An Aerial Tour of the SOCCCD

My sister, Annie, said, "You ever go on Google Earth?" I hadn't.

So yesterday I downloaded it and then fired it up. It's very cool, if you ask me (leaving aside some admittedly profound privacy issues). After a couple of minutes, I was swooping up and down the mountains. You know how I am about our local mountains.

So, today, I made a little "aerial tour" of our district. It starts off with a little Santa Ana Mountains action, but then it shoots down to San Clemente (which is served by the SOCCCD), then up the coast to Laguna Beach. Next, we zoom up Laguna Canyon and then over the San Joaquin Hills to Irvine Valley College in Irvine.

Next, it's down Saddleback Valley to Saddleback College in Mission Viejo. Then we shoot on over to Tustin for a glimpse of ATEP. Then it's off to the coast again, from Newport Beach down to Dana Point and then over the channel to Santa Catalina Island.

I know, I know. Catalina has nothing to do with our district. But I just love those islands, boy.

Lemme know how you like this.

Rebel Girl's Poetry Corner: "the day ahead was there"

     In celebration of her 25 years with Red Emma, Rebel Girl offers this C.D. Wright poem which appeared in December 15, 2008 edition of The Nation: 

Unconditional Love Song 

Later she would remember it started to pour

the storm blew everything out 

before the coffee finished its brew 

and she could finish reading a report

on some boys holed up in a derelict house 

after stoning a swan to death 

she wrapped her head in a towel

and sat down by the open window 

even though the sound of the river was not there 

the memory of the sound was 

even though her husband did not appear in the door 

talking to her about the day ahead 

the day ahead was there

 

(Photo taken by their little fella, somewhere 

in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden.)

Textbook costs—and buying online

In this morning’s Inside Higher Ed:

Students at the State University of New York and City University of New York could save nearly 40 percent on textbooks by buying them online instead of at campus bookstores, according to a new report by Thomas P. DiNapoli, comptroller of New York State. Over the course of a year, those savings would make up most of a tuition increase just announced by SUNY, DiNapoli said.

In many cases, DiNapoli said that students are unable to benefit from these savings because professors don’t provide information about books early enough to allow for comparison shopping and online ordering.

One reason for the high cost of textbooks at some college campuses—e.g., at Irvine Valley and Saddleback colleges—is the cut that student government takes when books are sold through the college bookstore.

Some of our trustees have grumbled about this situation—and other ways in which, allegedly, student government takes funds but does not effectively benefit students—for years.

I’m afraid I've got to agree with ‘em. Student leaders would be wise to police themselves in this regard. If not, student government stands to lose bigtime.

Some faculty have told me that they already urge their students to buy their textbooks online.

MEANWHILE, scientists seem pleased with President-elect Obama's choices of science advisors. On Friday, physicist Bob Park opined:

His choices have one thing in common: they are as different as they could be from those they will replace. Science is emerging, somewhat shaken, from the most secret presidency in our history. The success and credibility of science are anchored in the willingness of scientists to openly expose their ideas and results to challenge by other scientists. Just before Christmas, Obama tapped Harold Varmus and Eric Lander to head the President's Council of Science Advisors, a task they will share with John Holdren. According to the NY Times, Obama pledges to listen to their advice "especially when it is inconvenient." Varmus, who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Michael Bishop for their discovery of the origin of retroviral oncogenes, resigned as head of NIH early in the Bush presidency to concentrate on the open-access system for scientific papers. He believes that scientists should have control over the dissemination of their research rather than journal editors. The culture of openness is perhaps the most important discovery of science. 

Governments should try it.

North County: the greatest flood hazard west of the Mississippi?

It's amazing how you can live somewhere for decades and not know some of the most basic things about it. 

Take geography. How many of us in "the OC" realize that, geographically, our county comprises part of a mountain range and two valleys? (Click on the map to enlarge it.)

Yep. Naturally, there are the Santa Ana Mountains—home to Silverado, Modjeska, and Trabuco canyons, among others—which come up from San Diego County and end with the Peralta Hills in the tiny city of Olive. That's a nice little town. Still has some old buildings. It was founded in 1812!



North of the Santa Anas, the Santa Ana River flows (ultimately from San Gorgonio Mt., 11,499 feet) westward past Corona, through Santa Ana Canyon to Anaheim and then southward, through Santa Ana Valley, to the ocean on the border between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.

Naturally, on the south side of the Santa Anas, there's Saddleback Valley, which extends more or less from Lake Forest down to San Juan Capistrano. "Saddleback," as most of you know, is a reference to the appearance of the Santa Anas, which, in OC, are dominated by two peaks (Modjeska Pk. and Santiago Pk.), which from a distance look, well, like the back of a saddle.


Those hills just northeast of Irvine are called the "Loma Ridge," which is the portion of the Santa Anas set off by Santiago Creek, which starts in Modjeska Canyon and runs northwest to Villa Park and then to the Santa Ana River.

Here's something I'll bet you didn't know: according to Wikipedia, the Santa Ana Valley, site of such cities as Anaheim and Santa Ana, is a highly worrisome flood zone (See Register graphic (pdf):

[T]he Santa Ana River is prone to flooding in wet seasons. The Army Corps of Engineers considers it to be the greatest flood hazard west of the Mississippi River. It produced devastating floods in 1862, 1938, and 1969.

The 1938 flood was caused by heavy rains in the area that started on February 27, 1938. The river spilled over its banks on March 3, sweeping away cars, homes, and bridges, including Pacific Coast Highway. A total of 2000 people were left homeless and 19 people perished. As a result of this flood, the Prado Dam was built near Corona in 1941. Officials in Orange County felt further protection was needed. The Seven Oaks Dam was completed in 1999, located a few miles north of Redlands.

In early 2005, Southern California experienced one of its wettest periods in recent history, which placed unusual stress on the Santa Ana River system. Prado Dam, which was under construction for expansion at the time, seeped water, and residents of the local communities of Corona and Yorba Linda were evacuated as a precaution. The dam was damaged, but there was no major flooding as a result, and evacuated people were soon allowed to return.

The flood of '38.

SEE ALSO

• The Flood of 1938, part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

SEE:

So Cal Tsunamis?

"Professor" Rueben Martinez at Chapman U

You’ll recall that, owing to the efforts of one or two faculty (especially Rebel Girl), MacArthur award winner Rueben Martinez was selected as Irvine Valley College’s 2008 commencement speaker. His address was well received.

Today, we learn that Martinez has become a presidential fellow at Chapman U. Starting next month, he’ll be responsible for recruitment of “first-generation” Latino students:

Chapman University selects MacArthur award winner Rueben Martinez to recruit first-generation college students, especially Latinos.

...University administrators said the fellowship is part of a twofold strategy of boosting its science enrollment while more aggressively recruiting students from such central Orange County communities as Santa Ana, Anaheim and Orange -- where the 6,000-student campus is located.

Martinez said that during his visits to high schools, he likes to conduct one-on-one interviews with rapid-fire questions to find out about students' interests and determine how serious they are about pursuing their education.

"What I tell these kids today is that a college degree can be a reality," he said. "I tell them: 'If you don't like high school you're going to dig college, man.' "

After cutting hair for decades, Martinez began selling books out of his barbershop in 1993, and he later moved into a storefront on downtown Santa Ana's Main Street. His shop, Libreria Martinez, has become a pillar of the Latino literary community.

Martinez was thrust into the national spotlight in 2004 when the MacArthur Foundation awarded him a $500,000 fellowship for promoting literacy. The unrestricted money, spread out over five years, has gone to start a nonprofit group that offers after-school classes and tutoring as well as paying some of his bookstore's bills….

From Rose Canyon, near Trabuco Canyon

Rose Canyon is very near Trabuco Canyon, which is very near Live Oak Canyon/Lambrose Canyon. These are beautiful places.

As we drove up Rose Canyon, we could see the ocean and even Santa Catalina Island in the distance. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge. Catalina Island is the greenish land on the horizon.

It sure was a beautiful day.

This was the happiest horse we've ever seen. He kept runnin' around and jumping in the air. We watched him for quite a while.

DISSENT the BLOG's "year in review" slide show (part 1)

Special thanks to Jason (aka 13 Stoploss) for his excellent weird-assed black and white Holga photos. —And to clarinet God Sidney Bechet.

The images:

Some “posters.” Pretty Mickey Mouse, I guess.

Some random board meeting photos, and then one of Mr. Goo, hurtling toward Saddleback College like a meteor (where he will become a particularly ugly and toxic meteorite).

Then a transition from Tom’s antebellum prayerfulness to Reverend Warren’s rise and the whole gay marriage thing—including cool photos (by Jason) of fire ‘n’ brimstone colliding with wide-eyed studentry at IVC.

Raghu falls asleep during a meeting; then we encounter images of Tom’s reelection campaign, which, predictably, relied on deceptions and a fine deployment of “suppressed evidence” sophistry. God thinks that’s cool, evidently.

Naturally, reflection on Mr. Fuentes reminds me of Richard Hofstadter’s Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. Then it’s off to Bliss and Inmon’s ill-fated trustee campaign. We see those two at a political function in San Juan Capistrano where Richard Nixon used to eat Mexican and tell racist jokes.

Then some more-or-less random images, including Lisa A.D. presiding over a meeting of the Intergalactic Society at Waters.

Then, naturally, some pics of the Saddleback College Accreditation task force (or whatever) reporting to, well, essentially no one. I detected an echo in the room.

Then, for no particular reason, some images of the IVC Reading Program’s “coming out” party. Well, no, not coming out, but they did move into cool new digs with the help of lots of friends, including the Academic Senate crowd.

Next, some images of new buildings at IVC, including the PAC and the “Beefsteak” building—but no Humanities Building, and we’re still wondering why. (A merely rhetorical wondering.)

Here at DtB, we support veterans, and so I’ve provided a few pics of IVC’s fine Veterans Day event, including a nice shot of the always-stylish Dianne taking a snap at less-than-stylish bigwigs.

More quantum randomness followed by shots of one of many fine live music events, this one at IVC.

The great Sidney Bechet finishes his first set just as images of Beatrice’s elegant party for new faculty grace the screen.

Sidney comes in with set #2 amid photos of Tom Fuentes. Next, it's cookies and Lisa and David’s celebrated cookie soirée, which proved once again that the college hoi polloi are so starved for genuine gemütlichkeit that even the meager prospect of free cookies in A200’s Soviet-era “faculty lounge” attracts thousands. Well, dozens, anyway.

Next: the marvelous and era-defining “shoe throwing” incident, transposed to the SOCCCD. This is followed by the inevitable shots of Alcatraz Island.

Next: IVC Commencement, Peter’s party, then wintry scenes.

Related:

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE RICK WARREN SCANDAL GETS WEIRD (OC Weekly/Matt Coker):

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow has today's best assessment of the Rick Warren-Barack Obama invocation dust up: "Not only is it getting worse, it's getting weirder."

Yesterday, there was Pastor Wiley Drake of First Baptist Church in Buena Park demonizing Warren's participation in the Jan. 20 inauguration of our "evil illegal alien" president-elect, saying God will punish Drake's fellow Southern Baptist preacher Warren.

[W]e have this from Internet evangelist Pastor Bill Keller:

"For Pastor Rick Warren to bless and give the invocation at the upcoming inauguration for a man who will help ensure millions of babies around the world are slaughtered—and force U.S. taxpayers to fund this legalized infanticide—is no different than if Adolf Hitler had asked Warren to give the blessing and invocation when he became Chancellor of Germany."
…
Maddow believes the controversy would have subsided before such silliness could take root had Saddleback Church pastor Warren simply kept his own mouth shut….

"It's open season on conservatives and people of faith," argues an Augusta (GA) Chronicle editorial lumping the invocation controversy in with a fire that was set to Sarah Palin's church in Wasilla, Alaska.
…
In still more weirdness, a columnist in the Black Chronicle of Oklahoma City, OK, contends Obama is trying to make Warren his Booker T. Washington….

Finally, music for a dreary day:
Cowboy Junkies' "Sweet Jane"

Heavenly wine and roses
Seem to whisper to me
When you smile

'twas the night before Christmas...

What Tiger-Ann the cat sees (in the dark)

A cat is a cat, oh brat, oh brat. Tiger-Ann somehow got outside and checked things out on this cold, dark, lurid night. She was being very bad. 

She looked over to her favorite eucalyptus tree. Should she run over there and play?

She looked back at the house. It looked pretty spooky.

She thought she saw a ghost wearing sandals.

When I came out to catch her, she became peevish or worse. She imagined lightning hitting the tree above my head.

Cats are very bratty, boy. Even the best of them.

Mazzy Star (on a gloomy day)

"Fade Into You" (LIVE)

I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You'll come apart and you'll go black
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what's not there.

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

A stranger's light comes on slowly
A stranger's heart without a home
You put your hands into your head
And then smiles cover your heart

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it's strange you never knew
I think it's strange you never knew

"Into Dust"

A return to free inquiry: Obama’s radio address

“...[P]romoting science isn’t just about providing resources — it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.”

It was 20 years ago today... (Rebel Girl)

     Twenty years ago, Rebel Girl and Red Emma first headed south into Baja, borrowing a friend's car and another friend's travel guide (what friends!). They fell in love with a part of Mexico that many find unlovable (the desert! The Sea of Cortez!) and have returned every year except for this one. 

     This year finds them at home, unnerved by the brutal violence along the border, unwilling to be Americans who drive past other people's tragedies on their way to their own good time. They usually leave on Solstice, the shortest day of the year. 

     Rebel Girl can't remember if that was true for that first trip twenty years ago. She expects it might be. All she knows is that when they left, they knew about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. So they left on or shortly after December 21, 1988 and returned sometime after the new year, covered in dust and sunburnt. 

     They hadn't followed the news very much, hadn't thought about the bombing except in the way that you do about such events, a distant awareness of someone else's heartbreak. So when they returned and found out that Liz Marek, fellow activist and friend had been on board the flight, there was shock. 

     Liz was an activist of some standing in the LA area, a veteran of the so-called Great Peace March across that country and of many Nevada Test Site actions, a charismatic lead singer in a lesbian rock band and general all-round good person. 

     Liz, working for a non-profit housing agency, had been instrumental in helping Red and Reb and their roommates obtain an apartment after their eviction from their home (long story). Liz had once complimented Rebel Girl on her design of a banner for a Test Site demonstration even though Rebel Girl now understands that Liz was only being kind. 

     Rebel Girl was on her knees painting it in the sanctuary of the Church in Ocean Park (some church!). Liz had stopped by on her way to a meeting. The banner was wincingly raw and earnest and the memory of it still possesses the power to embarrass Rebel Girl: "The Patriarchy Stops Here," it read, with an angry pregnant woman, her womb filled with a mushroom cloud, pushing back at the lettering. 

     Rebel Girl still remembers how Liz could belt out her band's version of "Devil in a Blue Dress" (she sang it as "Big Dyke in a Blue Dress"). 

     Back then, she admired the courage, humor and vision of activists like Liz – they had fun at the same time they did good works. She wanted to be like them: gutsy, justice-loving good people. 

     Liz had been sitting in seat 36 C of the Pan Am flight, traveling with a friend, having got cheap seats for a holiday trip to England. She was 30 years old. 

     The obituaries all identified her as an actress and peace activist.

      Later, when Liz's memorial was held at the Church in Ocean Park, Rebel Girl couldn't look into the faces of Liz's family, of her mother; their grief was too stark. She concentrated instead on repairing the cake which had suffered some damage in transit. It was white frosting with blue cursive lettering spelling out Liz's name and some other message Rebel Girl can no longer remember, just as she can no longer remember the witty name of Liz's band. So, while people gave eulogies and sang songs, told stories and wept, Rebel Girl repaired the sky blue letters, rejoining the links, restoring the integrity of the final loops of the lowercase "k." She smoothed the frosting, white as a cloud. -RG

My favorite Christmas song

This kills. First recorded, with Phil Spector, in 1963, "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" is performed by Darlene Love live every year on Letterman's show. Check it out:

Darlene Love does “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home):


Love's original recording (with Phil Spector, 1963):


Read about Spector’s classic album, A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector (1963).

See the white dot just to the right of the middle? It's a UFO. I found it (moving) on three of my pics. I have no idea what it is.

Lambrose Canyon, my home. Click on the photo to really see the colors.

Somewhere at the end of Silverado Canyon. Click on this one to enlarge it. Love the detail.

Rescue

An editorial in this morning’s The Observer:

At last, science gets a champion

The decision by Barack Obama to appoint John Holdren as his chief scientific adviser deserves widespread welcome. The Harvard academic and former energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley, commands international respect among physicists, climate experts and other researchers. He is an able scientist and is also a vociferous critic of those who still deny our planet is overheating because of humanity's industrial activities.

Sceptics such as academic Bjørn Lomborg have already been singled out by Holdren for some uncompromising criticism. He accused the late author Michael Crichton of "colossal ignorance and arrogance".


Thus Obama, who takes up office on 20 January, has made it clear through Holdren's appointment that global warming is going to be dealt with robustly by his administration. There is no longer room for doubt. Our planet faces a climate catastrophe of our making. Accepting this point is heartening news for the US—and for the rest of the world which, until now, has looked in vain for strong leadership from America in combating global warming. It was in part the hope of a change in US climate policy that helped give last November's presidential elections such keen global interest.

However, there is more to the elevation of Holdren, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, than the boosting of US climate action. In selecting a scientist of his stature, Obama is signalling clearly that he will be ending policies, introduced by George W Bush, that saw science sidelined and the advice of its practitioners ignored and sometimes distorted by the White House.

Hundreds of instances of political interference in the work of government agency researchers have been recorded over the past eight years, a shameful state of affairs that led to the demoralisation of thousands of US scientists. With Holdren, Obama has indicated this will now be brought to an end.

Xmas in Silverado Canyon.

Another Song for the Season

Gotta love Tom Lehrer - here's one for the season. Please ignore the capitalization errors.

Santa Claus is Coming

Santa arrived this morning, visiting the good boys and girls who live in Modjeska Canyon. He greeted all who gathered at Fire Station #16. Cookies and hot chocolate were served and gifts were given. Residents also contributed to a food and toy drive for the needy. Snow could still be seen on the mountains.

By request, Limber Lou and Mr. Claus.

Bad bully boards on the march

Roughly speaking, the SOCCCD saga is the sad story of a great district thwarted and diminished by an incompetent and dishonest right-wing board.

Lately, that's the Capistrano Unifed School District (CUSD) story too.

Our own initial trouble-making “board majority” emerged in 1996 and was supported by the faculty union, then ruthlessly controlled by a small group of dishonorable schemers.

The Capo district’s “board majority” emerged ten years later. It too had been supported by the faculty union. In that case, the support reflected ignorance more than base realpolitik.

I think.

The initial SOCCCD majority flouted the Brown Act (the Open Meetings law) and got into hot water. Ten years later, so did CUSD’s majority: floutage, then boilage.

The SOCCCD board was clueless and seemingly answerable to no one. They heedlessly invited Holocaust deniers to a forum. They glared through windows at visiting state auditors who were trying to make sense of the district's shaky finances. (See OC Register, 6/13/98.)

A decade later, CUSD trustees were caught rifling through the Superintendent’s desk. Nowadays, they endlessly micromanage and second guess administrators’ decisions. (See below.)

Both boards have made their districts a laughingstock.

And both have the support of Education Alliance (EA), Tustin’s right-wing, union-hating, kid-spanking “back to basics” organization. (For SOCCCD, that started in 1998.)

SOCCCD board President Don Wagner is on EA’s board.


When the CUSD faculty union got wise to the EA connection, they ceased supporting the new “reform” trustees.

At SOCCCD, faculty actually had to fight for two years to wrest control of their union from its corrupt leadership. (As Interim President of IVC, Raghu Mathur secretly addressed the CTA investigative team to defend union leadership, of which, months earlier, he had been an integral part. Remember?)

* * * * *

Well, here’s the latest. It concerns the CUSD crew. The OC Register (Was Capo superintendent supposed to be fired?) reports that

A contentious, 4-1/2-hour Capistrano Unified school board meeting that focused solely on whether Superintendent A. Woodrow Carter was to be fired Thursday has cast an even darker cloud of uncertainty over the beleaguered school district and starkly illuminated the tension among trustees increasingly at odds with their schools chief.
…
But the emotionally charged meeting also provided a candid snapshot of just how badly interpersonal relations have deteriorated among teachers, administrators, trustees and parents in the 52,000-student district – and offers a compelling explanation for why nearly all 250 people at the meeting, including Carter himself, truly seemed convinced the board intended to fire him.

"With a sense of regret and bewilderment, I stand before this audience awaiting my fate in closed session, which almost assuredly spells my removal from this district," Carter said at the start of a 10-minute speech, setting the tone for the rest of the protracted meeting.
…
"No matter what the vote is today, you have created a hostile work environment that no single administrator in this district can endure," he said. "The unbearable stress that you create in the daily course of our duties is unlawful, and I have repeatedly reminded Trustee Addonizio that these actions deteriorate working conditions and ruin morale of this entire 4,500-person [sic] district, but to no avail."

One of Capistrano's senior district administrators, in an unusual and candid speech defending Carter to the school board, echoed those sentiments.

"Morale is terribly low," said Sherine Smith, deputy superintendent for education. "Now is not the time to add more instability to our district. … He is competent, capable and a proven leader."

Shoelaces, loafers, and tomatoes

1. SHOELACED?

Over on the College Life blog, Marla Jo Fisher has the latest on Marlon Martinez, who stands accused of murdering former UCI professor Lindon Barrett (Man accused of strangling professor will stand trial).

Evidently, Barrett was strangled with a shoelace. Martinez' case will soon go to trial.

2. MORE LOAFERS.

The Oakland Tribune reports on anti-war activists who have taken to brandishing shoes in support of the Iraqi who recently pelted the President with his loafers (Anti-war activists hold shoe-in at Marine recruiting station to show solidarity with Iraqi journalist):

CodePINK anti-war activists marched in front of the U.S. Marine recruiting station in Berkeley on Wednesday to support an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush on Sunday.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who hurled two size-10 loafers at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad.
…
Melanie Morgan, the head of Move America Forward, a pro-troop organization, said CodePINK's protest Wednesday was "on par for their insulting and demeaning activism."

"They are always siding with the forces that are against America," she said….

3. UNIVERSITY PREZ BOB KERRY CHASED AND PELTED.

The New York Times (Protest at the New School Turns Unruly) reports that

Protests at The New School, where a student uprising over the leadership of the university’s president, Bob Kerrey, led to clashes with the police and at least one arrest on Thursday morning, took another wild turn later in the day.

A little after 11:30 p.m., Mr. Kerrey emerged from a university building … to a sea of a few hundred protesters chanting for his resignation. As Mr. Kerrey walked down Fifth Avenue toward 12th Street, about 30 protesters began following him, some of them shouting insults.

As the crowd’s pace quickened, so did Mr. Kerrey’s. Then, Mr. Kerrey, who lost a part of his leg in Vietnam and wears a prosthesis, broke into a run. The protesters gave chase. Mr. Kerrey turned left on a cross street and ducked into a brownstone.

At some point in the confrontation, a protester threw a tomato at Mr. Kerrey….

This morning in Silverado Canyon

I live in Live Oak Canyon, near Trabuco Canyon. Today, I decided to head on over to Silverado Canyon, hoping to see some snow. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Sure enough, at the end of the canyon, there's a turnaround, and a Channel 7 Eyewitness News truck was there. The "crew" was a solitary driver/camera operator. He was on snow patrol, filming kids and moms romping in the stuff. He looked pretty jaded.

There was a dog, too.

My sister is on the market for a home in one of these canyons, but she hates these little side roads. They're too narrow, too steep, she says. I love 'em. Even in my big ol' Chrysler 300, I love 'em to pieces.

I love to take my sister up the steepest and narrowest roads. She covers her eyes.

Yesterday, I had to back up on one of these roads. I did it fast.

My sister said, "You drive backwards as fast as you drive forwards!"

"No, faster," I said. She freaked.

Did I mention that I got my last speeding ticket while driving home from traffic school?

The canyons are pretty sleepy, mostly. —And muddy, right now.

I forgot how cold snow is. It's great to look at, but that's about it. You don't actually want to touch it, unless you're a kid. 

Ah, but prudence is but experience, which equal time equally bestows on all men. Or so said Hobbes. 

I have my doubts. I saw that asshole George W. Bush frolicking in the snow once. He was grabbing handfuls of the stuff, and he was smiling. 

Dolt.

I took lots of pics, but these are the ones Annie picked out. She's an artist, and so I value her judgment.

About pics.

Naturally, this isn't Silverado Canyon. I took these pics driving into the college this morning on the toll road. See the orange balloon of Irvine's "Great Park" at the bottom? It didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Driving down Alton. Love that snow. To look at. Not to touch.

As I composed this post, Tiger Ann got in my way, insisting on sitting between me and my Mac's keyboard. So I decided to take a picture of the brat. You can kinda see her brattiness.

That Tiger Ann reminds me of those Hollywood glamor babes of the 30s, 40s, and 50s—you know: Marlene Dietrich, Merle Oberon, et al. She knows how to pose for a picture, boy. Rebel Girl's the same way.