Gone Fishin'

It hardly looks like December, even in South California. Temperatures in the 80’s are perfect for a visit to Lake Balboa.

Holiday Spirit

It was about 80 degrees outside when we stopped at a fast-food place for a cold drink. This woman was wearing Christmas-themed toe socks (patched on the heels with bright blue) with camouflage-striped flip-flops, blue crop pants, a ragged gray-green tank top and a sleeveless, beige cardigan. She caught our attention with her nasty cursing when the counter girl made an error and sold her three drinks instead of one. Neither of them was a native speaker of English, but they were forced to use English because it was the only language they had in common.

Birds

These seagulls at Lake Balboa seem to be standing in formation.

Not Too Late

Although CSUN has closed applications for lower-division students wishing to enter in the fall, it is still accepting them for upper-division transfer students. Students are strongly urged to use the “easy” online application system. It requires filling out page after page of information. As I neared the end, an error on their part (yes, really) prevented me from completing the process. So I printed out the paper application (8 pages of application, 9 pages of additional paper-wasting material) and will be mailing it promptly.

Rainy Day

The day before Thanksgiving and the first serious rain of the year made for sparsely populated walkways on campus this morning.

Street Repair

During the past several years, every street in this neighborhood has been resurfaced, except the one where I live. This has been very frustrating to everyone here. This street gets a bit more traffic than most of the others, because it offers a direct route between the neighborhood entrances at the top and bottom of the hills. Uneven, lumpy, pitted and cracked, it had reached the point where it was becoming hazardous. When I called the city to ask for help, they sent a pothole crew the next day, but they repaired only one pothole. Apparently they realized the scope of this job was beyond their resources. Several other neighbors had also called asking for repairs. Finally, we got our wish. Work started on Tuesday. Years ago a job like this would have taken several weeks (the notices we received form the city warned it might take as long as four weeks). But modern equipment (consisting mostly of enormous, specialized machinery on wheels, each vehicle driven by one man who is assisted by others on foot) makes the job go much faster. I was impressed by how much progress they were able to make in just a few hours each day. On Thursday, the first layer of asphalt was laid.

Update: November 25, 2008

I am no longer impressed. After making a lot of progress working just three half-days last week, the street repair crew has vanished. It would seem they are taking the entire week off as a Thanksgiving holiday.

Update: December 4, 2008

And now I wonder if they intend to come back at all. Here it is, Thursday, and nothing has been done this week, even though the no parking signs are still up (and being universally ignored).

Update: December 12, 2008

Lots of huge machines, lots of workers, amazing noise, vibrations that terrified the cats, rattled the dishes, and made me think just a little too much about earthquakes. But at long last we have a smooth street.

Wednesday was a busy day on campus. The "Free Speech Zone", which usually hosts only the Bible ladies and an occasional salesman or two, was the venue for a political-religious group with huge, provocative posters, handing out flyers to passersby. According to reports in the school paper, some past demonstrations have led to shouting matches, but as far as I could tell, nobody got loud on this day. The campus police were posted a few yards from the edge of the zone, just in case.

Free Hugs

On Wednesday a group of students positioned themselves on the main walkway, offering hugs to all passersby. I believe this was part of a promotion for one of the campus clubs. During the ten minutes or so that I watched them, only a few people accepted the offer.

I Can't Hear Your

Between classes I was sitting on a bench, about five or six feet away from this girl. She was doing homework and texting while listening to her music player. Eventually she stopped to watch the birds, but I don’t think she could hear them. Even though she had her earbuds on, I could hear the music. Fortunately, this school has a good American Sign Language program. I expect that many of today’s students will end up needing it.

Seen on Campus

I can’t remember which political conference it was that introduced the concept of the "Free Speech Zone". That is, a zone designed to prevent free speech from being heard. It caught on rapidly and now it is my understanding that all major political events in the U.S. use this device. Still, I was a bit surprised to encounter this on the campus of Pierce College, whose newspaper proudly (if somewhat enigmatically) proclaims itself to be "a first amendment publication".

There are a couple of "older" ladies who usually spend most of the day on campus sitting at a folding table where they dispense free Bible-related literature. They are always within the boundary of the "free speech zone" (usually tightly wedged into the only shady spot). When I asked, they confirmed that this is the only area the college allows them to use.

I don't think it's a bad idea to restrict people from off campus to limited areas. Otherwise we would quickly be overrun by politicians, advertisers, hucksters, and all the other annoying characters who'd like to bombard us with messages about whatever it is they're selling. But I don't care much for the way this area is labeled. And I like even less the way this kind of area is being used by government agencies and political parties. I am old enough to remember when the entire United States was considered a free speech zone.

Graduation

Technically, I graduated in December, when I officially received my Associate’s degree in Italian. It took the school another four months to produce my diploma. I was cordially invited to attend today’s graduation ceremony, but I stayed home.