Theme Day: Photo of the Year 2010

City Daily Photo bloggers share a theme day the first of every month, and the first of the year we like to bring out our proudest moments. This is my favorite shot of last year, posted September 22nd: the Occidental College men's cross country runners at Hahamongna Watershed Park. They remind me of Pheidippides, or maybe just Greek gods. I love the sunset catching the dust at their heels.

Today also marks three years of daily blogging for me. There was a time this year when I thought I might not continue. After all, a daily blog is a big commitment. But the rewards are so many that I think I can keep going for a while longer. Thank you all so much for visiting. I appreciate each and every comment, each and every follower, each and every day.

Happy New Year!

City Daily Photo is now 1326 blogs worldwide, with new blogs joining every month. Today you'll see the best of last year, so I highly recommend you click here and visit some!

The Rose Parade streams live here:
http://www.ktla.com/entertainment/roseparade/livevideo/

Happy New Year, the Pasadena Way

photo by John Sandel

Please do click on this panorama to enlarge it. John took it with his iPhone inside the Rosemont Pavilion last night, while volunteers and professionals worked feverishly to finish a dozen Tournament of Roses parade floats.

Actually, not feverishly. Fever implies heat and it was chilly in there. But they were working hard. It is estimated that 80,000 volunteer hours will go into this year's Tournament of Roses parade and festival.

Thanks to our friend Terry Griest, a white-suiter and sometime PDP guest photographer, we were treated to a VIP tour. We didn't have to wait in long lines and were were able to get down on the main floor of the pavilion to see the floats up close.

The panorama gives you an idea of the enormity of the place and the work going on there, but it's only an idea. The Rosemont Pavilion houses 12 floats; there will be 47 floats in Saturday's parade. Every surface of the floats is decorated with organic matter, from flowers to coffee beans to kidney beans to carrots. I was intrigued by a plant called "silver leaf," used to decorate the shining armor of a knight on the Bayer company's "Camelot" float.

Here's our tour guide David (thus the term, "white-suiter"). When you see this eagle in the parade it will be at the head of a float ridden by Native American singers and dancers of tribes from all over the United States. And it won't be wearing that plastic shower cap.

If you're camping out on Colorado Blvd. tonight, stay safe and warm, ya nuts!

Here's a photo of how things looked at about 2:00 this afternoon along Colorado Blvd. John was driving and I shot this out his window. Things were just beginning to get a little insane.

Happy New Year from Pasadena!

Elbow, Elbow, Wrist, Wrist

I took these photos yesterday afternoon from my car at the corner of Colorado Boulevard, waiting to make the left turn onto North Orange Grove. See? Red light. Perfectly safe.

Workers were still preparing for Saturday's Tournament of Roses festivities. Most of the bleachers are ready, but this pavilion needed a few final touches.

It wasn't until I got home and uploaded the photos that I realized the guys in yellow were the only ones working. I had several pictures of the gentlemen behind the white fence practicing their parade waves.

 

Because of the comments, I decided to add a couple of extra pictures to give an idea of what things are looking like around town:

Just south of our featured gentlemen, the press pavilion at Colorado and Orange Grove is complete.

Several miles east: how do the employees at Fedde's Furniture get in the front door of the store every morning?

Glad to See You

I hope the tourists arriving in Pasadena for the Tournament of Roses parade and the Rose Bowl game are enjoying themselves and finding lots to do. Although I'm glad they're here I admit, since the Rose Bowl is west of me and Colorado Blvd. is south, unless I'm forced in other directions I'm going only east and north until next Monday.

It's nothing personal. Some of my best friends are Texas Christians and cheeseheads. I'm just not one for crowds.

The Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia (east) is looking beautiful these days, and since it's so big there's room for a few extra people. Isn't that bench inviting? I sat on it.

I made the unfortunate mistake of putting my glasses in my back pocket before sitting down. Even my titanium frames couldn't survive the ordeal, so I was forced to take a drive down Lake Avenue yesterday (south). I would have waited until next week but my glasses were making me dizzy, so I stopped in at Moda Optique to have them adjusted. Hratch said business was good but the Texas and Wisconsin fans are not knocking down his doors. Apparently they brought their glasses from home and haven't sat on them yet.

Resolve

Do you make new year's resolutions?

I do. My reason for making them is to keep them, so (here's my logic:) I make resolutions that are possible to keep.

2010's new year's resolution was to finish my novel. It's done done done.

Of course just because the book is written doesn't mean it's published. I have a lot of work yet to do. But in 2010 I spent an inordinate amount of time sitting at my desk, which brings me to 2011's resolution.

A book doesn't get written without one's butt in one's chair at one's writing desk, but admittedly, this is not the best thing for one's butt. In 2011 I resolve, among other things, to de-stress and to exercise. There's nothing like a good trail for killing those two goals with one mountain.

Did you make a 2010 resolution? Did you keep it? What do you resolve for 2011?

Zen Monday: #126

photo by Sara Wright

It's Zen Monday, the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box until the end of the day to avoid influencing the discussion, unless you people get totally out of control. This keeps not happening.

There's no right or wrong, we're here to have fun.

You may notice we have a guest photographer today. A warm welcome, please, for Sara Wright! 

Sara is our second Zen Monday guest photographer. (The first was Katie Murphy, two weeks ago.) I'm thinking about instituting a Guest Photographer day--perhaps a different day than Zen Monday. Let me know your thoughts, either in the comments or by email.

Mare Tranquillitatis

The main trails at Eaton Canyon were crowded yesterday. Although a few small signs warned of the possibility of flash floods, moms, dads, babies, uncles, grandmas, dogs and ripe old relatives crowded the fast-moving stream in the wash, enjoying a sunny day out.

John, Boz and I found quiet trails that most others missed. Lucky us.