🇺🇸 Earthquake - Los Angeles 9.12.24

I was having my coffee with one leg drooped over the edge of the bed, as if I was almost going to make a move, when my 3rd floor Chinaski apartment in Mar Vista began to shake. 4.7 earthquake this morning… it was not excessively alarming but certainly enough to raise an eyebrow… and to think about how to escape. Easy… go out on the balcony, over the rail… and jump on the police cars below. Win and win.

I’ve spent the last two weeks getting settled back into Los Angeles… and into my studio apartment. I’m a little ‘meh’ about apartment living but I like it so far. I have my own parking space in a gated off-street lot. There’s a lime tree next to my car space (and I do pick away). There’s a laundry room and pools. The place is clean and maintained… and 95% of the apartment life equation—is the neighbors. Mine are quiet and peaceful. No one smokes cigarettes in my stairwell. No 2am loud polka music. It suits me at this moment.

I’d consider staying in this place longer with one exception… this place doesn’t have a kitchen sink. It boggles me. It appears it has had one in the past, at least it has hookups. But nope, just counter space. I call it ‘the Chinaski’ because there’s a typewriter where the kitchen sink should be. Yes, it’s my typewriter, and yes, it looks all contrived to place one there… but there’s no working outlet at my desk, and I HAD to have an electric typewriter this round, so the only place that will host my monster machine is the kitchen counter… exactly where the sink should be.

Typewriter or not… dirty dishes are a thing. Even if you’re a gruff character in an early 40s cheap detective story that only eats at the diner… or donuts in bed… you gots to do some dishes. In my travels I’ve had many-a-stops in room shares without a proper wash station… but I’m a blue-collar latchkey raised Gen X’r… so I’m resourceful. The complex has a jacuzzi and a pool, and they’re right next to each other. Wash in the jacuzzi… rinse in the pool. “Annnnd it’s JACOBS… for the WIN!!!”

I am one of the few units that get a private balcony… it is directly facing Venice Blvd so there’s lots of street noise and morning sun. The building is in a cool and relatively peaceful area of LA and I’m quite content… happy as a clam really. Whatever that means.

Venice Blvd has dedicated bike lanes on each side of the street. It’s mostly flat. I can jump on a Metro bike-share, and ride to the beach in about 20 minutes. In 30 mins I can ride to the gym in Mid-City. They have some electric assist bikes and it’s easy peddling back home… and with such things, how I love being a person of the 21st century.

I spent an afternoon hanging around UCLA. We were dealing with a heat-cap, or heat wave, or new style global warming system… whatever it’s called… it was hot AF. UCLA is WestSide… and WestWood Village is what you’d expect from a College town. Smart kids walking around, an expensive farmer’s market, shitty parking, and doorways smelling of piss from the shelterless population. I kind of want to take a grammar class at UCLA so I can tidy up my good English… but nobody got time for that!

I have a few friends in LA County and I had some nice feels when they checked in when I returned from Coyoacan.

And on that note, ConnerWolfe—poet/writer/photographer/publisher and many other cool things… made some time to stop by for chats, a bite, encouragements and connection. A person of the same mold, out on a round of adventure, free from the convention of a homebase life, and like myself in a way, that is figuring it all out as we go along. Anyways, I feel blessed to have some company from a like person, from a far off place, connecting in another far off place. It’s a cool story.

And that’s that… connection. It brings the planet earth down to a very small size. And do know this… like vibrations… interweaving frequencies… we are attracted to one another… on these quantum levels. We were, are, and will never be alone. Remember that one thing… we are never alone.

So… I’ll base out of Los Angeles for the time being… at least until I see another shiny thing elsewhere. I have some trips and adventures rumbling around in my mind… and I’ll make a move sooner than later. But in the meantime I’ll do some work and continue to enjoy my LA life. And I have an intuitive feeling I’m here for a reason. And a purposeful one at that.

#LAlife

#washorrinse?

#fortheWIN!!!