I Sing the Day Electric

(ring ring)

Gina: Hello?

Readers: Is this Gina?

Gina: Yessss, it is, who may I ask is calling?

Readers: We are your readers, and we have a question. Haven't you been phoning it in lately?

Gina: Um, er, why yes, I suppose I have been lately. What with Christmas coming and the little sweepstakes thing I had going, well, it all got kinda crazy there for a while.

Readers: Well, we can understand that. Up to a point. And after that, you see, we just aren't going to waste our time any more. Capice?

Gina: Uh, yeah. Loud and clear.

So dear readers, I apologize for the lack of any insightful or witty posting lately. And of commenting, in which I have been greatly remiss. My brain and body have both been on overdrive, and I was certainly slacking off pretty much all of last week. Sigh. I'll try to do better this week, although I'm not making any quality promises until after Christmas.



Today, because it was a beautiful and lovely day after a couple days of rain, we decided to visit the semi-newly remodeled Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. It is one of the oldest observatories in SoCal, I believe, and parts of the movie "Rebel Without a Cause" were filmed there. We hadn't been there since the remodel, and figured today would be a great day to go.

And we were oh-so-right. I have been to Griffith's more times than I can count, and I can honestly say I have never seen the view of Los Angeles and the environs more clearly than I did today. You could see all the way to the ocean, and even the ocean, which usually has some fog shrouding it, could be seen to the farthest horizon.

One blip on the way was that Mr. P had to throw up due to getting carsick. He gets carsick often, even though we have a DVD player in the back to keep his eyes off the scenery, which if he looks at, will get him sick very quickly. He has always been prone to carsickness, and I was told by the pediatrician that he would "grow out of it." Right. Still waiting.



Anyhoo, the highlight of the day was that Mr. P got to activate one of only two of the original Tesla Coils built by Nikola Tesla himself in the United States. There it is in the picture above. How cool was that? He was chosen out of a group to go ahead and press the button to create 1.2 million volts of energy, and I swear, I thought his face would break from the grinning.

Comments

Being picked out of a group to do something exciting is always cool. Lucky boy!

My youngest has bad, bad motion sickness. Car, planes, everything. But I always tell him to LOOK OUT. The DVD player makes it worse for him. You've been told to do it the other way 'round? I'm starting to wonder now...

Heidi
karla said…
I used to get carsick as a kid too, and I remember very clearly throwing up a bag on ketchup chips all over my brother once.
captain corky said…
I hear that, Gina. Life for me is going to be pretty crazy until after Christmas as well. Busy, busy, busy!
Ted said…
I think I would be grinning from ear to ear as well if I got to push the giant volt button!

Also, you forgot to mention that the observatory was in the Paula Abdul video for "Rush Rush." ;-)
Scout said…
What a nice outing! He will outgrow it, most likely, although some people can't read in the car ever.

I used to get sick only in the back seat, but I was fine up front. But then if you gave in to that, you'd have to listen to the people who say you have allowed your child to usurp your rightful place in the front. blah blah
Very cool. Of all my 36 years living in So. Cal. I never once went to the Observatory - pretty shameful. Maybe on my next visit & only if the sky is clear.
Awesome Mom said…
That looks like a super neat place to visit. I love sciency places.
Anonymous said…
I usually got a headache from reading in the back seat. Or...because my dad smoked while he drove us. Probably both.

http://wordgirl5.typepad.com/apathy_lounge
Atasha said…
My friend's son gets carsick but he is outgrowing it so there is hope! He's 4 but it was pretty bad when he was 2 1/2. My husband can't read while the car is moving. He gets sick and wonders how I could do it.

That place looks really cool. I can imagine how excited Mr. P was.

And, I hope you were busy signing all your Christmas Cards :)
J said…
I was going to say maybe when he's old enough to be in the front seat, that will help. But someone beat me to it. :)

What a cool place, and pushing that button is AWESOME!
Laura said…
My daughter was finally over it by about age 8. It sounds like you had a really nice weekend, in spite of the carsickness.
Cherry said…
Sadly I never got over motion sickness and as an adult I'm even worse. WEeeee!

That observatory sounds so cool! I bet Mr. P will remember being chosen for a long time.
Mrs. G. said…
I still get carsick. Yuck.

This sounds like a great trip. How cool to activate a Tesla Coil. Great photos.
dgm said…
Ooh, this reminds me we need to take the kiddies to Griffith. How cool for Mr. P. Maybe that will be the thing that triggers his quest for a Nobel Prize.

Sorry about the carsickness. We've got ourselves a hairtrigger vomiter as well--carsickness, smells, congestion, certain foods--you name it, it's a trigger. Always keep spare clothing and bags around!
chichimama said…
What a great trip!!! And how cool for him.

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