Busy times

Man's way

Nature's way

There have been a lot of good things happening the last weeks.  Last weekend, I was invited to visit my niece and her husband in Ojai...which is a very special part of the world, just north of Los Angeles and inland a bit from Ventura beach.  I decided to take the Amtrak, save myself the trouble of driving, and have all those quiet hours on the train to relax and enjoy the view.  More on the train ride later; my visit will be my next posting...I have something I want to share with music lovers and musicians at that time.

As I was waiting to board my outbound train last Thursday morning, I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition of man vs. nature in the layers of the earth cut to accommodate the lowering of the tracks and the ramp up to the station.

On approach to the big Los Angeles station, we wound through some areas that conjured lots of memories from my youth, among them the old Sears tower building where my mom worked.  On boring summer afternoons, when mom was working there, I would sometimes take several bus connections from our home to go hang out there until she got off work.  It is just mind blowing today to think of how dangerous that would be for a pre-teen girl to do such a thing.  Ah...the fifties.  There were some good things about them, I just have to scratch hard to remember sometimes.

And then...the El Pato building.  Don't remember it as a kid, but hey, I couldn't help but take a photo...the food of my people, as I like to joke.  Yum.

So back to the train ride:  I won't bore you with the entire story but let me say that people using their cell phones in public have really become a nuisance, in my humble opinion.  I had a guy across the isle from me, conducting all his business on his cell phone, using it on speaker phone...and that is only part of the story.  I have decided I won't take public transportation again without ear plugs or noise cancellation headphones, lest you end up reading about me going postal and hurting someone!