Sunrise in Los Angeles

I am up before dawn most days. Like my grandmother, a farmer born in 1905. I used to marvel at her creeping around in the pre-dawn hours, well into her 80’s still preparing for the day as she had for decades. I was decidedly not a morning person. Now I am — have been for a few years now and not because I have chickens to feed or cows or episodes of weird “Paul Harvey” to listen to while burning biscuits in the kitchen. No I’m just an insomniac and when my eyes blink open around 4 or 5 in the morning, that’s it. Might as well get up and start my day. Larry Gelbart who wrote everything from Tootsie to MASH once told me that getting up early was a sneaky way of living longer. I agree but up to a point. Yes, you can get a lot done in those early hours — especially because no one is trying to set an appointment with you before 10AM. However, what kind of living is it when you’re zombie like most days? After 3PM I’m a fuzzy shadow of o myself. I try to make sure I’m sufficiently exhausted before bed — decaffeinated, exercised and sugar free but still 4AM rolls around and BINK!  So I’m watching the sunrise over my valley in Silverlake. I’m looking north from my dining room table, toward Glendale. The roar of the 2 or maybe the 5 in the distance. Mountains, haze and the hostage stand-off Trader Joe’s down the street. (I call it that because a few years ago they had a hostage stand off that was covered on the national news. While it was going on I texted my mom, “Hey, turn on CNN, I’m on TV!” She didn’t think it was the least bit funny.)

I went for a long bike ride with Lars and my husband yesterday in Griffith Park. I recently, foolishly acquired a carbon fiber Trek road bike that was more money than I should have spent. It was a good deal, used but still. I have 3 bikes now and as far as I can tell that’s 2 too many. In addition to the Trek I have an All-City space horse which is a road bike style commuter. Kind of what I call a “fashion bike” because it’s fine for riding, but really it’s about the design and colors. Maybe hipster bike would be more appropriate? I got it in 2012 after my previous carbon fiber Giant road bike was stolen from the parking garage at the Arclight movie theater. Yes, I should have had a better lock on it but I thought given the fact that I’d locked it up next to the SECURITY OFFICE they might be a deterrent. Live and learn. I also have a 2016 electric Rad Bike that goes 40 miles on a single charge. I used it as my primary mode of transportation for almost all of 2019 and LOVED being car-free. Of course it was only a matter of time before I was going to be killed by one of our cities famously terrible drivers. My husband bought a new car, I bought his and there we are.

Alexa set the sun to 50% so it’s not quite dawn just yet. Half light. I put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving — climbed on the roof to put up lights. We have a string of the old fashioned incandescent ceramic bulbs. I was obsessed with these as a kid and so as an adult, with my own house I can do whatever I goddamned want. Now putting lights on the roof is another way where I’m likely to be killed. Yesterday, with some surplus lights I had laying around I zip-tied a bunch of them to the municipal street lamp in front of our house. We have one of those 1920’s city street lamps, about 2.5 meters tall — you’ve seen them in any Noir Film — anyhow, that is now decked out with multicolored bulbs. I don’t imagine anyone will steal them though they could. We’re a few blocks away from Marshall High — the high school they used to film “Grease” and pretty much every other high school in movies an TV. I used to think that those kids were up to no good but now that I live in the neighborhood I realize they’re a pretty tame bunch as far as high school kids go. Plus since the pandemic it’s not like they’re out in packs at 3PM the way they used to be.

We’re attempting to go gift free this year. Instead we’re just investing in a bunch of stuff around the house. New cushions for the dining room banquette. Some other stuff Dean wants. It’s fine with me. I have pretty much everything I want. I guess new versions of the stuff I have? But not even that really. I like all my items. This year the most lavish gift would be early access to the Covid vaccine. We’ve gone back on lockdown because society in the U.S. has broken down. We’re a nation of selfish children incapable of unity or civic responsibility. I kind of knew it was only a matter of time — we’d been trending in this direction for decades. Really I understood as far back as the 80’s that the writing was on the wall. I thought it would be more dramatic and tumultuous, the end of the U.S. but it does make perfect sense that electing a failed real estate developer / TV game show host as president would be our final nail in the coffin. Some like to think “oh the US is back” but you know all we did was buy ourselves a 4 year pause on top level insanity. It’s like a volcano — it was spewing from the top but now that the top is plugged, the sides will blow out and flood the surrounding area with molten lava. Cheery thoughts for a new morning in Los Angeles.