Areas of Unrest

20 October 1999 - Never Ready Enough

QOTD: "Some things have to be believed in to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

Reading: Mongolia: A Travel Survival Kit (Lonely Planet)

Listening to: The Velvet Touch of Los Straitjackets

First off, baseball is essentially over for me now, so you are safe from my rambling on that subject. The Red Sox would inevitably break my heart sooner or later. And, while the Mets certainly proved exciting, they lost to Atlanta, a team I dislike on the grounds that they have the smuggest fans. Still, they will be playing the source of all evil in the universe, so I suppose I will have to live by my maxim that my favorite teams are the Red Sox and whoever is playing the Yankees and cheer them on.

I had to go out to Azusa today for a meeting that proved to be more eye-closing than eye-opening. On the way back, I noticed something really disturbing. Just south of the 10 (a.k.a. the Santa Monica freeway) a little east of the 110 (the Harbor Freeway), there are a couple of crumbling buildings. I imagine they could be quite nicely restored but this is an area south of downtown that is essentially abandoned. The fronts of the buildings are heavily graffitied and the windows are almost all broken. But, on the side of the buildings, readable only from the westbound lanes of the 10, there are slick advertising murals, advertising on-line brokerages. I'm one of the Westside yuppies those services are aimed at and seeing those ads on those shells of buildings gave me the creeps. All I could think of was the money the building owners must be raking in, while they fail to do anything to improve their property.

Anyway, I am leaving tomorrow morning for Santa Barbara to check in for the 3 day walk. I don't feel anywhere near ready to walk 55 miles. But I don't suppose I'd ever feel ready. I didn't train as much as I'd hoped to but I am sure there are people who did less. All I can do is give it my best shot. At any rate, I will feel like I have so much time again after it's over! Now to finish packing (shoes - check!, sunhat - check!, sanity - hmmm, better x that one out!) and get some sleep. I will try to write about the walk on Sunday night, but I may not have the energy to.