SingleTails

Worth A Thousand Words

Okay. Figured that out.

The other night, I managed to get PhotoShop Elements up and running. Several weeks ago, I purchased and downloaded this indispensible application from the Adobe website. Unfortunately, when I tried to install it, I only got so far as being asked for the product ID number, located on the packaging for the cd.

Y’see my problem? Because I downloaded it, there was no cd and no packaging. I tried and tried, and came up stumped every time.

So the other day, I put in a call to tech support at Adobe.

Wow! Five Golden Stars go to tech support at Adobe! Not only did they solve my problem really quickly and the tech support guy was pleasant to talk to, but I was not on hold for a second! I don’t even remember it ringing. I had to go through only one ‘press 1 for’ menu, and I got a person!

So I set about compiling text and uploading the photos I took on the recent California trip to my weblog, clicking the little buttons on blogger. The finished result was... nada. Nothing came up after I clicked ‘publish your posting.’ Dang the folks at Blogger anyway.

But here it is, a rainy Sunday. So I’m charging in again. I re-read my html book on how to post pictures, and I think I’m good to go. I’m doing the writing offline rather than online, and then I’ll just copy and paste.

So here goes.

If you will recall, I was the houseguest of Alpha during the first leg of my journey in Sandy Eggo. Alpha is the proud owner of two way hot cars. (Alpha is considering getting a Vespa for quick trips to the coffee place in Hillcrest and such. I did my best to dissuade him, arguing that if he’s seen on a Vespa, he’ll never get laid again. Men who ride Vespas don’t get laid. Ever. FACT!)

So here’s Alpha behind the wheel of his hot car that’s not the Mazda GX8, in which we were stopped for going 115 mph on the 15. This is Alpha’s ‘town car,’ and you can see it with some dignitary or other in the back seat in the Sandy Eggo Pride Parade.

Car design sure has changed! Parking can be a problem. Here’s Alpha’s car parked at the local Whole Foods Market...

On my final day in Sandy Eggo, Alpha took me out to the Salk Institute in La Jolla so I could bask in the glory of the architecture. I had my camera all primed and ready, but alas, found my battery went dead after the first shot I took. But here it is.

Couldn’t figure out a way to solve the drained battery problem, so I have no pics from the sunrise at Joshua Tree National Monument. And, no pics from the Glen Ivy spa. (And that’s worth gnashing your teeth over, because Alpha and I slathered in mud was quite the Moment.) But, on my first solo day in Palm Springs, I stopped into a Staples, and managed to get a universal charger. Just in time for my ride on the Tram up the mountains.

If’n you’ll recall, surrounded by all the tourists taking pictures of their kids in front of rocks, I sent out to capture interesting images with some close ups. Here is a sample of the results...

The other reeeeally cool thing I found in Palm Springs was the wind farm. Only after I got home did I learn that they offer wind farm safaris. I had to content myself with getting as close as I could from the highway. But pretty amazing nonetheless.

A lot of time in Palm Springs was spent at the Starbucks at Indian Canyon and Tahquitz. Here’s Starbucks Desert Modern!

The other trip I made was heading up the mountains with all those switchbacks and hairpin turns to Idyllwild. (“Idyllwild.”) The trip took me to a plateau at about 3000 feet, where a little town called Hemet Lake can be found. Also to be found there was this amazing white horse, grazing among the sage...

So now we say adieu to Palm Springs, but one parting shot... When it’s 108 degrees, it must be hard being a goth in Palm Springs, but it doesn’t seem to keep this lad from being every bit himself!

Leaving Palm Springs, I picked up Big at the airport in Ontario, and then headed on to Los Angeles. On Saturday, Big and I visited the Getty Museum. Photo opportunities abound there! Here are a few of mine.

And here’s a shot of one of the petting sharks at the Long Beach Aquarium, which we visited the next day. Remember! Use the two-finger touch when petting a shark!

And here, as best as I can figure it, is all that remains of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, about which Susan Fahludi enthralled me in her amazing book, Stiffed.

We didn’t find much of the shipyard, but we did find a memorial to the Japanese-Americans who were forcibly removed from Long Beach’s Terminal Island and interned in 1942. Here’s a shot I took of the memorial statuary.

And finally, on the eve before I flew back here to the Land of Rain and Flooded Basements, we visited Frank Gehry’s amazing symphony hall. I can’t imagine how you could take a bad picture of this place. Absolutely amazing.