Taking One's Time

It's August.  I live in a tourist destination and we are full up! While trying to navigate the area today, I doped off, becoming ensnared  in a line of tourist traffic forcing me to drive very sloowwly down the main "business route" through town. After 14 years in the mountains, I'm still an impatient driver.  It no doubt stems from my SoCal upbringing where "Hurry up and wait" is the driver's motto.  Rarely, however, does bumper to bumper LA traffic afford one a view of anything interesting other than the guy next to you talking on his cell or worse, picking his nose. Here, it's a sensory experience.

Today, I found myself looking in store windows, artfully displayed for summer visitors. I saw people eating al fresco, enjoying their food and the beautiful weather. I saw bicyclists, joggers, dog walkers, park sitters, moms pushing strollers, old folks, youngins and everything in between. I noticed our lovely independent book store had a new coat of paint; that a small retailer had expanded, we have more new hair salons, we have less real estate offices.

I noticed the summer flowers planted by the Garden Club in and around major traffic crossroads.  The green spaces were green with granite benches for sitting.  There were water fountains, here and there, reminiscent of horse troughs but made of granite.  Everything is made of granite because it is, after all, "the Granite State".

I thought of all the years I'd waited in traffic, to and from the Valley to L.A.; to and from Richmond to D.C.; in and out of major cities while on business.  I thought of the many hours of pleasurable car trips my husband and children have taken over the years up and down the coast to see my parents in their central coastal community of CA.  The coastline from Ventura County north is always beautiful.  It never gets old.

But I digress.  Here is a two minute video of where I live, produced by the people with whom I work.  Stop what you're doing and take time to watch.  You'll be glad you did.

Theme Thursday: Traffic

Peak Traffic on the 405  Santa Monica Fwy in LA  (Dwell Magazine 6-04-09)

As I sit here watching the Los Angeles Dodgers fold up like a suitcase against the Phillies during Game 5 of the NLCS, I'm thinkin',

  "Well crap!  I was born and raised in LA.  What don't I know about traffic?"

I spent many happy and unhappy hours on the freeways of Los Angeles, zooming along in the Sixties when the city was relatively uncrowded and crawling along in the Seventies as I drove from my first married domicile in Woodland Hills to a job on Wilshire Blvd.  It was only 24 miles but it was a guaranteed hour in the morning and 1 1/2 hours home,  if I was lucky.  We relied on the big AM radio stations to give us the freeway updates so we could try and go the fastest route, be it surface streets, through the hills, or even along Pacific Coast Hwy known as PCH to the locals.

During my senior year in high school and my first two years in college, I worked for my father during summer break.   Our family home was also in Woodland Hills.  His office was on Hollywood & Vine.  He taught me the ins and outs of driving the freeways, often keeping to the slow lane because, as he explained, so many cars got off and on you could actually move more quickly.    If there was an accident alert on the radio, he'd take Ventura Blvd. into North Hollywood and pick up the freeway.  Sometimes we'd drive over Laurel or Coldwater Canyons into the West Hollywood side, then east to his office. 

Dad's office building is still there.  It's a landmark from an earlier time.  My memories are sweet.  I grew up in a magical time, in a city where everything really seemed golden.  I learned to drive in the toughest traffic city in America.  I am not always a good driver but I can negotiate in traffic and I do drive defensively.  That is the secret.  Always drive as if the other guy is going to make a mistake... not in your favor.

As the DJs might have said, once upon a time, "Time for a musical interlude from one of our favorite performers..."

Nobody does it better than JT.


This just came to me and, since no one else has it up, I'm posting. A true classic!