Reflections in One of Chihuly’s Walla Walla Onions
It was back to work today, after a whole weekend off, none of this “everyone else’s weekend is half over, but yours is just getting started” crap. Over the weekend I biked both days and then swung by the gardens to take this photo. Otherwise, it was a rather quiet and dull weekend.
Dan flew in from Detroit last night, but I didn’t actually see him until tonight. His left arm is covered in tattoos, as part of a year-long, one tattoo a month art project. He told me about his small part, his emphasis not mine, in rescuing a couple of party goers at last Friday’s beach wedding. The sailboat, a Whaler, that he had been tooling around in all week had capsized and dumped the pair into this year’s unseasonably cold Lake Superior water. It sounds like they weared. Both suffered hypothermia and one had to be hospitalized. The polar vortex is that gift that keeps on giving. Dan said that after his feet were blue.
We had dinner at the Bottleworks, which was hosting an antique motorcycle show. Our wide-ranging conversation covered topics about guy things, like our websites and bicycling, he had just bought a new bicycle, a single speed that can be converted to a fixie. He has a new roommate, a woman artist. Somehow, we got on the subject of the differences between LA and Saint Louis. He still loves Saint Louis the place, what with its historical architecture and the fact that it has real weather, but he is fascinated by the people of LA.
He said that he knew three almost famous people in LA, all women artists. The underlying metric for being famous or almost famous were the number of followers that they had on the various social media platforms. Usually measured in units of a grand. One of them was one of the two women that spent the night here last night. They are on a cross-country drive and stopped here to crash for the night. This first almost famous person is a standup comedian. She is currently being featured on a reality TV show, sort of a Last Comic Standing knockoff. She was able to announce that she had made the quarter finals. I never heard nor saw them as they passed through town, arriving late at night and still being asleep when I left for work.
The second almost famous woman artist is a porn star. He didn’t have too much to say about her, except for the money that she makes, six figures. The third woman is a museum curator and also a certified NASCAR driver. She holds two Guinness world records, one for riding the fastest methane powered motorcycle that she earned on the salt flats and one for driving the fastest parade float. Her daddy owns a racetrack in Pasadena. I’ll let you do the math.