My Thoughts for the Day

So here I sit.....once again in front of this computer....trying to think of something to say. It does not come easily. Well, what did I do today? I got up extra early and headed to the Los Angeles Convention Center....to help my cousin out at a trade show. Nice people down there....but the traffic was murder. Pray you never live in LA. If the smog, drive-bys and crime do not get to you....the traffic will. I left my apartment at 7:15am and finally arrived at the convention center at about 9:00am. That is for a total distance of about 20 miles. Now that's traffic. Just think of sitting on those LA freeways every day. Had a fairly good day otherwise.

It reminds me when I used to work at the federal building in downtown LA many years ago. When I was with the INS. Every morning was the long congested drive in.....and every night....was the long congested drive out. Slowly the traffic crept....as the engine would overheat in the summer days. Now breathe in that nice carbon monoxide from the cars and trucks next to you. You can almost feel the hours dropping from your life. How very nice.

Speaking of heat? I did something very stupid last August....well very stupid for me anyway. Coming back from an Idaho trip, I decided to take a detour I never tried before. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Here I was in my poor old 1991 civic that had almost 200,000 miles on it. It was the base model, so no AC or power stuff. Like usual....I had no spare tire....no extra water....and no cell phone in case I had trouble. But what the hell, i would give it a try anyway.

If you have never been through Death Valley National Park in August, you don't know what you are missing. Now think about doing that in my poor old piece of sh*t civic....with no AC, no comforts and no "save my soul" kit. That's me....always the adventurer. Going through Death Valley is bad enough in a regular car......but who would dare try it with my little beater. I would...and did! It was the hottest thing I have ever felt...you could not imagine the extreme heat. Sufficating it was, with not nary a breeze. I saw numerous cars dead on the side of the road. I remember before descending down into that hell hole, some German tourists were crammed in a new VW Jetta (figures) and the AC was on full blast, I couldn't get one of them to try my little beater. Going in and out of that hole is a challenge. Very steep grades. Going in was easy....but getting back out....that's the trick.

How it did it I don't know....but my little beater ran for all it was worth. It chugged slowly up the other side...the temp gauge pushing the high side. It seemed to take forever...and every few miles was another car dead on the road. It's life spent. Just how hot was it down in that pit.....officially, the air temp was 125 degrees. But on that road...it was at least 10 to 15 degrees more...according to the ranger I talked to. Now that is f*cking hot! And to think my old little beater made the trip without so much as a cough...oh....and I passed those German tourists in that Jetta, dead on the side of the road. Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!