The Train

Don had tested the "Acura to Santa Ana, Amtrak to Solano Beach--same thing in reverse to get home" route once on his own before he took his new job in San Diego, just to make sure it was do-able. It was around the July 4th holiday so he couldn't be certain of how it compared to the commute on a regular weekday. We weren't sure how a weekend trip would compare either, but Don asked if I'd be interested in taking the train to Solano Beach as he would be doing daily, and I jumped at the chance.
Don wanted to see where the Irvine station was because he'd be needing to use that one Tuesday so he could get to his final class right after disembarking from the train, so that's the station we headed to. We left early so decided to stop at the Car Faire at Irvine Valley College on the way. Don loves to look at cars, and is thinking of possibly buying an inexpensive one to support his commute at one end of the trip or the other (The Camrey may need replacing, or he may not want to leave his pretty Acura at the Santa Ana station all the time.)
We saw one that was appealing and decided we'd call about it when we got back to Orange County. As we drove on to the train station though, we started to wonder if we should have at least taken the owner's number down. "Oh well, if it's gone when we return, it wasn't meant to be."
We got a fabulous parking spot at the Irvine station.

See, there's Gandolfa the PT Cruiser, about the 4th car from the left. Now turn around 180◦ and there is the station.


Now let's get a little closer....
Yep. That's it. The Irvine train station.
And gone are the days ---at least at the train stations we visited---where you step across train tracks. Now it's up the stairs (or the elevator) to the footbridge, and down the stairs (or elevator) to the train landing.

For 8:15 in the morning the station was fairly busy.

As we were walking in we'd heard an announcement that the 8:30 train would be about 30 minutes late, so Don bought our tickets for the (now) 9:05 train.

"Should we go back and get the information off that car?"
"Sure! Let's do it!"
So we did. It's a Mazda. The posted price is $3,900.00. It's a strong maybe, but not so strong that it's going to keep us from our day on the train we decide...even though the tickets are good for a year or some such surprisingly long amount of time.
Feeling especially daring about our ability to catch the train, we also stop for Don's Big Gulp.
It was actually an error on my part taking that picture, but as long as I did, it DOES illustrate the story. (smile)

Welcome to Irvine Transportation Center. Wait. Do we recognize the face under that baseball cap in the lower right corner?

Why YES! That's Don! "Why does it look like he's wearing a photo of a baby?" He's not silly, that's the train tickets in his pocket.

Woo-hoooo, here comes our train!

"All abo-oard!" No, you're right. They don't say that anymore (or did they ever---maybe that's only on hollywood sets). Yes, you are also right that this image is blurred. That was intentional, to give you that "hurry up and get in before it leaves without you" feeling. (I suppose that fib would work better if the prominent figures in the image didn't look oblivious to the presence of the train.)

And here we are at the Solano Beach station, crossing the tracks on a footbridge. Sorry you missed the ride itself but pictures through a train window just don't convey the thrill.

The train was crowded so after walking to the front and finding no two empty seats together we opted for Don to sit right behind me. A while later the nice man next to Don agreed to let me sit in his seat and he took mine. I mentioned to Don that the fellow who'd been beside me had commented on the train being busy "today" as though he might be a regular, so Don asked him if he was. It turns out that, as a matter of fact Jake rides the train to Solano Beach a few times a week due to his being a Transportation Consultant. He was able to tell Don what to expect through Del Mar fair and horse race seasons and even showed us a great place for Don to leave his car on days when the station lot was too packed. Having come from L.A., he was also able to tell us why the train had been delayed---they'd had to change the engine! Yeah, maybe I heard wrong. It DOES seem like it would take more than 30 minutes to change a train engine. Also we got slowed down through Oceanside because the crossing gates weren't working. Still, I think it must have been about 10:20 that we arrived. Not too long. At least not when you're in no hurry.

OK, well, time to go eat ice cream, so I'll save the Solano Beach part till next post.

Thanks for reading.

Monday night with the Angels (June 25, 2007)

Monday night with the Angels (June 25, 2007)

Monday night with the Angels (June 25, 2007)

Monday night with the Angels (June 25, 2007)

Monday Night Baseball

…."Kansas City Royals (31-46) at LA Angels of Anaheim (49-28), 10:05 p.m.

Last Updated 7:46 am PDT Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Kansas City Royals try to make it three straight wins this evening when they continue a three-game set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium.

Kansas City defeated Anaheim for the third time in five tries this season on Monday, as John Thomson outdueled 10-game winner John Lackey in his season debut in a 5-3 Royals win."

This is the way the SacBee reads as it begins to describe our Monday night at the Angel’s Stadium.

It’d been ages since Don and I went to an Angel’s game. In fact they were still the Anaheim Angels, and if the roar filling our ears was “RegGIE! RegGIE! RegGIE! the dude was wearing a 44 not a 77. OK, maybe we’d gone a little more recently than that, but it’d been a long time.

So Monday, when one of Don’s co-workers blessed him with a pair of season tickets, we were totally thrilled that we didn't have to be anywhere else. And let me just say that the seats that these tickets had us sitting in were absolutely the best seats imaginable. Thanks Cindy!!!

As the headline says, they lost. But I was so excited to actually be able to see the facial features on the players and where the little white thing they were tossing and smacking around was at any given time, that I barely noticed.

Kansas City Royals Pitcher, John Thomson

Kansas City Royals Infielder, Billy Butler in a side line chat.

Los Angeles Angels Outfielder, Vladimer Guerrero (Vladdy)

Los Angeles Angels Pitcher, John Lackey

Look at all those Angels fans. The stadium, by the way, was sold out.

OK, well. I don't want to load all these images only to have them disappear, as seems to happen all too often here, so I'm going to load the rest of these on the Flickr page,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/twobears2/

See you there.

Oak Canyon Nature Center

I keep meaning to suggest we go back here to Don, but lately our own backyard seems to provide enough wildlife and exercise (gardening--not walking). These images are from June 4th. But not of this year, of 2005.
To learn about Oak Canyon visit http://www.anaheim.net/ocnc/.

This baby bird is very little.

How little? Well, good luck looking for him/her in the photo below. S/he's Thumbalina size.

See her/him? Here, I'll help. Look for a smaller version of this in the picture above--this is really enlarged so it's not very sharp/clear:
'Not sure what that little guy will grow up to be. Maybe one of these?

No the ivy and the thistle are not one and the same plant, but they sure look cool together.



And what's a walk through nature without at least one of these?

Oh look down there (little dot middle of path)! A Roadrunner!

Ouch!

Flowers for Dan

While Don's Mom was visiting, as mentioned here previously, she bought a beautiful bouquet of flowers to take to her late husband at Westminster Memorial Park Mortuary. We took them on Monday, the evening before she was to leave, but a sign warned that flowers are removed weekly on Wednesdays. We drove to the site and decided that indeed the grass needed mowing and the flowers looked like they'd been there since Mother's day. We couldn't just leave them for one day and let the beautiful bouquet get scooped up. So we took them home with plans for Don and I to place them after the lawn had been mowed. We then went to her brother-in-laws memorial and left flowers there.

Joan had to leave Tuesday morning so did not get to see the flowers in place, so this posting is for her.

Then, for Memorial day, Don and I took another, all-be-it less elaborate, bouquet that we put together ourselves, this weekend.

Don's MBA Graduation, 5-20-2007.

You've seen the reception, now here's the graduation.

First, though, I wanted to mention that after my previous post a couple of people commented on my great camera. This only concerned me because, if they thought I was referring to just one camera rather than two, they surely thought I was overdoing it on constantly mentioning the camera. I just want to explain, that I wasn't bragging about my camera, I was distinguishing the two cameras from each other. In fact, in one of the shots with the smaller Coolpix Nikon (still referring to the previous post), you can see the D70S on the table near Don.

Now, according to "Weather Underground" the temperature for May 20, 2007 in Fullerton reached a high of 70 degrees Fahrenheit and a low of 60. Still, I feel confident in stating that between 7:00 a.m., when we arrived at Cal State Fullerton and 12:30 p.m., when we left, the mercury indicator was hugging that 60 mark. We'd anticipated that the cumulus bulk of the moisture overhead would dissipate, and had dressed accordingly. Don's Mom and I had jackets, but after the first couple of hours we were coveting the blankets we saw draped around a few shoulders and couldn't blame one otherwise scantily dressed lady for using a bath towel as a shawl.

Don had warned us that we needed to arrive at 7:00 a.m., but my mind had re-written these words to "*leave* at 7:00 a.m." Hence, the morning began in a flurry of activity when I woke Don at 5:58 a.m.. Still, we managed breakfast, and we were all fashionably attired, out the door, and over to Cal State Fullerton no more than 5 (or so) minutes behind schedule.

Once out of the car, Don zipped his graduate's gown up and Joan handed him the lei she'd brought him. We rushed toward the staging area on the track, Don disappearing briefly into the Men's room, and the three of us pausing long enough for Joan to pin Don's medallion on. You may think it tacky of me to mention the bathroom stop. Well, I know. I just wanted to make the point (in case a graduation organizer happens upon this page) that if he hadn't stopped on the way, the entire graduation experience would have been miserable for him. They should point out to students as they hand them their tickets to the graduation that it's a long ceremony and people, especially the graduates, will have no opportunity to leave once things begin. Apparently there was a short break between the University ceremony and his own College of Business and Economics ceremony for the 2,000 students in the College of Business and Economics to use one of *three* portable toilets!

Now, as long as I'm critiquing the event, I think I'll take this opportunity (in case some would-be graduate attendees happen on this page) to suggest things that members of an audience should not do if they don't want to be remembered by thousands of perfect strangers as completely selfish morons.

1. Do not stand, no matter how short you are, just because there is room to do so, if there are any seats behind you that could be blocked. Not even before the ceremony begins, because some people may actually be trying to watch the pre-ceremony portion of the event being projected on the overhead screen.

2. Do not tie balloons to flowers and set them on the empty chair beside you so that they rise to just the right level so as to block the view of those behind. In fact, don't bring balloons at all, leave them for the party after.

3. When the announcement is made to turn off your cell phone, turn off your cell phone.

4. If you forget to turn off your cell phone (maybe you were in the bathroom during the announcement) and it rings, tell your caller you can't talk and will call them back. Just because your graduate is not smiling down at you from the screen, doesn't mean that those around you will also be more entertained by your call than by the event.

5. One or two good belts of laughter, or inordinately loud comments to your friend beside you is acceptable, after all this is a celebration, but try not to repeatedly get within whispering range of the people in front of you just before you erupt.

6. Do not let your child repeatedly slam into the row of chairs in front of you, playing patty-cake games with your other child.

7. If you do rise from your seat during the ceremony, even though you've been instructed not to, try to avoid smacking into the heads of the people in the row in front of you.

8. Don't play Norma Rae. A graduation ceremony is not the venue for your political views.

OK, that will do it. You're probably writing a note to yourself that you won't be accompanying me to any special events, because I'm just no fun. You could be right. Despite these minor impediments to my power to enjoy the experience though, it was WONDERFUL to be there for Don's graduation, to hear the speaker, and watch Don walk on stage!

OK, from the beginning...We step from the car. Don puts on his gown and his Mom, Joan, gives him his Orchid lei.

Ready?
Yep!

Tracie: "Oh good! You *did* remember your medallion. We were worried you'd forgotten it and we'd decided not to mention it!"
Joan: "Here, let me help with that."

Don departs to the staging area while Joan and I find a seat and wait for the event to begin.
The chairs you see here are the first group of chairs. There is a gap between chair groupings for people to pass through. We decided to sit at the front of the second grouping so that we could leave our chairs easily if necessary to relieve cramping or what have you. So this is the view from our chairs. That screen up there will have projections of the event as it occurs.

But will we be able to see the screen if this lady next to the wheelchair who has recently arrived doesn't sit down?


Well, sometimes we can see the screen--part of it at least.

This poster was hard to read. All I really saw was "USA" and magazine photos pasted on that I couldn't see.

Between my zoom lens magnification, and perhaps too fast of a shutter speed, I got lines in these screen images that you didn't see in person. Sorry about that.

In between showing us the students in the staging area, they project things about the various Colleges. These are a few shots I caught about Don's College of Business and Economics.





This one is hard to see because they superimposed an emblem over a classroom.


And now back to the students filing in.



Good golly! Would-ja *look* at all those students!
Yes. No mirrors. No funny camera tricks. There's really *that* many students!

And they are still filing in!

This poor girl finally got some coffee to get warm with. We saw her pass by a few times earlier and had attributed her posture of shoulders pulled up to her ears and arms folded over her chest to the ineffectiveness of the backless mini-dress.

Hurray! The commencement ceremony begins!
A little Honor Guard action from the ROTC.

An extremely admirable rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner", sung by Sean Saclolo.

Introductory remarks are made by Chandrasekhar Putcha, the University Faculty Marshal.




Cal State Fullerton's President, Milton A. Gordon, welcomes the friends and family of these 9,676 undergraduate and graduate students being honored today.

CSU Board of Trustees is represented by Moctesuma Esparza (producer of such films as "Selena" and "The Milagro Beanfield War").


Robert Palmer, Vice President of Student Affairs says a few words.

Kristin S. Crellin encourages students to stay involved with Cal State Fullerton through the Alumni Association of which she is the President.

Greetings from the Chair of the Academic Senate, Diana Guerin.

Greetings from the President of the Associated Students, Heather Williams.

And a conferral of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters goes to Dan Black (Apparently a dedication had also honored him on September 15, 2006; with the Science Labratory Center on the Fullerton campus being renamed Dan Black Hall in recognition of his generous gift of 4.2 million to the College of Natural Sciences and Mathmatics. I believe they aslo mentioned an ongoing support of $75,000 a year.)


The Commencement Address is conducted by Dr. Lucy Jones, Scientist-in-charge for United States Geological Survey (USGS) earthquake activities in Southern California. Her speech is interesting, and entertaining as she jokes about the people who think scientists know but can't tell anyone when the next big earthquake is coming. She reports having once received a letter, "I know you can't tell me when you expect the big one, but could you let me know when you are sending your kids out of state to visit relatives".

After the first ceremony is over and students rise to break into their various disciplines around campus. Don's College of Business and Economics is the largest group so they/we aren't leaving.


Crowds of people leave the area, but Joan and I are surprised---no, *shocked* at how many have stayed behind.

Back to people-watching.
Excuse me. Mam? How much for the blanket?


The lady did finally sit down, but now her family has moved the baloons. The balloons are substituting for her; obliterating our view of the screen. Grrrr.

Guests are all discussing how busy the restrooms are, so when Joan returns after her long trek across campus to find one, I head off to the library. When I return everyone is seated, grads and guests alike, and the ceremony has is under way. I'm not sure how much I missed and I am now realizing just how cold and achey I am. So I seem to be a little short on photos for this half. Most of the time is given to the calling of the student's names to come up on stage for their degrees. When Don is called I jerk the camera up and actually press the shutter button down in time....but there is a slight delay and this picture of his chin is all there is.

Thanks to the forethought of Don's Mom, who picked up a couple of items on her bathroom run, here's what Don brought home to remember it all by. This first one is a shirt with all of the 2007 graduates names. Apparently 2X was the only size offered because they needed that much room for the names.

And the 2007 Commencement book.