It rained all day again today. I stayed in and got some cleaning done.
It’s going to rain all day tomorrow, too.
I might leave LA the day after—New Year’s Eve—since it’s supposed to be sunny again then. I’m not totally certain yet.
But I would love to support anyone reading this with a free one-hour session, by phone or video chat, to review/energetically wrap up 2021, and/or to set some intentions or visions for 2022. Not any hard-and-fast “resolutions,” or anything tinged with self-criticism or shame. But if you’d like to support yourself and give yourself some cool things to look forward to in the coming year, I’d be happy to help hold space for you to articulate some dreams or visions. I love helping people to visualize and hold space for their dreams.
I can offer these sessions tomorrow, Thursday the 30th, between 10 am and 7 pm Pacific Time. If that timing doesn’t work for you, we can make a time in the next week or so, although scheduling can get a bit tricky for me once I get back on the road again. But I trust that we can and will find a time, so don’t be shy to message me if this calls to you!
Today was sunny here in LA, and the next two days are forecast to be rainy, so I thought I’d jump on the opportunity to grab a few more groceries at the market at the bottom of the hill. Heck, maybe go back to the vegan doughnut place again too, farther away. Yes… after a very lazy and slow morning, I decided around 1:00 it was time to go outside and get a bit of exercise.
First, though, I took care of a few errands. Yesterday I had taken out the trash and recycling. This is the first time I’ve stayed anywhere long enough to do things like needing to replenish groceries, or take out trash. But this time of rest in LA is an opportunity to take care of all kinds of errands, such as the various medical appointments I’ve managed here as well.
Today I needed to clean out the bladder of my hydration pack. I hadn’t had to do so yet, amazingly; the water had continued tasting reasonably fresh this whole time, since September. But yesterday I started tasting some mold. Yuck!
I can get so nervous about doing any kind of physical chore. I’m always afraid I’m going to screw things up. How was I going to clean this bladder? I’d never even taken it fully out of the pack. I pictured that I would put it back in wrong, and not be able to figure out how to get it right. That’s assuming I could even clean it effectively.
These are the kinds of stressors that catch me on this trip. As long as things are going smoothly, there is no problem. But when something starts to go wrong, I realize just how crucial these things are, and worry that they will be somehow ruined. I need that hydration pack on a daily basis! I supposed that in a worst-case scenario, I could simply pitch the bladder and buy a new one. But of course I didn’t want to do that.
Anyway, I Googled how to do it, and I was pleased to discover that I was indeed capable of this minor feat. I used some bleach and warm water, and took several photos of how the bladder and its tube are threaded within the pack, so that I could reassemble it OK.
Mission accomplished! I was feeling good.
Another task I had been putting off for a few weeks, but knew I wanted to do before leaving LA, was to inflate all my tires: the two on the bike and the two on the trailer.
This, of course, I have done many times on this trip. It’s not difficult; it just takes a few minutes. Today I decided to do this before leaving the house.
But I hit a snafu this time. (Oh, the irony: cleaning the pack was easier than I thought. Pumping up the tires turned into a thing.)
I got the trailer tires just fine. Also the front tire of the bike. But then on the rear tire, as soon as I attached the pump and began inflating, I heard a big hiss. I thought maybe I hadn’t attached the pump well enough. As I pulled it off to try to reattach it to the valve, all the air hissed out of the tube. The gauge read zero.
Great.
I’ll make a long story as short as possible: I tried several times, and got nowhere.
Reluctantly, I decided to drive the bike to a shop that handles Bromptons. The closest one I could find was in Pasadena. I had considered trying to just replace the tube myself, but I found the prospect too intimidating. (I had watched a how-to YouTube video several times before embarking on this journey, and it had intimidated me. I watched a different one today, and it also intimidated me. There are a lot of steps involved. I pictured myself flubbing several of them, and ending up with a broken-down bike and a pile of parts sitting next to it. Then, of course, I judged myself—and anticipated others judging me if they knew of my reluctance to learn and practice to do this chore myself—which added to my anxiety.)
But then I decided, guess what? I’m not going to let shame and embarrassment affect my decision making. I get to make my own choices. I can choose to make things easy on myself if I want. And I happen to be in a metro area with several Brompton-certified bike shops. (Turns out there are more than the two the guy had told me about the other day.) I happen to have access to a car to transport the bike. I’m grateful (always, always!) that this particular bike folds up so small, so that if I do have mechanical trouble, I can transport it in a car—whether I’m driving or someone else is, like a host or a Lyft driver—to a bike shop.
So, yes: once again, I chose to lean into the support I have around me, rather than berating myself for not being “good enough”/tough enough/mechanically savvy enough to do everything myself. I find it a poignant lesson, and it’s one I’m continually learning on this trip. Maybe later there will come a time when I really do need to figure out this stuff for myself. But that’s the hypothetical future. In the actual present, I’m choosing to be gentle with myself.
So. I packed up the bike and took it to Pasadena Cyclery. They were willing to work on it, but told me it might take an hour. I was initially disappointed that it wouldn’t be instantaneous, but then decided to check out a highly rated vegan Asian-fusion restaurant in Pasadena, Naughty Vegan. I dropped off the bike and headed over to the restaurant.
I was quickly reminded again how much I don’t enjoy driving. Finding the restaurant was pretty easy, but finding parking was a trial, and I had to pay for it, and it was complicated to pay for it as well: I had to find the pay station before returning to the car, and insert my ticket and then my credit card to pay, before then getting back in the car and driving out of the garage.
The meal was nice, and although it was not exactly toasty to eat outside (low 50s) at least it wasn’t raining.
I returned to the shop. The mechanics had replaced the tube, although even they were stymied as to what the problem had been. Many of my Facebook friends had speculated—based on my “help” post earlier, when I had thought of trying to fix it myself—that it was a problem with the valve. But the mechanics visually went over the old tube in front of me, and couldn’t find a puncture in the tube, nor any apparent mechanical problem with the valve. It was odd, and I’m a bit concerned that the problem might recur somehow, but I did do a test ride once I left the shop, and the new tube seemed to be working fine. (It’s still fully inflated now; I just checked.)
Meanwhile, I had asked them to give the bike a quick once-over to see if there were any other adjustments or safety issues I should be aware of before I get on the road again. They did find some gearing adjustments—on both shifters—and tuned them up for me, at no additional cost, which I appreciated. (I did notice that they had quoted and charged me $25 labor for the flat repair, rather than the $15 they advertised on their sign, which I assume is because it’s trickier to change a Brompton tire—especially the rear one—than a regular bike’s tire. I was happy to pay it, for the peace of mind of having knowledgeable mechanics do the work—plus some extra—to get me back on the road.)
So… this was not how I had hoped to spend this sunny day. But in addition to trying the new-to-me restaurant, I decided to indeed stop again at Donut Friend on the way home. They were almost sold out for the day, but I did manage to nab the last jelly doughnut they had, which I thoroughly enjoyed consuming after I got home.
I don’t like mechanical snafus. But I am so grateful that all of this infrastructure was in place for me today—as well as plentiful time to handle the issue—and no rain to navigate while driving today. The situation could have been a lot worse.
I’ve got at least a couple more days in LA, both of which I expect to be rainy. I’ll be doing some laundry and cleaning. Perhaps some phone calls or Zooms with friends and/or clients.
One other thing I’ve been exploring during all this rainy down-time here is creative expression, and music in particular. On Christmas day, it spontaneously occurred to me to record a “duet” of myself with myself, singing one of my favorite winter songs (which I learned in 8th grade chorus class, and still remember both the soprano and baritone parts). It is by no means polished, but I would like to share it here, in case you’d like to listen.
I’m thinking a lot lately about music and singing, including some of my original songs from years ago. Maybe I’ll do more… we’ll see.
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It seems like the days here in LA have been alternating almost exactly: sun, rain, sun, rain. Yesterday I stayed inside the whole day, and reflected on life a bit after a family Zoom.
Today the sun came out again, so I headed out to local restaurant Kitchen Mouse for some treats (the “loxdown” sandwich, OMG! I had it in October, and couldn’t wait to try it again) and the grocery store to stock up on a few more items.
On the way, I decided to stop at the open greenspace across the street from the condo building. The building courtyard itself was bright and sunshiney, and then the little concrete path along the ridge looked pretty cool too, so I snapped a few photos.
Then I came home, enjoyed the sandwich, and had a Zoom with a friend. I’ve got a few more days here—mostly rainy!—and I’m enjoying the slow pace and opportunity to “reset” before getting back on the road.
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I did something weird and scary today: I drove a car! More specifically, I drove on LA freeways! Eek.
I hadn’t been behind the wheel of a motor vehicle for probably at least a year before today. And the previous time was probably at least a year before that. Suffice it to say, I don’t drive much.
Mostly this is for environmental reasons, which is also why I’ve never owned a car. But a side effect of rarely driving is that I get also get quite nervous behind the wheel, which becomes another reason to avoid it.
I was imagining—without even explicitly thinking about it—that I would make it through this year’s journey without driving. I figured I could handle it even in LA. But I decided to do it today, for a few reasons. For one, I really wanted to see Santa Monica (I had visited once before, and really enjoyed the aesthetic of the beach and pier area). My initial plan had been to stay there for a couple of nights, after this time in Highland Park, before heading south to Long Beach. But I haven’t been able to find lodging there yet, despite a few efforts.
I’ve also been keeping an eye on the forecast, and there’s spotty rain here in this area for the next week or so. Biking to Santa Monica would take me the better part of a day, so I didn’t want to do that if I wasn’t planning to spend the night there. Transit would have taken a couple of hours each way, and by the time I realized this afternoon would be clear, and thus a good chance to go, that wouldn’t have left me enough time to actually enjoy the area.
And… my cousin was kind enough to leave me her car key to use. Although I prefer to avoid driving for the above reasons, another theme I’m embracing on this trip is to receive kindnesses and gifts when offered. Several previous hosts so far have offered to loan me their cars to run errands, and I have declined. But today seemed like the day to do it.
It was a process for me, mentally, emotionally, and physically/logistically, but I made it through! This involved everything from taking photos of the parking spaces in the building, and also in Santa Monica, so I would remember where to return (to) the car… to folding up the bike and placing it gently on a blanket in the trunk, so as not to harm the contents of the trunk… to studying the driving directions ahead of time—remarkably easy on the freeways—so that I committed them to memory and didn’t have to use my phone on the way out there… to spontaneously making up songs to sing to keep my courage up as I actually traversed the freeways at about 50 miles per hour because I was scared (lyrics like “I’m doing this at my own pace, and that’s OK/people can pass me if they want, today”)… to leaving the beach at 3:00 so that I wouldn’t have to drive in the dark… to choosing to avoid freeways and let Google narrate my directions on the way home… to filling up the tank afterward (and even pumping my own gas, which is extra unfamiliar to me as an Oregonian.)
Whew. Did it all. (And only got honked at once!)
Even in a car, it takes a while to get there and back, so I only had about an hour and a half in Santa Monica. But I took the chance to visit one of only two co-op grocery locations in LA County (same co-op—their other location is in Culver City) and there I saw an item I’d never beheld before! I had to snag one to see if I liked it, and surprisingly enough I did. I’ve never considered carob to be a remotely adequate substitute for chocolate, but this product was a kind of hybrid: carob powder mixed with cocoa butter. It was pretty tasty.
Then I biked the groceries back to the car. (I had parked on the street, several blocks away, so as to only have to park once.) I stashed them in the trunk, and biked down to the pier.
On the way, stopped at a light, I heard, “I like your Brompton!”
Nice!
I looked up and it was a guy at an open-air bike shop, The Bike Center. Turns out they are one of only two Brompton dealers in the LA area. He said he personally owns a Brompton, too, and so do all the other workers there. How cool! Luckily I didn’t need any maintenance today, but it was a fun little interaction.
Smiling at the serendipity, I proceeded a few blocks to the boardwalk area. It was mobbed with people, and I put on my mask to walk around. But the pier was cute and fun to see, and I cycled under the boardwalk and down the beach a bit. The late afternoon light looked cool.
Then it was time to head back. Avoiding the freeways this time was definitely a good idea for my nerves, even if it probably took me longer to get back. Parts of the drive were pretty, with palm trees and cool streets and buildings, and golden light on the hills.
So, that was my multifaceted adventure for the day! LA definitely contains a variety of experiences for someone like me.
Tomorrow is a holiday, and also looks to be kinda rainy here, so I probably won’t make a post tomorrow. But whether or not you celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful day.
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I was still feeling a bit achy today from that booster shot. More importantly, it was pouring rain all day today here in LA. I can hear it thrumming on the skylight as I type. I hope the earth is getting a good soaking. I’m a bit bummed that it’s not good out-and-about weather for me, but I’m also once again grateful for having this cozy place to rest and take it easy indoors. I ordered pizza delivery from LA’s all-vegan pizza place, Cruzer Pizza, and had a few chats with friends.
So, no new photos from today, but I still have this stash from my time at the Huntington Gardens the other day. This is one of only four Classical Chinese Gardens in North America. I’m fortunate enough to have visited all four: this one, the one in Portland (built during my time there), the one in Vancouver, BC (almost identical to Portland’s—perhaps the Portland design was influenced by Vancouver’s), and the one in Montreal, within its botanical garden. (Sadly, when I visited there the pond had been drained for maintenance, which changed the overall aesthetic of the garden quite a bit.)
More than Japanese gardens—which are very much designed individually, to fit within their particular landscapes and climates despite lots of similar design elements—I find that Classical Chinese gardens have a very distinctive and similar look. They incorporate lots of nature, but the buildings and structures seem to be especially important to the overall look and feeling of the gardens as well.
I hope you enjoy these photos.
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Today was another stay-inside day. It was cloudy; my body was aching from the booster yesterday; and I had hours to spend on various “administrative” tasks in my life, like dealing with health insurance, mail forwarding, bill paying, a condo owners’ Zoom meeting, etc. I felt good to get all that stuff done, and I very much relished having the time and space to do it, without anything rushing me or stressing me out.
So. As promised, here is another batch of photos from the Huntington Gardens a few days ago. Their Japanese garden is beautiful.
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Today was the shortest day of the year, here in the northern hemisphere. I wanted to take advantage of the sunlight and warmth we did have here: it got up to 71 in LA today. Tomorrow is to be mid-60s and cloudy, and after that, temps are set to drop about ten degrees, and rain is at least potential in the forecast most days after that, for the next week or so.
So, I headed out to Descanso Gardens, which several people had recommended.
First I went to get my teeth cleaned at a local dentist. It feels good to be able to take care of various errands—as well as sightseeing—in a famously car-centric place like LA, on my bike. We’ll see how I continue with that when the rain sets in, but so far so good.
The ride from the dentist to the garden was about eight miles, including about 800 feet of mostly very gentle elevation gain. The main road was called Linda Vista, and a lovely view it provided indeed, through beautiful neighborhoods with established trees.
When I arrived at the garden, I discovered to my delight that the third Tuesday of every month is their free day. (What are the odds?) I also lucked out because normally they require advance tickets on free days, but for some reason they were not doing so today. So… I did share the space with an awful lot of people—including many kids on school break—but free is a very good price, and the gardens themselves did indeed feel restful.
There was even a small Japanese garden, charmingly festooned with red lanterns, which I’m assuming is a seasonal Christmas touch, although I’m not sure because they could look nice year-round.
After the gardens, I had two errands in mind: get my COVID booster shot, and check out at least one vegan restaurant.
Both errands ended up presenting some challenges. The first vegan restaurant I tried was closed between lunch and dinner, and the first vaccination place had just filled their last slot for the day.
Luckily, a staffer there gave me a lead on a potential pharmacy to try, just about eight blocks down the road. And between those two places was Donut Friend, an all-vegan doughnut place (I prefer the traditional spelling) I had been meaning to try.
I couldn’t help snapping an artsy capture of my bike in the shop. (Doesn’t it look cool?) It had to sit there a while in the corner, while I perused the options and eventually narrowed it down to two: a chocolate-glazed custard-filled, and a Nutella-inspired sandwich doughnut. Wow, those were good.
Then I continued on to the pharmacy, where, despite signage indicating appointments required, they were happy to accommodate me as a walk-in. The woman who did my intake was impressed and ebullient to hear about my bicycle journey. It was a cool experience all around. My arm is sore now, but no side effects yet; fingers crossed it stays that way, as my first two rounds fortunately did back in May.
After all this, I stopped at the local market again to restock my veggies, beans, and Clif bars. Then headed back up the hill, in time for a phone call with a good friend.
It’s the solstice. And I’m about a quarter of the way through my journey. There are physical and logistical challenges at times. And I feel wistful and listless at times. But mostly, I am so grateful for this journey, and the beautiful places I’m seeing, and the wonderful people in my life, old and new.
Happy solstice to all!
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Today was a very quiet day. I stayed inside and relaxed. Had a couple Zooms, but otherwise mostly lounged around and ate a lot.
So, please enjoy these incredible scenes from the desert garden yesterday. Seriously, if you’re ever in LA, you owe it to yourself to visit this place.
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Do you have your own dream or project, and would like some support or collaborative brainstorming about it? Use the green “contact” button above to schedule a one-hour phone or video call with me!
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Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
I finally made it back to the Huntington Gardens today! I first visited a few years ago, and was mesmerized by the desert garden (the largest and arguably best I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen quite a few), the Japanese garden, the classical Chinese garden, and the Orbit pavilion. I saw them all again today, plus more. I have way too many photos to share in one post. I’m also not sure how much I’ll be going out this coming week, with temperatures dropping, rain in the forecast, and possible side effects from the booster shot I plan to get Tuesday.
So, today I’ll share a smattering of miscellaneous scenes, and then in the coming days I’ll share more from the specific gardens.
The ride to Pasadena was very pleasant, with mid-60s temps and sunshine. I passed some nice views of trees and mountains, just going through the neighborhoods.
When I arrived at the Huntington, I went straight to the Orbit pavilion. The physical structure is cool, and the music is haunting. When I read the placard (see photo) the combination felt all the more poignant. I really like this installation.
As I walked through the desert garden, I passed several plants with signs next to them cautioning not to eat the fruits. Stymied!!
The Huntington is a large and varied complex. It’s a very impressive collection of gardens, but it also contains a library, a classical sculpture lawn, and more. If you’re ever in the LA/Pasadena area, I highly recommend it.
After the garden, I stopped by a local Target on the way home to pick up a few supplies. While I was there, I saw that the attached pharmacy was offering flu shots, so I decided to get one right then. Luckily, they accepted my Oregon insurance (I didn’t think they would) so it was free to me, and they even gave me a $5 coupon to spend on my purchases in the store, as a reward for getting the shot. That was a nice bonus.
I headed back home as the light and warmth were waning. This time, my route took me up the hill to the condo complex from the other direction. Wowee, was that a hill today! I think it was more like 300’ from this side, instead of the 200’ I climbed yesterday. Today I did need to stop at one point to rest… but I did challenge myself to do the entire climb in second gear, rather than the first gear I used yesterday. (Which I think was the right decision, especially given that I had the trailer yesterday. I might have damaged my knees if I had attempted that in second.) So, despite that one rest, I was very proud of myself for scaling the hill the way I did this evening.
Tomorrow I’ve got a couple Zoom chats scheduled, with friends and potential collaborators, so I’m looking forward to that. If I feel up to it, and if the weather cooperates, I may venture out again as well. I’ve heard great things about Descanso Gardens…
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Well, all seems right with the world again: it was a sunny day in SoCal, and between the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and my trusty rig, I traversed the 50 miles back to the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, near Pasadena. My cousin is away for the holidays, and she very graciously offered me her place in her absence. I plan to stay at least a week here, which should be a great opportunity to decompress, get my COVID booster, get my flu shot, get a dental cleaning, catch up on communicating with some (by now feeling like long-lost!) friends, visit some beautiful places and maybe see some local friends… etc. I can feel the decompression beginning already.
I departed my friends’ house in Moorpark this morning after a hearty breakfast of a green smoothie, tofu scramble, and vegan sausage. I biked the three miles to downtown Moorpark to catch the Surfliner. The ride lasted about an hour, and I boarded and deboarded without incident. The Moorpark depot actually was just an unstaffed commuter-rail platform, without a station. Glendale, where I disembarked, had a charming small station.
I opted to take the 9.2 mile cycling option rather than the 5.4 mile one, because the former was largely on a dedicated bike path. I had the time, and the weather was lovely, and I’m so glad I chose that option. LA traffic can be nerve-wracking to navigate under human power, but this path was beautiful, with water running in the canal since the recent rain, and pretty autumn trees mingling with bright flowers on the path.
The first path did dump me out into unpleasant auto traffic for a mile or two, but then I joined another path, in the Arroyo Seco canyon cutting through a few neighborhoods.
When I climbed out of the canyon into Highland Park, I decided to stop at a supermarket to stock up on a few groceries for the week. (I would be cooking for myself, for the first time in three months!)
My cousin’s condo sits atop a 200-foot hill. On my previous two visits here on this trip—in early and then late October—she had picked me up from the train station both times. I had made it up the hill under my own power on both occasions, but only while exploring during the visits; I hadn’t had the trailer with me on those excursions. I was a bit concerned whether I would be able to scale the hill today by pedal power (vs. walking) with the trailer in tow.
So the thought of also adding the weight and bulk of groceries seemed potentially foolhardy. But I knew the alternative was to climb the hill, get everything inside the building, up the elevator, and down the hall, and then turn back around with just the bike to go down the hill for groceries, and back up. It didn’t sound very efficient, nor much fun. I decided to risk the extra weight and bulk, and get the groceries on my way in.
When I pulled up to the neighborhood market and surveyed the scene for a safe place to stash the bike (and the trailer, which I can’t secure) what should I discover but a man at a table right out front, offering free samples of vegan ice cream! Clearly, I had made the right decision.
We began chatting, and it turns out he was doing the sampling as a part-time gig, but he is a local vegan restaurant owner! His name is Ty, and his pop-up vegan restaurant is called Fun With Fries. He told me about a vegan food festival in downtown LA tomorrow; I may check it out!
When I emerged from the store, my grocery bag was even heavier and bulkier than I had feared. (Heads of broccoli and cauliflower, carrots, two cans of beans, and even a pint of the Eclipse ice cream I had just sampled—I was sold on it!)
So I was concerned about how I was going to manage this. The trailer, as always, was stuffed to the gills, so that wasn’t an option. My hydration backpack is small, so there was no room in there. I first tried using some of the straps on the pack to loop through the handles of the grocery bag. This just resulted in a heavy bag banging into the back of my thighs—not well suited to the task of mounting, and then piloting, a bicycle.
I puzzled about what I could do. Finally, I remembered that the Brompton is designed to carry a large front bag for touring. I have chosen not to use such a bag, favoring the trailer instead. This means that the front of my bike is open, and I knew it could handle some weight up there. So I managed to thread the bag handles over each handlebar. Of course they did not have the snap-on attachment that an actual Brompton bag would have, to hold it in place and prevent the weight from swaying around while pedaling. But I judged that I could handle it for the roughly two-thirds of a mile I’d be riding up that hill.
Sure enough… I took it slow, and stayed in the lowest gear, and I’m pleased to report that the whole rig made it up that hill without any walking, nor even stopping to rest.
The past few weeks I’ve been feeling concerned that my body didn’t seem to be gaining as much strength or stamina as I thought it should be. The physical challenge of my days had been feeling pretty consistent, rather than improving. But after this achievement today, I’m feeling better about it. Perhaps the 40-mile ride from Santa Barbara to Ventura, followed immediately by the 30-mile ride to Moorpark the next day, gave me the extra strength training I needed for this feat.
I arrived at the condo and got settled, enjoyed some ice cream on the balcony in the late afternoon sun, and then walked out to the small park next door to enjoy the last of the day’s rays. I took a photo from the top of the hill, admiring the view below.
I’m happy to be here.
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Want to support my vision financially? I am in the process of manifesting $50,000 in lieu of a “salary” for the year of this journey. You can make a one-time or monthly contribution, or even become a Fairy Godfunder! (Heartfelt thanks to all my patrons and supporters!)
