I thought I'd post this picture in honor of one of my favorite celebrations- Halloween. This is a picture taken at Grandma Risser's (great grandma to most of you). I believe that's Gordon on the far left in the space suit (the highly reflective space commander suit :-) and Toni on the far right in the clown outfit. Between them are cousins Dan and Kent Sellers and Shawnee Rae is on the floor. I think that just maybe the object in Shawnee's hand is an old Halloween noise maker that Aunt Bobbi Jo gave me. I just love this picture.
Halloween 1955
Dia de los Meurtos
Saturday I was able to attend the Dia de los Meurtos (Day of the Dead) celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Unfortunately, my camera battery died almost immediately so these are the only pictures I have.
When I first learned of this celebration which has it's roots from South America, it seemed a bit macabre to me. The more I learned about it, the more I realized it was actually a joyful celebration inviting the spirits of your deceased loved ones to return for a visit. You construct "alters" to the spirits and include things from all four elements: favorite foods to nourish them from their journey back including a special bread (earth), candles to guide them to you (fire), paper cutouts (represents wind) and water to refresh. Alters also include skeletons to honor the "guest" and to remind you of your own mortality and marigolds also known as "the flower of the dead". Alters can display pictures of your loved ones including pets.
This years alters included one to honor Mel Blanc. It had a small Hollywood Bowl Shell with his various cartoon characters in skeleton form. An annual favorite is the Johnny Ramone alter (yes, of The Ramones fame). His gravesite is on the walkway and includes a full size statue of him playing the guitar in black marble. This year there was quite a bit of North meets South... people in Halloween cosutmes and some in Day of the Dead regalia.
This last picture is of the trunk of a car that was parked at the entrance. It was totally tricked out with Dia de los Meurtos images. 
More fire news
This is near the top of Camp Plenty
These were the Sotos and our old back yards; us to the left, Sotos to the right. The fire came right down inside the fence line.
In this clump of trees across the canyon was an old isolated house on the hill to the west of Whites Cyn Rd, below Leona Cox Elementry school. It had been there since the mid-30's and had survived at least 5 other major fires, but not this time. We watched it burn to the ground on the national news.
This is the backside of the point above Whites Cyn, all burned out. As a kid I would hike to the top and the wind was often so strong that I could lean out over the edge towards the cliff at a 50-60 degree angle and not fall. That same wind spread the fire to the west over one mile in less than 5 minutes.
Inside Plum Canyon
Today I went up the hill towards mom's house to take pictures of some of the damage caused by the fire. I thought about doing this last Monday, but the fire was still burning and I felt like a ghoul or tragedy-monger. The owners were all standing in front of their homes and it was all too fresh and painful. Even today there were a lot of sight-seers and looky-lou's, and I was one of them. It still felt wrong, but I wanted a record for the future.
This house was on Rosamond street down from where it intersects with Camp Plenty road. It is right in the middle of the block, but backs up against the hills. I was told they had a lot of brush and vegetation behind them, but I don't know for certain. It was the only one lost on that street.
Both houses on the corner between Rosamond and Carvelle burned to the ground. This on used to belong to some members years ago.
This house is right below where the water tanks used to be, and the canyon right above the house. The house is still livable. Only the garage was burned.
Further up the hill.
Trunk or Treat
Last night while Jeremy and Kristy were at a grown-up hallween party we took the girls to the church for a trunk or treat party.
The first hour wass filled with games and food, a cake walk (the girls won a plate of fudge cookies) and a costume contest. Afterwards everyone went out to the parking lot where a bunch of us had our cars decorated and they went from car to car getting candy. The girls got a lot, but we didn't let them chow down. Didn't think it was fair to get them all sugared up and hand them back to mom and dad on a super sugar high, especially late in the evening.
treat party.
The girls won "Wildest Costumes". (Indians, wild, get it? Is that politically correct?)
Where's the Yellow Jersey????
Thought I'd share a picture of my date this evening. 2006 Tour de France winner (loser?) Floyd Landis. Actually, he spoke at a Los Angeles Tri Club dinner I attended. We bonded over our Mennonite history.
Fire video
I tried to get this on earlier but it wouldn't work. Here you are. I took this from a friends house down by the church about 1 mile from the fire.
My Family
I tried to post this into my own family blog page but it would only post here...I can't figure it out so I guess it stays.
The East Coast Represents!
GK just sent me the link to their blog. Check it out! I especially liked reading about their apartment/storage unit. Exciting, memorable times.
More fire news
This is Gordon, not Sydney. I had to use her info to get in to post. I took these pictures and video on Sunday when the fire first started to come into Canyon Country, but wasn't able to get them on the blog till now. I wanted to get some shots of the homes that burned on Camp Plenty road, but as Kyle and I drove up the street it was so sad and every one looked so depressed that it seemed goulish to try. I'll get some later when emotions have died down. We had heard that some of our friends had lost their homes so we went into the old tract to see what we could do to help, but happily the rumors weren't true. We did see that the flames had come right down into the backyards of our old home and the Sotos old home on Enderly. Monday night someone torched a parked car at the top of Via Princessa, just a half mile from the house, and someone started a fire at the mobile home park at Soledad and Sand Canyon (two home were destroyed and as I write this the news is verifying that it was in fact arson) so Chuck Byers, one of the men in our ward set up an arson watch. Kyle and I volunteered to go into the field in front of our home, between the houses and Soledad Canyon Road to watch for anyone coming into the field. We were there till about 3 AM. No one came in, but we saw a sudden flair-up on the hill above Canyon High between Whites Cyn and Nadel and called it into the Sheriff. They got it out in about 45 minutes but I was surprised there was anything left to burn. One upside was that Kyle and I got to spend a lot of time together talking and we saw some fantastic meteor displays including one that went down over Bear Divide that left a hugh glowing green tail in the sky for about 10-15 seconds. As of right now the fires in our area are almost out, but Lake Arrowhead, Orange County and San Diego are really suffering, far worse than we did.
Canyon Country Fire
Here are some pictures we took from Grandma's yard. The firestorm was whipping up the wind even more than the Santa Ana's were. In fact when we walked out the wind blew one of my contacts off my eyes (swear it's true!). The feeling was very similiar to the fire that came through in 1971. It wasn't a comfortable memory.
When white smoke started rolling over the hill above Merryhill St. and staying low to the ground, Jeff, Gordon and I were able to convince Grandma to go to Gordon's. She followed my car down Camp Plenty Road. When we got to the bottom of the hill by Sierra Vista, I looked back in my mirror and saw that the hillside above Canyon High and below Whites Canyon was on fire. When we got to Gordon's and watched the news reports, it looked as if 5 homes on Camp Plenty were on fire. After several hours there was nothing more to do than watch the TV so I headed home. When I walked in the door I could still smell the smoke on my clothes.
If you check Jeremy and Kristy's blog, they posted an interesting panoramic of the smoke from the Malibu/Castaic fire. If you double click the picture it will enlarge. At the moment there's 5 or 6 fires blazing through southern California.
If you look at this picutre you can see the sun through the clouds. The picture can't even begin to show how impressive this looked live. Looking at it, the sun was a very bright orange orb showing through the smoke. It gave such an eerie and ominous feel.
Malibu Fire Casualty
Many of you may recognize this building. It's Castle Kashan. It's a personal residence and it is (was) visible from Pacific Coast Highway and admittedly out-of-place looking. It's been up on the hillside since the early 70's. It was an early casualty of the Malibu fire.
Devon and Logan Play While Rome (canyon country) Burns
While Jeff and I were beginning to be concerned that we should convince Mom to go to Gordon's house, Devon and Logan built architectural wonders with the building blocks that we used to play with as kids. Impressive. Logan is demonstrating in gang sign the number birthday that he just celebrated (look at it from Logan's perspective).
And while we're mentioning birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY AIMEE!!!!!
Yea Carlie!!
Carlie (Fairbanks)Bainbridge has added a link to our blog. She's currently the sole representation from the Fairbanks (Toni) Clan. Have I guilted the rest of you to start adding on and keeping us appraised of your side? I hope so! We'd love to hear about your family as they grow, move, etc, etc.
Let me take this moment to tell you all how much I enjoy checking in on your blogs. You all do such cute stuff and I love watching the kids grow, hearing (or watching) the cute things they do or say, and your thoughts about life, parenting, family, etc. I check them all daily. Keep 'em coming!
Love you all,
Sydney
Fourth Smourth... I Was Third!!!
I just got off the results section of the Hermosa Tri and found out that I was (unintentionally) misled... I was in fact 3rd in my age division! (So there were only 10 in my age division... small technicality) The awards ceremony had started but Mom and I were getting ready to leave. They were announcing close to my age division so I told Mom I wanted to hear the times of my group. Since I didn't have anything to compare it to, I was curious as to what typical times were. When they started announcing my division I was listening to the times and not the rank. The person announced before me had a time very close to mine. I was thinking that I wasn't too far off when I heard them announcing my name. After Mom and I pulled our jaws back up, she took the things out of my hands and I walked to the podium. When I got up there, there was only one spot open and that was the 4th place spot so I stood there. Only when they posted the results did I discover that I was actually 3rd! Mom got a picture of me on the podium but with her camera (not digital). I'll try scanning the picture when she gets it developed.
Thanks to everyone who called or emailed me good wishes. You have no idea how much that helps. Love you all!!!
Victory for Team Sydney
Hey Jenni, thanks for the well wishes. I loved it and it worked. I placed 4th (Yes, FOURTH) in my age division. Of course there were only 5 (heeheehee... don't really know but probably not much more than that). Mom came down and supported me throughout. The swim was brutal but the bike was fun. More later. For now, I need to go take a nap.
GOOD LUCK
Good luck to Aunt Syd on your triathlon tomorrow. We know you will do great and we hope you have fun too!!!
Halloween Hangman
I've been trying to get this game up for Aunt Syd but it is protected so that others can't access it unless visiting the website. Anyway, here's a link to the Halloween Hangman game.
