Echoes in a Hollow Space

1 Oct
I have bookmarks from book stores that have been out of business for twenty or thirty years. They’re raggedy and limp, but I haven’t the heart to throw away the last vestiges of places I loved.

2 Oct
I was up half the night with stomach crud. I just can’t get a break lately. I’m feeling better this afternoon, escaping the heat under the peach tree. As is often the case in SoCal we’re having our hottest summer weather in September and October. Really looking forward to real autumn.

4 Oct
The sign spinner at the corner of Admiralty and Via Marina whose specialty appears to be dropping the sign.

5 Oct
Just shifted around my retirement funds. I still can’t retire before OhGodI’mSoOld but at least it felt like progress.

5 Oct
It’s mostly on TV and in crime books that people need Big Motives to murder. In real life they murder for a pittance.

6 Oct
If it’s Ye Olde Anything Shoppe you know it’s going to be terrifyingly quaint.

7 Oct
The Simpsons do the Mayan prophecy: “The world will end in 2012 and it will be Obama’s fault.”

8 Oct
I’m trying to live my creative life not asking favors of anyone since I haven’t got time to return them, but sometimes it’s very hard.

9 Oct
I love my habits more than I love my health.

10 Oct
Just when you think you’ve learned a few things, that maybe you are a grown up after all, your Inner Five Year Old reasserts herself and makes you the fool. Hypothetically speaking, of course. I couldn’t possibly be talking about myself.

10 Oct
I asked my 91-year-old mother if she wanted to read up on the State Propositions before voting. She said, “No. I just want to go and vote for Obama.”

10 Oct
A mega-billionaire/hypocrite threatens to lay off employees if Obama is re-elected: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ceo-workers-youll-likely-fired-131640914.html  The Koch Brothers threatened to do the same thing: http://bit.ly/PxPWMx

10 Oct
Mercy me. A printed hardcopy book from a reputable house in which passed got confused with past. The world is not what it was

11 Oct
Mom on the Ryan/Biden debate: “Who is that young putz?” Me: “Congressman Ryan.” Mom: “He’s an arrogant little s***.”

Mom on the debate: “This is a good debate. Joe Biden is kicking butt.”

12 Oct
Mom on a debate she’d like to see: “I want to see Michelle Obama debate Ann Romney. Michelle would clean the floor with her.” In case anyone wonders, my mother adores Michelle and doesn’t think much of Ann Romney.

12 Oct
Lindsay Lohan is voting for Romney. I rest my case.

12 Oct
I was home with a bad stomach, sleeping. I kept hearing helicopters circling and circling, usually an indication of a celebrity arrival at LAX or a big accident somewhere nearby. When I finally woke up out of the half haze, I realized that today was the day they started moving Endeavour from the airport.  It’s traveling right through my ‘hood, starting about six blocks from here. I was too sick to go out, but I watched it for hours on TV. So weird/weirdly exciting to see all my familiar landmarks on television. “Oh, there’s my Starbucks. There’s Mom’s doctor’s office. There’s my local Del Taco,” and etc. Here’s some of the “live feed”:

Watching Endeavour on mute now. Does anyone enjoy the endless patter?

Now I know why they laid down all those steel plates on Manchester.

The shuttle is inching past Jet Car Wash.

The shuttle is approaching Randy’s Donuts, that giant donut you see in every montage of L.A., at the corner of Manchester and the 405 freeway. Apparently, Randy’s Donuts made special Space Shuttle Donuts which they can’t sell today because the city asked them to stay closed for crowd control issues. I guess there’s always tomorrow. (And Toyota paid them for the use of their lot to film a commercial, so it’s not a total loss.)

And now the shuttle is waiting be towed across the 405 by a Toyota truck while they film a commercial. Toyota have been big contributors to the museum (millions, I hear). If my stomach wasn’t bad I might go buy one of the commemorative donuts tomorrow. But as a friend pointed out, donuts freeze really well.

13 Oct
On the way to dialysis this morning while traveling on the elevated 105 freeway I saw the shuttle’s tail and back in the distance as it moved along Manchester. No shuttle on the return drive to dialysis. It’s turned north and disappeared, alas.

I told my pharmacist that I saw the shuttle and she thought that was neat but added, “I want one of those shuttle donuts from Randy’s.” Yes, as does everyone else in L.A., apparently. I’d swung by Randy’s earlier to see about those special but the line was down the block so I kept going. Only a three and a half hour window to get my errands done before I have to pick Mom up again at dialysis. At least I’m not sick this morning.

Donut Quest 2012: Mom and I stopped by Randy’s at 2:30 on the way home. No lines, but they’d sold out of shuttle donuts until Monday. How did they sell out for tomorrow already? The bakers went home for the weekend. I’m hoping they’ll recognize they’ve got a little gold mine there and keep making them. I’ll keep trying. We now have a nice stash of non-shuttle donuts in the freezer. (You didn’t expect we’d leave empty-handed, did you?) I’m glad to report that Randy’s isn’t just a tourist attraction. They make good donuts.

14 Oct
This morning I was singing “I Kissed a Kitty and I Liked It” to Min and she was all, like, “Yuck, ick!” But she purred as she said it.

14 Oct
Today I got to clean out the pigeon coop that hadn’t been cleaned in a year. I bet you’re envious. I won’t let it go quite so long next time. A half hour shower didn’t seem long enough.

14 Oct
The hazards of sitting in the fall garden: my favorite chair was infested by a nest of baby spiders. I didn’t know I could still move that fast.

15 Oct
It’s probably a bad sign when you start writing a negative review halfway through a book. I’d never post it without finishing. Still.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.