Always follow your intuition.

It was a cold summer night... I guess 66F could be considered warm by many but compared to 86F just a few hours earlier, it was cold. I was driving back home after my first thirties experience of Bikram Yoga. I was listening to symphony No 5 opus 67 and life was exactly as described there.
Then a friend of mine called to discuss some issues with our upcoming code release. My friend is a man of many virtues but, alas, patience is not one of them. He talked for approximately 15 minutes and I was very close to my home when I noticed a dog.

The dog was running towards Central Park. He looked lost and disoriented so I tried to follow him. My friend immediately noticed that I stopped listening to his speech and asked what the F was I doing.

I told him about the dog but instead of following my intuition and getting out of the car and trying to engage the dog I kept on driving after him. My friend kept on being offended that I did not listen to his gibberish and at some point I lost track of the dog.
Big mistake. I could have saved a life. Not a human one but still a life.

A few days later I noticed this post on Nexdoor Central Park West.

Yes, but it's bad news. She was hit by a car and left to die. Some kind gentlemen helped her to the side of the road and stayed with her until she passed and continued to wait for animal control. Thank you so much for helping us look

xoxo

Read More

Tips on what to expect when visiting Texas for the first time.

A good meal at a 5-star hotel is even better with a nice view. The parking lot of the hotel where my lab was staying in the trunk of our rented car had an amazing view of the city. He just finished his lunch and was going to take me for a walk around the parking lot.

My lab put his leash on and was ready to depart but man proposes, god disposes. A black golf blocked a red Nissan truck parked next to our car. The red truck already caught my attention earlier in the morning, when we arrived, because its trunk was full of garbage with new shiny black shoes on top of it continue reading >>

Read More

How I learned to love the Burning Man

more >>

Read More

Edwards Air Force Base, Mojave Desert, and Big Sur

Edwards AFB is home to the best Air Force Test Pilot School in the world. Mach 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and even 6.7 were first reached there. And Yes! Edwards AFB has tours; there is a catch of course, the tour has to be booked a couple of months ahead. The tour starts fairly early 9:00am so it is a good idea to spend a night in nearby Mojave, CA.

A word of advice: since 9/11 it has become impossible for civilian outsiders to get access to Edwards AFB so it is critical to arrive to the West Gate and not to any other gate because the guards will not let you pass through the base "highways".

Unfortunately, one is not allowed to make pictures inside of the base but there is a nice collection of experimental aircrafts just outside of the West Gate.

Again because of 9/11 anyone entering Edwards AFB must pass security clearance so my friends who did not sign up for the tour on time were not allowed on the bus and had to go somewhere else. A military guy suggested trying Joe Davies Heritage Airpark located in Palmdale, CA and they got some nice pictures from there.

Edwards AFB is surrounded by 2 beautiful lakes - Rogers Lake and Rosamond Lake. Alas, the lakes are dry. Test pilots, however, find this fact useful! Billions of tax-payer dollars where saved by the lakes when pilots used them for emergency landings.

On the way to the City of Angeles.

Venice Beach has some funny looking buildings in its vicinity.

We just could not miss Tropicana Bakery & Cuban Café. Sadly our military vegetarian was deeply disappointed with our decision to visit the place and confessed to us that he lost faith in humanity.     

On the way to Hearst Castle...

As we got closer to 101 it became more and more foggier.

The beach (as well as the mansion) used to belong to William Randolph Hearst, but were donated to the state of California.

And suddenly the sun came out but not for too long/

The most basic tour of the mansion costs $25. The road to the castle is designed in way the building suddenly appears and then disappears again.

Yes, a wood imported from Thailand.

56 bedrooms!

Nice view from the castle.

We were lucky to see the outside pool without any water. It had a leak and they were working on it and it will actually take at least a year to fix it!

Nice indoor pool.

And a private zoo. In fact we saw some zebras on the way to the castle and thought we were dreaming but apparently the zebras were part of the zoo.

An Elephant Seal beach (35.663801666666664, -121.25861166666667).

I am done driving for today!

Nice try being a test pilot.

Finally, we are above the skies :) approaching Big Sur.

To be continued ...

Read More