The week of May 11-15 was Bike to Work Week and Thursday, May 14 was Bike to Work Day. I decided to try it this year, though only for the 1.5 miles that I normally drive from our home to the train station. Biking all 25+ miles to work would take too long and there isn’t a clear route. This wasn’t my first time biking to work. I used to bike nearly every day when I lived and worked in West Los Angeles.
The day before, I moved my 13-year-old Bianchi Advantage bicycle from our balcony storage to our garage storage room. I hadn’t used the bike since we moved into our condo nearly three years prior. I pumped up the tires and rode the bike around the condo parking lot. The chain squeaked a bit but otherwise it still rode well. I found that I could open the parking gate by making a wide turn right before it.
On Thursday I got up at the usual time and left just before 7 AM. I took a bit of time to retrieve my bike from the garage storage, put on my helmet and gloves, and made sure I had my parking gate remote and blinking red removable bike light. I left the garage just after 7 AM. Though it’s only a short distance to the station, riding to work was very different from driving. The road seemed much wider. I could smell the car exhaust and hear the engine noise and the birds in the background. Luckily, there weren’t very many cars on the road. I didn’t see any other bicyclists. The weather was cook and breezy.
I was able to ride into the left turn lane and turn left into the train station. No cars honked at me. I reached the station not long after 7:05 AM. I took less time than driving, though when I drive I have to park at the Metro West parking structure and cross the street. Anyway, I still had to lock up my bike. As I did so the 7:00 AM train arrived five minute late, unloaded and received passengers and departed. There were several other bicycles locked to the bike rack. I waited and boarded the usual 7:20 AM train.
For the ride home the weather was warmer and there were more cars on the road. Still, no one honked at me or tried to run me down. I was able to make the left turn into the condo parking lot from the left lane. I used my blinking red light going both ways to ensure I was visible to drivers and I think it helped. When I arrived at the condo parking I was soaked with sweat. With my remotes I opened the gate and garage. I put my bike, helmet, and glove in the back of my car in preparation for Saturday’s El Monte Bike Rally (see future blog entry).
Riding partway to work and back was different. I could probably do it every day if I had to but I’ll stick with driving for now, as long as we can afford it.
Two and a Half Years in Azusa
This blog entry is actually being released on the third anniversary of our moving to Azusa.
In February we celebrated two and a half years living Azusa, very close to Covina, and both in the San Gabriel Valley (SGV). We bought our first home together right before the housing bubble burst, so some might think we didn’t make the best investment. Not long after celebrating two and a half years we discussed everything we had experienced since we moved here, things that we wouldn’t have if we had stayed in Downtown L.A. We made a list, some of it may be from after February:
1. The gym we regularly go to for power pacing (A.K.A. Reaction Cycling or Spinning) class with instructors Joseph and Pat.
2. Our church that’s only a few miles from our home but requires us to drive through three city limits. Some aspects of it include:
a. Father Brian, the retired pastor, Father Jeff, Father Jim, and Father Bill, the current pastor with his funny laugh and pet chihuahua.
b. The new parish center, Cavanagh Hall, named for Father Brian. They had Easter services there to handle to overflow from the church, a great idea.
c. The other parishioners including a former classmate of my wife’s and a little girl who likes to shake people’s hands.
d. The Knights of Columbus Lenten Fish Fry (see earlier review).
e. Saturday night spaghetti dinner and hot dog dinners.
3. Our local CVS Pharmacy that’s very close to our home. It has great coupons and deals and sells Jarritos soda.
4. Our views of the mountains and foothills to the north and northeast that usually get snow in the winter. One hill sports the “A” for Azusa.
5. Lots of great restaurants and eateries:
a. Off Citrus with its cake and the fact that it sells (or used to sell) Alaskan Amber Beer.
b. Nick’s Taste of Texas, a large space with long tables and Texan décor. They serve Tex-Mex barbecue. Since they’re located near the Covina Metrolink train station, we can sometimes smell the barbecue as we walk from the station to the parking lot.
c. Farmer Boys in Irwindale, our regular fast food place with its varied menu and coupon mailings.
d. Sandwich City in downtown Covina is affiliated with Off Citrus. It’s only open for lunch on weekdays and serves sandwiches named after nearby streets. The School Street is peanut butter and jelly.
e. Tulipano in Azusa is one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve tried and is just up the street from us.
f. Green Fields in Covina, the all-you-can-eat Brazilian Churrascaria. It’s near the gym and we can sometimes smell it from there.
g. Donut Man in Glendora with its fresh strawberry doughnuts in the spring, fresh peach doughnuts in the summer, and always good apple doughnuts year round.
h. North Woods Inn in Covina with its sawdusted floors, stuffed game, peanuts, delicious steaks, and the best red cabbage slaw.
i. Crabby Chad’s in Covina that serves all kinds of fresh seafood including delicious New York Clam Chowder. They moved to the area not long after we did.
j. Dino’s Chicken and Burgers in Azusa. See earlier review.
k. Mr. Pollo, Peruvian food in West Covina near the gym. We celebrated our third anniversary there. See earlier review.
l. El Gallo Pinto, the Mexican-Nicaraguan restaurant in Azusa where our server spoke only Spanish. See earlier review.
m. Jake’s Hot Dogs and Sausages, Azusa’s outdoor version of The Stand. See earlier review.
n. Juan Pollo in Azusa. See earlier review.
o. Country Bar-B-Que Chicken & Ribs in Azusa. See earlier review.
p. Olamendi’s Zona Rosa in downtown Covina where we celebrated two and a half years in SGV. See earlier review.
6. The genuine Route 66 is just a few miles north of us. Probably as a consequence there’s lots of charming classic cars driving around the area. We’ve seen all kinds, even a classic police car. All the flat open roads and the nice weather attract lots of people on motorcycles. There’s a Harley Davidson shop in nearby West Covina. Rocky Dennis, the subject of the movie Mask, lived in Azusa, Covina, and Glendora. He and his mother were part of a motorcycle group. His mother died in a motorcycle accident at age 70 in late 2006 not long after we moved to the area.
7. Speaking of history, the president of the Azusa Historical Society, Jeffry Lawrence Cornejo Jr., is in his later 20’s/early 30’s. He assembled and wrote the captions of a book of historic photos taken in Azusa. I got it and had him sign it. At the signing he was dressed 1920’s style with suspenders (A.K.A. braces) and a black hat. We later used the book to figure out how to dress 20’s style for my wife’s grandmother’s birthday party.
8. Moving to Azusa allowed us to take the Metrolink commuter train to work in Downtown L.A. and school in L.A. We’ve also seen the Metrolink Holiday Toy Express. I’ve written the first drafts of nearly all my blogs and reviews while riding the train.
9. Brian Wood Automotive in Glendora where we have our cars maintained. We call them Woody because the sign at their shop near the Covina Metrolink station said to ask for Woody.
10. Azusa is a “Jack Benny City.” There was a segment of the old Jack Benny radio show where Mel Blanc voiced a train conductor announcing a train was leaving for Anaheim, Azusa, and Cu-ca-monga. The joke was that no train actually went to all those places in one route. There’s a statue of Jack Benny at Victoria Gardens honoring him for this segment that put the town on the map. We go to Anaheim often for concerts and to Rancho Cucamonga for Victoria Gardens. Between March 28-30 we went to all three of the places: on March 28 to attend the Billy Joel/Elton John concert in Anaheim and on March 30 to have dinner at King’s Fish House in Rancho Cucamonga to celebrate our anniversary two days early.
11. Our local Olympic champion is Bryan Clay who won gold in the Decathlon in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He went to Azusa Pacific University and now lives in Glendora. He appeared a Wheaties box that we’ve saved.
12. Moving to Azusa puts us only 20-30 minutes away from Victoria Gardens shopping destination in Rancho Cucamonga. My wife likes the clothing store Buckle. I got a great watch from Time Depot. We’ve had some great meals at King’s Fish House, Fleming’s Steakhouse, Lucille’s Barbecue, and Richie's Real American Diner.
This is just a sampling of what we’ve experienced. Not everything has been good such as those aggressive Covina police, but overall we’ve had many good experiences. We haven’t lost touch with Downtown L.A. At least one of us has worked there the entire time we’ve been in Azusa and both of us worked there for 19 straight months. We’ve shopped at Famima!! and Ralphs Fresh Fare near our old apartment building. We’ve been to L.A. Live several times. We’ve eaten at Blue Velvet restaurant, Redwood Bar, J Restaurant and Lounge, e3rd, Lawry’s Carvery, Yang Chow, The Yard House, Panini, and Bottega Louie to name a few. We’ve seen a Clipper game, the Spice Girls at Staples Center, the Grammy Museum, and attended a Clippers Draft party at ESPN Zone.
Azusa and the surrounding east San Gabriel Valley is probably the most “working class” and youngest area I’ve lived in. It’s not a gentrified hipster area but a place where “real” people live. Moving here has widened our world. The investment in experience overshadows any financial investment.
When we first started attending the church we currently attend around three years ago, the bulletin mentioned that they had a Young Adults Ministry. It said the ministry was for adults ages 18 to 29. This sounded about right. When I was in my mid-twenties many years ago I was active in the Young Adults ministry at my church then. We would go to dinner as a group after the 5 PM service on Sunday, go to happy hour at a different bar every month, meet twice each month to discuss the weeks readings, visit a convalescent home, help out at a soup kitchen, and have annual outings to the beach for a barbecue and to the Hollywood Bowl. We had a great core group, through most of them were older than I, in their early 30’s. We didn’t have a specific range for the group but just said 20’s and 30’s. At least two of the others exceeded the range. But after a few years of doing things together most of us moved out of the area, and, in some cases, out of the country. I still keep in touch with some of them either through exchanging holiday cards or through social networking sites.
By the time we had started attending our current church I felt I had outgrown the Young Adult ministry and the age range of 18 to 29 confirmed this. However, last year they changed the range to 18 to 35. All of the sudden I was within the range, though close to the maximum. This also still seemed to make sense. I could accept that I was still a young adult, through I wouldn’t be for much longer. My active young adult years were long past and I could soon look forward to a mature adulthood.
However, this year they revised the range again to 18 to 39. My young adulthood has been extended several more years. I guess this is more in line with the group I was in, but to have an explicit range of over 21 years seems very broad. That range makes it possible to have two generations of young adults or to have a young adult that’s also a grandparent. Having the range span the 20’s and 30’s is not unusual but it is strange that the maximum would increase so much in less than two years. Are the group leaders aging? Do they want to attract more members? If they’re just trying to extend their young adulthood, more power to them.
During the week of March 15-21 there was an article in the Juneau Empire online about the downtown public library celebrating 20 years in its present location atop the parking garage. (Link to the article: http://juneauempire.com/stories/032009/loc_412540983.shtml) The garage is right on the waterfront where the cruise ships dock in summer. It has great views of Gastineau Channel and Douglas Island. I remember the library’s earlier location in the building that now houses the city museum up on the hilly Main Street and near the governor’s mansion and State Office Building (known locally as the S.O.B). After that it was in the ground floor of the “Spamcan” building that’s farther down the hill on Main Street. The article describes how the city was lucky that the opportunity to build on the parking garage arose. It’s a great location. To get to the library, you have to take a single elevator up 4-5 floors. They’re labeled 1, B, C, D, and L. While ascending the elevator makes a funny buzzing sound at each floor that some have jokingly compared to flatulence. I once rode up with some English cruise ship officers and one of them jokingly said “excuse me” at each floor. I hope they haven’t changed the elevator. I remember going to the library to do research for a debate for tenth grade English. My debate partner and I were distracted by the view of the sailboats in Gastineau Channel. And then there were those many times spent sitting in the comfy chairs with views of the channel reading from large selection of magazines.
I’ve been to other public libraries since then: the old downtown Seattle library and its uniquely designed successor; the large Los Angeles Central Library with its homeless patrons, unrivaled collection and availability of books and audiobooks (people in L.A. don’t seem to read as much as those in Seattle, though I think that’s changing). Juneau has another impressive library at the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) where I became an expert with microfilm machines. My wife’s favorite is the public library in Renton, Washington that straddles the Cedar River. These days, I make do with the Covina Public Library and the Cal State L.A. library. But with all the libraries I’ve visited and frequented, the Downtown Juneau Library always figures prominently. Happy 20th Anniversary!
Back on Sunday, January 11 we were driving home from church and listening to 100.3 FM The Sound. It was the My Turn segment where a guest DJ, usually someone famous in music, plays what they want and talks about their choices. My Turn airs between 6 pm and 7 pm every Sunday. A previous week had Pau Gasol and Sasha Vujacic from the Lakers. On January 11 the guest DJ was Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis. He played some pretty good music, mostly older stuff. As we were listening one particular lyric caught our ears:
“I eat more chicken (than) any man ever seen, yeah, yeah,”
Now there’s a song lyric you don’t hear very often. The song was “Backdoor Man” performed by The Doors. It’s a funny lyric similar to when Queen sing, “Gimme gimme gimme fried chicken,” and the end of the song “One Vision”. I couldn’t think of the most chicken I’d seen a man eat other than when I had a half chicken meal at Juan Pollo in early November 2008. That was a lot of food.
Further research revealed that the song “Backdoor Man” was actually written by Willie Dixon. That makes sense that The Doors didn’t write it because it seemed a bit silly even for them. Later artists influenced by Willie Dixon include Jesus and Mary Chain and PJ Harvey. The entire stanza that contains the lyric is funny. It goes:
You men eat your chicken
Eat your pork and beans
I eat more chicken any man ever seen, yeah, yeah
I’m a back door man
The men don’t know
But the little girl understand
It tells a funny story or at least conjures up some funny images.
Two weeks later on January 25, Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame was on My Turn. He also played a song that mentions food in the lyrics: “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” by Jay and the Techniques. Wilson described the record as his favorite. It was another silly-sounding song from the 60’s. Who knew there were all these old songs about food?
Today we voted in our fourth election in twelve months. The first was June of last year and I don’t remember on what we voted. The second was in November with the presidential candidates and a bunch of hotly contested propositions. The third was in March that involved local city council and other local positions. This one involved voting for the congressional candidate to replace our current representative who was appointed to the Obama cabinet. We also voted on some complicated State of California budget propositions that ranged from setting aside a rainy day fund to borrowing five billion dollars from future lottery profits to restricting legislative pay raises.
In L.A. City there was an election for City Attorney. It was a runoff because no one had won a majority in the last election in March. LAPD Chief Bill Bratton endorsed one of the candidates back then and in a commercial stated in his thick East Coast accent how he would be “leading the chaage” and voting for him was a “no braina”. Unfortunately, it was quite a “braina” for the electorate and that candidate only won between 30-40% of the vote.
Getting to the polls was also a bit complicated. It wasn’t at the usual elementary school north of us but at what seemed like a senior center to the south and west of us, though still in our hometown. We parked at a place near a liquor store we thought was close to it and walked around. We thought a motel-like building might be it, but it turned out just to be a motel. We walked past another building and an auto body place until we saw a building with the correct address number. But it was a Wonder Bakery outlet and not a senior center. We kept walking and found the polls on the west side of the same building. A sign above matched what was on our sample ballots. There was only one person ahead of us voting. We voted and they gave us regular “I Voted” stickers. Our ballots were numbers 99 and 100 so maybe that means a few other people voted before us at least.
The next election may be in July if none of the congressional candidates wins a majority in this election. We hope one of them does because we’re sick of voting.
In February I finally finished collecting the quarters (25 cent pieces) for all four states in which I’ve lived: Washington, Alaska, Oregon, and California. I had to go to Tennessee of all places to accomplish this. While in Nashville attending a conference for work I acquired the Alaska quarter. I believe it came from a Coke vending machine from which I purchased a 20 ounce bottle of Dasani water for $1.50.
I don’t remember when I started collecting the quarters but the earliest ones for CA and OR came out in 2005. I obtained the WA quarter later and it has a date of 2007. Alaska’s came out in 2008. I like how they all have nice designs; each has a nature scene or natural wonder. Both Washington’s and Alaska’s show a salmon in some capacity. They all sure beat most other states especially Texas that just has the state outline and a star. Now I have one dollar’s worth of all my home states and my home coast: the West Coast.
oday is Election Day and it will be the third election in which we’ve voted in the past 10 months. The first one was in June 2008 and I honestly don’t remember anything we voted on for that election. Maybe there were some school board positions or county measures, or city council positions. I remember it was at a nearby elementary school. There were no other voters there when we arrived in the late afternoon, just poll workers who looked very glad to see us. I believe our ballot numbers were 2 and 3 or something very small like that. I guess we were just the second and third voters to show up.
Of course, it was a different story the second time we voted in the past 10 months. Last November nearly all the voting booths at the same elementary school were full, though there wasn’t a line and we got done fairly quickly. Our ballot numbers were in the 500’s.
This time it’s all local positions. The mayor is running unopposed; five people, including the incumbents, are running for two city council seats; and the city clerk and treasurer positions each have two people competing. We received our sample ballots and made our decisions based on the candidates’ written statements, mailings, and newspaper editorials and endorsements. One candidate didn’t have very good quality control with his mailing and the picture of him on the flyer looked like he needed to wipe his nose. That ruled him out. Overall, I expect this election to be more similar to last June’s than last November’s, but I hope our ballot numbers are higher than 2 and 3.
Comment made on 1/26/2009 on article by Alma Harris in the Juneau Empire. The comment has since been deleted since the Empire no longer allows comments.
url of the article:
http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/122808/nei_371780951.shtml
Hi Mrs. Harris:
This is in response to your article, "Following the Freedom Trail" posted on www.juneauempire.com on December 28, 2008.
I was one of the students that traveled with you, your team teacher, and teachers aid to Boston and Washington D.C. back in the 1990’s.
I don’t remember the freedom trail as boring. I liked how it went all through the city making it easy to find all the historical landmarks. I also remember the white interior of the Old North Church and that sections of the pews had doors (and locks?) for the families that used to own them. I also remember stopping by the Boston Common and seeing the memorial to 54th Massachusetts, the regiment of black soldiers that fought in the Civil War and were portrayed in the 1989 film Glory. What impressed me was that the memorial was also shown at the end of the film.
You’re right, I did enjoy the Boston Celtics game and getting to see Larry Bird. I remember him making a basket from half court. Other memories include visiting Paul Revere’s grave. Near the grave, a man was reading the inscription out loud. He showed us his driver’s license revealing that his name was also Paul Revere. I remember the teacher’s aid getting struck by a bicyclist while crossing the street and that time when we got lost driving us through Washington D.C. and you used a word that wasn’t on any of our vocabulary tests. :)
Your article really takes me back. Now I want to dig out the journal we had to keep during the trip if I still have it. It’s probably at my parent’s back in Juneau. The trip really made history come alive and taught me how democracy works, but it also gave me a sense of the diversity and variety of America. Prior to that trip, the only big city I had visited was Seattle. After it I had visited Boston and Washington D.C. where there were the most African Americans I’d ever seen. I believe we also flew over Los Angeles en route to their airport since our flight schedule was rearranged and I remember the city lights stretching out in all directions. The experience greatly expanded my outlook and made me want to explore and experience more and I believe partially led to me settle in the L.A. area. Thank you to you, your team teacher, and teacher’s aide opening our eyes.
I may return to the Boston area for a business trip this coming fall. It would be my first time back since our trip. Maybe this trip will back memories.
In the Summer 2008 issue of the Willamette Scene, the academic magazine for the collgee I attended for undergrad, there was an article entitled “Deliciously Bewildering Dialectic”. The title comes from a quote by the President of Willamette, M. Lee Pelton, that goes:
“There is no official position to be taken except to promote—rather than squelch—the deliciously bewildering dialectic we commonly refer to as “the teachable moment.”
What’s most bewildering to me is trying to figure out what all that means. Fromm the context, “dialectic” seems to mean a concept or discussion. Its dictionary definition is “(1) (adj) of logical argumentation. (2) (n) the art or practice of logical discussion, as of truth of a theory or opinion.” That seems to make sense. “Dialectic” sounds more like an adjective related to dialogue. It’s one of those academic words that academics like to use.
The article is about how students and faculty were encouraged to submit essays on diversity, community, and related topics. A couple of pages featured quotes from the essays. One quote struck me as particularly bewildering:
“. . . Increasingly atherosclerotic notions of multiculturalism, diversity, and freedom of expression . . . limit the rapprochement necessary to help us dispense with the reified notions and move forward with an inclusive and just conception of plural community.”
This comes from the essay with a mouthful of a title: “Between Freedom of Speech and Cultural Diversity of Expression: Bureaucratizing the Multicultural Imagination” by Nathaniel “Nacho” Cordova, assistant professor of rhetoric and media studies.
I’m not sure where to begin to try to understand this one. Maybe I’ll start with the words I don’t know. The second word of the essay, “atherosclerotic”, seems more like a medical term. My wife learned from her medical terminology class that “athero” means plaque and “sclerotic” means hardening. The dictionary defines atherosclerosis as “(n) a form of arteriosclerosis in which fatty substances deposit in the inner walls of the arteries. Atherosclerotic (adj).” It just doesn’t seem like it can be used to describe notions of multiculturalism, diversity, and freedom of expression. Maybe it has a more figurative meaning such as narrow (due to plague deposits?), entrenched, or ingrained, or maybe limiting since arteriosclerosis limits lessons the blood flow through the arteries.
The next words I don’t know are “rapprochement” and “reified”. The Random House dictionary I have defines rapprochement as “(n) an establishment of harmonious relations, as between nations.” Reified is an interesting word because “re” is a prefix used in words such as “reopen” and “reacquire” and “ified” is a suffix for words such as “simplified”. “Reified” seems to combine a prefix and a suffix with no word in between. It does not appear in my Random House dictionary. According to www.merriam-webster.com, “reify” means “(v) to regard (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing.”
The quote seems to be saying that increasingly entrenched, built-up, or narrow notions of multiculturalism, diversity, and freedom of expression limit the establishment of harmonious relations need to dispense with the abstract notions regarded as concrete and move forward with a just conception of plural community. Even with the attempted translation it’s still a tongue twister. What I get is that the ideas and words we use in discourse are limited and we need to look beyond them to come together or something like that.
What’s interesting is that the quote is from a rhetoric and media studies professor. I would think his quotes would be clearer and to the point. It’s also interesting that the quote was featured in the Scene. Were the staff genuinely impressed with the quote or were they as bewildered as I was? Maybe the purpose of the quote was to bewilder, to showcase intellect and wide academic vocabulary. Would other people be willing to do the research to understand it? With society’s tendency for snappy slogans and quick sound bites, I’m not so sure. Using such vocabulary may seem elitist to some. It alienates, divides and excludes. It dissuades the very plural community that it describes and claims to support.
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