The GeekHiker

So I finally have a new water heater.

Unfortunately my, er, thrifty landlord went the same route as his predecessor: copper connected directly to galvanized, not strapped properly, no drip pan.

Which means that in a few years time, and who knows whether or not I’ll be here by then, the whole thing will have to be done all over again.

Even better: he didn’t want to pay the disposal fee to have the plumber haul the old one away, so it currently is sitting in front of the house in the rain and wind.

I’m thinking I should put it up on concrete blocks. I don’t have an old junker car to put up on concrete blocks in the front yard to complete the trailer-trash look, so the old water heater will have to do.

Whatever. Not my place, so why should I worry, right?

Still makes me wish I could afford a place of my own someday (not bloody likely in the LA housing market). If there was one thing that my Dad taught me growing up it’s that it’s better to pay the extra money up front so there aren’t any problems down the line.

Of course, neither my Dad nor I own several houses like my landlord does, so who knows who’s got the right game plan.

For the last several days it’s been raining here in LA, off and on. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to have brought my mood down at all, at least not yet. Sure, there are other stressors at the moment (the job mystery tension, the heater debacle), but looking outside as the rain is falling and the clouds move through is actually helpful.

I think a big part of that is the variety of these systems: periods of dark, periods of light, the occasional hole of blue sky and bright sunlight. Sometimes there are black clouds overhead, sometimes white small wispy ones; occasionally the low clouds will break apart and you’ll see the sun dramatically lighting a tall thunderhead.

It changes all day, and that’s fantastic. Makes all the difference in the world to me. You know, spice of life and all that.

And after a few days of this, about 40% of LA drivers seem to have actually figured out how to drive in the rain. The remainder is split into two groups:

• Oh. My. God. Water. Is. Falling. From. The. Sky. I-must-drive-at-a-very-cautious-5-mph-on-the-freeway. OhMyGod OhMyGod OhMyGod

and

• Rain? Fuck it. I’m still doing 90.

So what did I do after the heater was installed and the rain clouds were moving through? I hopped on said freeway and drove at a very reasonable speed down to the beach:

Sun setting through storm clouds

Lone gull on the beach

Creek draining into a stormy sea

Patterns in the sand

Sadly, a number of the shots didn’t turn out. I think that I’ll be needing a new camera soon. Heh. One more thing to add to the list…