45. Cruisin' at the Beach Christmas Car Show Highlights

Considering this car show in Redondo Beach at Ruby's Diner was canceled the previous week (12/12/09) due to too much rain, this beautiful day in the South Bay of L.A. couldn't have been more beautiful.

We arrived at the event before the 9 AM scheduled start time to enjoy breakfast at Ruby's.  We were fortunate to sit in a booth so Uncle Larry was able to watch the various cars as they drove into the parking lot to sign in and be directed to their parking spot.

Ruby's interior was decorated festively and fun.  This particular Ruby's has a pulley system on the ceiling around the perimeter of the restaurant to give the illusion that fish are continually circling around.  The decorator adorned each fish with a Santa hat.  Too cute!

My potatoes were cold.  Ruby's doesn't serve the stereotypical hash browns.  The potatoes served with breakfast are cubed and fried.  Most likely had they been warm they would have tasted good.  And some may be thinking, "why didn't you ask to have them warmed up?".  Too lazy, I guess.  Plus, the heuvos rancheros I ordered was a huge portion and yummy.  Thus, I wasn't too inclined to have room in my tummy for the potatoes anyway.

Toys were collected and trophies would be distributed for many different car categories, which only seems right since there were such a wide variety of vehicles represented, for example, the Wartberg shown in the photo above.

When it comes to the cars at the show my words would surely fail compared to seeing them visually (and for that matter the images you will see pale in comparison to seeing them in person, but it's the next best thing if you were unable to attend).

Enjoy!

P.S.  Please note there was so much to see I needed to put together two videos, part a and part b.  Also, I dedicate this post to my Uncle Larry who loves cars.  Happy Birthday, Uncle Larry.  I love you.

11. Okay, It's Not A Destination

I'm talking...wait...scratch that!  I'm writing about rain.  Never would have guessed it.

One of the things I love about Southern California is that you may expect to awake just about every morning to the beautiful rays of the sun flowing through your window...just another beautiful day in South L.A.

Except for the winter of 2004-2005 (my first winter back) which rained so much people got rain in their homes, there has been little rain to speak of.  I was a little surprised when I checked this California Rainfall Chart to see L.A. got nine inches of rain last year.  Why?  It sounds like they overstated compared to what I remember experiencing.  Any whooooo...

To me at this point rain may not be a destination, but it sure seems like it is an event.  I never thought I'd see the day when I was so surprised to see raindrops that I felt like I had to do a double take to make sure it really was rain.  I never expected as my normal inclination is to stay out of the rain, now that it shows up so infrequently all I want to do is stand out in it and feel the experience.

It makes me ponder some too...something I refer to as mind cuisine (a take on food for thought)...how I can get so caught up in my own life and my own surroundings that I don't give much thought to other people's weather.  What really made me think about this is how much I really do expect it to be sunny and fabulous everyday.  So, when someone I know calls and says it is raining or snowing, I realize I almost forgot such weather exists.

Of course, then I might snap out of it and remind myself there are most likely more empowering things for my mind to ponder.  Or not.  After all this is all part of the SoCal experience.


Note to readers: The video is proof it did rain October 13, 2009 in my neighborhood, especially since I don't have any CGI abilities or know anyone who does.  I heard the first rain at 10 am and it lasted for only a minute.  Not enough time to grab my camera and film it.  About an hour later it was raining again. What I would consider a normal rain.  By 2 PM it had already stopped.  I had plans to do something else and then decided from reading some of the postings on Facebook that I might want to check out what the beach looks like after a rain.  I drove to El Porto where not much seemed different except it was overcast and I did see a few puddles here and there that hadn't yet dried up.

As I write this (10/14/09) it is raining again and has been for a while.  I find it interesting that of all of Southern California it seems like the South Bay area is the most blessed weather wise.  Last night the news was full of bad weather this and evacuation that because of the rain and we'd barely had any.  Or the fires are here and the mud slides are there or whatever it is.  If I didn't hear it on the news, I wouldn't know it based on my experience of life in the South Bay.  Even earth quakes.  I believe I'd already been living in the South Bay for over three years before I felt one.  It lasted for only a few seconds and barely made a dent on the Richter Scale.  Instead of being panicked, I was more about was that really an earth quake and excited to experience it.

Let me be clear to my readers and the Universe, this is not me complaining.  I am elated.  I love that where I live seems to be so very, very safe.  Maybe it is my many years of living in Minnesota and North Dakota where weather is a constant topic that to move some where that weather seems to be such a non-factor...and maybe I don't have to figure it out.  Did I ever think of that?  Never mind.