Have you all been enjoying these evenings?

(Shaky cell phone pic of Santa Monica Pier)

Today, while I was at work, I came to the realization that I have a serious internet addiction. Not porn, though god knows there's enough of that out there, but news sites like http://www.cnn.com/, http://www.reddit.com/, http://www.drudge.com/, http://www.aldaily.com/, http://www.digg.com/, and random sites like http://www.break.com/, midnightridazz.com, http://www.pro-touring.com/, etc., etc. It's not just the garden variety "like to keep abreast of current events" sort of interest, but more of a totally obsessive "must know more than Google" thing, which, given the nature of modern communications and technology, is a hilariously futile endeavor. It's not good. It's interfering with my daily life, so I've got to scale it back some.

So after I left work today, rather than going home and blowing the evening watching just about everything new at break.com and reading just about everything new at reddit.com, I decided to drive out to Venice Beach for a stroll.

Which brings me to my title question, "Have you all been enjoying these evenings?"

Holy cow is L.A. beautiful in the evenings right about now!

So I walked from Venice Blvd. up the boardwalk to Santa Monica, and got to check out the newly redesigned Ferris Wheel at the Pier, complete with computerized LED lights.

It's pretty spectacular. The Ferris Wheel has this wicked display of changing lights and patterns and mandalas that make it absolutely fascinating to look at (not that you would know from the pic above). So fascinating, in fact that I didn't even notice that the lights on the ferris wheel were spelling out a message for the Fox television network until I overheard someone mention it. I was going to include a blistering condemnation of the nefariousness of including marketing material in all things pleasant in the world, but then I realized that their marketing efforts were wasted on me, what with my not owning a television and all, so I win.

From the Pier, it was up Santa Monica proper, to the Third Street Promenade and Baja Bud's for a delicious burrito and some of their world class guacamole.

Then back again. It was dark at this point, but the evening was spectacular and the moon was more than half full, so it was a great time to be outside.

The trip back was uneventful except for a brief incident at the parking lot near Ocean Park. As I walked back down the beach from Santa Monica, I began to hear tires squealing, repeatedly. As I got to the parking lot, I saw a large SUV that had lodged itself on the grass covered embankment separating the parking lot from the parking lot entrance way. I walked over to the car, and asked the woman driving it if she needed assistance, which she did. At this point, I realized that my reach had extended my grasp, as I may be a big guy, but I'm not really capable of singlehandedly moving a stranded Lincoln Navigator. Luckily, there were 5 guys hanging out at the adjacent parking lot who had been watching the scene, and when I asked if they could help her out, they said "Hell Yeah!", ran over, took a few pictures of the stranded vehicle (with the obligatory tiny dog sitting in the passenger's seat), and with 6 of us pushing and the driver gently hitting the gas, she was up and over safely and parked a few moments later. As she parked the car, one of the guys said "We were watching, and as soon as we saw it was a chick, we were like, "Oh, we've got to go help her."" Which pretty much defines the L.A. code of chivalry, namely, if it's a guy doing something stupid, you watch and laugh, but if it's a woman doing something stupid, you watch and laugh quietly and then offer assistance. Then she got out and pointed at her SUV, and said "What good is this thing?"

What good is a two wheel drive, six-thousand pound vehicle that gets 13mpg city? Not much, especially if there's only one person in the car and it's used for getting around L.A.

She was very thankful, and invited us all over to drink beer and hang out by the pool tomorrow, which was nice.

Then it was back down the quiet and now almost empty Venice Beach Boardwalk. As I walked down the boardwalk, I stopped and actually read the posted signs regarding the "i-zones"(as opposed to the "p-zones") which are first come, first served areas where you can sell items that you have created without a permit, as well as services (fortune telling / tarot reading / etc.) as long as you make it clear that these services are free (although donations are accepted) and that you actually provide these services for free at least once per day.

That's pretty cool. If I get a spare moment, I may have to bring a table and some folding chairs and be the "Un-Psychic" for a weekend or two, and for a nominal contribution, tell you all about yourself and what you should do using only logic, intuition, and basic common sense.

But first I need to worry about what I should do, namely spend less time on the internet, and STOP WEARING WORK SHOES ON LONG WALKS! This is the second time in recent memory I've done that, and my feet are again disgruntled.

But a fantastic evening nonetheless. You all really should get out and make the most of these summer nights.

Especially this Saturday. A 500+ person roving bicycle party crashing an all-night art and music festival in Santa Monica?

That might be the single most fun public event in any category this summer.

Come along if you can.