Catching Up Is Hard To Do

Been a bit dormant here the last couple days. Sorry ’bout that. I’m happy to report that my “Ride of a Lifetime” ended up being a 70-mile affair and when I got home pretty much the only thing I did was play catch with the dog, drink a couple tall Pabstsesses and watch the clock drawing to the time when I had to get cleaned up, suited and over to Granada Hills High School for my daughter’s graduation yesterday evening.

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Both the outrageous birthday bike trek and my Katie’s awesome achievement have left me in a bit of a proud and contemplative state of solitude, but yesterday in between beers I did manage to upload a buncha photos of the pedaling portion of the day here on Flickr, with links to photos of the specific places on the list:

Good Samaritan Hospital, Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles (May 29, 1964)
S. McCarty Drive, Beverly Hills ( – 1966?)
Westminster Avenue, Los Angeles (1966? – 1970?)
S. Hamilton Drive, Beverly Hills (1970? – 1972)
S. Tower Drive, Beverly Hills (1972 – 1974)
Holly Drive, Hollywood (1974 – 1977)
S. Wilton Place, Hollywood (1977 – 1979)
S. Hamilton Drive, Beverly Hills (1979 – 1983)
Murietta Avenue, Van Nuys (1983 – 1984)
Beverly Glen Boulevard, Sherman Oaks (1984 – 1986)
Fulton Avenue, Van Nuys (1986 – 1988)
W. Tujunga Avenue, Burbank (1988 – 1990)
Verdugo Avenue, Glassell Park (1990 – 1990)
E. Palmer Avenue, Glendale (1990 – 1991)
Murietta Avenue, Van Nuys (1991 – 1991)
Beverly Glen Boulevard, Sherman Oaks (1991 – 1994)
Murietta Avenue, Van Nuys, (1994 – 1994)
Seabury Lane, Beverly Glen (1994 – 1995)
Burbank Boulevard, Encino (1995 – 2001)
Beverly Glen Boulevard, Sherman Oaks (2001 – 2003)
Del Mar Avenue, Silver Lake (2003 – 2004)
N. Occidental Boulevard, Silver Lake (2004 – )

And this morning I got around to building a rough-n-ready composite of the narrative video clips I captured at various points along the bike route the way and foisted it onto YouTube:

9 Responses to “ Catching Up Is Hard To Do ”

Comments:

mark says:
June 1st, 2008 at 11:41 am

Congrads on your daughter’s graduation. Has she chosen a university to go to yet?

Will says:
June 1st, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Thanks Mark. In fact her plans are to attend my alma mater, Pierce College (perhaps with an eye towards transferring to a university down the road…

Maybe you’d recommend Northern Arizona University or are there still “too many fucking lumberjacks” as I recall you telling me on more than one occasion during your stay there.

mark says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:57 am

Well, its still a pretty good school, although I, of course would recommend that she “go Greek” and join a sorority. That being said, I rather imagine that the school has changed over the years as the area has grown. When I was there, the town had 30,000 when school was in and 18,000 when school was out. I have been led to understand that the town is now a city with a population of 150,000. I rather imagine that has led to changes at the school and its culture.

Jodi says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:26 am

Congrats on you and your daughter’s achievements!

militant angeleno says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm

awesome. Awesome. AWESOME vlog there! One little nitpick though: You reaaaally need a helmet mount for that camera.

Will says:
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:09 pm

Thanks MA! I’d been thinking about mounting the cam to my handlebars or helmet but as I was taking lots of stills with it, I needed to keep it hand-y.

Sorry if the unsteadyness was distracting. I was actually considering bringing my tape recorder and just capture audio as we went along.

militant angeleno says:
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:26 am

Dude, the unsteadiness wasn’t a problem, it’s your safety!

When the Militant was at the Dodger game a couple weeks ago, he was originally gonna film his 1:59 Lot P-to-Sunset-Gate descent but had to forgo it in the name of safety. As in, the hand holding the camera while freewheeling downhill should probably be ready to apply the rear brakes instead.

Jo Gillis says:
June 14th, 2008 at 5:04 pm

I finally got around to watching this – enjoyed the video and seeing some familiar locations – what a way to celebrate your birthday and then top it off with your daughter’s graduation. A birthday to remember. I went to the movies to see Iron Man for my birthday – I’ll have to get more creative next year!

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