Attack of the Mutant Tumbleweeds!

Now that I have your attention....I thought that subject line sounded better than "Greetings from someplace else in California!" which is what I was about to write. It's actually Corona, CA--I'm at my cousin Teddi's house. I showed up considerably later than I expected, because when I got to Los Angeles the traffic became strangely slow and congested. I guess this city doesn't have a subway system. Hectic. It only took me ten and a half hours to drive from Portland to Val's house a little south of San Francisco, so I showed up about three hours earlier than I expected. For the trip today, it felt like it took me the same length of time. Actually, it took approximately eight hours, not the six that it was supposed to take, but that was in part because the bridge was out on 129, so I ended up backtracking on the highway and using the Mapquest directions; and later on Hwy 46 the traffic came to a complete stop due to construction. I don't really think Mapquest is omniscient, but given that it didn't want me to take those routes, I almost have to wonder.

I had no idea there was such pretty scenery near Los Angeles: I think Los Angeles and the first thing I think of is pollution. Nasty. But no, there are some green dramatic mountains, and something called the Angeles National Forest before you actually get to the city itself, and there's a beautiful lake called Pyramid Lake, probably because of the weird triangular trellised formation in a mountain on the lake. It scarcely looks like a natural formation.

Oh, yes, I have to mention this:

As I was driving toward Los Angeles I saw tumble weeds in a field, and they were bouncing around like gamboling gazels, and since they were approaching the highway, I slowed down...although not quite enough. The tumbleweeds attacked my car! They bounded out of the field and into the highway, and a couple of them hit the front of the car, and one smacked into the windshield and then flew up above the roof of the car. It didn't damage the windshield, but it sure was startling.

Six dogs live here. I'm glad cats don't bark. There's also a black cat that lives upstairs and came mewing down and was all cuddling and purry on the living room floor--actually, he wanted to go outside, but I just pet him and gave him a massage. The dogs bark if I'm on the other side of the gate (in other words, beyond the kitchen), and they even rather oddly barked at me when I was out in the back yard. One of them is a basset hound (I first typed "basset house" perhaps because this is the biggest basset hound I've ever seen). The others are a big poodle and a small poodle and a terrier-type creature and something that looks like vaguely like a Muppet. Oh, yeah, and a Cavalier King Charles spaniel. And there are coi in a little pond in the back yard, and there's an aquarium with some more fish--it's 13 in the pond and 9 in the tank.

Tomorrow I'm planning on leaving at approximately 10 am to head for Phoenix and crash at my brother's apartment again.