We’re driving up the hill/mountain to get to the observatory, which is on top of Mount Hollywood. It’s about 20 minutes from dusk. We’re tooling along chatting with the windows up and stereo on, about to make a left up a switchback turn to go higher up. All of a sudden there’s a pedestrian woman in front of me looking to my left. There ain’t shit over there but trees so I’m transfixed on her malfunction. The girl sitting next to me her mouth drops open. Turns out there’s a minivan flipping end over end down a 250 foot hillside that is at least 45 degree banking. SHIT! Brakes to the floor. The fan lands right in front of me, rear wheels on the road, front wheels facing up the hillside. The front is completely crushed. Anybody still in front has to be toast.

This is right up the street from Griffith Park so there are a fair amount of people a bit down the hill. I pull over, we bolt over to the car. Three of us pull off what is left of the sliding door on the minivan. The driver is alive but pinned under the windshield. We’re telling him to stay still but he’s afraid. He manages to pull himself out of his seatbelt from under the windshield down to the rear seat where we don’t let him move.

At this point I’m still don’t know how he got to where he landed. I look up the hill and it’s got to be nearly 80 yards of thigh high grass to the road he drove off. The last 20 yards are about 60% grade. Apparently he came around the corner too fast and went off. If he had not hit the tree right at the road edge he would landed on us. In the end we survived. The night wasn’t clear enough for the observatory but we hit up The Griffin and Bigfoot Lounge afterward for drinks. Well, drink as in singular for me. I was driving.

- After I’ve told this story a few times it will have grown to include the van was on fire, his passenger was pregnant and we delivered the baby before getting them out whereupon the van exploded.

I did get another bike computer this week, a Polar CS400. It’s got heart rate monitor and altimeter, although I’m not too sure about the accuracy of altimeters that use barometric pressure. It apparently thinks there’s a 20 ft difference from my bed to the bathroom.

I got some nutritional supplements from Udo’s Choiceto help bring my cholesterol and blood pressure down. I need to order a cholesterol test kit so I can track the changes from home. Twice a day I make a shake with 12oz water, 1 cup of Quaker Oats uncooked, 2 scoops of protein, 1 tbsp Udo’s Choice Wholesome Fast Food Blend (fiber supplement), 1 tbsp flax oil and some flavoring. It’s not an ice cream smoothie by any stretch but two of those daily knocks out most of my daily nutritional requirements and it’s down in 3 minutes anyway. I’m also taking niacin, red yeast rice and a liver cleansing supplement. The protein powder has vitamins added.

It took almost two hours to make the drive out to Lake Elsinore but I pretty much slept the entire way. We grabbed a quick bite at Subway then hit the stadium, Pete Lehr Field. It was a pretty cozy stadium, seated about 8,000 or so with an absolute monster wall in right field. It was like Fenway park, the right field fence was 3X as high as in field. You really felt close to the action. We had good seats behind the visitors dugout and you had to pay attention to make sure you didn’t get clocked by a foul ball. I did pretty much land on roomie’s niece while jumping for a t-shirt which I didn’t even come close to actually catching.

Justin didn’t play even though he’s normally a starter. I guess he missed a gym session earlier so the coach took him out of the lineup to teach him a lesson. He does need to gain some weight if he’s gonna make the majors anyway. Stockton ended up getting crushed 11-3 or something. They had two homers but that was pretty much all the offensive production. Baseball can be a very slow moving game and by the 5th inning I was really wishing I was drunk or at least buzzing pretty good.

I would really like to see a AAA game somewhere. I wonder what the crowds are like there. I need to figure out where the nearest team is.

You’re sporty, yet practical, and you have a style of your own.  You like to have fun, and you like to bring friends along for the ride, but when it comes time for everyday chores, you’re willing to do your part.
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