Little fragile people

My little mom had a stroke on Easter Sunday. She had been weak and not taking good care of herself for a few years. In November, 2009, when I was preparing to go to Cuba, she finally agreed to have someone come and cook for her and take care of her for a few hours and days a week. That was a hard bargain to make with her!

In 2006 - the last time I had to put her in the hospital, after her hospital stay, she did not want to live closer to me. She did not want help. She wanted to be alone. And she did not want to do much of anything except to watch TV. In 2006, I called her (I call her everyday) and when she spoke, she slurred her words. I asked her if she had been drinking enough water and she said, no. I thought she sounded so bad was because dehydration is very serious for older people in hot summer days... But, maybe, she had a stroke then. She never really recovered her strength to walk well.

This time, April 4, she called me in the morning to say she thought she was having a stroke. I drove to her house and called the paramedics to meet me at her house. They carried her down the 43 steps so that I could take her to the hospital... My mom's car has been sitting with dust and leaves since 2006 - I turn it over now and then - even drive it a bit. I suggested that she not drive in 2006 because her reflexes were so slow... I thought maybe I could take my mom to an open parking lot somewhere, like parents do to teach their kids to drive... to see if she could drive it... but that never happened. "Nice car" said one of the paramedics. "It only has 9k miles" my mom said, "but my daughter won't let me drive it!" They looked at me and smiled.

When we got to hospital she could still move her arm and leg and could talk. But, the next morning, she had a full blown stroke and lost the function of her right side. She now has a hard time speaking. And she hates the feeding tube (she aspirated her food and developed pneumonia the first week) and has pulled it out several times.

Last week she has asked me to take her home... "Let's get out of here!" "I am going to get up!" "Take these (the tubes and sensors on and in her arm) OUT!" Then last Monday she looked at her right arm that was swollen from edema "Oh my!...." I think something dawned on her that something was wrong. I noticed that she used her left arm exclusively but never looked at her right arm. Then, yesterday the nurse asked her if she could lift or move her right arm. "YES!" The arm did not move. She did not realize it did not move. Then the nurse pinched her arm and she said "OUCH!" That is a good sign that she might get function back. Her right leg did move when the nurse asked her to move it. that, too, is a good sign.

My mom has spent the time from 2006 to now basically watching TV. When I visit her, her eyes do no meet mine when we... no, when I talk. TV captures her time.

Yesterday, the TV was on to a regular program rather then the pretty nature photos offered by the hospital. The nurse asked her to look at her when she spoke to her.... "What year is it?" "2010" "Good!" "What month is it?" "..uh..." eyes back to the TV "...uh.." The nurse said, "Look at me. It is April." "Where are you?" "...uh...' eyes wandered toward the TV.... "I don't know" "You are in the hospital. Do you know why?" asked the nurse. "No!" She looked at me. "You had a stroke." said the nurse.

The pretty pictures allowed my mom to converse with the nursing staff and me. The programs took her attention away and she did not talk or look at people. Talking and connecting is important for her recovery.

Poor little people....

Herding Cats - That is what it is like pulling folks together

.... Pullin' folks together to do something like cleaning a River....

This is one of my favorite spots....

Enjoy

What the San Gabriel Mountains Look like w/out Buildings

This image was stitched and smoothed (sky only) from 6 photos taken on the top of the ridge of the Whittier Narrows Dam. The sky was breathtaking. Most of the buildings and the cities that fill the Valley from the Natural Area to the Foothills were obscured by the vegetation in the Natural Area and in the Flood Zone (Liquefaction Zone) of the Whittier Narrows.

This is where I was standing... on top of the dam which has been paved for bicycles....

See that Edison tower in the middle of the picture? .... I was to the right of it... The street is Rosemeade Boulevard (19).

This is what it looks like after a rain INSIDE of the dam..... (sure is a good thing there is a Dam there.... because... well, I will show you in a bit...)

There is a whole community RIGHT UNDERNEATH THE DAM!

If anything should compromise the Dam these people would be in danger.

Route 19 is where I was standing when I took the panorama shot. The Whittier Narrows Dam is what is between a lot of people and their homes and their families AND a lot of water.

Better, that the Flood Plain not be tampered with, don't ya think?

Whittier Narrows Trash Bolus - the Dam of the Forgotten River

Ed Barajas is the 'birder' who has documented the Federally Endangered birds in the Whittier Narrows. He has been documenting when the birds come in and when they nest and when they leave, for 10 years. The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation which is part of the Los Angeles County Public Works collects Ed's work for their records of the Endangered animals in their jurisdiction. It is also the County's job to clean up the trash.

This years rain brought more then the usual trash - it brought tons of plastic and balls. It has filled the area behind the Whittier Narrows Dam - as usual, but his year it has spilled over the dam and into San Gabriel River where people boat and fish.

The Whittier Narrows Dam next to the Whittier Narrows Nature Center is halfway down the San Gabriel River - between the mountains and the ocean.

Trash in the San Gabriel River

Go here for Whittier Narrows Dam trash photos...

Visited Russ last week... They loves my shoes.

We drove up to Davis in Russ's car. Going over the 5 Freeway in the Tahachapis Grapevine there was lots of fog.... no, water vapor coming up from the ground. The last few weeks of rain turns to mists and low clouds when the sun warms the soil. The brown hints are from the suspended dirt from the Valley below.

At Russ's apartment I met his cats. Very cute. They loved my shoes and found that my toes without socks had the same flavor. To each their own, I say.

They wanted to show how much fun it was to play in the new boxes and tubes Russ puts in the living room....

They do love Russ very much and they have such sweet temperaments. But, they do want to sleep in all of the places he wants to sit.

When I went home on the train I did some work and then fell asleep.... only to be awakened by something.... seemed like... it was someone saying how beautiful the scenery was...

After all the "oooooos" and "aahhhhhs" and the train rounded the corner... we had a wonderful view of the San Luis Obispo Men's Colony or, Federal Prison. And right next door was the sanitation treatment plant. We could view them both from above.

Don't get me wrong. The prison offers many things to help the men get back to normal after they finish their time. And, the treatment plant is very important. It was just such a contrast. However, about an hour or so before, we went past an area I did find depressing... Housing developments crushed together on plots of once fertile farmland. The homes were on sale for 150K but were first going for 350K over two years ago. There was a TargetCoscoHomeDespotChickenThing monster retail mess and parking lot about 10 miles away. No trains. No busses could be seen. Just lonesome highways connecting the islands of houses perched in an area without real services....

CSPAN.... ???? I can't believe my eyes!

Watch........

Snow makes ALL the difference!

After the hard rain storm two week ago, I drove down to Whittier Narrows to see how things were doing at the Dam. There was water up to the Dam and much was diverted. But, as I was inspecting things, I noticed what surrounded me to the north - mountains of snow.

I love snow. However, I love it somewhere I can look at a distance and where I do not have to wear snow shoes. And I know that that snow is melting into the aquifer for me, my neighbors, and mostly the wild outdoors.

So this is what it looked like. I pieced the images together and did not try to make it look like I shot it with my grandfather's Widelux

Sometimes, things take longer to finish

Okokokokokok! YES! Some things just take longer then I expect them to take. But then again... I think they are better for the extra time. And, I started another painting - it's on the floor beneath the burned trees....

I can hear my grandfather tell me that I should not over work a painting... something he confessed was his 'issue'. He used to ask me whether I thought what I did was an illustration or a 'painting'? There is a difference.

An illustration does NOT hold the same exalted position as a painting. Illustrations contain mostly a singular purpose - to illustrate something that someone has said or written or, to sell something. A painting is more because it must capture more then a photograph ever can, and should have meaning beyond what you first see. And most importantly, a painting must be something that you would like to wake up to in the morning - every morning - and perhaps see something new each day. Can you imagine?

To paint is to do something - as far as my grandfather was concerned - special. And, that not only should it last, visually, but it should move people, emotionally. So, with that haunting my brain, I have not finished these to pieces.... BUT, I think I am close!

It is taking me FOREVER to capture what I see in the water of the estuaries of California. The diatom cover and mixture of algae and fungus - sounds like fun, HUH!? - I think it is getting there... I keep looking at it and seeing more that I should do... I want this piece to say something about all the estuaries I have visited here... sigh. And I have a few insects to add and some fish that tolerate brackish water, just under the surface. The salicornia needs some purple for the time of year, too.

The burned trees are coming along. They are scary in a way. The grasses below them are all non-natives and in the real world, are a problem of our forests that have roads - we bring the seeds of weeds where ever we go. To see this actual spot up in the San Gabriel Mountains of these burned trees is startling. It is a tough image to begin with let alone to make this work more the just an illustration.

The one artist my grandfather felt was capable of painting a painting in a medium other then the 'royal medium' of oil, was Adrew Wyeth. I agree with my grandfather on this point(we had our differences and discussions). Wyeth's most beautiful work was done in tempera. I think I could look at his paintings forever and see more every day.

Fructose = obesity + diabetes + fatty liver

This is a 'must see' video on the biochemistry of fructose on the body. As Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology points out, fructose is a toxin and is metabolized just like ethanol (which is a toxin) but you don't get the buzz. What you end up with... after eating thousands of meals with high amounts of high fructose corn syrup .... is high blood pressure, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease.... and weight gain.

Anna's acoustic set for new CD

She does some interesting music - that girl of mine!

Strapped for water - you wonder why...?

I have been looking at this issue for a few years. And like everything that is important to protect - we humans neglect because, well, I have yet to understand! I have been thinking that really it has something to do with the 'peacock' in all of us. All show and no 'go'!

The peacock or peafowl is from India. I have read and heard that some Indian tigers used to hunt these birds... not very sporting, I suppose, but maybe it was because they pissed the tigers off. Being all, 'I prettier then YOU!' and 'I don't have to hide from tigers cause I am -THIS BIG-!' or 'I don't have to have a beautiful voice because I look like- voooosh - THIS! NANNY NAH NAH!' ROAR! yummmm.... And like tigers and peacocks - nature get us back.

People liked the birds and revered them. Saw their gods in their feathers and riding on their backs. People did not like tigers. They saw their neighbors and children and farm animals mauled by them. The tiger is now, nearly gone but the peacocks have multiplied and made themselves nuisances in far away places such as in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Now, if only there was a bigger creature out there that would fall in love with humans and their outrageous consumptive aptitudes and our ability to throw up our hands like the peacock and say, 'I didn't do it! It happened all by itself!' But... we don't. We try the peacock thing with each other and some folks fall for it. Most just keep eating.

So. Here we are. In a very serious drought situation. We really do know what to do but, we won't. Agencies like the CIty of Pasadena tell folks to only water their lawns once a week. I don't have a problem with this announcement - but, it is seen by the majority of people as only temporary - to morrow they will turn the streets into Slip-and-slides. Then other folks, who are the Water Problem Deniers say, that it's the water agencies fault and they are only lining their pockets and raising rates because we aren't buying enough water.

Here is a little video of our aquifer - where we store our water in the San Gabriel Valley. It is said this the aquifer under the San Gabriel River supplies only a million people... the water comes from rain and snow melt from the mountains behind it, MWD adds its water (Colorado, Owens, Sacramento Delta), and the rain the permeates the ground directly.

In 2004, we were in the last year of a six year, drought. I flew over the 'Durbin Pit' next to the 605 freeway for the video, Ya Don't Miss the Water (you can watch it by clicking the links on the right). Here is a clip showing the pit. Look at the size of this pit and realize there are several other monstrous pits in the area. The water you see in the pit is actually the top of the water table of the San Gabriel Valley Aquifer. Be aware of the depth by what you see at the sides of the pit.

IN 2005 we had a 100 year storm in the San Gabriel Mountains, which means that the mountains received more rain then on 'average years' and was near the 'record' for rain about 100 years ago. It's not really a very accurate method for measurement, but it is used by various agencies and insurance companies to mark, with a broad stroke, where normal rain fall is to 'more then normal' rain fall. Insurance companies use it to increase your flood insurance if you buy a house in areas deemed in the 50 to 100 year flood zone (delineated by marks left by older storms in soils, vegetation, rocks and/or described by records and finally, by looking the depth of the land to sea level (water flows down stream and pools in depressions).

I have been photographing the river and the mountains and looking for changes. Here is the San Gabriel Dam (north of Morris) following Route 38). TOo see differences check out my older posts.

This is what the San Gabriel Dam looked like November 26 of this year. First, looking north and uphill... Then, look at the next photo from that day and notice the ridges formed by erosion when the water was at higher levels... Can you see the grasses poking up in the center? You can see the bottom of the dam.

And now, here is a video of the Durbin Pit from a ridge looking over into the pit from the north east side...

What all of this says is that now, right now!! this time....we have REALLY created for ourselves a huge pile of doody for ourselves. One that we may not be able to fix or create work-arounds. Not watering our lawns but once a week is a really VERY pathetic reaction to this drought by the water agencies. What we need to do is re-evaluate at how all of us use our water everyday - including corporations that use the water and who decides to expose our aquifer to the air and thereby... increasing the loss of our drinking water by evaporation by the hundreds of acre-feet. (Why people are NOT screaming here is beyond me...) And, we have to re-evaluate how we build our cities here in the West (and other places now that the Locomotive, Climate Change is starting to pull out of the station). We can no longer think we can keep adding to our population without changing where we live and what we live in... no more - everyone gets a house, anymore.

And by the way... as the video ends... notice the size of the cars on the 605 freeway and see the pile of concrete that was used by the PIT DIGGERS to shore of the side of the pit. It will not be long before the 605 Freeway will be driving INTO the pit. The mud pit by then... maybe what? next year?

Inherently Evil about this lady's job

Recently, I have been protecting my mother, who is now, not able to do the book keeping like paying bills or even to read and understand her bills. The Banks and the Telephone Companies are rapping at her door, trying to scam her of her money. Welcome to Amerika!

Here is one gal who stood up against her boss, B of A, and did the humane thing .... watch!

Sketches from Dayton, Ohio

Sometimes, it is just not nice to take a picture... and also, it's wonderful to test your memory and draw what you saw a few days ago....

I flew back to Dayton, Ohio because a friend, mentor and my professor was retiring. Also, I wanted to say 'hello' to two other professors (one emeritus, now) who were also important to me as a human and a scientist.

Getting cheap tickets for flying is a chore.... not the buying but the using. Most of the time the flight is packed and I get the seat that doesn't go back... Horrible, because I can't fit in the seat. My legs rub the chair ahead of me and I usually need to get up and stretch out my body parts after a half an hour or so.

So, here we were, squashed, flying, and now it was time to offer us our dinner hotdogs.... ugh! This poor little stewardess, who at the ripe age of somewhere in her 60s, was having to look the part of the 'cutie' and push that damn cart. She newly had her hair done. The hair was bleached. The eyes were well outlined - perhaps a couple of times. The lips were smeared liberally with bright red goo. Poor little lady. The hair may have been an idea to make her look like she had lots of hair but, it really made her look ... "Bozo-esque". She never looked up at any of us. She just offered the penile formed mystery meat and then took the plastic boxes from our trays.... I hope she finds a day when she doesn't have to do this kind of work...

This is a different story... this is what has happened to Dayton, Ohio. Here is a post from a blog I read all the time.... The conversation began about Verizon attaching bill for unwanted products and 'services'. then someone asked about where does all the money from these big corporate scams.... and I said...

The easy part, really... "Where does the money go?"

Executives in BIG Co.s get many kinds of 'retirement funds'. Many in the millions. We are talking in the tens of funds way back in my day... who knows what they get NOW!!! IT's no longer the stock options any more... it's the 'special' investments' that go to the top few.

I just returned from Dayton - where the husk of NCR remains, to find a community of people either on one side or the other of the money fence. The other, I met trying out their brand new bus hub service - they are hungry. I find it interesting that the majority of long time residents, depending on what ethnicity you are - do not venture into the 'other' part of town. It goes both ways for a reason... I experienced this when I lived there. Anyone with pigmentation in their skin that drove down the Main street (the upper crusties spot) was summarily pulled over and told to go back to 'their' side of town. Now, we are talking about a town that at one time had a couple of million or more people. A town that invited George Carlin because of the 'in-grove' communities....

I don't know what happened, except that most of the big companies left for third world workers, and now after GM Truck division and NCR moving (top executives live in the more 'tony' New York... who don't want to accidently rub anything with the lower crowd). What is left is a Pepsi factory somewhere (I talked to a few folks on the bus about that)... and maybe... ??? I went to Cuba at the end of Nov. and they are hungry (lost 1/3 of their calories after the 'special period' when the USSR took a nose dive)... but, they were working and were obviously not as starved and wild for food as the Dayton lower class.

I did buy a family a month worth's of food in Cuba when I was asked. The mother and daughter dragged me into a tiny grocery store and they piled on the dried milk and soup. The little girl wanted a package of cookies.

We are looking at disasters here in the US>>> It's not just the Rust Belt anymore... I just don't understand those jolly bunch at the top who turn their back on so many.

Scrub jay that sings other songs...

I have several Scrub Jays visiting, begging for peanuts and planting my yard with oak acorns and bits and pieces of their peanuts. Two are very tame and let me sit by them and give them goodies like vanilla yogurt, little bits of dry cat food, meal worms and some of the spiders I catch from under rocks. When I go hunting for something under things they wait patiently for me until I find something to give them.

One of the bireds has taken to sing to me a different song (other then the 'caw'!). I have not heard of a Scrub Jay singing any other song... So, I finally brought out my small camera, small enough so I won't scare him/her. In this video, he first stands on top of my new chicken coop (you can hear them chuck-chucking). Then I talk to him and 'coo' at him to try to encourage him to do his special song. Finally, he sits next to me and sings.... what a wonder!

Oklahoma Anna!

It was fun but too short a visit. I got to paint with my daughter and go to some concerts with her.

Here are two little videos of her one painting away.... the other of her working on one of her band's song - 'Blood Money'.

Back from Cuba

"Wow! Cuba?"

The Society of Wetland Scientists opened up an opportunity to go to Cuba. We would be able to visit the Humedales or Wetlands for a Symposium in Cienaga de Zapata and stay at the Bay of Pigs.

Lots of information to digest culturally about Cuba and the US. The wetlands were extraordinary. Here is a little 'mov' I put together of my photos and video. Enjoy!

OH so very hot, muggy and SMOKEY

Here is the street next to my house and it is around 10 am. The smoke was blowing away from this area by this time of the day and the fires were several miles away and over a ridge of a tall mountain - Mount Wilson.


What I found interesting - this was taken last week - were the memories of how shadows looked like on the ground when I was a kid. During the really bad days of summer, where, at camp we hiked up to Griffith Park, there were never any 'real' shadows on the ground because the smog diffused the light to such a degree. Horrible!



It has been hard to sleep these last two weeks with the air so heavy from smoke and heat and humidity. I remember as a little kid (and up to high school) what it was like to look down the road when LA had the most horrible smog. It looked like the picture above and much worse. Notice the red tinge to the white cement and the odd look to the shadows from the tree just out of frame? That is from the cloud of floating ash that blanketed the San Gabriel Valley.

These pictures remind me of those bad old days, but in these pictures, these would be like the GOOD old days! When it was VERY BAD as a kid in Jr. High, we would go out on the 'play ground' and next door was the Church of Latter Day Saints - the Mormon church which abutted to its rear, Emerson Jr. High. The golden statue, the guy blowing his horn way on top, sometimes when the smog was REALLY BAD, only the pillar could be seen but not the statue above. It would be enshrouded in brown muck! And, after playing outside, our lungs would hurt to take a breath.

I remember the Red Car, because we took it around Hollywood to be with my grandfather and later, so he could look for work. Ted lost his dream to a partner that turned out to be a crook. Ted was so proud of his studio and he was just broken after it was taken from him.

After walking for hours all around Hollywood, we would go to Nick's hot dog stand near Capital Records on Vine Street. Nick would give us hot dogs and hamburgers for free or, we would buy one and he would throw in the rest... he knew we were hungry. Nick used to wave me toward the cash register, and whisper, "...hold out your had..." and he would give me a fist full of candy to tide me over. Nick was Greek - I remember how he talked and laughed... Funny how you remember things. He has been gone many decades but, he must have done a lot for other people on the down-and-out because, no matter who owns the building , the sign, Nick's Place, remains. Nick's hot dog stand was just south of the Capital records building. It's the red sigh.... if you can see it in the link above.

My grandfather knew Glen Wallichs. And after my grandfather built his studio on Yucca and Argyle, and then found Glen was building his Capital Records building he said with a laugh, "... you aren't gong to build so close to me are you?" If you look at the Google Map screen grab below, and then look at this old photo of my grandfather's studio above (he cut out the wood for that sign and the numbers ... he did stuff like that) you will notice that the Capital Record's building was not yet built.


That day when we visited my grandfather before he lost his studio, we took the Red Car. I remember making a connection in front of my grandfather's (I called him Teddy) studio. My grandmother said that the Automobile Club and General Motors wanted to take out the Red Cars, and that this might be the last time will ride it ever again. She said that the companies wanted to take away the ugly electric wires so we can see the big beautiful blue sky. Not soon after the Red Cars were gone and the wires were taken out, my grandmother told me to come out on the porch. "See that line of brown? That is called 'smog' it is getting worse and worse. It will make us sick." If you look at the old photo and compare it to the new one from Google, you can SEE the fuzzyness of the encroaching bad air.

It's truly amazing what and how much we will believe in when companies tell us a bunch of lies and fabrications so they can make billions from our health and lives.

A side note about why my grandfather lost his studio - his partner forged his name on the papers of ownership. He bought the judge, too. He had done this several times, apparently, to other small studios from what my grandmother told me. Then he tried to do this to one of the big studios, like Columbia or...????. The big studio had enough money to hire lawyers to put him away for ever. I guess "Berger" (what I remember of his name) after years of successful theft, he finally found a studio too big to swallow.

My grandfather was hired finally by the Nelsons. He worked on and off for them until Ricky Nelson died. That was a very sad time.

Maybe someday I will turn some of the film Ted shot into video and post it. He was an artist. That is all he wanted to do - his art.

Mugu and it's tigers on the run....

Going to visit the insects on Monday!

I took some time to view some restoration sites in the Central Basin mudflat. The area was scraped of the ice plant last year. Ice plant was planted maybe 40-50 years ago, to protect the sand of open dunes and marsh from erosion... except, the natural plants are far superior and offer the animals that are adapted to Souther California, food and shelter... (Why do people think we can do better then nature?) Now, Disticulus sp. (love that name... reminds me Bugs Bunny), Salicornia virginica, Frankenia salina are coming in and... so are the tigers. They were running and jumping and 'freezing' in mid-spin! They stared me down like the ferocious beings they are!

My work at Mugu has allowed me the chance to follow the various species of Cicindela. One tiger, Cicindela gabbi, was thought to not be at Mugu - too far north of its Mexican home. I found it to be the dominant species in the Central basin at Mugu. But, as I was surveying the newly restored site two weeks ago, and watching what I thought were lots of C. gabbi, I was wrong! They were intensely green morphs of Cicindela trifasciata sigmoidea . I took pictures of several... and tomorrow, I will bring some home.

It is hard to catch the tigers on camera - they are very fast.

There is one salt panne in Mugu where I met my first tiger. It contains a small population of C. hemorrhagica hemorrhagica and occasionally, C. oregona. Walking carefully through the panne, the tigers were quite small - smaller then the smallest I have ever caught. Beetles emerge as big as they will ever get. Their growth is dependent on the quality and the quantity of prey they catch and eat as larvae in the soil. I am wondering if this group just did not have enough good prey food last year (numbers or poor quality)..... Here is a shot of one of the tigers in the small panne. Beautiful, just the same. I will bring some of these home, too, and compare these new tigers next to my older specimens.

Touch the Water - a play about and at the LA RIver

To see more photos go to....

I learned a lot about Frog Town playing Jade Kenten-Denton green in Cornerstone Theater's environmental justice piece, 'Touch the Water'. This small community, because of its strong sense of... 'this is ours!' ..... kicked butt and took names when Joseph T. Edmiston, Executive Director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy came and said, "I'm a white guy who likes to stand and look at the river!" He strutted around and yanked mikes out of peoples' hands and shook one man by both arms just to bully them into submission. He has millions of our tax dollars and power and proudly states "You can't vote me out!" and everyone can just lick his shoes! The community was shocked at first and then they finally pulled together and told the L. A. City Council, Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy where to go and what they wanted to have built. WAY TO GO!!!!

You can go to the Conservancy's website but you won't read much of how this community was treated by the State agency. But isn't that the way?

I wish more communities were as head strong.... but then, the folks in Frog town were thrown out of two other communities before they learned you have to FIGHT CITY HALL!

And as I was driving home from rehearsals downtown Los Angles, where I have gone to many meetings of Los Angeles City Councils and Los Angeles County Supervisors trying to stop unwanted projects cooked up by public officials and their friends.... this is what I would see before getting on the freeway ....

And à propos of something...