CUT, PASTE

In case you’ve been wondering about terragylphs and how the work is going in my street to replace the ancient water pipes, well, recently various words, numbers and and squiggles have appeared. 

I assume the guys will indeed be cutting in due course, although not yet.  Work seems to be progressing slowly but obviously well enough that mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti just held a press conference up at the other end of the street to celebrate the fine work the lads were doing, here and elsewhere and to announce a new General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, David Wright.  That’s him on the left, and for out of towners, that’s Garcetti on the right, looking mayoral.

I walked up there to see what was going on. It wasn’t exactly a media circus but a fair amount of press was in attendance, as well as some political flunkies and people from the LADWP, and of course the guys doing the work.  I think it was also meant to be a great photo op: a large pipe being lowered into a hole, but in the end I think it probably wasn’t as visual as they’d hoped.

As far as I could see there were only about three people there who actually lived in the neighborhood – and being one of them, I found myself being interviewed by a local TV station, I couldn’t tell you which one.  If I’d known, I’d probably have washed my hair.  Anyway I think I said all the right things: there had been many leaks, many cracks in the road, the whole area was subject to subterranean movement, the men doing the work were a great bunch of guys and so forth.

Final question from the interviewer, “And do you do any walking in the neighborhood?”

“Honey, I’m the author a book titled The Lost Art of Walking, and I write a blog ...”

     I’m not sure she was actually impressed by this, but nevertheless I was then filmed walking down the road trying to look natural.  I kind of hope I never see it.

At one point the mayor held up a map, which is always good:

And for a substantial amount of time, he stood next to the LADWP mascot – a man in a foam rubber costume shaped like a drop of water.  The magic of Hollywood.