Snow? Yes, Snow!

It doesn't happen that often, but sometime snow does stick for a little while--at least as long as it takes to pull out a camera and find a good location. I photographed the mountains to the north of the San Fernando Valley from the parking lot of the Performing Arts Building at Pierce College. The snow level was at about an elevation of 1500 feet. It's pretty amazing how it just stops at a particular level. This was on Thursday morning at about 8 a.m. Most of the snow melted before noon.
This photograph was taken from the parking lot near Victory Boulevard on the Pierce campus, again looking north. I just love the juxtaposition of palm trees with snow-capped mountains. I'm just glad I didn't have to drive in it.

Larry Niven

Tonight, Pierce College will host "Creative Voices," the third in our installment of bringing writers (and eventually other artists) to campus to inspire our students. Author Larry Niven, famous for his "Ringworld" series of books, will be interviewed by Barbara Hambly, writer of the Benjamin January mysteries, historic fiction, and fantasy. Barbara also teaches Western Civ here at Pierce. The program starts at 7:30 at the Performing Arts Building and there will be a signing and reception afterwards. Pierce College is located at 6201 Winnetka Avenue, Woodland Hills, California 91367. The program is free to the public, if you happen to be in the neighborhood.

Ace's Endearing Habits

Well, some of them are.

I've decided to play along with a game I found on a couple of horse blogs. List some of your horse's quirks. I'll try to not bore you.

1. Ace does not like to get his feet wet. The funniest manifestation of this is that when he finishes urinating, he does a 90 degree turn on his haunches so he can walk forward without stepping in the pee spot. He has no hesitation in walking across a sheet of black plastic in a clinic but he'll jump a 2' puddle rather than walk through it.

2. Ace never urinates in his stall so long as there is a door open into the paddock. If he would just decide to poop only outside, he would be the perfect keeper. He usually chooses opposite corners of his space for droppings (one's inside and one is out), rather like rabbits do. If I am cleaning his stall, he will pose with his tail up long enough for me to get the muck bucket or rake in position to catch poop before it gets lost in shavings. You'd think I'd be able to teach him to use the muck bucket all the time. Trigger could.

3. He is usually the cleanest horse in the barn because he won't normally go stand in the rain or roll in the mud. I call him Mr. Priss or Twinkletoes sometimes and I've suggested that if he were human he'd live in West Hollywood or the West Village in New York.

4. Ace only lays down and rolls on his right side. He does not roll over on his back all the way unless something like a depression in the ground throws him off balance. Then he seems a bit confused about trying to get up from his left side. He clearly missed out on some experience as a baby to be that one-sided.

5. He would rather visit with humans than eat. He absolutely loves people. When he really likes a woman or girl, he will stretch his nose out so he can be kissed on the little white spot which is the vestige of his mama's blaze. He's really a woman's horse since men wouldn't fuss over him like that.

6. After carrots, peppermints are his favorite treat, followed closely by watermelon.

7. His curiosity includes looking for things which will spook him. He's like a kid sneaking a look at horror movies when mom and dad are out "If I watch this I'm gonna be scarred, I'm gonna be scarred, I can't help myself, I have to look at this, I'm gonna be scarred, EEEEK!" The precipitating event is generally followed by a three stride spook which he is too lazy to continue. At the last barn, he'd stand in the arena and wait for the neighbor's dog to come tearing up to the fence and bark and he'd do the faux spook, run a circle, and come back to start the game all over again. In the videos I've uploaded, you'll see him staring out into a corn field. It's actually a corn maze and strange sounds frequently come from it (and sometimes people jump out of it) and is one of the most incompatible-with-horse-keeping things the Enterprise Office at Pierce College ever decided to do. Far better riders than I have found themselves on the ground because of this operation.

8. Ace spooks by dropping his shoulder and ducking to the right. Every time.

9. He'll do figure eights and flying lead changes and amazing sliding stops and spins when at liberty in the arena. He's got a King of the Wind streak in him which will send him racing around a large arena for several circuits, both by himself and when he's got someone to outrace. I just get out of the way and watch from the sidelines. In one of the videos I've posted here you may be able to see him do figure eights.

10. He could be used for teasing mares at a breeding barn. The mares at Pierce took turns claiming him as their own because we often turned them out together. There was a young Peruvian Paso mare at Pierce for a while. One day, when she was in season, she desperately tried to turn him on by winking at him and backing her butt up into his chest. He looked around as if to say "I know this means something but I don't have a clue what." The best he could do was nibble her back a little. She was very disappointed.



These videos were taken one afternoon shortly before Pierce College sent out notices to all of its boarders that it was suspending boarding operations. I haven't looked at these images recently and it just kills me that all of this space and the barely used barns are being wasted while people are desperate to find facilities for their horses all over the San Fernando Valley. It was used for two evacuation operations during the fall fires last year, but there is still no indication when it will be open for boarding again. This facility is three blocks from where I live and was built with public funds on the pitch that such a facility was needed in this part of the Valley (that much was certainly true.) Now it is home to pigeons and black widow spiders. I'm not even sure the riding classes at Pierce have been able to use the covered arena. The Pierce riding horses are kept in large paddocks and not in the new barns. There are trails on the 430 acre campus which are not open to public, which is a shame because there are land-locked horse owners living nearby.

Ace lived at Pierce for over four years and I've worked at Pierce since 2004. I now drive 7 miles in each direction every day to see my horse. I used to see him three times a day. I miss that.

Lights! Camera! Fire Alarm!

Dick Van Dyke stepped out of a golf cart in front of me this morning when I strolled back from the Freudian Sip to my office.

Pierce College is often used for filming television episodes, motion pictures, and commercials. This time it is "Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses," starring the afore mentioned Mr. Van Dyke and Barry Van Dyke. According to IMDB, it will air in August.

A couple of years ago, hackles were raised when Playboy filmed something here. Girls wearing bikinis played baseball. The reaction of the then president to the uproar was to call it "easy money." That hit the wire services and it was all over the country in hours. Obviously, a slow news day.

One evening, the Arabian Prince stopped short in his tracks as a missile ran up and down a wire track supported by a crane. That was something not seen in the natural world for 45 million years. It was for the season ender of "24" a few years back. Pierce also served as Camp David for the same show.

"The Pretender" did a lot of location work here, says my friend Lorien who was a second AD on the show. "Toys," the debacle with Robin Williams, was shot here as well. I've seen the wannabee Foster Farms chickens ads that were shot along El Rancho Road. A pilot for a show about horses was partially filmed here at a riding class I was taking. With 400+ acres and buildings which range from mid-century to brand new, it's a fine place to shoot in L.A.

Of course, the call I took from their production head this morning wasn't a happy one. We're busy trying to get our fire alarms tested during the few days between sessions and they were making noise where the crew was filming. Could we put it off or move it? No. We can't. It's not like it was going on continuously. I didn't hear a one as I walked across campus or talked to the head of the English Department. They definitely could shoot around it.

I wonder how long they'll be here. With a TV movie, it shouldn't be too many days.

Ellison Aftermath

So far, no one has come after me with a pitchfork and torch, so I guess that Harlan didn't offend anyone that much last night at Pierce College. Early responses to the two talks have been positive, and the president of the college sent me a thank you at 6 a.m. He got as little sleep as I did last night.

Yesterday's talk revealed something I didn't know about Harlan: he met wife #4 the last time he spoke at Pierce 30 years ago! That was a short-lived marriage (not, I hear, the shortest) and he met Susan a little less than 10 years later. They've been married for 21 years come September.

I probably could have done without him repeating the story I first heard on "Politically Incorrect" about a part of his body falling off in the cold on New York. Bill Maher's face was priceless--I just buried mine in my hands. That's Harlan. He's always politically incorrect. He would have preferred a different reaction from some people in the audience when he told a story about an act of dishonesty. I always find it amazing how some people can be oblivious to their own rudeness or boorishness, and there were some folks in the audience who were.

I did feel sorry for one girl in the afternoon audience who was target by Harlan (the key to dealing with his needling--a part of his performance--is to show no fear), but most of the boys handled the ribbing quite well. I was particularly pleased with one of my own students who gave Harlan a priceless jumping off point. He asked Harlan "How did you become one of only 29 Grand Masters?" Harlan asked him "Do you know what a Grand Master is?" My student replied "Not really, I think it has something to do with the KKK." My culturally Jewish friend and my husband nearly fell on the floor laughing about that concept. Then Harlan went off in that direction. It was very, very funny and Harlan brought it up again in the evening appearance.

Harlan signed until about 12:30 a.m., which was about 2 1/2 hours after he finished his evening talk. He called our house about 1:15 a.m. to say that he left his leftovers in my car. (The President had taken us out for dinner between the two events. The restaurant was wonderful, not far from the college, and therefore in our neighborhood.)

The night air has left me with a sore throat and sniffles and if I didn't have to teach today, I probably would have taken the day off. The official last day of classes in Friday. I sincerely thought we had a whole week more before exams, but graduation is June 5. How my kids will ever get done is beyond me, especially with the lack of equipment and time at the printers.

I am so tired I no longer care about the state of the house.

Waiting for Harlan

Harlan Ellison should arrive on the Pierce College campus within the next half hour to give two performances. I've written an introduction, but I think it is inadequate. What can you say about a man who needs no introduction in most of the places he's ever been?

It's going to be great. And if it isn't, there's still 5 hours until the next session!

If you happen to be passing Woodland Hills at 3 or 8 today, drop by and catch Harlan. It is an experience you will never forget.

Coyote Beautiful

I work at Los Angeles Pierce College, a community college in Woodland Hills, California. We're near the western edges of Los Angeles County, but definitely in an urban area. Warner Center, with its high-rise office buildings and hotels, is blocks away. Various post-WWII neighborhoods surround us. But the school is on approximately 430 acres--that's a little less than a mile square. At least 2/3 of that is "The Farm" or undeveloped.

Pierce was founded as an agricultural college for men returning from World War II. Women were admitted years later. The bathroom facilities in the older buildings reflect this afterthought.

The amount of open land has a nice benefit: wildlife. We see hawks, rabbits and other animals in addition to the cows, horses, sheep, goats, and pigs which are raised here. I know that the Ag Department--particularly the sheep unit--wouldn't be thrilled with this, but I had a handsome coyote cross my path as I drove to work this morning and it made my morning. It trotted across Stadium Way to head up the hill to the Art Department. I noticed what looked like a well-worn path as I pulled my car over to watch. I couldn't get the camera out fast enough, or I would have photographed it as it headed through the brush.

When Ace lived on campus, we often would hear the coyotes sing in the evening. If sirens went off, there was a guarantee of harmonizing coming from the dark. Occasionally, I would see one stalking small mammals in the field with the cows during the day or catch sight of a small pack of them as I drove home after dark. Once, I was walking Ace out to the big field along Victory and he suddenly stopped, planting all four feet with his body slightly crouched--ready to spring away to safety if necessary--and he swung his head to see around me. From behind the round pen trotted a coyote. It was about 11 a.m., so I was surprised by the audacity of a mid-day stroll for what I consider a nocturnal animal. He moved right in front of us to the gate we were approaching and went on through to the field. For the entire time we walked the perimeter of that field, Ace kept one eye on that coyote. The coyote was stalking gophers, which is a useful occupation for a coyote.

I read recently of a town in Oregon which put a bounty on coyotes back in the 20s or 30s. It was then over run by rats and mice. If Pierce succeeded in getting rid of its coyotes, the campus would be overrun with mice, gophers, and feral cats. Although illegal, people dump unwanted animals here all the time.

Soon after I took the job I have at Pierce, I discovered that the school's namesake, Dr. Clarence Pierce, had been from the same small town in upstate New York where I was raised. Delaware County was one of the largest dairy producers in the state when I grew up and it would only have been a bigger farming area at the end of the 19th Century when Dr. Pierce and his brothers left for California. (The Pierce Brothers ran a successful string of mortuaries out here, some of which still bear their name.) The town I'm from had about 4000 people, about half of whom were in K-12 when I was going to school. It's much smaller than the population of the college which currently enrolls about 18,000 students. I'd say the odds of this connection across 3000 miles of country were fairly small.

While Pierce still maintains an agriculture and horticulture program, it is shrinking. Control of the farm is being frittered away to subcontractors who might bring in cash rather that implementing programs which would increase student experience on a working farm or ranch. A few years ago, there were proposals to build an office building or a golf course on the large piece of open land at the corner of DeSoto Avenue and Victory Boulevard. This was stopped, and I think a college president lost his position over it, but I believe it is only a matter of time before all farming operations cease and the land is leased or sold. It would be a loss to the community and to that family of coyotes which keeps the pests under control.

Social Whirl

It's been a long weekend.

On Friday night, we went to the Reprise! production of "Sunday in the Park with George" at U.C.L.A. We've been subscribers for years, and our season tickets are in the first row, just off center.

My husband is a Sondhead. I am not. I rather like "Assassins" and have grown to enjoy "Company," but I really dislike "Sweeny Todd" and "Into the Woods." Eventually, I found a place where I could relate to "George," but it took a while. The production itself was engaging, as these small-venue productions often are, but quite different from the Broadway original in tone, according to my husband who actually saw it in person years ago. He did pull out a DVD of the Bernedette Peters-Mandy Patankin version to show me a couple of things. In doing so, he discovered that the person who created the dress worn by "Dot" in the opening scene (she manages to step out of it while it stays in place and she dances around) and the "chromalume" of the second act was someone we had dinner with a few years ago: Bran Ferrin.

Bran was the head of Disney Imagineering for many years. He lives in a house full of amazing toys: it has two Enigma Machines from WWII, a cracked ruby laser on his dining room table, a soft-ball sized sphere of tungsten (impossible to lift off the table, it is so heavy), and the space suit of the second Russian cosmonaut. There is also a fantastic collection of art and a professional kitchen to die for (his significant other is a professional chef and she likes to cater the large parties they have at home.) I've read a piece by Bran where he talks about how, in the future, artists will be truly appreciated. I sure hope he's right. One of the ironies of "George" is that George Seurat only produced about 8 paintings in his short life and never sold one. The other irony, at least as presented by the analysis of George's work with light in the play, is that he would have revelled in a world where images are produced by pixels.

When we got home Friday night, I made the mistake of opening "Bella Poldark" the last volume of Winston Graham's Poldark series, and I read too late into the night for someone who needed to get up early on Saturday.

I managed to get out of the house in time to drive to Pomona for Equine Affaire before it opened at 9 a.m. It is an annual 4-day event where people get to go to lectures and demonstrations about horses and riding and SHOP. It's a geat place to look for a horse trailer, which, of course means a semi-truck length mobile home with room to bring along your three favorite equines. There are smaller, day trip type trailers, but the overwhelming majority are monsters that I could live in for the rest of my life. There was a time when I thought that would be a great way to retire--drive a little, photograph a little, and go on to the next place. Then I had to crawl up the Rocky Mountains behind some of these monsters. Not likely to happen. I don't own a horse trailer, although sometimes I think it might be convenient, because you also have to buy the truck that goes with it. I can pay for a lot of hauling before I'd ever come close to making a year's worth of payments, let alone pay it off. Ace hadn't been in a horse trailer for over two years when we moved him to Chatsworth in December after everyone was evicted from the Pierce College Equestrian Center.

(Your tax dollars at work: the two beautiful barns and the only covered arena in this part of the San Fernando Valley are occupied and defiled by pigeons, black widow spiders, and mice on the pretext that construction along El Rancho Road would be disturbing to the horses--some of whom lived quite happily through the actual construction of the new buildings--and that it would begin right after January 1. As far as I know, the construction planned has not been bid or awarded and the head of the Agriculter Department at Pierce College says he's been promised no work will begin until after the annual Farm Walk at the end of April.)

I managed to avoid making any high-ticket purchases, although I really wanted to get a girth and leathers for the saddle I bought last year. That's got to wait a few months because of the computer purchase. I'll live. I did buy a DVD by Julie Goodnight on mastering the canter, a gait which scares me. I took a clinic with Julie last sprint and enjoyed it. She's not Harry Whitney, but she's the first woman I've had the opportunity to work with in a clinic. That's a different perspective on things.

I also got to Equissentials to recycle two pairs of my full-seat britches. Recycling means I get new tights and they reuse the leather, at a price of about half a new pair. Equissentials are made in a place called Oneonta, in upstate New York, about 27 miles north of where I grew up. If I ever visit there again, I must see if they've got a factory outlet. Equssentials use deerskin for their full-seat leather breaches, and they are soft, pliable, and can be cleaned in the washer. I love them. They also do a great job of keeping you in the saddle. I wish I had started wearing them when I started riding. It probably would have saved me the experience of the broken arm.

I ran into a few friends and acquaintances at the event. Usually, I see a lot more people I know, but I didn't attend any of the presentations and I tried to get out by mid-afternoon so I could take care of Ace and maybe get a ride in. I got to the barn too late to actually ride, but we went for a walk and he got a chance to roll in the sand of the dressage arena. The turnouts are still too wet to risk a bad slip, but the arena is functional again. I'm looking forward to a lesson on Wednesday.

I was pretty tired by the time I got home, but again I spent too much time with my friends the Poldarks on Saturday night. I'm enjoying the visit, but I do worry that the ending will be rather anti-climactic, as was often the case with the previous books. But Graham did know how to get a reader to move on into the next chapter, rather than close the book. (James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, which have very short chapters, do an excellent job of making you think "oh, just one more chapter" and you find yourself unable to put the book down until it is finished. The Poldark chapters are much longer, as are the books. Eventually, I do have to go to sleep.)

On Sunday, I did a quick pick-up of all the things I had in the living room so it would be ready when friends arrived for the Superbowl viewing my husband had planned. This is not a party for which I have any responsibilities, so, after we went to Henri's in Canoga Park for breakfast, I got to go up to Chatsworth to play with Ace.

It was a lovely day, with an occassional gusty breeze, but the temperature was in the 80s. Sunny California as it should be.

I was planning to clean Ace's waterer. There was a dead rat in it. Fortunately, I knew it hadn't been there on Saturday evening, so I can only hope it hadn't been there very long. We fished it out and I cleaned the bucket. I noticed Ace was a bit reluctant to take a drink, but I'm sure he'll get over it when he's thursty enough.

We had a nice walk and a little trot in the arena. He's still sore on his left front, so I'm not pushing it yet. The vet figured it would take about 12 weeks for recovery, but light work would be o.k. The lameness doesn't really show at the walk, but the new trim is changing how he walks. I also decided to be brave and ride up the hill from the arena back to the stall. This is a big deal for me, and frankly, for him. It went well enough that I'll keep at it on days when he's calm and collected. He did have an issue crossing the little gullet of water created by people washing horses. He needed to walk around it (good thing he had that option) rather than step over it (we're talking about a 1" active stream of water and 5" of mud track.) He doesn't like getting his feet wet, but he's getting better about them getting a little muddy.

After I got him ready for the night, I headed home for the party. I stopped at zPizza, a new place in Tarzana which makes excellent pizza and will make me a personal favorite, a pizza margarita with grilled or roasted eggplant. Quite wonderful. I picked up a vegetarian pizza and one with sausage and pepperoni for all of those people at the house who don't like eggplant (pretty much everybody except me) and I'm looking forward to having leftovers for lunch.

For a group of people who watch exactly one football game a year, it was quite a loud group. Truth be told, we watch mostly for the new commercials, which were a bit disappointing this year. There weren't that many made exclusively for the Superbowl. My personal favorite was the faux Dalmation for Anheiser-Busch (which sadly didn't have any featuring the Clydesdales this year.) Others liked the robot who almost lost his job on the assembly line. My husband favored the rabbit and (I think) guinea pig using a real mouse to get on-line. I had no emotional committment to the game, but I had once photographed the Colts playing the Browns, so I nominally supported them. Most of the folks in our living room were rooting for the Bears. I just felt sorry for everyone in the rain.

I finished up the day with a bit more time with the Poldarks. If it wasn't a school night, I might have tried to finish it.

February is going to be party month. We've got two next Saturday, one the following Saturday, and we host a party to watch the Oscars on February 25. I liked it better when the Oscars were at the end of March or beginning of April.