Why oh why am I driving a Toyota?? Pics from the Lowrider Show

Why the heck am I driving a Toyota???  It is fuel efficient, paid for, compact, easy to park, and it has no soul. None.

IQ and I went to the 40th Annual Chicano Park Day festival and Low Rider Show.  Good Lord!  There were panty-droppers everywhere you looked.  This is one super awesome event that truly put all of Texas to shame.

Here are some highlights from what we saw:

FYI: My Toyota has no airbrushing on the hood.

No dragon slaying, bow and arrow sporting magnificent airbrushing exists on my little Yaris.

No semi-nude babes adorn the front of my car.

I have no skulls or curlicues.

My little Yaris has no stylin chrome.  It is not as sexy as this one.

My Yaris lacks heft, style, and brawn.  It also is not nearly as shiny and fancy as this old car.

Nobody wants their picture taken in front of my Toyota the way they do in a front of a classic Chevrolet.

Nobody looks super stylish and cool just for sitting in my car.  This car, however, adds a heavy dose of bad-ass to whomever comes near it, much less sits in it or owns it.

Gorgeous hood ornament.  Do you think I could special-order one of these for my car?

Sweet paint job on an old caddy is way cooler than my gray Yaris.

Gather round, y'all.  This car won "Best Paint Job".

I May Be Poor, But This City is Painted-Utility-Box Rich

I know I haven't posted in a while; it is because I have been in a deep, dark, lousy surf, unemployed, jury-duty-serving malaise.  There is only one thing that can lift one's spirits after such a string of mediocre weeks.  Well, two things, and since we don't have jobs and friends and a great house lined up in a city that is an awesome match for us, then you know what I am talking about:  PAINTED UTILITY BOXES.

Bring. It. On.

Here is an exuberant, yet not overwrought, art-deco inspired box near Hillcrest.  It is caddy-corner from a Starbucks that serves stale cupcakes.

Here is the back side of the same utility box.  I like how they seemed to incorporate the actual shape of the utility box with the tall building motif.

This box has a nice vibe reminiscent of 70's colour block/flower power pieces. It is simple, has little depth, but dresses up the utility box nicely.

This box is right outside a school playground in Hillcrest.  It looks to me like what a grown-up envisions when they think of art done by kids.  It is fake kid art.

Is the art fake or is the kid fake?  Both.

This utility box is also outside the elementary school in Hillcrest.  Some not so clever vandals changed it up some, leaving it almost as cryptic as it was pre-tagging.

What kind of an angry animal is that?  The head shape suggest a kitty, but the teeth are not cat teeth.  This critter's dentition is totally lacking in incisors or canines, and the whole set of teeth look more like an herbivore's teeth.

This is the partner piece utility box of the mysteriously-toothed kitty creature utility box.  This critter is less fierce looking, and kind of looks like a skunk or maybe a cartoon of a sports fan who has painted their face.  The teeth on this one are so indistinct they offer no help in identification.

Worst Highway On-Ramp Ever

The historic Highway 110/ Pasadena Freeway not only connects our favourite and most used highway, The 5*, with our second or third favourite place to get pie, Pasadena's Pie n Burger, but it also has the most terrifying and ridiculous on and off ramps EVER.

The Pasadena Freeway was established in the era of the Model T.  As an aside, and we do love our asides here at Far Flung, the Model T got 30 MPG.  The Honda Civic also gets 30 MPG.  Hummers get 12 MPG.   Moving on, the 30 MPG Model T also had a top speed of up to 40 miles an hour, which is still a lot faster than the speed of cars on this freeway during morning rush-hour.  Back in the non-rush-hour days of the Model T, the road was shared with horse carts, so the car speeds were probably slower than 40, but still faster than today's rush-hour stand-still. Nowadays, highway speeds during non-rush-hour times are usually in the 70's.

I tell you this not only because it is an interesting factoid, but because it puts some things in perspective.  I could go off on a rant about fuel efficiency, but instead I give you this:  The on- and off-ramps have not gotten any longer, straighter, or better since the early 1920's.   Go ahead and read that again.  Given the increased usage and speeds on The 110, it is amazing that length and design of the on- and off- ramps have not changed.

The off-ramp is about the size and angle of a parking space at the grocery store.

Wow.  I may be a total hayseed, but I find that extra terrifying.

So, on your next trip up to Pie n Burger, there is no need to go to Lego Land or Disney Land.  Just keep up with the speed of traffic on the 110, then exit.  Buckle up!  Have fun!









 *In California, highways always have a definitive article before the name or number of the freeway.  One would not say, "Take 5 all the way north to LA," but would instead say, "Take THE 5 all the way to LA."

Beware Giant Robots!

The end days are coming.  The four horseman actually are a metaphor for the four cruel and powerful limbs of this giant robot.

Run, Scientist, run!!!

Yeti Sighted, Smiled At

We saw this yeti outside of Julian. I wish we owned rather than rented, because I sure would love to adopt this gentle giant.  Check out my favourite bigfoot organization to learn more about these noble creatures.

Partner Piece to Heavy Metal Rooster

Techno Chicken

Text Where it Doesn't Belong

I am a fan of the written word, found poetry, and an appreciator of fonts and texts.  Today's post highlights my latest little discoveries of the written word in unlikely places.  More specifically, unlikely words in unlikely places. 

First off, the word "gizzards" as seen stenciled on the curb.  It was not repeated anywhere in a 2 block radius.  I checked. 

Might this be marking somebody's parking place?  Maybe it is the parking spot of The Gizzard Fairy, that mythical folktale hero who delivers giblets to all the good little gravy making boys and girls of the world?  

Next up on our short tour of text in unlikely places is the stenciled graffiti on the uppermost corner of this 2 story industrial building in Tustin.  If you can't read it in the picture, it says "Fart Barf".  If that is someone's tag, I am really sorely disappointed in their creativity.

Finally, we have this concrete lawn pig that has the name "Bobby" painted on it in, after close examination, appeared to be white-out.  Maybe the pig's name is Bobby.  The flamingo did not wear a nametag. 

Send us your unlikely text in unlikely places, and I'll make another post out of it!

Hot Crib

Drop by Far Flung Headquarters any evening and you are likely to find us tossin the bones and going to bed by 10 pm (35 is the new 50).  While the scientist and I have been keeping a running score on this dominoes tourney for 2 1/2 years, we have yet to see a crib with such a massive, prosperous, preposterous, weighty, fruitful, imposing, and yes, embarrassing yield.

Add up those pips.  It comes to 98.  Yes indeedy, yes sirree, 98.

This is how the scientist felt about my win. 

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day, team Far Flung!!

The prophet has spoken.  -Or growled.  -Or whatever it is that groundhogs do.  Phil has done his job, and seen his shadow.   Six more weeks of winter.  Here in SD, I guess that means six more weeks of wearing a long-sleeved rather than a short-sleeved T-shirt.  

Your Groundhog Day cards are in the mail (unless we don't have your address, in which case give it to me and I'll send you the best Groundhog Day card you have ever received, designed by Ari Stiles, graphic designer, yogini, artist and human extraordinaire), and to keep your cyber-experience groundhogged up, check this link for the official Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.  You can watch the video of Phil's prediction!  You can send e-cards!  I, for one, am happy to see they are finally getting on the bandwagon.  I've been sending Groundhog Day cards for more than 10 years now, and am glad the benchmark Groundhog Day club is finally getting their acts together to do so, too.

Spread the Groundhog Day love, and enjoy 6 more weeks of winter!

San Diego Finaly Gets Some Weather!!

For two days now, San Diego has NOT been 70 and sunny.  We have actually had a little rain and lots of wind. 


Our neighborhood, Ocean Beach, is a wide swath of beach community butting up on ocean and one side and topped by the San Diegito Estuary.  In the past 2 days our 'hood has been transformed by Mother Nature from a picture postcard beachy palm tree oasis into a windswept, soggy harmattan littered with blown-off palm branches and battered by super hight surf.


Our mediocre neighborhood paper has some good photos taken by folks in our neighborhood:  

Shown above is a pretty typical medium sized day at our pier down a few blocks from Far Flung Headquarters.  Take note of the cafe on the pier, and where the water is in relation to the pier down below the cafe.  

Here is the massive wind and storm swell driving over the TOP of the pier.  Take note of pier cafe here.

Ladies and gents, that is some high surf.  Far Flung Headquarters is sitting tight, a good third of a mile inland and maybe 20 vertical feet up from the beach.  We are enjoying the meteorological variety this is providing.  It sure is nice to have a break from the oppressive sunshine and get some gusty, crappy weather for once!