#malibu fires

[elwestley]

It's so sad to hear one of your favorite actors has lost everything. I’m so glad to hear that Cary Elwes and his family are safe. Thinking of him and many others who have lost their homes in these horrid fires in California. Thankful for all the hardworking first responders who are trying to do their best to keep the people in the community safe.

[losangelesallday]

Took about a decade off from this blog. And yes, I'm still in LA. Like the aftermath of the January fires--it's time to rebuild.

Holla at me if you're still here.

[larykennedy-blog]

book two: day four

now that i am no longer tethered to my house it is time for me to catch up with some of my la buddies... id lived in the san fernando valley for the majority of the time i lived in los angeles... los angeles is one of those weird places where no on actually lives in the city of los angeles... well except for the homeless.... technically they dont either being homeless and all... downtown la is mostly federal/state buildings, flower/clothing/jewlery marts, and office buildings... in the past couple of years the city had made attempts to build up the downtown area... there are some pretty decent restaurants and some upscale condominiums but i dont know anybody that actually lives downtown...  los angeles is spread out with each city running into the other... unless you were very familiar with los angeles you would never know you had transitioned from one city to the next... its all a teenage wasteland... not really i just like saying that... teenage wasteland...  the majorioty of the time my days were spent in toulca lake, studio city,sherman oaks, hollywood, beverly hills, brentwood, santa monica, burbank, and malibu.... these were the parts of los angeles where most of my freinds lived/hung out... even though la is one big giant subburb it is a very vast and spread out suburb... getting from toluca lake to malibu is a trek when there is no traffic... add the cars and you may as well fly to san francisco and get there faster... ok i exaggerate  but damn the traffic is bad here and that is no exaggeration...  its not like i can zip around la and hit every city in one day ... if ya wanna see somebody/something thats not in the immediate area it takes some planning... with kids, work schedules and rush hour there were a lot of people i didnt  see often even though we lived15 miles apart...  now that im officially free to roam the planet i decided to hang by the beach and catchup with some friends i havent seen forever... me leaving town for a year wouldnt have made any difference... i lived in the valley, they live at the beach... more than likely another year would pass before i hooked up with my friend cheryl had i not decided to park bdhs fat ass at the beach... a very long time ago and i do mean a very long time ago i wandered into a local pool hall in sherman oaks... one of the cities of los angeles i used to live... this guy hits me up for a game and we play for a while when he asks me if i want to go out to his car and do some crank... i said what does it do to you... he says ya know that drawer you  have in your garage where all the loose nuts and bolts are stored, it makes you want to organize it... i thought about it a minute... cool i said... we go out to his car which was a block from the pool hall... he clearly did lots of drugs cuz he had hot boxed his car which from what i understand makes whatever you happen to be smoking more intense... at the time i thought he did it to keep the sun light out cuz what i also later came to find out this s**t keeps you up for days...  i did a small amount of whatever hed given me then made my way home... i could hardly wait to organize... anything and everything... i had a two bedroom apartment at the time... i started in the kitchen then finished in the guest room two days later... i had 3 huge black trash bags filled with old pictures, old clothes, old antiques and many other old artifacts which i dumped off in the trash area right before crashing for the next two days... when i awoke from my halcion haze or whatever you wanna call it, the reality was id rid my entire apartment of anything that had the slightest sentimental value... as well as a high resale value... id organized myself right into regret nation... what in the hell have i done i said to myself over and over and over and over and over again... the only way i found to console myself after throwing away all my pictures from high school/college, family heirlooms, and very expensive gifts from past exes was to convince myself id had a fire and lost it all... whenever something id tossed would come to mind id flash back to the reality of it all then quickly remind myself id lost it in the fire...  my friend cheryl really did lose everything in the fire... the malibu fire of 2009 to be exact... can you imagine... i honestly have to say that after this past year, after dealing with actually getting rid of the majority of my stuff and the realization that not having stuff is an amazing feeling i know id get through it... just like cheryl did... however i chose my new lifestyle... she did not willingly sign up for what happened... everything gone poof just like that... everything... gone... she didnt even get to enjoy the high... cheryls a survivor... she survived and rebuilt and came out stronger for it all... it was not an easy ride getting her life back together... id never seen her old house but i sure was looking forward to seeing her new one...  wolf and i made our way up the serpentine road to her house high in the malibu hills... there were still burnt out homes here and there i noticed as we finally approached cheryls home... id taken a wrong turn here or there... i parked in an empty lot across from her where the only thing visible was a charred fireplace... cheryl and precious, her adorable blue pit bill greeted us at the front door... wolf immediately made himself at home while cheryl was a bit hesitant to let precious off her leash... wolf was the first dog to ever enter the premises... funny how its always me who worries about wolfs forward attitude... pomeranian, german shepard, pit bull doesnt matter... it didnt take wolf long to befriend, annoy then steal precious's chew toy...  it was good to see cheryl and her new home...  i was happy to see her rebound... i can see why she chooses to live in malibu... what a beautiful front yard she has... nothing like waking up to the crashing waves of the pacific ocean... today's "must have" fun fact... click here to read more about the history of fires in malibu... http://www.malibucomplete.com/mc_hazards_fires.php