Stormwatch

It's really going now.

Storm on the way

The radar map on Weather Underground is showing, in real time, the radar image of the storm that is supposed to hit us later this evening.

Here's the Southern California coast, from Manhattan Beach, down at the three o'clock point, the coastline curving up into Santa Monica and then turning westward to Malibu, and rounding the bend at Oxnard, going north. Point Dume in Malibu is the little pokey-out place close to the center of the map.

Our house is in the mountainous area just above the little white oval number one. We're probably right where the little green number 51 is.

That mass of green and yellow? That's not land.

That's the storm that's advancing on us. Fast.

Outside, in the creek below our house, the frogs are croaking for the first time this dry winter. They know what's coming.

It is raining

After so much drought, you would think I'd be pleased at the sound of raindrops on the roof of our house.

But no. Not while we have four giant pits dug in our backyard, in the middle of a septic tank repair. Will it all flood and collapse?  

Pelicans fly over Santa Monica Beach

Shadow message

In 1990, when televangelist Dr. Gene Scott bought the 13 floor Gothic-Art Deco office building where the United Artists Theatre is located, he installed two huge neon signs on the roof. "Jesus Saves," they proclaimed to the world and to the few remaining inhabitants of lower Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.  The message was large and bright enough to be seen by the sweatshop garment workers toiling in nearby lofts, and the people lining up at Tacos Mexico in the parking lot.

Scott's estate sold the building in 2011, and this January it re-opened as the trendy Ace Hotel, complete with a restaurant, pool, and a very cool rooftop bar.

Ace Hotel facade

One sign disappeared in the night during the renovation, its whereabouts still unknown. The other still stands, facing west.

From the rooftop bar, at the right time in the afternoon, the sign's shadow can be seen, thrown against the flat surface of the building to the north. As you sit, beneath faux-Morrocan awnings, sipping hipster cocktillian concoctions, behold.

UPDATE: Here's a link to a story that gives the history of the "Jesus Saves" signs:  http://jesussavessign.blogspot.com/

Pickles

Who doesn't like pickled vegetables?

Here are assorted pickles from Baco Mercat, a restaurant on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. Cucumbers, onions, fennel, beets and red grapes are nicely pickled in a sweet-sour vinegar solution.

They go real good with a cocktail.

Fashion district

There's a sign on a pole as South Spring Street crosses 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles that says "Fashion District." The center of the garment industry on the West Coast, this 90 block area of town includes retail stores, wholesale distributors, supply and material dealers and factories, as well as schools to train young designers and manufacturers. It encompasses the southern portion of the historic core and runs south and west where low concrete block warehouses line potholed streets.

Here at Spring Street, gentrification hasn't quite touched the old buildings, which are still shabbily beautiful. At 721 S. Spring, we would have completely missed the California Millinery Supply, if it weren't for the sign in the window.

A single piece of white paper was stuck on the glass, in front of the white, winged shapes that were buckram hat frames. "Thoughts," it said, in ornate fraktur script. And a list:

• The greatest handicap                     Fear
• The best day                                  Today
• Easiest thing to do                          Find a fault

And on and on, down to the last:

• Greatest thing in the world               Love

The doors

 We decided to look inside. A set of heavy bronze doors, ornately embossed, stood open, leading to a narrow warren of a shop, display cases and cutting tables on one side, racks and racks of goods on the other.

"Come in, you can look around." The voice came from a grey-haired woman sitting behind a desk. A long-haired grey cat uncoiled itself and jumped down from a chair it was sleeping in, and scurried to the back of the space.

The rows and rows of shelves were lined with braid, ribbon, piping, fringe. There were boards holding samples of silk flowers. The whole place looked like a treasure chest to explore.

"It's funny," I said. "I never wear hats, but now I find myself wanting to make them!"  When we stepped back outside and looked up at the curiously beautiful building, we noticed, up high in a protected niche, a colorful figure of a standing Buddha.

California Millinery Supply has been at 721 S. Spring Street since 1939. 

Resident expert

Here's a new one. I just took a phone call from a guy who wanted to know what kind of permits he needed to skydive out of a plane and land on the public beach.

My current job is to administer a complicated and very detailed set of ordinances regarding one narrow function - events that take place on public property. I get calls from all kinds of people wondering if they need the kind of permit my office issues to do the things they want to do for fun; things that range from holding a beer garden on the beach (not allowed) to setting up a table in the park with a petition (allowed), to inviting a food truck onto their own property (no permit required).

I'd say about half the calls I get are from people whose business is not in my jurisdiction, but I try to help them anyway.

Yesterday I got a call from a woman who wants to stage an elaborate charade as part of a surprise marriage proposal, involving a mock film crew (with real cameras) and the Ferris Wheel on the Pier. Nope, you don't need one of my permits, I told her, but I referred her to the Film Permit office (film crews, even fake ones, need a Film Permit).

Other times I hear from people who want to do something that the ordinance clearly prohibits. Close down a major thoroughfare for a 10K run where the runners shoot at each other with paintballs? Sounds like fun, but not here, buddy.

This morning I got a guy who wanted to launch a hot air balloon from a public parking lot. Then this afternoon, the skydiver.

I hope I don't need to start learning about flight regulations!

Zoomed

 

What is it about our sense of timing? Today just zoomed by! I looked up from my desk and it was 4:30 pm.  Then, only minutes later, it seems, I heard a co-worker call out, "You coming?" It was 5:30, quitting time.

I work a schedule they call "980" which means we work 80 hours over nine days. So Monday through Thursday, we work nine hour days, and on every other Friday we work eight hours. Alternate Fridays, we get the day off.

This is a particularly sweet week, since we had Monday off for the President's Day holiday, and this Friday is our Friday Off.

Those nine hour days can seem very long. But that's not how it was today. Today zoomed!

Ghostbike in Pacific Palisades

Ghostbikes mark the location of bicycle fatalities. The phenomenon began in St. Louis in 2003, when a witness to a fatal accident marked the location with an abandoned bike painted white, and a sign saying "Cyclist killed here."

Temescal Canyon Boulevard is a broad, sloping street that rises up from Pacific Coast Highway linking Will Rogers State Beach to Temescal Canyon State Park. Visibility is good on Temescal, and the bike paths are clearly marked on the side of the road.

Despite this, on December 22, 2013 at 9:15 in the morning, a car hit and killed James Campbell Rapley, an Australian tourist. The driver was 19 years old and drunk. Unlike many of these terrible accidents, at this one the driver stayed at the scene.

Like the roadside shrines seen on highways, ghostbikes are treated differently in each state and municipality. On a stretch of PCH that runs through Santa Monica, a memorial to a young woman killed by a hit-and-run driver last July was removed after only a few days by Cal-Trans, the State Transportation authority.

James's bike has been allowed to remain. How long that will last, I don't know. Ghostbikes are a stark reminder - don't drink and drive, don't text and drive, and - please - share the road.