Music for the ride home
I usually stop in Gilroy to pick up an audio book every time I drive to L.A. I won’t drop big bucks on a new book, as those can run upwards of $50. But classics are cheap. This time it was Frankenstein. The reader could have been better. His delivery is a little muddy. But for some reason Gothic Romantic Sci-Fi makes for good reading on a drizzly day past rolling brown hills and gnarled oaks. I don’t think I’ll ever stoop to the level of Wuthering Heights, though.
I passed acres and acres of pistachio trees not far from Buttonwillow. They had all been neatly pulled up by their roots and laid out side by side in rows, like corpses after a battle. It was the sort of thing that would have put Ents on the rampage, and I was glad to put it behind me.
The Pacheco Pass was fine — a little very light rain, and plenty of sunshine. It’s always the Tejon Pass that worries me if there’s any worry to be had. It’s covered with ice and snow, something that rarely happens in these parts. The road conditions were poor, but not as bad as the Californians who don’t know how to navigate it. Luckily, I’d made a mix cd for just such an occasion:
- “Claire de Lune” — Claude Debussy
- “Teardrop” — Massive Attack
- “Take a Bow” — Muse
- “Marble Halls” — Enya
- “Fix You” — Coldplay
- “Rain” — The Corrs
- “Norwegian Wood” — The Beatles
- “Going to California” — Led Zeppelin
- “Here with Me” — Dido
- “Simonize/Green Eyes” — Pete Yorn
- “Piano Concerto No.21″ — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Though I have to admit I never made it past “Fix You.” I had a particularly stressful near-miss with a Suburban who didn’t understand that ice diminishes the coefficient of friction and increasing velocity while attempting to change direction is an unhelpful way to maintain a vector. So I hit “repeat” and sang along. Over and over. My voice went hoarse, and my ears rang from cranking it up. I don’t mind traveling alone, but there are certain stretches of road I’d rather not be alone on, especially with road raging crazies all around me. I like life’s little “movie moments,” and I had one as I came over the hill down into the Santa Clarita valley. I was through the pass, and a chain of lights guided me on to Los Angeles, which spread out like a big bowl of stars in front of me.
