THE LONGEST DAY

I'm glad yesterday (Dec. 19) is over. It was one of my longest this year. (Of course, dissertation deposit hell earlier in April was worse.)

I had planned a critical "informational interview" (see last posting) with an editor at a major textbook publisher (Holt, Rinehart, and Winston) at 9:00 that morning , so couldn't really sleep well. So, I got up around 6:30 and was out the door to get a big breakfast for the day ahead. It helped, however, to be fully awake during the call at 9:00, which lasted a good hour and went very well, I thought. I then typed up my notes (see last posting).

I was planning to leave town the next day for several days and drive north, so it was my last full business day in LA before Christmas, and it all had to be done NOW.

My library privileges with UCLA are set to end Dec. 31, and the library system shuts down pretty much between Christmas and New Year's, so Monday 1-5 pm was my last chance to be able to check out family history materials to scan on the computer - mainly UCLA yearbooks from '40 to '48, when Dad attended. I was aiming to get to the library about 1:00, but with traffic etc. didn't really make it till 2:00. UCLA takes an hour on a normal day, although it's only about 15 miles away, because it's all surface streets.

But, I also had a tenant emergency affecting my sleep and thoughts. (Short version: I have been waiting for a revised, accurate lease from the landlord to sign since *August*, and after monthly letters of request, I finally decided to withhold 1/2 of December's rent to get their attention. It did. They sent me a "pay up in three days or quit the premises" form letter. I didn't think this was quite kosher, so I made an appointment to see a legal rights counseler Monday afternoon at 3:00. (This crimped my UCLA library time drastically.) Turns out the tenant does not have the right to withhold payment for bureaucratic disputes (only repair problems), so I had to get the money to them ASAP. (The counselor had other advice as to how to complain more effectively to my landlord's management company and get action.) I drove back home. By the time I had a good, well-worded letter ready (giving in on the last December payment check but putting the fear of God into them from other angles), all local post offices were closed. So, only one choice in LA: the LAX airport central post office, open till 11:00! (another hour-plus trip)

I'd been up since dawn and driven all over town earlier in the day, but there I was having to schlep out to the airport around 9 pm just to send my check. I knew it was a bad sign when I saw two ABC television news trucks stationed in the very full parking lot. Inside was a line almost out the door of pre-Christmas customers - not only a long line, but one in which most people had multiple boxes to ship! Ay ay ay! The resigned patrons had decided it was OK to chat with total strangers, so I had a nice chat about online vs. in-store shopping with a Vietnamese-American mother ahead of me for the next 15 minutes.

For some short R&R at the end of the day, I headed out to Playa del Rey beach (nearby) since I was in the neighborhood just to watch the waves. It was after 10:00, so I and a dumpster diver on a bike were about the only two people out.

A bit calmed, I headed home on the 10 freeway. Minutes after I got on the freeway, all four lanes came to an abrupt halt. "What now?" I fumed. "It's almost 11 pm!" A police helicopter with a spotlight was circling around the freeway just ahead of us. Around and around. Around and around. "What the heck is going on?" I wondered. We were so stopped that one motorist had even gotten out of her car and was standing on the shoulder to watch. After about 10 minutes of screwing with LA traffic (affecting over 1000 vehicles, to be conservative), the LAPD opened the freeway, and the cars started moving on. I strained my eyes to see what all the cop cars were surrounding. Probably a chase car that had been cornered. Probably the driver had ditched it on the side and tried running away. (We see these scenarios all the time on TV.) We weren't encouraged to stop and ask, however, so I drove on home and zoned out to some late-night TV. (Should have gone right to bed, I know.)

Ah, another day in LA - six days before Christmas!

Today (Tuesday), I take off on a drive up north later this afternoon up to Yosemite, then Bishop, way east in the Sierra Nevadas. I had planned to leave before the past weekend, but my hosts had been sick. It's to visit the retired pastor who baptized me and married my parents. More family history research. But more later ...