December 15, 2005

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  Well, today has been a b*tch so far, and I’ll describe just how much of a b*tch it’s been at the end of this PhotoPost. It’s a workday, and I’m at home, waiting for a plumber before the whole dining room starts filling up with water, but I’ll show you some photos that got me in a little bit of a Christmas mood last week when it rained a bit overnight first.

  
  

  

  
  

  A while back it rained pretty hard overnight, and while driving to work I got one of those brainstorms I’m always getting that if I had packed my camera with me I could have gotten some real neat reflections of the stoplights in the slick streets, washed by the rain the previous night. I kept this in mind, and it rained a bit last week, so on my 5:30am drive into work along Sepulveda/Willow I stopped a couple of places and shot some photos. This first one is of the reflection of a green traffic signal over the Avalon and Sepulveda intersection.

  
  

  

  
  

  As the cars drove across the intersection, I got the reflection of their brake lights on the wet sheen, giving a sort of Christmassy look with the red of the brakelights and the green of the traffic signal. I wasn’t specifically thinking “Christmas” until I got home later that day and took a look at the photos.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is my favorite, shot at the intersection of Willow and Pacific in Long Beach. The intersection is where rioters torched the DMV building on the evening I had an appointment there back during the riots of 92. Long Beach is rather deserted in this area at night, or more specifically, early morning. The green is the traffic signal, and you can see the actual signal reflected in the puddle. The red in this shot is a store sign above the highway in red neon.

  
  

  

  
  

  Another red/green shot of the same inersection. I’m standing on the island in the middle of Sepulveda Blvd in my coat with my camera. A police cruiser came by, and the officer sort of stared at me and my camera, but he didn’t stop. Sometimes at odd hours in “in the wrong place” I get questioned by police as to what and why I’m photographing, which is a troublesome bother that happens to a lot of photographers these days.

  
  

  

  
  

  Another shot of red brakelights and a green stoplight. The shots of the yellow and red stoplight reflections didn’t enthuse me as much as the green ones. I love the look of the wet asphalt. This particular part of the street was recently repaved.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is a wider view of the intersection with the neon sign. These shots aren’t really “artistic” or anything. I’m just intrigued by lights and shadows, and slick roads. I think these photos would have been neater if it had rained harder, but they still seem a bit “Christmassy”, don’t you think. (Sorry, if I’m offending anyone by using the word “Christmas”. I’m an old man, and that’s what I call the holiday.)

  
  

  

  
  

  The other day I was taking shots in my media room and got this interesting angle of Betty Boop at the malt shop looking somewhat dreamily at what appears to be a giant skull. Since King Kong was just released, I’ll title this “Betty on Skull Island at the Malt Shop with Kong’s skull”.

  
  

  

  
  

  This and the image below were posted on this blog last Christmas. The image above is the whiteboard in my office, ca. 1995 or so. The “letters” are electrical symbols. I used to “draw” this greeting every year. We’ve downsized and I’m in a smaller office, and my lone whiteboard is filled with work assignments. But this used to intrigue my vendors and customers. If you’re in the electrical industry, this is pretty neat.

  
  

  

  
  

  Also from last year’s blog, my “Christmas Card” (Or “Holiday Card” for those of you who find the word Christmas offensive…..I think the “debate” is senseless myself., but I’m a traditionalist and raised Christian to boot.) The photo is a composite of two photos shot out my back door showing the Christmas decorations (Holiday decorations) on the house facing us on the cul de sac. It was raining, and the “round lights” are my flash reflected in the droplets.

  
  

  
  

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  Now, here is my “sob story” about why I’m home blogging instead of at work. This morning, I went out to the car and it wouldn’t start. Now this is my 1999 Eclipse convertible, bought almost new, and it has never given me any problems. The car has not started only twice, which was caused by my closing the door on the seatbelt which kept the dome light on all night and was corrected by a jump from my roommate’s car. I got a jump from him this morning, and it turns out I needed a new battery. The corner auto repair shop, at which I got it checked after 8am when they opened, showed me the test meter, and the battery was just going bad, so I got a new one at the Auto Zone retailers across the street, and the auto repair shop put it in the car for only 10 bucks labor. I like our local auto shops. They are all quite honest, and the “competition” since there are many along Lomita Blvd where I live, is to see who can be nicer and more honest with the clientele.

  
  

  Before I even took the car in to get it “fixed”, I went to make a phone call to tell work that I wouldn’t be in today because of the car, and I stepped in wet carpet by the phone kiosk in our dining room. There seems to be a busted pipe somewhere under the house, and water is seeping up under the floorboards. I can hear water “running” somewhere, possibly in the house that shares a wall with ours, but our water pressure in the house seems to be okay. The water is seeping onto the kitchen linoleum, and it has spread quite a bit throughout the dining room. Luckliy this is on the other side of the house, and my rooms are dry (right now, as I write anyway.) I went to the rental management office after getting my new battery installed in the car, and was told that they don’t handle the housing project anymore, since now somebody else owns the building. Gloria, with whom I will miss “doing business” gave me the new owner’s name and number on a post it, and I called the new owner, sloshing through the wet carpet in my shoes, after I ate breakfast and went home. Seems the plumber is on another job in downtown L.A. and won’t be here for a couple of hours.

  
  

  I just watched Titanic again a few weeks ago when they released the new DVD, and I’m thinking that is seems as if my house is slowly sinking underwater. So, as I said previously, today has been a b*tch so far, let me tell ya.  Now I’ll open up my image editing program and see if I can superimpose a “Christmas Tree” on one of the red and green reflection photos above.

  
  

  

  
  

  EDIT: 2:45 pm. Well, I just cracked a beer. This is bad, and it’s going to take a while. So I’m going to relax and get drunk. It’s the decent thing to do. The new owner and the plumber just left. They were here for about an hour. I snapped the photo above about an hour before they got here. The dark spots in the rug are where I’ve stepped, and water has come right up through the shag. I also took photos of the sea in the kitchen, but don’t want to show them here on the blog because the floor and refrigerator look reallly dirty and I’m ashamed. I’ve just been shamed enough by the fact that the kitchen looks so bad. I figured the new owner might just “stop by” after I called him this morning, so I did at least vacuum the carpet, and clean up Joel’s piles of mail from all the flat surfaces, and got rid of the empty beer bottles and cleaned some of the countertops in the kitchn. The new owner and the plumber came in the house, and I told Anward, the new owner, a roly poly guy with a smile that never leaves his lips, that the situation had gotten much worse than it was this morning. The two guys look for problems. It seems like it’s in the wall. It’s not a hot water pipe but a cold water pipe that is leaking. Now, the plumber eventually turns off the main, something I should have probably thought to do, but I didn’t. The two men had a conversation about the pipes. The plumber, Frank, was half deaf. They tried to find the crawlspace into the attic. It happens that it’s in the other part of the duplex, and we share the same roof and attic. Anward wants to eventually recarpet the house, paint the walls, landscape the outside, and all I can think of is how long will I not have water and can I take a shower tomorrow morning. They punched holes in the walls. They sloshed through the river in the kitchen. I’d say lake, but the water was moving. They’ll be here tomorrow. Anward has the key, so I can go to work tomorrow. They’ll tear the place apart when I’m not here. Oh what a Merry Christmas I’m having. Well, I’d better have a sip of that cold beer. There. Ahhhhh. I’ll just forget about it. I went to the bathroom, and when I turned on the faucet to wash my hands, you got it, no water. So I have to go outside and turn on the main to wash. I’ll have to turn on the main to shower. I’d better turn it on a few hours before so there’s enough water in the hot water tank. I’m upset, but sh*t happens. I already mopped up the water in the kitchen. The plumber will bring a wetvac tomorrow. Along with his drills and pipe cutting equipment. This is all so deja vu. Just two years ago we had a whole new tub installed and they guys retiled the tub, so set up a tile cutting machine outside. I stayed home for three days while they were in and out, and I took showers in the front house, which was vacant at the time. Ho Ho Ho. Anward said he’d probably have to raise the rent. This was after I’d already let him know I’ve been here for 12 years and he’s the third owner to come and go. I told him he had to do what he had to do, but I was broke, and didn’t want to have to move until Joel died. (My roommate and I actually joke about his cancer. It’s about all you can do) As he left, I told him to forget about landscaping. It sounds as if re plumbing my whole house, which is basically what they have to do, since the existing pipes are galvanized and not copper, and are embedded in the concrete floor of the house, cost quite enough. I mentioned that Anward was still smiling. “I’m sorry for your inconvenience.” He told me. “I’m sorry you just buy the place, and then it starts to fall apart.” I rejoindered. “And you’re still smiling.” I added. “I don’t feel too good myself. If you have to raise the rent, it’ll be because of the new plumbing, don’t worry about new shrubbery.”

  
  

  Well, at least the beer is cold. The electricity still works. (Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it.)

  • 8:03 am
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