A Light Touch

the Westin Hotel in Pasadena

Sometimes another person can rub off on you. Spend half an hour with the guy who's always freaked out and you come away needing a cigarette, whether you smoke or not. By contrast, a brief exchange with a store clerk who's got a sense of humor can loosen the clench of your jaw and keep you smiling for the rest of the day.

I don't know about you but I never think of myself as that person--the one who's rubbing something of my own off onto other people. How dare I rub people, how rude! Especially strangers, especially the wrong way.

But I am that person. We all are, every time we come within rubbing distance of each other.

It's something to keep in mind, this unconscious rubbing we do. (I suppose if we keep it in mind it's conscious then, isn't it?) Perhaps a nice pat-pat now and then instead, eh?

Theme Day: Mystery Object

I was all ready to post another library and I remembered: today is City Daily Photo theme day! It's a good thing I remembered because--well, I don't know what would happen if I forgot, probably nothing, but it's too late now.

I know at least one person who can tell us where today's mystery object is, but can anyone tell us what it is? What I'd especially like to know, once I find out what it is, is how old it is. Whatever it is, I like to think it's an antique.

City Daily Photo is a worldwide family of blogs like mine, where people express their home cities through photos and commentary. We're now 1424 blogs strong and growing all the time. It's a good trend. We're a friendly bunch, and we need as much global friendliness as we can get. Our newest member is Ginnels Gates and Ghosts in York, Great Britain and it looks like a fine blog.

If you'd like to see what other CDP bloggers are doing with the theme, click here to view thumbnail photos for today's participants.

Gut Yontiff

John and I had just finished a late dinner last night when there came a knocking at our door.

Magazine salesmen. I'd seen them in the neighborhood earlier and I wasn't going to answer. But do magazine salesmen giggle?

I opened the door. Four pretty girls stood in a row on our front porch, dressed in bright costumes. I'd make you guess what they did next but we'd be here all day.

They sang "Jingle Bells."

I ran for the camera.

When they finished singing, they shouted, "Trick or Treat!"

They deserved something good. We didn't have candy in the house but the young ladies were willing to accept fruit. I invited them out to the back yard and we picked oranges in the dark.

How did you spend your Friday evening?

Oh Joy, Oh Rapture

I don't know about you but I've left my weekend calendar open, especially tomorrow--you know, for the rapture and all.

I don't fool myself that I'm going anywhere, but I'm excited to see who's holy enough to get raptured. Who do you think? The pope? John Boehner? Beyonce?

Anybody who thinks they're holy probably isn't, so it's going to be a surprise. It's supposed to be only about 3% of the world's population, so maybe we won't even notice.

Are you going? Anybody you know? Whom would you like to see raptured tomorrow?



Oh Joy, Oh Rapture Unforeseen (Boz found this particularly annoying.)

Different Route

You might happen to turn your car up Sierra Bonita Avenue looking for a cut-off from Washington Blvd. You might want a different way, a new route. As you're driving along this residential street you might happen to glance to the side and see a front yard--well, a garden--well, a folly, you might call it--a jumble of things growing and things man-made, all twisted together and making a weird sort of sense. You might stop the car and get out to gawk at the tiles made of broken dishes, the bits of hardware embedded in the sidewalk, the wind chime bones hanging from the branches.

This route is definitely different, you think.

You might take a picture, though you might not know what to focus on or where to crop the picture once you see it on your computer screen. You might like the photo anyway, for that very reason.

Zen Monday: #140

It's Zen Monday, the day you experience the photo and share in the comments what you've learned.

Your first Zen Monday? Tell us what comes to mind--what the photo makes you think of or how it makes you feel. There's no right or wrong, no secret, no prize. Just have fun.

Mondays are your turn. I enjoy Mondays very much.

Needs

Tired from my birthday! I ate a lot. Wore me out.

These days, I don't need a party. All I need is my family of John, Boz and me, cozy in our living room.

And computers: one for John and one for me. A bone for Boz. (Addicts, all.)

And books. And crossword puzzles. And tissues to blow my nose on. And plumbing, of course. I feel like we need plumbing. Electricity, too.

But that's all. Except lunch and dinner. And bed. Stop me now, I shouldn't have started.

A Piece of My Mind

Blah.

Blah, blah, blah. Blahbeddy-blahbeddy. Biddle iddle oops, et cetera.

But mainly just blah.

I've thought about it, and I mean it.

Artful Aerie

On a gray day, the birds need somewhere nice to go. We have trees in Pasadena, of course, but some birds are picky.

I think these avian penthouses are mighty fine. I wonder what the interior decor looks like.

Self Portrait at Macy's Parking Lot

What can I say? I'm a square. Who knew? (Don't answer that.)

I spent way too much time in my young life trying to keep up with trends, be cool and say and do what I thought other people wanted me to say and do. I worked so hard at it I fooled myself into thinking it was important.

I'm glad that's over! But I'm not going to waste more precious time regretting it. Youth is like that and I was young.

Middle age has given me permission to be myself. I have embraced my inner nerd.

How cool are you?
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This just in:

Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee meets tonight at 6pm, La Casita Del Arroyo
177 S. Arroyo Blvd. 
Pasadena

There will be an update on the Sediment Removal Project.

Show up! Let's be educated and prepared so what happened in Arcadia doesn't happen in Hahamongna.

A Lantern in a Tree Works for Me

Sometimes, reality can be a drag. Even when it's not awful it can be a little dull. That's why people love romantic movies, read sci-fi, dig the occult. We crave magic in our lives.

I say we should have as much magic as we want. (Probably not while we're driving--reality comes in handy when you're operating heavy machinery.) But surely at home. Candles at dinner. A fire in the fireplace. Twinkling lights in the garden. Whatever works.

So I'll ask the question: what works? What's magic for you?

Toxic Cookies

inspiration: John Sandel

I've mentioned how John and I chase light around our house with our cameras. Sometimes, the light is subtle and fleeting. Sometimes, the combination of light and object are positively wild.

But you have to keep your eyes open.

Although this one fits more into the wild category than the subtle, if John hadn't pointed it out I might not have noticed. It was drying in the dish rack one afternoon. I've pumped up the color.

Don't worry. This is the outside of the pan.

No Way Arch

I've always had a thing about archways. I find the shape compelling in a way I find hard to describe. When I returned from England some years ago I had a collection of photos of archways--a small arch leads from one Oxford courtyard to another; the arch of a ruined cathedral wall frames the view over a grassy courtyard; an arched, wooden door shows scorch marks from fires of hundreds of years ago.

Through an archway my eye and imagination travel distances of time and miles. Kings stride under arched entryways, leading their armies into castle keeps. A door to a secret garden creaks open, then closes with a click. The souq spreads out beneath a Marrakesh window. Priests walk quietly in hidden cloisters then, as now.

I don't know where this small archway would lead if it could--an alley, a neighbor's yard, maybe a parking lot. Not that I care. It's fodder enough for thought.

Pole Pigs*

I called these barrel-shaped things "transformers" but John thought they were insulators. Neither one of us was sure. We decided to find something better to argue about.

The wiring of the world seems primitive to me. We've been wired for over 200 years. I think we're on the brink of finding a wireless way to do things that have been wired until now. Will we miss the paraphernalia? Will telephone poles, wires, insulators and electrical transformers end up in museums soon? Or will we trash them all before we realize they're cherished vestiges of our past?

A few months ago, John and I hiked up one of the fire roads above Altadena. High up where the electrical towers stand, we found bits of a ceramic insulator embedded in the soil. One of the big ones must have fallen from the tower and broken. We brought home bits of it as keepsakes.

*thanks to Ted Thompson for the title of this post.

Duplex

Just...picturing the cute little people who live here.

Maybe it's one of those clocks where mannequins come out every hour on the hour and circle around, marching like tin soldiers or knocking up and down like those drinking bird toys.

Or it could be storage space.

Last week Vanda and I went on a photo safari in the San Fernando Valley. Some of the results are on Overdog, should you care to have a look.

Zen Monday: #83

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the discussion. Because you know, when I get in there it all goes downhill.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary. Remember, last week Zen Monday was Tuesday.

Confession: I didn't take this photo in Pasadena.










for clarification

Zen Monday: #69

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what the photo's about. I look for something worth thinking about or, failing that, at least something odd or silly.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I'll add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary--if I know what it is.

Symmetrical

Here's my favorite loading dock in Pasadena.

Now there's a sentence you don't hear every day.

Color-Coordinated

Laurie's always finding funky color-coordinated car/building combinations in South Pasadena. That South Pas is a snappy dresser.

I never see that here. It doesn't mean Pasadena doesn't like to dress up. It may just mean I don't have an eye for fashion. But this little ensemble worked for me.

Off the Beaten Track

I was taking my regular route back from the grocery store. But instead of passing that corner I always pass, I followed my impulse and turned, onto - not just a street, but a treasure trove of sights I'd never seen before.

Isn't it weird how the littlest thing can make your day? (Okay, maybe the littlest thing makes MY weird day.) But I love how a new route can be a surprise. Sometimes I like to get out of town and follow my nose, explore, go where the road takes me. But I can't always do that, so it's nice to know I can explore locally: take a new route, try a new restaurant, shop in a place with an unpronounceable name. There's always a discovery to be made.

When I've got more time I'm going to go back to my new favorite street and take more photos. Talk about unsticking my head.