feed the tree

if a tree fell in the canyon ... it would make a big, leafy mess. like the one that crashed across both lanes of the blvd. around 4 yesterday afternoon, the victim of a lopsided tree-trimming. fortunately, nobody was hurt -- although the woman whose car got clipped by the trunk was pretty shaken up. because, yeah, she could've -- and likely would've -- been killed if she'd been just one or two more car lengths ahead. the windshield shattered, and the car was pretty dented.

00soul called me at work to report, noting that the street maintenance people came out and cut a one-lane space through the fallen branches for traffic to get through. and then they were just alternating northbound/southbound traffic. so i knew it would be gridlock city around the time i was hoping to get home. when i turned off fairfax and onto hollywood, i saw a string of red brake lights, rapidly lengthening. it was just 7 p.m., which meant you could now park on hollywood, so i pulled over and parked, grabbed my stuff, and walked up the canyon.

it took about 20 minutes. i took little laurel, which i've never walked along before. the sidewalk runs the gamut from narrow black asphalt to wide loose stone to skinny dirt path. it's a bit dark due to low-hanging foliage, plus a lot of places have walls and fences right up to the edge of the property. but it wasn't scary at all. i could sense the people living in the houses, random movements across the windows as i walked past. i think i heard the burble of a courtyard fountain. a peaceful contrast to (a) my killing mood and (b) the cars clogging the street, above on LCB and below on little laurel, which is properly known as laurel canyon road.

i was surprised that it didn't take longer, and also that i was able to keep my pace pretty steady, b/c i always feel like i don't get enough cardiac exercise and my lungs aren't in very good shape. the last leg of the jaunt was steeper, as i had to cross over and start walking up LCB itself once past the country store. there's no sidewalk, but a very meandering path along the side of the road. in some places you have to walk on the street, however. for much of the time i walked, the cars were stopped dead, as the traffic people were letting the southbound cars go through. i heard pj harvey blasting out of a range rover. i was very pleased with my decision to walk, b/c i would've burned sooo much gas if i'd driven. not to mention, it would've taken a lot longer to get home.

of course, just as i got to my house, and crossed into the middle of the blocked lane to wait for a break in the traffic flow so i could get all the way across, some motherfucking asshole in a giant red pickup truck drove past and whistled at me. "fuck you, you fucking pig!" i screamed, winded though i was. i heard an evil laugh wafting from the driver's window. shit, i thought. all the way up the canyon, hiking past hundreds of cars, and not one fucking hassle. not one. then some goddamn troglodyte has to go and ruin it. i flipped him off, crossed the street, and went home.