No Halloween for you

I heard on the radio this morning that San Francisco has decided to cancel the Halloween revelry in the Castro because, in the last several years, it's been getting a bit out of control: six people shot last year (although "none seriously"). So they've been doing a local media blitz telling everyone to stay home, getting bars there to agree to close early, and promoting parties in other areas.

Understandable that they want to prevent people getting hurt. Taking action in that line = good. But.

Telling people not to do something. That they've been doing for nigh-on thirty years at least. That involves fun. In San Francisco. Yeah, okay, good luck with that.

ashen again

For the fourth morning running, when I came out to go to work, there was a light dusting of ashy bits on my car, an orange-brown haze low in the sky, and a faint scent of woodsmoke.

But last night, the moon was its normal color. Tuesday night, it too had been orange, after a day when brown smoke piled high in the sky at work in the afternoon. And today my knee is telling me that the weather is changing.

it's made of . . . ?

For a few weeks now, I've noticed that some of the burned swatches of Griffith Park, which I pass on my commute, have had some sort of bright green colored stuff spread on them. Last week I actually witnessed a helicopter dumping a load of green onto a slope. Just after dumping, the helicopter seemed to stand straight up on its nose for a moment -- from the sudden unbalancing? -- which I hadn't seen a helicopter do before. I was relieved to see it quickly right itself and putter off westward.

I wonder what the green stuff is. Something to attempt erosion control for the rainy season, I'm guessing, maybe like this.

11. Favorite TV show?

back to this question business. Hm. At this moment, the first one that comes to mind is Firefly. Though as I say that, I see Babylon 5 standing across the schoolyard, glaring at me bitterly.

Do you mean shows currently on? Um... we don't have cable. We watch our TV on DVD.

fishy?

Driving in to work this morning -- I've taken to using the 5 to the 134 around Griffith Park instead of the 101 through Hollywood for the last few months, saves me having to worry what Barham might be like today -- there's a stretch of the L.A. River where they've taken out the concrete on the bottom, and trees and bushes are growing. Kind of like a real, actual river.

This morning I glimpsed a guy sitting down by the edge on the other side -- I think he was fishing.

Fishing? In the L.A. River? Really? Because, on one hand, that would be awesome that there are (a) fish there at all, (b) big enough to be worth catching, (c) enough of them to be worth fishing for. On the other hand, dude, you do realize that those fish are swimming in whatever the hell the sprinklers have been washing off the streets lately?