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Griffith Park

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coldplugs

coldplugs

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I lived near LA & worked in Santa Monica and Brentwood for about 4 years. One of my favorite places to go there was Griffith Park, because it seemed so ~real~ compared to most of the rest of the place. According to the news, a big part of it is on fire - I hope they can contain it. I hate to see it wiped out.

(I'm not trying to slam LA, I just didn't "get" it. A lot of people don't "get" where I live either.)

Anyway, I was sorry to see the news.
 
Huge fire. I drove by Griffith yesterday while it was ablaze. Thankfully the wind is blowing away from my house so I don't have to deal with the ash fallout.

I hear the guy who intentionally started the fire got burned pretty good. You can't beat Darwinism! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

John, had you gone another 15 minutes north, you would have been in the San Gabriel Wilderness which actually IS "real". I certainly understand the desire to get out of the area you lived in. It's big city. I couldn't live there either.
 
Eh... Griffith park is across the freeway from my office. They shut off our AC yesterday afternoon due to ash being ingested by the machines. While out on a break I noticed all the smoke was being blown up into the valley that I live in, and on the drive home I had nice pieces of ash floating in through my windows. However, once I got through the pass and into my valley I was glad to see that the smoke traveled down the valley rather than up towards my end.

We had huge honkin' smoke cloud above the office. There's not so much smoke this morning. So, I think they probably have it under control now. If not, they're probably real close to having it under control.
 
Steve_S said:
...
I hear the guy who intentionally started the fire got burned pretty good. You can't beat Darwinism! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

John, had you gone another 15 minutes north, you would have been in the San Gabriel Wilderness which actually IS "real". I certainly understand the desire to get out of the area you lived in. It's big city. I couldn't live there either.
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I didn't know it was intentionally set - it's hard to feel sorry for someone like that. Idiot.

I know about the wilderness areas & spent a lot of time 4-wheeling & dirt biking way north at Hungry Valley and various fire roads. Also camped up there. I really liked the desert areas & mountains, it was just the city itself that I felt out of place in.
 
I know the feeling. Having grown up in small towns all my life, and spending a significant portion in the country side (nearest neighbor was a mile away, and to go shooting at bottles and cans was a 100yrd walk out the front door), LA is not my taste for normal living.

Thankfully, I've gotten myself into an area that reminds me of home, in that it has the small town atmosphere. 1 main street with all the stores, resturaunts, and what have yas. If they don't have what I want, I can always go for a ride to the nearest Target or Fry's, or the always open Internet to order stuff.
 
Just got an email from one of my co-workers with some pics...
 

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Yesterday was smoky here as well. Over 200 seperate fires down this way due to the lack of rain lately. Better today. Portions of I-75 were closed yesterday due to blazes south of Sarasota.


I'm fearful of the crickets...
even THAT could be enuff friction to ignite a blaze here right now. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
 
I grew up in small towns as well, but currently like living in the city, we are in Hollywood right in the thick of things /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

Pretty close to the fire, but the wind is blowing the other way, so we have not received any smoke
 
This is a shame. I was in Los Angeles a week ago on vacation. We were going to go to Griffith Park but didn't get a chance (I lost a day when my flight out of O'Hare was cancelled due to a tornado in Kansas). We also couldn't get tickets to the observatory. But we did go up Runyon Canyon, which was lovely.

I too grew up and still live in a small(ish) town. But I'm relatively close to a major metropolitan area (Chicago) and went to school and worked there. I liked L.A. quite a bit, but don't know if I could handle living there either. Mostly because of the traffic and the shocking (to me) lack of public transportaiton. People say "don't they have buses?" and I say yeah, they do, but the buses are stuck in the same monumental traffic snarlups as the cars. If I'm going to sit in traffic I'd just as soon do it in my own car.

Chicago has really spoilt me in that respect. I never, ever use a car when I'm there. I can take the El virtually anywhere and ankle it otherwise. Heck, I hardly ever drive down either-jump on Metra, plug in my Ipod, and read the Trib.

-William
 
You were in LA and didn't tell anyone? For shame!

Yes, the public transportation here is ridiculous. There aren't even taxis unless you call and wait for one.

Personally I can't stand metropolitan L.A. I do work in busy areas but I live on the outskirts where I can be in the pine trees in ten minutes. The people who commute through metropolitan L.A. every day have a lot more patience than I do!
 
There are trains and subways... I use those maybe once a year.

I tried using the Glendale City bus system (Bee Line) for a while last year at $1/day it's a lot cheaper than driving to work for me. UNFORTUNATELY, I don't like getting up at 7AM so I can start catching buses to make it into work by 0930 (that's right 2hours by bus). Especially since I can go the same distance in my car in 20 minutes.

The other public transit (Metro Link buses) in my area costs $1.25 per bus, and I'd have to take multiple buses to and from work. At which point the cost of riding the bus starts to exceed the cost of driving in everyday...

If the Glendale "Bee Line" can get fixed onto a better schedule (I spent most of my 2hour trips waiting for the next bus at a change over point), I would have to problem with riding it into work everyday. As it is, I'd rather spend that 4 hours commuting/waiting to and fro doing something more constructive with my time.
 
Steve_S said:
You were in LA and didn't tell anyone? For shame!

Yes, the public transportation here is ridiculous. There aren't even taxis unless you call and wait for one.

Personally I can't stand metropolitan L.A. I do work in busy areas but I live on the outskirts where I can be in the pine trees in ten minutes. The people who commute through metropolitan L.A. every day have a lot more patience than I do!
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Right on! Angeles Crest Hwy is in my back yard! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
 
The other problem with L.A. buses and subways is that they stop running very early. If you take the bus and then get stuck late at work, you better plan on sleeping there!
 
Steve_S said:
You were in LA and didn't tell anyone? For shame!

Yes, the public transportation here is ridiculous. There aren't even taxis unless you call and wait for one.

Personally I can't stand metropolitan L.A. I do work in busy areas but I live on the outskirts where I can be in the pine trees in ten minutes. The people who commute through metropolitan L.A. every day have a lot more patience than I do!
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Sorry-I was visiting my Sister and initially had a full schedule. Losing that first Friday to travel blew that out of the water (spent Sunday in San Diego at the 17-inning Padres/Dodgers marathon). I did make it to the Petersen and to Autobooks/Aerobooks in Burbank on Saturday morning and caught the Shelby talk. I wondered if anyone I "knew" (from either here, the Miata forum, or The Nostalgia Forum) was at the shop too. I discovered that Sister has a thing for Ferraris, which I didn't know previously.

The traffic that weekend and for the two weekdays I was there wasn't horrendous, at least when compared to Chicagoland Construction Season. But again, I usually have the option of catching some rail-based thing to take me places. Not in Los Angeles.

Funny-Sister lived in Chicago and Evanston for a while, and took the El maybe three times. Drove everywhere. I think my Miata was last in the Chicago city limits in 2003! No wonder she gets on so well there!

-William
 
Steve_S said:
Next time you visit, I'll send you to the "good" museum. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
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Whut, the Nethercutt Collection? We were going to try that too. Some friend of Sister's said "Oh, you don't wanna go there. It's in Sylmar" but we couldn't figure out if he was being sarky or not. Either way we just ran out of time, and many things were closed on Monday, which was my last day in town.

Or do you have a private stock stashed away somewheres?

-William
 
That's the one. Yes the neighborhood is a little shady, but the facility and collection is glorious! And there is antique furniture collections to keep the missus happy if it comes to that.
 
DrEntropy said:
Yesterday was smoky here as well. Over 200 seperate fires down this way due to the lack of rain lately. Better today. Portions of I-75 were closed yesterday due to blazes south of Sarasota.


I'm fearful of the crickets...
even THAT could be enuff friction to ignite a blaze here right now. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
Click to expand...

That's where I've been on and off for days now Doc.! Fires in the Piccaun Forest, and Lee High Acres and North Ft. Myers. Can't smell nothing but smoke on the air, and morning fogs on the Chatahookee River have been as thick as a London fog!! Fires up Jacks way in the panhandle too! And STILL no rain! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif
 
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