The whirlwind continues. We headed to sunny California and Palm Springs for the annual Association of Free Community Papers convention and trade show this past week and built in a little time to see Dave and Penny and niece Whitney in Los Angeles.
This will be my third year for peddling my photobook book printing to newspapers and other publications. The publishers and other key people who attend these events are starting to recognize me and the service I offer.
Since the organization is national in scope I get to meet hard-working folks from all over the country and I find it to be quite interesting.
One woman who stopped by was from Ocho Rios, Jamaica, who had a son who attended K-State. He is now an art instructor in Savannah, Ga., and was giving a presentation at the convention. We were able to talk about her hometown, which we had visited more than 20 years ago.
The Wichita-to-Denver leg was on an almost new Lynks Aviation turbo prop regional aircraft, which I hadn’t seen before. They say its air speed is nearly as fast but it uses 30 percent less fuel. So it’s a good trade off, in my opinion. The ticket wasn’t 30 percent less however.
We picked up our rental car at L.A. International Airport about 4 p.m. and headed onto the 405 Freeway, which is one of the major north/south routes. At first we were cruising along at a good clip, which I thought was all right.
It didn’t take long until all I could see ahead were taillights with everything slowing to a crawl. For the next hour it was gas, brake, gas, brake. I thought I was going to need therapy on my right foot by the time we got to Dave and Penny’s in Sherman Oaks.
On the way to the desert the next day we saw miles and miles of wind farms, which to me are a mesmerizing sight. It was tremendously windy that day so all but a few of the turbines were turning. Never did learn why some don’t turn, but it looks like there is great potential for cranking out some electricity in this fashion.
It’s every bit as windy here in Kansas, so I don’t see why we haven’t picked up more on this technology.
The convention trade show was in a huge ballroom where all of the attendees took their break.
I overheard one guy say he maintained his target heart rate with coffee and skipped the exercise part. I suppose that might work.
We returned to L.A. on Saturday afternoon just in time to go back on the freeways to the Rose Bowl for the UCLA spring football game. But this time I wasn’t driving so it was OK.
The weather was terrific so we tailgated in the shadow of a bus. (You might know by know that I am infatuated with buses.) The weather was a little warm at first, but cooled as the scrimmage continued.
The Rose Bowl is one big stadium, and I’m glad I got to see it firsthand and for free along with about 15,000 other people.
I would never have thought of this, but I learned from a college student that one of the new ways of cheating on tests is to scan a label of a plastic drink bottle and then put in the formulas in the place where the nutrition in formation is located and paste the new label on the bottle.
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