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Into The Uberverse At The LA Airport

6/21/2021

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INTO THE UBERVERSE AT THE LA AIRPORT

...Continued from yesterday:
I had been warned by my daughter that finding the Uber pick-up point at the Los Angeles airport could be a little tricky. In fact, it didn't seem at all tricky. I stepped outside of the terminal and saw that the many lanes of traffic were divided by a pedestrian island where there were several bus stops as well as a tall grey pillar a few hundred feet down the island upon which was written "Uber." Well, that wasn't hard, I thought.
I crossed to the island and walked to the Uber pillar. I found it strange that no one was waiting there. However, I did see a few passengers waiting around a nearby pillar indicating Terminal 4B, which made me wonder if that was where one should wait for one's Uber. Just to be safe I decided to wait between the Uber pillar and the Terminal 4B pillar.

I then pulled up my Uber app and ordered a car. I was informed that a car was twenty 20 minutes away, which was a little surprising and a mite annoying. One is not accustomed to waiting long for one's Uber. A few minutes later I was notified that a different driver was ten minutes away. Eight minutes later someone else was fifteen minutes away. Fifteen minutes later my ride was two minutes away. Then twenty.
Now, I really should have figured out by then that something was amiss between myself and the Uberverse. Especially since the other folks waiting by the 4B pillar had already been picked up, though by whom or what entity I did not know. I also should have recalled my daughter's warning that finding the Uber stop might require some sleuthing.
No, after twenty-some minutes of waiting between the pillars, for the most part by myself, I still wasn't getting it.
Finally I received a message that a driver named Leon was six minutes away. Then four. Then three. I felt an inner surge of satisfaction. That is, at least until a member of the Los Angeles airport police approached me and asked me if I was waiting for someone. I told him I was waiting for an Uber.
"This isn't the Uber pick-up," he said.
"But what about that?" I asked, pointing to the Uber pillar behind me.
"There's no Uber pick-up allowed here anymore," he said. "You have to take a shuttle to the ride lot. Back that way." He pointed towards the terminal. "Take a left and keep walking until you get to the shuttle stop."
Miffed that I'd waited around so long for nada, I wanted to shout, But then why is the Uber pillar still here! However I thought better of dumping on this armed and up-until-now patient police officer. Besides, I had a more immediate problem: according to my Uber app my driver Leon was now two minutes away! I sent Leon an apologetic message explaining what happened and admitting that I had no idea how long it would take to get from the airport to the ride pick-up lot.
No problem, Leon graciously texted back.
I began walking in the direction towards which the police officer had pointed me. A couple of terminals later I came across the bona fide ride lot shuttle stop. The stop was crowded, and it appeared that the shuttle bus loading passengers was on the verge of reaching capacity.

The door to the bus closed just as a pair of young men with a couple of small dogs were preparing to board.
"Open the door, you f***ing b**ch, I have a support animal!" one of the men yelled at the driver, to the obvious dismay of his companion. "Didn't you hear me, f****ing b**ch?" he yelled after the bus as it drove off, "I have a support animal, b**ch! "
Now, I figured another shuttle would be along soon enough. But I sure as shootin' didn't want to share it with this anger management challengee.
However, upon closer look at the info-pillar I saw that it was possible to walk to the ride lot.

I decided to hoof it.
As it turned out, fifteen minutes was a bit of an optimistic stretch. It took me a good fifteen minutes to walk to the five-minute pillar,

...at which point a shuttle arrived - not inhabited by the support-animal guy, thank goodness - and so I rode for the final leg of the trip.
The LA airport ride lot was a vast expanse crowded with vehicles and people.

And yet, as I was making my way through the throng, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a car in the Uber waiting area bearing the license plate of my Uber! After all this time Leon was still here waiting for me! Or else he was just here waiting for anybody. But it didn't matter, I'd finally made it to Uber Valhalla and I had me a ride!
How sweet was the gift of those few extra hours back at my daughter's house. One of my grand daughters was at home for the day, but I surprised my other grand daughter at her school.
We walked home from school together one more time.

I took the girls out for ice cream at McDonald's.
I chatted with Pinky.

I had one more look at Mrs. Leafy.

Early in the evening as we said our good-byes while I waited for what I hoped would be - and in fact turned out to be - my last Uber ride of the day, my daughter said to me, "I'm glad you came back, I wasn't ready for you to leave."
I guess sometimes plane reservations are mis-booked for a reason.

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Surprise, Surprise

6/19/2021

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SURPRISE, SURPRISE

...Continued from yesterday:
"This is not your flight," said the lady at the boarding gate, studying the boarding pass that had made the scanner emit a loud, hostile beep.
"What?" said I.
"This ticket is for the 8:45 PM flight to Portland. Not the 8:45 AM flight.
"But, but.." said I.
But there were no buts. My boarding pass clearly stated 8:45P, the P meaning PM.
"Come back tonight," said the gate agent, though not unkindly.
I slunk away in shock and mortification, yet still sure this must be a mess-up on somebody else's part. I couldn't possibly have made such a dumb error.
I opened my laptop and pulled up my flight info. Sure enough. My flight was for 8:45P.
In truth I was less dismayed that I was staring at a twelve-hour wait for my flight to Portland than that I had made this ginormous mistake. How could I do this? When booking a flight I always check, double-check, and triple check the times and dates against making just this kind of goof.
I lingered in the boarding area in funk. Was I losing my ability to book a plane ticket? Was this my brain's first step heading out the door?
Then, just like that, in that area of my cerebral cortex that I feared was going dim, a light bulb snapped on: I didn't make this reservation!
I had a credit from a flight I'd booked last year to attend my son-in-law's niece's quinceañera in Arizona that I had to cancel because of the COVID epidemic. In order to cash in my flight credit I had to call the airline and make my reservation through a booking agent. I now remembered that I'd found online an 8:45 AM flight from Los Angeles to Portland and I asked the agent on the phone to book this one for me. I remembered, too, that the agent was having some trouble finding this flight that I wanted. She offered me several other flights, but I was quite insistent that the 8:45 AM flight must exist as I was looking at it on my computer. Finally she found - or claimed to find - the flight I wanted and booked it - supposedly - for me.
Now, I admit, I guess I should have realized when looking over the reservation confirmation I received from the airline that 8:45P (which, for all I knew, the "P" could have stood for "Portland") meant 8:45PM, though, in my defense, if the time had been written 8:45PM I would surely have caught it. So I'm willing to take half the responsibility for the mistake. Which is a whole lot better than making the mistake.
I was still rejoicing that my brain wasn't yet bidding me adieu when I was hit with another cause for jubilation: I have another day to spend in Los Angeles!
My daughter and son-in-law were thrilled when I told them about the extra eight hours I'd have to spend with them and the girls. However, as they were working I told them not to worry about coming to fetch me at the airport, I'd Uber it home. They warned me that I might find snagging an Uber at the Los Angeles airport a little challenging. I jauntily told them that I was up to the challenge.

To be continued...

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Good-Bye, Mrs. Leafy

6/18/2021

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GOOD-BYE, MRS. LEAFY

...Continued from yesterday:
In my daughter and son-in-law's back yard there is one great soaring palm tree that my grand daughters named Mrs. Leafy.

The image of Mrs. Leafy was just one of many that I was already missing as I sat at my gate at the Los Angeles airport early in the morning of May 26, waiting for my 8:25am flight to Portand, Oregon, where I planed on spending a week visiting my sister Romaine.

My mate was already on his way home, having taken an earlier flight back to Columbus.

...and so I sat by myself scrolling through my pictures of the things I'd captured and wanted to remember, just the ordinary things that were part of the ordinary days.

Homework assignments,

...and Girl Scout projects.

Saturday chores,

...and Saturday games.

...an afternoon at the beach,

...and evenings of music.

Making a special dessert on the last night of our visit,

...and leaving a plain piece in case someone doesn't like fruit.

Pinky,

...Yajou,

...and all the moments that were simply moments.

I wished I could have had just a little more time. Just one more day. But my time was up for this visit and soon enough my plane was boarding and my group being called. It was time to go.
I handed my boarding pass to the gate attendant. Was I in for a surprise.
To be continued....

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The Existential Mystery Of Butterflies

6/15/2021

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THE EXISTENTIAL MYSTERY OF BUTTERFLIES

...Continued from yesterday:
Oh happy day, the butterflies have arrived!
This morning two of the eight chrysalides hanging - literally - around my daughter's back yard,

...hatched into butterflies.
The chrysalides this morning:

The newborn butterflies this afternoon (with a caterpillar photo-bombing one of the shots):

The news of the butterflies was cause for much joy along the family text thread.

And me, I've spent the afternoon thinking about butterflies and the metamorphosis by which they come into existence.
I've never before thought excessively about butterflies, even less about how they turn into what - or maybe who - they are. But now that I know more about the process and was personally involved with the care and nurturing of these particular butterflies when they were among the cadre of hungry little caterpillars eating their way through my daughter's garden (See yesterday's post, "The Buttas"),

... I find myself trying to wrap my brain around the existential mystery of metamorphosis.
Think about it: The caterpillar is living its life when its body is invaded from inside by this growing green thing that destroys the caterpillar's body and sloughs it off like dead skin. But here's what has set me to pondering: What happens during metamorphosis to the caterpillar's consciousness, essence, spirit, whatever you want to call it? I suppose we could call it the caterpillar's mind, that immaterial thing that in humans makes us who we are, gives of us our unique individuality and is a function of our brain.
So what does happen to the caterpillar's mind during and after its metamorphosis? Does the chrysalis start growing around the caterpillar's brain, in which case the caterpillar would still be itself as a chrysalis and later as a butterfly? This would make sense, I suppose, as the caterpillar voluntarily hangs itself upside down,

...and the chrysalis grows from the head, where I assume the caterpillar's brain, such as it is, would probably be.
So are the chrysalis and the butterfly the same individual - this is, have the same mind - as the caterpillar they started out as?
Or is it possible that the butterfly ends up a different individual - that is to say, with a different mind - from the caterpillar?
While the chrysalis is destroying the caterpillar's body, might the caterpillar's mind exist in both the caterpillar and the chrysalis? Or does the chrysalis have its own mind that will be the mind of the butterfly when it is born? In which case, does the caterpillar's mind die along with its body?
But here's the most mind-churning question of all for me: If the caterpillar and the subsequent butterfly are the same individual but the caterpillar's mind dies when its body does - as minds generally do - how does the caterpillar's identity re-emerge in the butterfly's body?
I don't know whether it's a question for science or theology.

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The Buttas

6/14/2021

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THE BUTTAS

...Continued from yesterday:
In the small garden behind my daughter's house there grows a patch of bright orange flowers called butterfly weed.

During our visit these butterfly weeds were living up to their name, as the plants were crawling with beautiful yellow- and black-striped monarch caterpillars,

...who apparently find the leaves most delicious and nourishing to nosh upon in this early stage of their journey to one day becoming monarch butterflies.

And nosh these future butterflies did.

These hungry little tenants - whom we nicknamed the Buttas - were objects of fascination for us all. Multiple times during the day we would go out to the butterfly weeds to check on the Buttas.

Concerned that the Buttas have a solid, secure structure from which to hang while they transformed from caterpillar into chrysalis into monarch, Tom and our daughter moved some trellises from another part of the garden into the milkweed. patch,

...and gerryrigged together what they figured would be a nice hanging structure for the chrysalides.

Day by day the Buttas appeared well and thriving; the butterfly weeds, less and less so. For the plants were being stripped of their leaves by the very hungry caterpillars, who, it became clear, were about to run out of provisions in this garden patch.

A grocery run was called for. And so on the last day of our visit Tom, our grand daughter and I made a trip to Home Depot for more butterfly weeds.

My daughter decided that along with stocking her garden with butterfly weeds, she would gift a couple of friends with the plant so as to encourage the proliferation of Buttas and the monarchs they would grow into. so we bought plants for the friends, too.

Last I saw, the Buttas appeared to be enjoying the extra munchies.

 Butta Update:
My daughter has kept me apprised of the progress of the Buttas. The first week in June, for the most part eschewing the fine trellis structure that had been built for them, they began attaching themselves upside down to various spots around the back yard,

...shedding their beautiful black, white, and yellow skin from the bottom up,

...until each had transformed into an emerald green chrysalis. The black bunching at the top is the remains of the skin.

As of yesterday, June 13, the Buttas were still chrysalides, leaving us all to ponder the how and why of the existential magic trick of a caterpillar disappearing then popping out of a bright green box in the identity of a butterfly.

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I Love The Venice Canals. (The Other Venice Canals).

6/11/2021

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I LOVE THE VENICE CANALS. (THE OTHER VENICE CANALS).

...Continued from yesterday:
Everyone who knows me well knows that I love the Venice Canals.
Not the ones in Venice, Italy, which I found kind of creepy,

In fact I've been to Venice, Italy twice and both times I found the whole city kind of creepy. I don't know, too much water, or something. I kind of felt like I was stuck out in the middle of the ocean, which I guess I actually was. And then I read this scary novel called "Vaporetto 13" set in Venice which really creeped me out, as did the movie "Don't Look Now", another spine-chiller set in Venice. And then there's "Death In Venice", where, well, the guy dies in Venice (no spoiler, it's in the title), and a sci-fi short story version of that classic I once read called "Old, Old Death In New, New Venice," which also didn't give me a good feeling about the place.
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of Venice, Italy. Maybe it's because I never learned to swim.
Ah, but warm, sunny, Venice, California is another story, and so are its canals.

For me the Venice - California - canals never seem to lose their magic.
So when my son-in-law kindly suggested a Saturday morning trip to the canals for my benefit, I considered it a splendid idea, which it did, in fact, turn out to be.
Upon entering the city of Venice the vista is a mix of busy, palm-lined streets,

...mountains off in the distance,

...and copious traffic,

But then one parks the car, walks a half-block to the canals, and enters another world.

At one point while strolling along I declared, to no one in particular, "I love this place."
From behind me a voice answered, "So do I."
I turned to see a gent about my age. "I come here every day to walk," he said.
It's always nice to meet a kindred spirit.
To be continued...

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Manhattan Beach On A Friday Evening In May

6/10/2021

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MANHATTAN BEACH ON A FRIDAY EVENING IN MAY

...Continued from yesterday:
One Friday evening during our L.A. visit the family was invited to some friends' house for an outdoor get-together.
Did we mind, our daughter asked, being on our own for the night? To which hubby and I answered, "Hecks, no!"
We narrowed our most promising choices for an evening's diversion down to staying home and watching a movie or going for a walk along the beach. We opted for the walk along the beach.
And so we set out for Manhattan Beach,

We snagged a parking spot several blocks from the beach, then we walked to Manhattan Beach Boulevard,

...the main downtown thoroughfare, where one may cross the streets in five directions.

The restaurants, shops and streets along the Boulevard were crowded with mostly masked folks,

We walked until we reached the pier,

...which offered splendid views of the beach, strewn with volleyball nets for the professional tournaments that take place there all summer,

...as well a panorama of the houses on the Strand, the walkway that runs along the beach.

...and the Pacific Ocean, with the Palos Verdes hills visible off in the distance to the south.

...and the Santa Monica Mountains to the north.

Tom on the Manhattan Beach Pier.

We walked from the pier back to the Strand,

....towards Hermosa Beach, the next town over,

...taking in the sights along the way.

The "Walk Streets," residential pedestrian streets that run between downtown Manhattan Beach and the Strand.

As the sun began to set we turned and headed back towards the Manhattan Beach Pier,

...to downtown,

Then we headed for home.

To be continued...

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The Mediterranean Flowers That Bloom In The Spring

6/6/2021

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THE MEDITERRANEAN FLOWERS THAT BLOOM IN THE SPRING

...Continued from yesterday:

The biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment known as the Mediterranean Ecosystem occurs in only five relatively small areas around the planet: the area bordering the Mediterranean Sea,

...central Chile,

...the Cape region of South Africa,

...southwestern Australia,

and southern California,

...in which is located the city of Los Angeles.
I've been to Los Angeles on numerous occasions at different times of the year and seen the striking flora and fauna on display there all year round.

But to see L.A. blooming in all its Mediterranean glory there's no time like mid-May.
During our visit for the last two weeks of May colorful flowers appeared to be climbing over walls,

...and through fences,

...and onto rooftops.

Flowers bloomed in the trees,

...in gardens everywhere,

...and pretty much all around the town.

There were flowers everywhere, growing effortlessly, all thanks the gift of balmy Mediterranean biology.

...or so a bloom-struck visitor like me would think.

To be continued...

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Carefully On Tiptoe And In Mask Stealing Back To The Restaurants

6/3/2021

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CAREFULLY ON TIPTOE AND IN MASK STEALING BACK TO THE RESTAURANTS

...Continued from yesterday :
Tom and I settled into our weekday routine, more or less.
After dropping the girls at school we’d head to downtown Manhattan Beach.

It appeared that the local population, though still masked for the most part, had - unlike my mate and I - bravely returned to the restaurants.

Our destination was the news shop where we’d pick up our daily copy of the New York Times.

Picking up the Times was a two-person mission.
Since parking a car in downtown Manhattan Beach was an event in and of itself,

...Tom would drop me off at the news shop then circle the block while I grabbed the paper, then he would pick me up on his way back around. Though I always zipped in and out of the store the owner soon came to know me. If I happened not to have the correct change for my paper she'd tell me not to worry about it, though on some occasions I gave her more than the amount due and insisted that she keep the change. I felt it was more equitable that way.
Our next stop was usually Ralph’s, my favorite of favorite supermarkets because of all the beautiful palm trees in the parking lot.

At Ralph's we'd pick up any needed household provisions along with the ingredients for whatever anyone might have requested for dinner, such as Grammie's home made chicken noodle soup,

...with hot rolls,

...or Grandpa's apple pie.

After our newspaper and grocery run we'd have a few hours before picking up the girls from school, during which time we read our New York Times and I generally settled into my favorite spot for some writing.

One day after we picked up our grand daughters from school they begged us to take them to Mandy's for lunch.
Mandy's is a little local eatery that Tom and I discovered years ago and that our grand daughters considered "our place" to take them for breakfast or lunch whenever we visited.

One of the staff once told us that the interior has been used on a few occasions for movie settings.

However, much as we love going with our grand daughters to "our place," Tom and I were hesitant. After all, not counting our airport breakfast a few days before of a cheesesque-coated scrambled egg tile in a bagel (see post from 5/29/2021, "Good-Bye, COVID Cocoon, Hello, Square-Egg McBagels"),

...we had not been to a restaurant since the onset of the epidemic, and we we still feeling a little COVID-spooked.
After further discussion - and begging - we decided that we would go to Mandy's; if the place was just a little crowded we would order take-out; if it was very crowded we wouldn't go inside at all.
As it turned out, when we arrived - it was about 1 pm on a Friday afternoon - the place was empty,

...except for one elderly gentleman who was sitting off by himself in a booth. We pulled in a deep breath and decided - after all, we were vaccinated and the children had been back in school for months - to risk eating our first real restaurant meal here at Mandy's.
The staff remembered us from previous visits and were as glad to see us as we were to see them.

They told us that the past year had been hard. However, they had one loyal customer who came for lunch every day - the elderly gentleman in the booth - and who always had the same meal, the surf and turf, which they invited me to take a picture of.

Tom likewise had his Mandy's standard,

...and I had mine, the fabulous Veggie Scramble,

Before we left they gave us some watermelon slices to bring home.

A few days later while out on our downtown New York Times run,

...we pondered, having eaten at Mandy's and come away none the worse so far, whether we might try eating breakfast out at another place we used to frequent back in the pre-COVID day, a Manhattan Beach spot called the Local Yolk.

Once again, we decided to do a careful reconnaissance of the place then play it by ear.

The place wasn't empty, but it wasn't crowded, either.

We decided to make our move.

A few days after that our grand daughters asked if we could again go our for lunch in honor of it having been crazy hair day at school. This time they asked to go to Johnny Rocket's. Tom and I looked at each other. "Sure," we said.

To be continued...

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Hitting The L.A. Hills

6/1/2021

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HITTING THE L.A. HILLS

...Continued from yesterday:
The day we arrived in Los Angeles the normally dazzlingly cerulean blue Los Angeles skies were overcast and grey and the air was cool, an occasional fleeting seasonal coastal phenomenon known as "June Gloom," a little premature, though, as it was still only the middle of May.

The following day began with what would become our weekday morning ritual of walking the girls to school up and down the hilly terrain.

Though it only makes sense that if the route goes uphill in one direction it should go downhill in the opposite direction, I swear, somehow it always felt to me as if we were constantly walking uphill whichever direction we walked.

Or mayhaps I was just out of shape for schlepping hills. My grand daughters, on the other hand, took to the daily uphill trek like little mountain gazelles.

It was nonetheless quite a beautiful walk,

...past lovely, whimsical gardens and flowering trees, the native flora and fauna of Southern California.

We often came across other interesting sights along the way, such as a pair of gnomes whom my grand daughters named Gnome and Jerome,

...and one time we spotted a beautiful snail.

The route was also lined with palm trees, for which I've not yet lost my Midwestern fascination.

However, my favorite part was the last leg of of the walk. When we arrived at the school we left one grand daughter off at the gate where the older children entered, then we walked across the woodsy campus with our other grand daughter to the younger children's entrance.