New Things #382-390

Greetings from Los Angeles, where I'm completing research on book three and working on developing the whole series for television. What's more, this trip has provided me the opportunity to catch up on doing more New Things.

Beginning with the Long Suffering Floyd and I installing a bike rack on the back of my car (#382), surely the greatest technological achievement in the history of the world.


From there, I embarked on the 1,000 mile trip alone, another first (#383). I stopped in San Francisco, where I visited a fortune cookie factory (#384) which I learned are actually folded by hand.


Then I drank my first bubble tea (#385), courtesy of my friends Kathy and Dave. Imagine a smoothie filled with wads of gum.



Then a stop in Carmel to meet Jeanne Adams, the daughter-in-law of photographer Ansel Adams and a fascinating futurist and philosopher.

She believes all of life can be categorized according to edges, intersections and parabolas. Think about it--in any situation there's always something on the outskirts, something intersecting and something returning.

I love ideas people, but I try to meet so many of them I won't count it as new. As a matter of fact, I feel so fortunate that fascinating people are a regular part of my life.

Then I made a pilgrimage to Hearst Castle, (#386) which I loved unreservedly, and where I also saw hundreds of elephant seals on the beach (#387)


And now a little studio in Hollywood at the base of Griffith Park, where I get to hear coyotes howl at night (#388) Actually, yelp is more like it. They sound like a band of chihuahuas being strangled. The other night one crossed the road (#389) while I was on my bike. Y'know, the one I transported down. So I could research LA close-up.

The trip has been like one long "Artist's Date," as Julia Cameron calls them in The Artist's Way. A chance to recharge my batteries.

Oh, and did I mention I experienced my first California earthquake?

Yeah, that was #390.