluten. We had an amazing breakfast and left for Girdwood, a resort town south of Anchorage and a 45 minute drive to our 2nd night stay at Alyeska North #400, next to a ski slope with chair lifts. These types of cabins are called ski-in, ski-out which means no transportation to the slopes are needed. The room was much nicer and larger than Ingra House, with it's own bathroom, shower and kitchen. There was a long bed connected to the wall and close to the ceiling that slept two people on opposite ends. That's where the kids slept. For an early dinner, Elin and I ate at a food truck called Girdwood Izikaya (Japanese food in case you haven't guessed it). Johanna elected for Subway (and the next day too). Back at the cabin, Elin and I watched Alone, which is a wilderness survival competition reality show. Since much of Alaska is wilderness, this show had special meaning. Then, lo and behold, at 10:48 p.m. a magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the Alaska Peninsula which was 460 miles southwest of us, triggering a tsunami warning. I learned later Alaska natives received the warning on their cell phones, but I guess tourists were left to enjoy all that Alaska has to offer. Luckily, the tsunami was only 0.5 feet.

Day 2, Sunday, July 16th: Elin and I ate breakfast at The Bake Shop across the parking lot to our cabin. This place was very popular and lotsa patrons walked in after us. Elin left first as I lined up to order grilled cheese for Johanna. We checked out of the cabin and left to the port town of Seward, population 2.6K, for our next 2-night stay - major cruiseliners dock here.

The 2-hour trip was on highway 1 that hugs the Gulf of Alaska, with gorgeous scenery of water, mountains, large trees and greenery.

More than half-way to our destination we stopped at a mini mart called Estes Bros. The vanilla and chai latte were surprisingly delicious. The girl behind the counter was a student at Seward High School. She drove one hour to school and back every week day. This high school has a total of 145 students and its two buildings are without windows (we took the picture below on our second day there).

After we arrived at our hotel, we visited the Alaska Sealife Center, built in 1998, largely from the Exxon Valdez oil spill settlement fund. The head honcho there was a 1,900 lb. Stellar Sea Lion who had a lot to get off his chest apparently:

Around 2:30 p.m. we ate at a highly rated hole-in-the-wall place called Firebrand Barbecue. The entire eatery fit in this picture. This place definitely lived up to its reputation. I had pork ribs and Elin had pork belly to the tune of country music the entire time.

Firebrand Barbecue - highly recommended

Day 3, Monday, July 17th: Johanna stayed in the hotel while Elin and I visited the Exit Glacier, but not before we were devoured by mosquitos en route the hike up 3,000 feet elevation. I had all of my body covered with clothes except my head, and that's where I received multiple bites, mostly on the side and crown of my head where I thought my thinning hair provided adequate protection. I hope one day technology eradicates mosquitoes (and flies too) who contribute nothing useful to the ecosystem. Buttholes!!

On our way back, we saw a police car and ambulance racing up the road to, as I learned a couple of days later from the online version of Anchorage Daily News, rescue a collapsed Michigan teenager on the trail Elin and I had just traversed. Unfortunately, the teenage boy died of a cause yet unknown.

The rest of the day was spent dining at a local restaurant - I had a hamburger with gigantic onion rings - and later Gelato.

At a minimart down the adjacent street to our hotel worked a twenty-something chicagoan cash register clerk with a couple of nose rings. She had moved to Alaska 3 years prior, and held two jobs working 14-hour days "because there was nothing else to do there." This was her last summer in Alaska as she planned to move to Australia via a work program. Elin bought matcha on two consecutive days at that cute minimart.

Day 4 Tuesday, July 18th: We left Seward for Whittier, a tiny town 2 hours north of Seward and 60 miles south east of Anchorage with a whopping population of - wait for it - 200 and change. Almost the entire town lives in a single building, a former army barracks built in 1974. In the summer, the population adds out of state crews who run the glacier cruisers, precisely the reason for our visit. One such seasonal migrant was a woman named Hope who is a high school English teacher in North Dakota and on her first cruise duty.

To reach Whittier we had to drive through the longest combined vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America at 2.5 miles, the one-way, Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel with a $13 roundtrip toll.

The tunnel opens once every 30 minute for 15 minutes in one direction, which means if you miss your planned opportunity, you're up shit creek for an hour before your next opening. And that's almost what happened because our journey from Seward was interrupted by major roadwork of the dillhole kind and stoppages in what appeared to be a complete rebuilding of a section of highway 1. Two days prior as we traveled the opposite direction there was no evidence of this unwelcome major construction project. As a result of these delays, I hightailed it to the tunnel with plenty of time to spare.

Below is a picture I took from the Anchorage museum Elin and I visited on day 6 that chronicles the history of this tunnel built by American world war 2 soldiers during the war.

Once past the tunnel, we reached our cruise parking lot in a couple of minutes and checked in for our 6-hour cruise. The 3-hour version was booked when we made reservations the day before. The only reason why I agreed to this cruise is because on the promotional brochure, the first words were, "No seasickness guaranteed", but I still wore my scopolamine patch because even a little motion sickness is as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit.

The cruise ship was a high speed catamaran with speeds reaching 40 mph. Early after we set sail, I began questioning the wisdom of my decision to confine myself to a vessel for 6 hours. I mean, how different can a glacier look from another worth visiting 26 of them?? I experienced first-hand the oft used expression "that ship has sailed". Here's the best video I recorded from this excursion - a big chunk of ice around the opening of the waterfall broke off and fell to the water below with a thunderous sound a little after I shot the video:

We returned to Girdwood in a cabin with zero privacy. This was a studio turned into a one bedroom with no inside walls to the ceiling. The slightest unflattering sound out of any orifice would be easily detectable by any inhabitant anywhere in the cabin, even to those hard of hearing. The bathroom was separated from the rest of the cabin with a curtain, and the walls were 20 inches short of a connection to the ceiling. Talk about the need for highly covert operations there.

Day 5 Wednesday July 19th: Rainy Girdwood and more Subway for Johanna. Elin and I visited Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we met this anorexic moose:

And this black bear. All animals here were unphased by the rain pouring down.

We found it ironic that a rescue center that rehabilitates reindeer also sold reindeer dogs in a bun.

Every restaurant we ate breakfast or lunch at was surprisingly good given our limited options in such a small town; Basecamp, Hightower Pub.

Day 6 Thursday July 20th: Back to Anchorage with mostly bad or marginally acceptable food, and quite surprisingly unpicturesque downtown; a bit reminiscent of our trip through Santa Cruz a few years ago.

We torpedoed through the Anchorage museum, but not before the following painting with a peculiar title caught my attention:

Our Airbnb was the highlight of the finale of our trip, with the exception of a train and its obnoxious horn tooting every hour:

Another event worth mentioning is dinner at Whiskey and Ramen; Japanese food

All in all, we (Elin and I) rate this trip 6-7 out of 10, and considering the high cost of everything, we would've been better off somewhere outside of the U.S.

What the dickens?!!

2023-02-18T14:40:00.005-08:00

I saw this today in my neighbor's parking spot. He likely ran over it. Never seen anything like it. I believe the worm-looking dark strings are its intestines. Click on picture to enlarge.

This insect, it turns out, is a Northern Mole Cricket or Neocurtilla Hexadactyla. They tend to operate during nighttime hours and spend most of their time burrowing into soil. They can fly, are not poisonous, and eat seedlings and grass. Pheeewww!! At least I'm safe if one of these monstrosities finds its way into my unit.

Can COVID defy Newton's law of motion??

2023-01-19T09:34:00.004-08:00

As I do every morning, this morning I put my Trader Joe's steel cut oats into the microwave for 4 minutes and 20 seconds while I stretched and worked out - basically making myself useful while my oat meal cooked.

Rewind for a little relevant backgrounder: Three weeks ago, I contracted COVID. It was a mild case with no fever or sore throat; primarily congestion and upper respiratory infection. During COVID, I started making simple mistakes, many of them for the first time ever and related to taking the wrong medication or supplement at the wrong time of the day. And post-COVID, it seems like some of these dumb unprecedented mistakes have lingered, and this morning was one such occasion.

After I took my oatmeal out of the microwave, I grabbed an organic banana - also from Trader Joe's - and peeled the skin. Then somehow, the entire banana slipped out of my hands and on to the kitchen floor. You'd think no big deal, pick up the banana quickly, blow on it a couple of times, chop and put in oatmeal bowl. But nooooo, the banana bounced and rolled under my oven. When I laid on the floor and looked under the oven, I saw the banana resting all the way in against the wall. WTF?! What are the odds the banana would find its way back there??? I couldn't replicate this trajectory if I tried a thousand times. So now I'm thinking no problem, use the Swiffer handle to get the banana out, rinse and use. WRONG!!!! The picture below is incontrovertible proof there was no rescuing this banana.

Click on the image below to enlarge and appreciate its intricacies:

Bye bye banana. You're beyond redemption

Somebody's Hapi

2022-08-27T18:25:00.003-07:00

Wednesday, August 24th, 2nd week of school for Johanna in Middle School and Elin in high school, both for the first time.

We headed over to Hapi Sushi in Laguna for Elin's favorite Salmon Avocado roll. Hapi is a small quaint hole-in-the-wall sushi bar/restaurant with limited inside and out seating.

This particular day, our eyes caught something unexplainable:

This female patron left her straw hat on the floor upright, on its brim and to her right. The sushi bar is too narrow to rest that good size hat on, and I highly doubt it fell off the counter. Looking at how her bag is laying on its side, I'd surmise she's either inebriated or just doesn't give a chit. Anyway, hard to believe anyone would leave their hat on the floor like that. Maybe she'd had a rough day on the beach??

Playing chicken with a Bee

2022-08-14T17:03:00.003-07:00

Sunday morning, 7:30 a.m., got into my car to drive to tennis. I saw this bee resting on my front windshield motionless and directly in my view. Should I flick it off, use my windshield wiper to swipe it, or just drive until the wind blows it away?

I opted for the latter, and by my estimate the 45 mph max speed in the canyon should get the job done nicely. Wrong! I drive the few minutes at the slow speed limit until I get to the 55 mph zone. The bee still didn't budge. By this time I had detected no movement, as if the bee had died and somehow superglued to my windshield.

Shortly after, I entered the 65 mph speed limit zone, and in an irritated state let the gas pedal rip. 65, 75, 85..... No?! 95.... oh yeah?!!! How about 103 mph bitch? Can you take that? Yes it can and yes it did, with no detectable movement whatsoever. At this point, I backed down because the situation was getting too contentious. I decided to wait to park the car at the tennis courts and opt for a physical confrontation.

When I stopped at the intersection of the 133 freeway and Laguna Canyon Road for a left turn, I lifted my phone to get a close-up of the bee, but after three tries - bee came out blurry each time - in what can only be described as nothing short of a miracle, the bee came back to life, turned 90 degrees and began climbing my windshield, and after a few steps flew away!

How can a pipsqueek insect even breathe in conditions of warp drive speed for an extended period of time, nevermind that it held on to my windshield at 103 mph?? Does a bee even breathe?

It turns out bees do take in oxygen like humans, and exhale, except not through their mouth and nose. According to BuzzAboutBees.net, "Bees have pairs of holes in the body called 'spiracles'. You could call them 'air holes'. There are 20 spiracles in total, arranged in a neat line along each side of the body. The spiracles have valves which control the air flow in and out of the bee's body.

My little game of chicken with this bee proves bees can continue to breathe through their 20 airholes at prohibitively high velocities. And this poor bee is highly unlikely to find its way back to its colony, 6.4 miles away.

Trip to Cambria

2022-08-07T21:04:00.010-07:00

Sunday, July 31st, tennis at 8 a.m. with some lower back pain as expected, packed and left for the first leg of our trip to Solvang at 10:45 a.m. My memory failed me yet again to no one's surprise; left the fruits in the fridge, and left the house in flip flops only. Moving on....

We stopped in Santa Barbara and ate at Lilac Patisserie. We now eat at places that are GF (gluten free) friendly as Elin is likely afflicted with Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Great restaurant, UC or no UC. Elin and I had Eggs Benedict, but the eggs were overcooked and the yolk hard - hadn't experienced that before. This is a situation that must be rectified - more on that later. After food, we walked in beautiful downtown SB, bought 6 macarons and set off for Solvang.

Newsflash: 2nd day in Cambria I pulled a couple of muscles in my lower back as I was gracefully rising from the toilet. What a 'buckets of horseshit' moment. I've never even heard of anyone pull a back muscle getting off the shitter. My immediate thought was whether I could walk and/or drive back home the next day as scheduled. This is the kinda baloney that happens to other unfit couch potato sedentaries. I heard the Uber charge from LAX to Orange County is $150. I can only imagine the rideshare cost from Cambria to Orange County; a 5 hour driving distance. The pain was most acute when I got in and out of the car. A plethora of cuss words would escape my mouth each time, some of which were unrecognizable to me.

Back to Solvang: A quaint town and a tourist hotspot trying hard to sustain a Danish vibe. I bet not one of the 6K residents speak a lick of Danish. Official census stats puts Danes at 10% of the population. Solvang was founded by 3 Danes in 1911 who were fed up with the Midwest weather. I've always wondered about the wisdom of the Scandinavians who settled in the Midwest. You'd think the folks who left the godawful weather in their home country would have the foresight not to pick the Midwest as their new settlement, but I guess the 3 founders of Solvang were the only change agents of the bunch.

We stayed at the Solvang Inn, pretty much Motel 6 territory. For dinner, we ate at Chomp. The servers were polite college age males, most of whom sported a mustache. Irritation began to set in when I reached for the ketchup bottle. It felt empty so I borrowed the one from the next table; empty also. What are the odds? I asked our server for another bottle. He took the two bottles never to return with a useful replacement, and eventually I managed to snag one from a distant table. Chump!

Next day breakfast at Brekkies next to CHOMP. Crew was nice, and the place was well managed, nice and clean. Great place to eat. On the way back we stopped at Olsen's Danish Village and Bakery to cash in some of the items from our free continental breakfast coupon courtesy of our motel. The line was long, weather hot, and what we got for free was limited to second rate items; felt like a bait and switch.

Off to beautiful Cambria, population 5.6K and "a seaside village in San Luis Obispo County, California, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles."

There's an East and West village; we stayed in East at a charming BnB called the Squibb Houses. There are a few great places to eat at the small downtown where we were, and a steep hike up the steps on the hill near us - nobody except me wanted to explore the top of the hill; took a lot of effort to reach the top.

The weather in Cambria is cool even when it's hot everywhere else. Our room was one of the nicest I've stayed at, with oak wood flooring and sections of walls covered with oak as well, a fireplace where Johanna spent most of her time in the room, and a beautiful open shower/toilet combo where I threw out my back.

Downstairs was the common area where breakfast was served, comfy couches and a big chess table where Johanna bravely took on all comers with a surprising appetite to play. We spent quite a bit of time there since I threw out my back and Elin's abdominal cramps confined us to our residence.

The morning of Wednesday August 3rd, we left Cambria bright and early for breakfast at Lilac Patisserie in Santa Barbara, and this time I gave specific instructions to toast the glutten free muffin extra, and keep the poached egg in our Eggs Benedict runny for crying out loud.

Got home a little after 12 p.m. In a relatively traffic free trip by meticulous design.

If you haven't been to Cambria, go there!

Lilac Patisserie 1st visit

Downtown Santa Barbara - looking for macaroons per Johanna's request

Downtown Solvang

Solvang, Chomp

Solvang, breakfast at Brekkies

Cambria, Linn's restaurant (great food), Johanna covering her face

A not too happy (or loving) Elin posing for a picture under the tree of love

Linn's - Owner is a cyclist and thought I was a cyclist (maybe he thinks everyone's a cyclist?). He gave us a tomato his son had picked for the restaurant

Other customers kept getting welcome notes, so I complained to Len, the affable front desk guy, and he made us a special welcome note

Our room - I pulled a back muscle in the bathroom shower area to the right and inside of sink area

Front entrance to our room common area

Johanna in her favorite section of the room

Our hike up the steep hill

Halfway down the steep hill - view of the street below where we stayed

On the way down the hill

Back at Linn's for dinner - had to order take out because of 2 hour wait

Ollalieberry preserves at Lynn's. We bought a GF ollalieberry pie that likely was the cause of Elin's abdominal pain

Back at Lilac Patisserie in SB to right a wrong with the Eggs Benedict

Bastard of Wintertfell

2022-06-11T17:33:00.002-07:00

Finally, the perfect menu for Jon Snow:

Better late than...

2022-05-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

Valido Trail is in south Laguna, about half a mile, steep climb to the top. There's a bench at the sumit overlooking the ocean, with a beautiful view of The Ranch golf course on the other side in the picture I took today.

On the way down, there was a family of three who hesitated to walk past what turned out to be the laziest snake I've come across - and I haven't encountered many snakes in my life - but this one was stretched out across the walking path and made little to no effort to move as everyone eventually walked past it, and I stopped to take a close up picture.

After the hike, I ate breakfast at AbhA below the trail, which is Mediterranean/Israeli food - what a gem. I can't believe I've been going to Laguna forever and yet I didn't know about this place. Better late than pregnant....

Eggbert: My 8th grader's art project

2022-05-01T08:01:00.003-07:00

Eggbert Eggsasperated is a long time inhabitant of Alpha Island. IF he had any friends, they would likely describe him as an irritating individual, despite his culinary talents. That’s right. Sir Eggbert is the most infamous chef in all of Alpha Island, even having secured a job as Emperor UnJolly the Rancher’s personal chef. His controversial meals have brought him many customers, and his restaurant, Eggy’s Eggdibles has items such as pickled toes, fried eyeballs, dandruff salad, and even *gasp* scrambled eggs on the menu. Some of his most popular drinks include the eyeball juice extraordinaire, sweat soda, and his monthly special, the sewer samosa. If you ever visit Alpha Island, be cautious when in Eggbert’s presence, for as the locals will tell you, Eggbert literally eats his enemies for breakfast.

Mood Elevator

2022-04-09T16:15:00.005-07:00

Click to enlarge

Friday night in Laguna, as Yuna and I were navigating our way to dinner through shortcuts that included business and residential complexes, we came across this elevator sign near the corner of Forest and 3rd. What immediately caught my attention was "MAXIMUM 1 PERSON". WTF?? When the word "maximum" appears anywhere, it's because there must exist a "minimum", and that minimum cannot be zero.

Then, lo and behold, I read the rest of that ill begotten message, which was even more perplexing: "PHYSICAL DISTANCING IN EFFECT IN ELEVATOR". Never mind that the entire message was written in caps, which implies yelling, but how can anyone reconcile "MAXIMUM 1 PERSON" in elevator with physical distancing? Are we to believe that a person can transmit the COVID-19 to him/herself, and in order to prevent that, this person's infected organs must be physically separated from the rest, and reconverged upon exiting the elevator?!

Will Smith's Mel Gibson Moment. Why "Will Smith just smacked the $hit out of" Chris Rock. One word, "Ego"!

2022-03-29T13:54:00.005-07:00

Opinions are like @$$%&*+es, everybody's got one and here's mine related to the Sunday, March 27th, 2022, Oscar incident and undoubtedly "the greatest night in the history of television":

I feel like I can contribute unique perspectives to this colossally embarrassing and unfortunate event, such as Will Smith's slap that was executed flawlessly using a combination of street fighting and professional boxing techniques which Will Smith is well versed in. As Will Smith approaches an unsuspecting Chris Rock, he looks down momentarily to divert attention from what's about to materialize. This is a classic sucker-punch disguise used in street fights. Then, rather than wind up his pimp-slapping arm similar to the preparation of a hook punch in boxing, he launches the attack in a straight line to Chris Rock's jaw, thereby minimizing Chris Rock's reaction time in evading the slap. Up to this point, Will Smith is utilizing street fighting techniques; divert attention and disguise strike. After the contact, however, Will Smith torques his body at the hips and shoulder joints in the follow through, which generates more power than just the arm movement alone. This is classic boxing follow-through of a hook. In his autobiography, Will Smith alluded to multiple street fights growing up and as an adult during his DJ Jazzy Jeff hay days, and his intense near 2-year boxing training for the movie "Ali" at the hands of legendary boxing trainer Darrell Foster who trained multi-weight class boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard for 18 years.

I wouldn't consider myself a fan of Will Smith's prior to this mishap. I've enjoyed many of his movies, and I would put him in the same cohort as Tom Cruise - don't care about Tom Cruise's whack job Scientology beliefs and proclamations, but his acting is impeccable, and many of his movies delightful. I read Will Smith's autobiography, "Will", and hugely enjoyed it, although slightly disappointed about entire experiences that were left out, e.g. details about his open marriage.

I've always wondered why Will and particularly, his wife Jada, feel compelled to discuss their personal lives publicly. After all, they're not like the talentless Kardashians whose only game is to expose their bickering and embarrassing moments. In a November 23, 2020 interview, Barbara Walters told the Kardashians, "You are often described as famous for being famous. You don't really act, you don't sing, you don't dance, you don't have any, forgive me, ANY TALENT!" Why oh why, Will Smith, and particularly Jada Pinket Smith with your Red Table tell-all talk show, must you confide to the world your inner most secrets and personal experiences? After all, Will Smith, you CAN sing, you CAN dance, and you CAN act! You can not only do these things, but you are extraordinary at them, and you have made a fortune doing them; Will Smith's net worth is $350M according to Celebrity Networth. Why do the Kardashian thing? Why act so publicity-starved? Is it because you're so fabulous, you can't share enough of yourself with the world?

In his autobiography, "Will", Will Smith agonized over his cowardly behavior as his father repeatedly unleashed verbal and physical abuse on his mother.

Will Smith, you're still a coward for knowing full well before you assaulted Chris Rock he wouldn't fight back. Will Smith, I'm willing to bet if Dwayne Johnson had uttered the GI Jane joke in Chris' stead you wouldn't have dared to do to Johnson what you did to Chris Rock. Will Smith, you're also a comedian, and you know full well comedians take risks with their material, and should be largely unrestrained. It matters not that Chris Rock's joke was in poor taste and not well received by Jada Pinket Smith. It also matters not what history you and Jada Pinket Smith had with Chris Rock's past comments in another Oscar and elsewhere. Will Smith, there was no reasonable justification for what you did to Chris Rock. To think how outsized an ego you'd have to possess to pull off a stunt like that in front of a world audience is bewildering!

And when Will Smith sat down, the spineless Academy couldn't muster enough courage to remove him from the show. They're just like you Will Smith, cowards. And when Denzel Washington and others approached you and consoled you for the assault, who went to Chris Rock??? Chris Rock was assaulted and the perpetrator gets all the sympathy and consolations?! The only reason I can think of that led to so many people behaving in such strange and unexpected ways is because the assault was so shocking, no one could think straight, and everyone was scrambling to diffuse a monstrously shocking and embarrassing situation. And in the process, everyone succumbed to their biases, which is to be deferential to the larger star. Where was the Academy security if there was one?

And after Will Smith apologized during his Oscar acceptance speech, there was no mention of Chris Rock, but the next day - likely after consulting with his life coach, therapist, publicity company and who knows who else, Will Smith issued a personal apology to Chris Rock that can only be thought of as anything but genuine. The empire of Will Smith is under distress. Will Smith, you're a "Bad Boy", and you must be held to account for your actions on the night of March 27th, 2022, the 94th Academy Awards. Let's hope the Academy reacts justly. Do the right thing Academy!

Lastly, Will Smith, please revert to silence about your personal life, like how you were when you made quality movies and the world didn't hear about much else. And yes, you are a "work in progress", but hopefully the "progress" is not the forward motion of your hand en route to someone's unsuspecting face.

Thank you Will Smith, and I hope you come out a better man after this, because the devil DID come for you on that Oscar night at your highest moment, and if you weren't a legend before that night, you certainly have earned the title "I Am Legend" with flying colors. You were certainly true to your word when you wrote on Instagram before the show, "Me 'n @jadapinketsmith got all dressed up to choose chaos".

And here's the chaos you chose.

Weekend trip to Joshua Tree: When pandemic reality sets in

2021-12-22T15:47:00.009-08:00

Friday, December 10th I picked up my kids in my Tesla and set out on a 3-hour 113-mile journey to Yucca Valley in shitty traffic. This is the first time I've traveled long distance with my Tesla, and naturally, I felt anxious about when and how I'd charge my car battery. The beautiful thing is the Tesla monitor maps out all charging stations in the vicinity with kWh output. kWh data is important because the higher the charging station kWh, the quicker you can charge your car and go about your business.

More than halfway to our destination (an AirBnb), we stopped at a 13 kWh Tesla charging station. I plugged in and we walked to Chick-Fil-A - no dine-in allowed - so we turned to neighboring MacDonald's and that's when pandemic reality set in:

Elin and I ordered crispy chicken sandwiches, and to our surprise, the young register attendant had to get her supervisor to help punch it in. Are you kidding me?! This was a major menu item. If you can't enter that on your register screen, what can you do on the register?

Not 5 minutes after we sat down, an irate customer ranted about how many times and how often this MacDonald's gets his order wrong, and how he'll be late back to work after his lunch hour (who eats lunch at 5:30 p.m.??). He asked (paraphrasing), 'how can you possibly f*ck up every day when I order the same thing?'

What seemed like eons later, the attendant brought our food in a paper bag. Wha?? We'd told her it was for dine-in. Then we discovered they'd given us two sweet and sour sauce packets when we'd asked for five. I got up to get sauce reinforcements and napkins before I realized the napkin dispensers were empty - ALL OF THEM!

And on and on it went, capped by no soap in the men's restroom and the lock in one of the stalls in the women's restroom didn't lock.

I couldn't believe how awfully this store was run, until I realized pandemic! Since the pandemic, there has been a worker shortage, and workers quitting in the droves. So likely the staff there was shorthanded and trained hastily.

It was dark and we drove the rest of the way not being able to enjoy the scenery. We arrived at the Airbnb in Yucca Valley Yuna had reserved, a 10 minute drive to Joshua Tree National Park. 34 years in the U.S. and I hadn't visited any National Parks until this year; Sequoia and now Joshua Tree! The Airbnb was a sizeable 2-bedroom with lotsa artsy fartsy stuff in it. The owner, an artist, had sprinkled her creativity throughout the property. The temperature was painfully cold outside, and we were elated to be inside and quickly settled. The next morning (Saturday), we had breakfast and drove to a local healthy eatery to pick up the food we had ordered online. We took the food with us to the Park before we stopped at the National Park information center to obtain a parking pass and guidance on exploring the park.

From Google:

Joshua Tree National Park is a vast protected area in southern California. It's characterized by rugged rock formations and stark desert landscapes. Named for the region’s twisted, bristled Joshua trees, the park straddles the cactus-dotted Colorado Desert and the Mojave Desert, which is higher and cooler. Keys View looks out over the Coachella Valley. Hiking trails weave through the boulders of Hidden Valley.

We entered the park and stopped at various places for bouldering. We ate lunch on a giant rock. Yuna's sandwich had excessive alpha sprouts which made her feel like she was grazing. Elin and Johanna climbed rocks every chance they got. We decided against stargazing - one cool activity in the Park - because of low nighttime temperatures, plus we'd have to stay in the park for a few hours more, and we'd already rock climbed enough yo.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way back to buy ingredients for dinner, then headed home to relax, shower etc. After the nice dinner Yuna prepared, we played Scrabble and discussed plans for the following day.

We checked out around 10-11 a.m., went to Sagebrush Press Bookstore, only to find out they're closed
on Sundays, so we headed to Space Cowboys Books instead where Elin bought a bunch of used books for cheap, and I bought a native-American looking runner in the adjacent store.

For lunch, we drove up a highway to a remote area restaurant called Pappy and Harriet's where they serve food for dine-in only, no takeout, no deliveries, and also short-staffed because of pandemic.

From Wikepdia:

Billboard Magazine named Pappy & Harriet's one of the Top Ten Hidden Gems in the Country in its 2012 Best Clubs issue. The club attracts artists and
musicians from all over the world.

NY Times Magazine featured Pappy and Harriet's in its 2013 article "Listen Up | In The California Desert, A One Of A Kind Music Venue Blossoms."

The wait was sorta long, and we had to bunch up on the bench near the entrance like a buncha iguanas to keep ourselves warm. The food was good, and the atmosphere Westernish. Service was slow, like everywhere else nowadays. We left after an hour and a half or so there, dropped off Yuna at her car by Sagebrush Press Bookstore and headed back home.

On the way back, there was expected traffic slowdown, but not exactly what we saw on the side of the freeway. What are the odds a car ends up in a resting position such as this? I hope the people in it weren't injured badly. There was infinitely less traffic on the way back on a Sunday afternoon, than on our way to Yucca Valley on a Friday evening.

We stopped at the same charging station and saw this feline relaxing on top of his/her owner's car. Elin rated the trip as a 9.5 out of 10, and Johanna was too pooped to properly assess the trip. Her ratings are generally unforgiving, but later she rated the trip a 7. The most favorite part of the trip was climbing boulders.

A View To A Kill

2021-11-07T17:36:00.001-08:00

A view to a kill from
my balcony

The morning of Sunday, November 7th, marked the end of daylight savings time, and the day of reckoning for my ultra-stinky Adidas tennis shoes. The complaints about these shoes had reached a critical juncture and I could no longer ignore the people closest to me. I opened my 2nd floor balcony screen door and tossed the pair of shoes on to the concrete below. I didn't even accord them the dignity of walking downstairs and placing them into the community trash can on their transition to their final resting place.

A little about how we got here.... these shoes were purchased on what seems like an eternity ago. Typically, I use my tennis shoes for 6 months before holes develop on one or both sides around my big toe area. Like the Energizer bunny, these pluckers kept going, and if it weren't for the abhorrent smell, I'd have worn them for a few more months. I don't have smelly feet, yet, for a long time I couldn't figure out why these shoes smelled so transcendently foul. It was likely because of lack of breathable fabric.

"In 1998, Pamela Dalton, a cognitive psychologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, was tasked with developing a stink bomb for the Department of Defense. Her experiments found that people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, who grew up smelling and eating different things, often completely disagreed about which smells were good or bad," NY Times "What's the World's Worst Smell? Some odors are more heinous than others. Then there's my Adidas shoes, Feb. 17, 2020"

Well, Ms. Dalton need not search for a universally accepted "World's Worst Smell" any longer. After every tennis match, I would drive home, take my shoes off and put them outside in my balcony. Then I would get the 3rd degree from whoever was in my car for the next few days - usually my two daughters - especially when I turned the A/C on. When the deed was done, my elder daughter thanked my girlfriend for convincing me to discard the shoes as a "service to mankind".

June 5, 2022 update:

The next batch, also stinky but nowhere near the legendary one above. Bye bye COVID companion:

Pandemic creates new opportunities

2021-08-24T09:53:00.003-07:00

Above, birthday gift from my elder daughter. Much prefer that than something like this when I get even older:

Sequoia trip – June 27th through July 1st, 2021

2021-07-12T12:35:00.010-07:00

I took this picture yo

Our 4-day trip to YMCA Camp Sequoia Lake, a 10-minute drive to Sequoia park via King’s Canyon entrance: This has been a one-week annual trip for my step-mom and her family/friends for over 30 years. This year, one of her daughters dropped out so me and my daughters got slotted in. We were bench players to a starting lineup of friends and family who knew each intimately at the camp.

We set out on Sunday morning, June 27th for a 5-hour drive to our destination, and world war 3 quickly ensued. As a part of camp check-in paperwork, we needed to document our body temperature readings for the 14 days leading up to arrival day. Hanna was designated this task since she can read and write in the car without nausea. The weekdays on the worksheet were not aligned to Sunday as the last day, so we need to get creative. After a healthy 3-way shouting match, we resolved the conundrum and drove 2.5 hours to an In N Out before Bakersfield, and what a super spreader event it was. This is during a period when COVID-19 restrictions were relaxed because of vaccinations, but at the onset of the Delta variant which was evading the vaccine some, and wreaking havoc on some of the countries that were previously successful in containing the virus, e.g. Israel.

After we arrived at camp, we unloaded a buncha stuff, including sleeping bags to be used as blankets, and pillows - these were not provided at the camp. A short time later, at 5:30, dinner was served. At this camp, breakfast, lunch and dinner were included. Our cabin (or apartment as they were referred to), had a bathroom and shower, considered VIP of the lodging space there. Many other cabins had no toilet or shower; residents had to use communal facilities.

Day 2: Monday morning after breakfast, the girls and I joined the climbing wall event which was a 10-minute walk from camp. In our group, there were four kids and me, so naturally, I felt the pressure to perform. Elin and I were the only ones to climb the 3-story high wall, and twice. On the way back, we encountered prisoners in orange jumpsuits doing forest maintenance work. One had a chainsaw and turned it on as we passed by.

Day 3: Tuesday. High rope obstacle course, no prisoners on the return trail – I was hoping I’d take a selfie with one. We kayaked in the lake and returned to the lake later for a memorable directionless rowing stint with my dad, stepmom and kids in a boat. It took all our energy as we tag teamed to the middle of the lake and back in an embarrassing display of rowing skills. My dad complained that I splashed him a couple of times when he did the same to me earlier.

The Fallen Monarch

Day 4: Wednesday. Sequoia national park, archery and no swim across the lake because it was scheduled at 10:30 a.m. during our Sequoia visit, plus I lost interest. Sequoia trees are the largest trees in the world, straight out of Lord of the Rings. We followed a tour guide, a 59 year old female (male? Couldn’t tell for sure), and he/she had lots of interesting stories about these trees and Sequoia national park. The wood from huge old-growth giant sequoia trees does not make good lumber, despite its resistance to decay, because it is brittle and has little strength. That, and legal protection has preserved these trees over centuries. They can live as long as 3,000 years, slightly older than our current president (Joe Biden). The fallen tree in the picture to the right called the Fallen Monarch is 26 feet in diameter and 80 feet long, and was hollowed out by fire before it fell who knows how long ago. It was turned into a hotel and saloon in the 1800s by the Gamlin brothers. It was used for other purposes over time, e.g. as a shelter by native Americans prior to the Gamlins, then the Gamlins lived in it for a couple of years from 1870 to 1872 until one bro got married and his wife said something to the effect of, “no way Jose, we’re not living in this dump. Let’s get a cabin built nearby, which Thomas or Israel (her husband) obliged.

Day 5: Thursday. Ate breakfast, packed and left. On the way back, I asked the kids what they rate the trip on a scale of 1 to 10. Elin said 8.5, Hanna 7.25. Hanna’s rating was reduced because I was harsh to her that morning for packing too slowly – she often stares into the abyss motionless when she’s tasked with something she abhors.

Floyd's rental and the tree he introduced it to

During our stay, we met an affable gentleman by the name of Floyd who would tell us interesting stories about himself during lunches and dinners. One of the more interesting stories was about his wrecking of his rental car during our week of stay. He hit the gas pedal instead of brake and hit the tree in front of him - see picture. In his youth, Floyd was drafted by an MLB team, but before he played in the majors he nearly paralyzed himself during a run/drop kick to home base. His baseball career ended right then and there with a year of physical therapy to follow.

I should mention the kids and I played cards at nights in the cabin, and backgammon with my dad almost on a daily basis (I never lost a match). In fact, my dad refused to play for money after he lost the first two sets for $5 each. I lost almost every game of Spot-It with Elin, but dominated Stress (card game), and Brooklyn Poker was a toss-up. Davie, my step-mom’s grandson showed up in our cabin the first night and informed us by tradition, we’d be playing a week-long game of Monopoly, put the board on the table and left, never to be seen again in our cabin. Whatevs….

Elin stuck on zipline at the end of high rope obstacle course, Day 3

I'm still a wus

2020-11-29T17:27:00.004-08:00

Saturday morning my two kids and I packed our scooters in my trunk and set out for a trek at the Balboa pier, otherwise known as an impeccable COVID-19 hotspot.

We parked in Balboa Island and took the ferry across the Newport Harbor to the Fun Zone. As we were scootering on the boardwalk, we came across a low-height ferris wheel Elin insisted on riding. So the three of us paid our combined $15 riding fee and boarded the ferris wheel in what turned out to be my journey to self rediscovery. After a few rotations, I began feeling queesy. I mean, buckets of horse$hit, are you telling me I can't even handle this pipsqueeck of a ferris wheel? And the answer is a resounding no, I'm still a wus. With every rotation past the 6th or 7th, my resolve to yell "stop the effing ferris wheel" increased exponentially until miraculously, as I was about to unload steelcut oats mixed with bananas and milk (my breakfast a couple of hours earlier) on the unsuspecting pedestrians below, the ferris wheel stopped and we unboarded. Phew....

A glorious birthday

2020-08-18T21:31:00.002-07:00

A fire whirl shoots into the sky as flames from the Hog fire

jump highway 3 about 5 miles from Susanville, California

on July 20, 2020

In what was shaping up to be just another day in hood, my birthday suddenly took a turn for the better (and the bizarre). First, I won a close set in tennis after my work day, 7-5, in the middle of a heat wave the L.A. Times called "climate change kindles extreme weather". The weather has gotten so f*cked up there's even a new phenomenon called "Firenado"; a fire caused tornado. For the first time in a long while, my hands became so sweaty it affected my game. I kept wiping my hand on my shirt for temporary respites.

After tennis, I visited my kids in their backyard for pastries. Before I took my first bite, I noticed a buncha flies feasting on something on the ground I couldn't identify. I grabbed a fly swatter, and with my first swat killed 5 flies. Wowzers - I've found my calling. From that moment on, the day turned into a glorious massacre, the likes of which I'd never experienced. By the time I was done, I'd counted 46 casualties (see below). This wasn't just happy hunting. I had to prove to myself my eye sight, hand-eye coordination and speed were intact, and with a kill ratio of 95%+ I passed with 'flying' colors. During the rampage, I remembered the line from Vin Diesel's character Riddick in the movie Pitch Black (the first one), when he slashed a predator alien creature to pieces and said, "did not know who he was f*ckin' with".

My only regret was when I looked up, my kids had left the backyard in disgust. I stopped and took the picture below before a regiment of ants began marching in.

August 18th, 2020 - the world is a
better place without 'em

A half-ass trip to Santa Barbara in the middle of COVID fire and fury

2020-08-16T21:24:00.024-07:00

The Thursday before I picked up Jun for our one-night stay in Santa Barbara, my car died. I had to have it towed to the Tesla dealership in Costa Mesa to replace the 12V battery. 12V battery?? I thought Teslas had one big bad battery that powered everything, but it turned out there is a 12V battery that performs similar functions as the ones in internal combustion vehicles. And mine just happened to fail earlier than usual - they're supposed to last up to 4 years. Anyway, I got my car back the following morning thanks to Tesla's speedy service.

The following day - Friday - I picked up Jun and we headed towards Santa Barbara via the same route (405N to 101N) that I'd traveled once a week for over 3.5 years while I worked in Thousand Oaks. Except, this time COVID-19 had alleviated bumper to bumper traffic typical of normal driving conditions on the most awful freeway in SoCal: The 101.

Our Santa Barbara hotel, the Hyatt Place, charged $9.99 for parking per night - not a warm and fuzzy welcome. I can't remember the last time I was charged a parking fee at a hotel - maybe courtesy of COVID-19?

The following morning, we headed to Mission Santa Barbara, only to find out everything but the gift shop was closed. So I took a picture of Jun taking a picture of me, and after visiting the gift shop, we drove to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, ordered two tickets online per the parking lot notice posted. This was an interesting proposition: Most of the museum's exhibits were indoors and shuttered because of COVID. The only two attractions were the Butterfly Pavilion, and Dr. Dolphin's shtick on dolphins and whales. I'm not sure why the fine folks at the museum didn't feel compelled to inform the unsuspecting patrons in advance that COVID had sidelined most exhibits, but had I known, I would've preferred to spend my limited time (and money) elsewhere. However, since the $30 fee for two is considered tax deductible donation, I'll just think of it charitable support to help the museum through tough times.

I took this picture of a butterfly with a broken wing. We saw many such wounded soldiers in the Pavilion, and surprisingly, these missing parts did not seem to affect the butterflies' flight. We were told by one of the employees broken wings are either from old age, or mishaps from running into things. Butterflies with broken wings become easier prey as their escape velocity reduces.

And a picture of our exit from the beautiful Butterfly Pavilion. We left, went downtown, parked near the Sterns Wharf in the Santa Barbara harbor, walked to the end of the wharf and back - later, I found out the top of my head cooked there at some point. We ate lunch at Helena Avenue Bakery (food was great, but menu limited) - and drove back home. Along the drive back, we stopped by one of the 'middle of nowhere' beaches with summer homes, and in Thousand Oaks to visit one of my tenants for the first time. As of late, my tenant and I have become best friends navigating through the maize of feces Home Depot Warranty has laid out for us in our quest to get my LG fridge compressor replaced. And I thought LG was top of the line..... whatevs.