The Hazel Project

Part 4

THRILLRUNNING:

Some of you know I work in Valencia California. A nice suburban place that used to be filled with orange groves and onion fields. Quietly nestled in the Santa Clarita Valley, it’s one of the last stops for abbreviated places. ‘SoCal’ turns into the ‘Grapevine’ shortly after Valencia.

Noted places in Valencia are Cal Arts -(see)- and Six Flags Magic Mountain. The latter I see everyday on the ride to work. When I make my daily walk to the FED EX store I stare down Avenue Stanford at the lookout tower and the tangled coaster track wrapped around it. There it is, in all it’s suburban, Clark Griswold glory; Six Flags Magic Mountain; like a matte painting.

Shortly after running the L.A. Marathon in March, probably at Chipotle Grill, a DVP favorite; I suggested to my good friend and colleague, Memphis, that we should run to Six Flags, experience a thrill ride and run back during our lunch break.

Thus the concept of Thrillrunning was born. The term coined by Memphis, is bound to become a movement. We already have t-shirts designed.

So, after 2 calibration runs, and LOTS of planning and google mapping, I’m happy to announce we completed our third Thrillrunning expedition last Tuesday in 1:39 minutes!

Our first run was a challenge. The route we chose actually went THE OPPOSITE direction from the park. We figured instead of 3, it was actually 4.8 miles!

We learned a lot from that first run that took 2:15 minutes.

Since then we’ve adopted a shorter more rugged route.

Sometimes this requires us to resepctfully forge our way through rocky, weeded places that have yet to be marked by a path. Hmmm, we have to cross a dry creek bed on a bridge that’s still under construction too. This is considered to be part of the thrill.

Our route has now become part street, part dirt, part bridge, part construction zone, part parking lot, part sidewalk!

THEN we get to participate in the “Conquering All Fear” aspect of Thrillrunning. That my friends is to literally run on to the platform of ONE roller coaster - ride it - and then begin our run back to the studio.

We have bought special passes that allow us to skip to the front of the thrill ride line. Very important since we want to spend a maximum of 15-20 minutes in the park. Our goal is to get the entire Thrillrun down to 1:15. Then depending on the day and the route, and the ride, see how many more minutes we can shave off.

Our first ride - The hang-down coaster Batman - went well but we miscalculated how long it would take us to get to it. A ten minute walk to the back of the park. Next time we’ll have to run to this ride.

Our second ride was Tatsu- This ride locks you in as if you’re flying. That means you’re face down the entire time. This ride malfunctioned two trips before our turn. This was a time sieve and we ended up spending 50 minutes in the park. Lessons learned. We have contingencies in place the next time this happens.

Our third ride, just last Tuesday, was Goliath. I think they use this ride to train Astronauts because I almost blacked out. The adrenaline rush afterwards was more than satisfactory.

And so my friends and family, the most un-athletic perrson you know has collaborated on the invention of a new sport! Go forth, Thrillrunning!

I wish you could hear my FM radio voice right here:

Excercise, Entertainment and Therapy all in one!

(void where prohibited)

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

Part 3

CARPOOL:

There’s a song in there somewhere.

My friend and colleague, Memphis, and I have been carpooling for the entire month of April, and I must say it has been quite a success. Again to preserve miles on the VW and save gas money. Dave Ramsey would approve I bet.

So far, I’ve saved $100 in gas money participating in the carpool.
PLUS we get to drive in the carpool lane! This is a new-improved-freshened- up carpool lane.

I always thought the carpool lane was for zipping past everyone else that got bogged down in traffic. It’s always funny to me when we steer over to take advantage of the carpool lane, and in unison exclaim DVP CARPOOL! After settling in the new improved carpool lane feeling oh-so-L.A. and oh-so-green - we watch everyone in the cool, younger, faster cars zip past us. It’s funny and deflating at the same time. It almost feels cartoonish (pun unintended). Simpsonsesque is a better word.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen

Part 2

TRAINS:

Gas is $3.87 per gallon in most places that I see in L.A. We are on the cusp of $4.00 a gallon gasoline my friends. I’m really surprised people seem to be okay with this. I’m surprised people just keep filling up their vehicles like normal. I have started looking at a combination of travel methods between Echo Park and Valencia. I’m driving 70 miles a day, and would love to save some miles on my trusty VW. A good friend and colleague named Memphis has encouraged me to consider the train that runs from Grand Central all the way to Valencia. It’s about $12 round trip but I could use the 45 minute ride to read or write, plus it would take one more car off the freeway for a day.
And even though I may pay more initially, my goal is to make the VW last as long as possible and drive less.

Memphis suggested I run from the train station to work, that way I could get my excercise in too. I’m still considering the logistics.

So far driving may still be less expensive. But the train is at least a viable option that I could possibly break even. It’s probably safer too. I think in order to drive less and save money I’ll have to look at multiple modes of transit. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

Part 1

PLANES:

The week oil went over $105 a barrell coincided with American Airlines cancelling hundreds of flights. This somewhat panicked decision stranded passengers across the United States for a several days. I guess this was their response to the FAA slamming Southwest with ten million dollar fines for flying un-serviced planes.

A few smaller airlines outright folded. Aloha for example folded, stranding passengers in Hawaii trying to get home from Vacation. I suppose Hawaii is the place to be if your ride home goes out of business.

What about the people who had bought tickets and scheduled vacations? Like my good friend Larry who was planning to come out to L.A. for a visit? We planned to see a Dodgers game. We planned to see a movie at the Vista and maybe catch an electronic music show at Echo Curio. We had all these cool things planned out and his airline folded overnight.

It seems a relatively new airline called Skybus was running a promotion for $10! A great deal for the diligent consumer. Larry, being a diligent consumer, had bought one of these tickets. He recently called me with the bad new of his visit being abruptly cancelled. Then he and I talked about the marketing people who thought ten dollar airfare and hundred dollar a barrell oil was a good mix.

Larry I hope you get your ten bucks back.

Thanks for checking in.

Stephen A. Thomas

My cell phone rings, and it’s Herb. He wants to know if he woke me up. Betty is talking in the background how I have to visit Rome, that it’s just, ‘Wonderful!’ Except Betty says ‘wonderful’ with an ‘h’ in place of the ‘r’ and stretches the first syllable out 2 beats. This lets me know she’s having a really good time. She has time enough to talk slower than usual.

Herb starts telling me about the flight over, how impressed he was that it only took eight hours. They fell asleep, and when they woke up, they were in Italy.

They were getting ready to go to the Collessium (sp). Herb is excited about a special brochure that shows what the structure used to look like, by flipping tranluscent overlay pages on top of the third that’s left.

Herb began telling me about the Vatican, and Betty chimed in that they saw the catacombs where Paul was buried.

They’re better tourists than I because they seek these things out. A ‘Tom-Tom’ could be strapped around my neck and I could still get lost finding the Vatican. Instead, I would end up seeing the Pope Mobile double parked in front of a Starbucks.

Slightly different points of interest, somehow I’ve always found this trait endearing.

Eventually, Betty and Herb are going to embark on a Mediteranian cruise. All this is for their 45th Wedding Anniversary. I’m a pretty fortunate guy to have such parents like this.

So, Happy Anniversary, Betty and Herb, a much deserved vacation indeed. Tell Fellini I send my regards, may he rest in peace.

Thanks for checking in,

Stephen A. Thomas

It’s 11:50. I’m listening to C2C. The topic? “Did James Earl Ray, in a hypnotized stupor, kill Dr. Martin Luther King?”

Ahh the mysteries of AM radio.

Tooling around Wordpress, I’ve spent the past hour deleting all the spam I’ve received over the past three months. I’ve reset the parameters so you can leave comments again. However, I’ve set it up that if the spammers leave a comment that uses any slang of human anatomy they’ll be zapped! These and a few other tag-words the spammers enjoy throwing around to boost their google hits, from what I gather.

These people have provided an opportunity for me to practice patience. Which I’m learning they’ve tipped the threshold!

deep breath here.

Thanks for YOUR patience everyone,

I trust all is well, and know you are all in my thoughts,

Stephen A. Thomas