Blog Blackout Ends!

"Huzzah," says blog supporter.



Let me start by apologizing for going so long without an entry. You readers really made blog-writing enjoyable, and I let you down in a big way. I can only imagine how it must have felt for you to wake up each morning and race to your computer with high hopes, only to have them dashed against your monitor, which you found bare of any updates. Day after day passed, and still no word from Ben. As time passed, you must have stopped checking entirely (who could blame you?) and eventually you forgot there even was a blog. But something inside you that had once been full was now empty. Your heart? No. Your soul? No. Your brain? Maybe, but probably something less well defined. Whatever it was, it was gone, and even if you didn't realize it, your life was, on some level, ruined.

For this, I sincerely apologize. I hope that I can make it up to you now and in the days to come.

Let me start (again) by saying that I have been having an excellent time here in the golden/bear state, despite seeing no gold and no bears. Yes, California, our nation's tallest state. After leaving Brock's I shot through Oregon and traversed nearly all of California's 800 mile height in 3 days. I would have taken more time, but I was hurrying toward Eric and Mesan and their tiny desert home in Palo Verde, CA, out near the Arizona border. Until recently I would never have said this, but you may have heard of Palo Verde -- a former UFC champion just died very near there, done in by the unforgiving desert heat on mile 3 of a 4 mile hike. We actually heard the search helicopters a few days before we saw the news.

If you look closely, you can actually see the unforgiving desert heat. If you find yourself here, I hope have plenty of water with you. But enough of deserts and heat and Palo Verde for now. Right now, at this moment, I am in Los Angeles, and that's what I want to talk about.

Los Angeles has proved to be a great town - a great sprawling mess of a great town, made even better no doubt by the awesome house where I'm staying:
The house, like LA, sprawls. It took me half an hour to explore it, and still I'm not totally sure I've seen all the rooms in it. The house belongs to Chris Gorman's dad, who is graciously allowing me to stay here awhile, along with his daughter-in-law's sister Rose. It took a few explanations before Rose started to remember who I am, me being her sister's husband's brother's wife's sister's son. But she's great. She's living here full-time and has been happy to share the house and the house's booze. Tomorrow we might be going on a bike ride to Venice Beach.
Oh, the house is in Old Hollywood, which will make for a decent, but not grueling, 30 mile round trip. Today is the first day I've biked in over a month and I didn't do too well, so we'll see how I fare tomorrow.

The ride today was an attempt to reach Griffith Observatory, just 2 miles from the house. The roads were extremely steep, probably 20% grades or more in places, and after 3/4 miles and half an hour, I reached an unexpected locked gate and turned back. If I hadn't been so physically devastated, I might have tried to find another way in by bike, but instead opted to shower, relax awhile, then drive up later. The observatory, named for the magnificent Welshman Griffith J. Griffith, and its sweeping views of the city, were impressive. I watched the sun set just south of the HOLLYWOOD sign, then saw the planetarium show.

This is not an amazing picture (hence its small size, but you can click it for a larger view if you want) but it's the best I got before my camera batteries died. The vistas were spectacular though, I assure you.

The Observatory exhibits and planetarium show were a nice Astronomy 101 refresher - nothing stellar (ha ha) but definitely worthwhile. I imagine I'll take another bike ride later in the week and hang out up there some more. The way I drove was longer but seemed way less intense.

There's still more I want to say about LA, but this entry is getting long so for now I'll just say Brian Bass is awesome, and so is Mr. Dan -- thanks for visiting. I'm glad you had a good time.

Next entry might be more about LA, or more probably it'll be about hiking, and how I've learned that beating the shit out of my body and then recovering is just about my favorite thing to do.