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Sunday - November 17, 2002
Traffic
(or, I love L.A.)
Sunday, November 17, 2002
It was a busy week and I finally got a minute to update this journal. I
spent quite a bit of time working on the town hall newsletter and mailing
list. The woman who has been doing it isn’t comfortable with computers so
when she sends files or attachments by e-mail, invariably they end up
being the wrong ones. I finally gave up and created a new mailing list by
manually typing the names into the computer myself. I don’t suppose 236
members are that many but just the same; it took a couple of evenings. The
newsletter is also not what you would call a complex piece of journalism
however; I’ve had to start rebuilding it from scratch. I’ve done
newsletters for my family but never anything that actually goes to a
professional printer. I guess I’m a little nervous about that so I’m
trying to get started early.
I ended my week by driving to Los Angelis for my mother-in-laws birthday.
I know several people who are afraid to drive on freeways and they will
drive miles out of their way so they can stay on the surface streets. I
understand completely how they feel and I have to admit to getting a
little bit tense when navigating crowded highways. For me, L.A. freeways
have always been the ultimate test of driving survival. The traffic there
is aggressive and unforgiving. It’s always crowded, even at three in the
morning. Speeds can change from 80 to 0 within a quarter mile and you have
to be on your toes and ready to react instantly.
This time I survived.
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May 30, 1966
– Monday
Today is Memorial day and with no school I keep thinking it’s Sunday.
The school year is almost over which can be good and bad. I’m failing
Spanish and I’m not up to par in my other subjects. With so little time
I’m not going to improve fast enough. There seems to be a bad side to
everything.
This has been a pretty boring weekend but I’ve been learning a lot.
Barry’s been teaching me all the ways of smoking a pipe. There’s more to
it than sticking tobacco into a pipe and lighting it. Also I’ve been
taking driving lessons. I’m not a bad driver but when the time to take my
test comes along, I’ll be so nervous that I won’t be able to see straight.
I’ve seen three movies this week and “The Longest Day” was by far the
best. It ga a real life view of D-day and war in general. It wasn’t played
up, there weren’t any women running around the battlefield as in some
movies and it showed that some of the good guys can get killed too.
Now-a-days people well do anything they can to keep from being put in the
service but actually I wouldn’t mind at all. If it wasn’t for school and
messing up college I think I’d go out and enlist in the Marine Underwater
Demolition team. If I’m planning on a career that has something to do with
skin-diving this couldn’t be better for experience.
Everybody’s screaming, “Why are we in Vietnam?” It seems obvious to me
that if we don’t stop the communistic movement over in Asia and Europe in
a few years we’ll be trying to stop it in Mexico and Canada.
[Note added to margin in 1974: “Did I really
write this? UNBELIEVABLE!”]
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