Two sides of US life Fall 2014

Images of Lancaster CA today

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Patriotic people from all parts, an influx of lost Americans

You can see the breakdown of the American economy all over Lancaster Boulevard. I take pictures as I'm out walking.

I love The Boulevard for its music and entertainment, but truth is, this is what you see here on ordinary days.

Woman at left asks me for spare change every time I pass her, past few months. I always say, I'm broke too, but she keeps asking, just like my daughter.  "I don't have any money either!"


(More pics TK) \


-ke

Video, Hungry in Lancaster

They arrive around 10:45


 Then they wait



And then the van arrives (and my battery in camera dies)



Read more and see still photos of watching the hungry line up for food from my porch here.

-ke

Hungry in Lancaster Nov 2014

When I moved here 1.5 years ago, I barely saw them, a handful of people outside my door lined up for free food on Saturdays. Now the line is long.

Above, the line at 11 AM yesterday. Below are more hungry people lined up for a small bag of food in the parking lot behind the post office Nov 2014

People with kids

This is just the middle of the line

Two vans arrived around 11:15 another at 11:20

hungry people today in California, viewed from my front porch

-kay ebeling

Pics: City Council May 13, Lancaster

At beginning of hearing, I thought people were there, like me, enthused to hear latest on net-zero electric policy in Lancaster, as we go totally solar.

But by time hearing on electricity started, the room, below, was empty. 

Though AV Press announced hearing on Page 1 Monday, no one from daily paper was at the hearing about breakthrough new electricity policy. Below: Water in a time of drought. 

County water district, above, brings bleak news, plans for reclaiming and conserving, unless it rains in the desert soon, which I believe will happen. I think climate change is going to turn this area lush and green, China Lake may even go back to being a lake.

Ask this man about 

arsenic 
in your water

Below: 
Lancaster moves forward with net zero solar electric policy.

Above is the team that did it. 

I love Lancaster. 
a city where people go out of their way 
to say they love Lancaster.

-ke

It is cool here. I think climate change is going to make the Mojave cool lush and green, I honestly do. Just planted a tomato plant, I have a plot of garden in my apt bldg now, going to grow a bunch of other stuff, while enjoying cool breezes as L.A. broils. hmm. 

Kay Ebeling

35 seconds ago · Edited

(Posted just now on Facebook, click my name to connect... )

Open House, Lancaster Sheriff Station May 10

I went to Open House at Lancaster Sheriff station Saturday.

The whole idea of an open house 
at the sheriff station is so cool, 
I could not resist taking pics.  

It makes law enforcement part of the neighborhood. 

At right is our down home sheriff of Lancaster, Captain Patrick Nelson.

I was kinda sick, so did not get the best shots, but now I'm resting, as want to get good pics at City Council meeting here tomorrow night. -ke 

Yeah though I walk through the valley of the antelope, I will fear no evil, but I ain't stupid, I still might be packing. Might be.

PICS: One Day at Lancaster Farmers Market

Whoever says Lancaster is boring has not been here.

I spent two hours at the Thursday Farmers' Market yesterday and got these shots, and will be taking more.

Lancaster on a Thursday evening is a great place for people watching and buying fresh produce at low prices.

France Bakery is at Lancaster Farmers Market every week, with fresh baked breads and pastries.

The Boulevard itself is something to behold on any day.

Above: Big Sale going on now at Kiki's

Another vendor you can count on is the Fresh Squeezed Lemonade / Strawberry-Lemonade

Learn about a faith-based domestic violence shelter in the making.

Stop for a meal.

Observe innovative shopping bag carrying techniques.

I always say, no matter what catastrophe happens in your life, you've got to move forward, and since moving here I am finding people who seem to live their lives the same way.  Had a great talk with new friend Ginger, pictured here.  I told her how I was in Chicago when I chose Lancaster as next place to live bk I can get to L.A. on the train easy when I need to and bk of affordable housing.  She said, "Yeah that's Lancaster, all right. End of the line and cheap rent."

Now I have to admit, I rarely leave the few blocks that hold downtown Lancaster, I feel like it's a refuge from the rest of the world. Lancaster is a very special place for me.  I'm ten times healthier for some reason since moving here, which was only last June. I know I'm not familiar personally with the history (but I read a lot), and I bring with me resources that some locals cannot access, not many but some. I am who I am and am grateful to have found this town.

These people who said Lancaster is boring are so clueless

These Are The 10 Most Boring Places In California

www.movoto.com/blog/top.../most-boring-places-in-california/‎



by Randy Nelson - in 872 Google+ circles
Apr 8, 2014 - Another Southern Californian city located in the Mojave Desert like Lancaster and Victorville, Hesperia isn't quite as boring as those other two ...
I get most my produce from Pedro.  He trucks in fresh vegetables and fruit for Lancaster market all year round, every week, even in darkest winter, you can count on him to be there.





There is some controversy about vendors who truck in produce from other places, that a farmers market should be for local farms only. I'd like to hear from anyone who can educate me more on this. (Email cityofangelslady @ yahoo dot com).  As a consumer I'm grateful to have access to vegetables and fruit without having to go to a chain grocery store, so to me, I'm still keeping it local. If I'm wrong, please tell me. 
Meanwhile, Onward.
EXTRA: Just confirmed it: TehachaPie sold out all 45 pies in first two hours of market yesterday.

Charlie, who bakes all TehachaPies in the kitchen at Woodward West Extreme Sports Camp. from scratch with the freshest local grown fruits he can find, is one happy vendor (pic is from March 28) as he also sold all his tarts and slices yesterday.
-ke

Guitar
Lesson 

on 

The 

Boulevard

Shot at 1800, restaurant on The Boulevard
in outdoor eating area, Tuesday April 15, 2014.
,

Kay Ebeling

about a minute ago

The more I live in the desert the more I turn into a reptile stalking my prey by holding perfectly still. There is much to be learned here. (Click my name to connect on Facebook) 

Walk of Honor, Lancaster CA, for Homeless and Aerospace Heroes Together

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Lancaster CA, by Kay Ebeling March 2014

No matter how patriotic, the current economy can destroy your life. 
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Buying Begins soon as Fed contractors get raises, Farmers Market Lancaster

I watched it happen last week.
Posted just now on Facebook, click my name to friend me:

Kay Ebeling

2 minutes ago · Edited

Re Minimum Wage
Lots of Fed contractors where I live got 8.1 percent raises this month. At Farmers Market you could see it in the vendors' faces. Buying buying buying was going on, blatant proof the economy gets boosted when wages go up. In fact, the vendors were walking over to other vendors and buying stuff they'd wanted to buy for months. It was wonderful to see.
(Watching the news instead of working on book but oh well)

Apocalyptic Visions Look Good for Lancaster in the Future

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I want to believe I made the right decision moving here, even though I can't convince my daughter to ride the train two hours up to visit me.  So I grasp onto my apocalyptic visions that are likely imaginary, but they help me justify ending up here.

I think the climate havoc we are about to go through is going to be good for Lancaster, CA.  When whatever is about to happen is over, could be the oceans will have risen so high, a lot of L.A. will be underwater, but here in the High Desert, we will be safe.

I hope.

Since moving here, I've been doing research.  Seems as recently as 300 years ago the area around Lancaster was lush farmland. An archaeologist at NASA Dryden close by says the tools and dental remains they find of previous civilizations on this land show the previous population were farmers. Their teeth show they ate plants, their tools show they practiced agriculture.

Then the Spanish missionaries rounded them up and took them all to San Fernando, around the time the land turned to desert, which was apparently only 300 years ago, according to local history.

That's why when you add water to the dirt here, it becomes lush, and beautiful flowers and vegetables grow.  You just need water.

Flowers in my Lancaster apartment complex yard

Well if desalinization and melting ice caps are in the Earth's future, then it could be that Lancaster will become rich farm land.

Hope my daughter makes it up here by then.
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ke
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Feng Something

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Mojave Apartment Cloister

I'm doing Feng Shui with my apartment and with myself.

Start with an empty room and keep it empty until you figure out what you're going to need where. Then find one item of furniture at a time and leave it alone for as long as it takes to know exactly which direction it should face.  Eventually the function of the room and windows and furniture all work together as you've used Feng Shui.  Everything has a symmetry, and symmetry brings calmness.

That's what I need to do with myself, find symmetry and calmness. 

The rooms are empty in this apartment in Lancaster for now.  I can watch sunlight dance in the trees just outside.  Throughout the day I go from window to window adjusting the blinds to change the way the light falls in.  You get a clear sky full of sun every day in this part of the world, the High Desert above L.A., last stop on the Antelope Valley Metrolink where I now live.

Now to figure out which way the light falls.
*****

Notes:

1. What is Feng Shui - Feng Shui History and Theory - Feng Shui Tips 

   

   fengshui.about.com/od/thebasics/qt/fengshui.htm‎

   by Rodika Tchi - in 457 Google+ circles 

   Feng Shui is an ancient art and science developed over 3000 years ago in China. It is a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of ...

-ke 

On the Boulevard, Lancaster CA

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Every day I work and write, from midnight to 9 or so, then I'm out the door to walk on Lancaster Boulevard.  Going to start taking my camera with me and then keeping notes here, on my current home.

This blog is CofA 7, part of the City of Angels Network.  Until this date 7 was a site I set up for transcripts in 2007 then forgot about.  Now it is On the Boulevard, Lancaster CA as this is where I am for now.