Observations

[larryJ]

I have been lax in reading and posting lately.  However, on my favorite subject of car chases, there was one Thursday night.  This took place in a mobile home place in El Monte not far from me.  I watched as this guy drove up and down the streets of a huge mobile home park.  The cops weren't chasing him as he just drove in circles around the park.  After a while it occurred to me that the cops probably had sealed off any entrances.  At three different places spike strips were put our and he ran over them.  Spike strips are designed to flatten the tires.  But he kept going.  How did it end?

One front tire eventually came off the rim and he stopped and was arrested.

On another subject.......Father's Day.  I have never wanted to celebrate that day.  I am a good father and grandfather.  When my family gets together to celebrate a birthday or holiday I look at all of them and say to myself "None of you would exist if it wasn't for me."  I am very proud of that.  That pride is all I need to feel important as a father.  Yesterday my daughter called to ask what I wanted to do for Father's Day.  I told her that I didn't consider it important enough to go out to dinner or celebrate in any way.  She said to me........"None of us would exist if it wasn't for you." 

Smart kid.

Larryj

[larryJ]

Here in SoCal, more specifically Los Angeles County, there are area that are known as "county islands".  These are areas that have not been annexed by a nearby city.  It is still a big suburban area.  When I moved in here in 1975 this was in one of those county islands.  A year or so later this area was annexed by the city of Covina.  At that time that was important as we went from County Fire and Sheriff Services to City services.  Over the years this has changed back and forth from one to the other as far as these services go.  When we bought our house we noticed the rail road tracks running through the neighborhood.  The Realtor assured us that the tracks were no longer in use.  This too changed when the local transit system decided to use those tracks for the Metrolink train service.  This is not a problem for us as we are a block away from the tracks.  I say all this to set you up for the following.......

First, fireworks are illegal in the City of Covina.  They are allowed in the county area.  Just across the tracks there is a guy who lives a one of those county areas and spent a small fortune on fireworks.  He began setting a few off every evening about three weeks ago and ended with a fireworks display last night that rivaled any commercial show around.  I can't imagine the thousands of dollars he spent just on fireworks.

Then we had the excitement of a magnitude 6.4 earthquake about 150 miles or so from us.  That size will shake you pretty good if you live near the epicenter.  For us the house made a small creaking noise and I felt my chair shake a little. 

And last Friday our central air system decided it was just too hot of a day to actually work.  I called on Monday to my favorite A/C company and they came right out.  After inspecting our nearly 20 year old system they determined it was dead and we needed a new one.  This is the second air conditioner we have had in a period of 44 years.  The first one we got cost about $4000 and this one will run about $8000 and is being installed as I sit here.  They say you can learn something new every day.  As we stood at the front door we watched the truck with the crane back into our driveway.  The operator began putting out stabilizing jacks by the front tires and back tires.  Once he did that he raised the truck about 8 inches off the ground.  At this point we asked why they did that and we were told that the crane itself plus the weight of the new A/C unit would tip the truck over.

So I learned something new today.  They say we will have cooling by mid-afternoon. 

Yeah!

And our son and family began a two week vacation today by leaving a car parked here at our house.  They are off to Chicago for a business meeting and then renting a car and driving to Cleveland to attend the All Star Game, on to Cooperstown New York to visit the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.  A stop at Niagara Falls and onto Maine where there is a company that is involved with one of his clients.  Back to Boston and a flight home.  I envy him.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

I was thinking about you when we heard about all your rockin' and rollin' out there. I'm glad to hear it didn't spill your nice cold glass of iced tea. HA!  We had our first tomatoes on Thursday and some nice green peppers too. It's too hot here, but we're doing Ok with it so far.
I've picked up an irregular heart beat and have a cardiac ultrasound on Monday to see if it's nothing or something. We'll see. Stay cool!

[larryJ]

Shake, rattle and roll!!!!!!!!  The one on Thursday morning was called a earthquake at the time.  After last night's 7.1 it is being called a fore shock!  The one on Thursday I barely noticed.  The one last night got my attention.  I had installed ceiling fans in all the rooms in this house.  Where I sit in the living room is close to but not directly under a ceiling fan.  When we have a quake I look immediately at the pull chains on the fan and see if they are moving.  Last night I didn't have to look.  I heard the house make a creaking noise and felt the rolling motion.  The pull chains were swaying back and forth. 

Quakes are measured on the Richter scale.  Thursday was measured at 6.4.  Last night it was a 7.1.  That means last nights was almost ten times stronger than Thursdays. 

On the bright side the A/C company came yesterday and put in the new A/C and we are cool now.

Whee!

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Perhaps more to come? We get little bitty ones here too, but usually we don't feel them. That one we felt several years ago was a 5. something and did some damage, but not near here and closed the Washington Monument for quite a while. I can deal with our hurricanes and little 0 tornados... had one flip a car yesterday and do some damage not too far away in PA yesterday. It was near a friend's house at the building where her daughter works, but being a Sunday she wasn't there. The security camera caught the car flip ove,r so we got to see it. scary.  Now real earthquakes scare me to death!  We have more thunderstorms predicted for early evening. We'll see what happens this time.

[Dignified Redneck]

 I have failed miserably as a cousin of Larry Jordan. I learned today that he passed away in November of 2019. Just thought those who liked his posts would also like to know. Today was his birthday and I found out through a post on Facebook by his daughter. I had thought a couple of times that he hadn't posted lately but got busy with life and never followed up. I also put his not posting to his health problems and didn't really worry about it. He suffered with COPD for a long time. His humor will be missed. I have been told that his humor was in line with the Andrews side of my family tree. Hugs, Larry!!!! Hope you and my dad are revisiting your childhood shenanigans.  Love, Deb