I’m guilty of more than a few.  You?  I particularly like the dig about moving to the West Side…a place I barely know as there is simply no easy way to get there from where I live and there is never any parking.  There, I said it.

A Red Flag Condition has been issued for Los Angeles City.
Red Flag Restricted Parking will be in effect from

From
Sunday, January 8, 2012 08:00 AM
to
Monday, January 9, 2012 08:00 AM
or
until further notice.

For details by neighborhood who is in restricted parking areas for red flag days check the LAFD Web HERE.

If you want to sign up for email notice of these check the LAFD Web HERE.

gift bags for the neighbors all loaded and ready for delivery

Over the course of the last week or so we’ve given you ideas for Holiday giving.  These represented a variety of ways to give to charities and causes near and dear to us.

A list of those ways to give back a little of yourself to L.A.:

• FixNation
• Foothill Unity Center
• Cri-Help Treatment Centers
• Occupy L.A.
• Five Acres 
• The Library
• Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
• Chihuahua Rescue

Of course it is never too late to chime in with you own ideas for giving back to the community in the comments here.

It is what it is and this spokesperson at least gives a cohesive reason why the parade should be disrupted.  Although I don’t agree with it in its entirety, something has gone horribly wrong where this once largely free event is now costing us a fortune to even view the floats after the fact at Victory Park.  Hell, even some of the floats charge “Volunteers” for the privilege of helping to decorate.  If they disrupt I fear they stand more to lose more potential followers than they can gain. Is this being naughty or nice is up for debate.

5 acres logo

Five Acres is a child services organization in Altadena that specializes in helping abused kids.  It started in 1888 as an orphanage for Los Angeles County and today has grown to include full service to families where child abuse and neglect is an issue.  They have been creamed with the loss of government and private grants as the economy has tanked yet the kids needs has not changed.  They are in need of financial assistance now more than ever.

I apologize for the late notice but they are in need of help with their “Holidays and Family Angels” program.  They have a deadline of today to help if you can.  What they need is volunteers to adopt a family of 2-10 members and provide them with Holiday gifts.  If you can spare the extra right now this is a great way to bring a little joy to the season for a family.  More information can be had on this program by contacting Danielle Barr at 626-798-6793 ext 2250 or emailing her at dbarr@5acres.org

For more information visit their web. Other contact information on the group: Five Acres – The Boys’ and Girls’ Aid Society of Los Angeles County,760 W Mountain View St.Altadena,CA 91001, (626) 798-6793

They have a nifty page on what they need right now to get ready for Christmas.  They need food items.  They need gifts for kids.  They need to have volunteers to help with the distribution.  That is 3 ways to help them out, not including the constant need for cash donations.

If you have someone on your list that has everything, consider making a gift to the Foothill Unity Center in their name this Holiday Season.

For more complete information on the Foothill Unity Center visit their web site.

Monrovia Center: 415 W. Chestnut Ave., Monrovia 91016 Phone: (626) 358-3486 / Fax: (626) 358-8224 Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday through Friday.

Pasadena Center: 191 N. Oak Ave., Pasadena 91107 Phone: (626) 584-7420 / Fax: (626) 584-7422 Hours: 9:00am – 5:00pm Monday through Friday.

Christmas in full swing in my 'hood

Over the next several days the writers here at Blogging.LA will be sharing with you ideas to help those in need in the Los Angeles Area.  We will cover a variety of ways to help from charities to causes that we hold near to our hearts.  And giving doesn’t have to be monetary, it can be your labors, your gifts in kind even raiding your pantry to help others out.  You don’t have to be religious either, much of what we share will strike a cord at least with your humanist and spiritual side.

Of course, feel free to jump in on the comments with your favorite charity or cause that needs a little extra help this time of year…include links where possible so others can help if they are so inclined.

screen grab with the announcement no Fesitval of Lights

Busy looking for things to do different than the Hastings Ranch or Christmas Tree Lane displays to take the out-of-towners to this year I decided to look for the details on the Festival of Lights.  Imagine my surprise to learn that an infrastructure project has it cancelled for this year. More details on the cancellation HERE.  With Griffith Park out of the picture am on the hunt for something equally grand…ideas anyone?

Heater Meal heating

The power going out in some ways turned out to be a nice little lesson on survival after the “Big One”.  In my corner of the SGV trees didn’t just break apart they were uprooted with giant rootballs leaving craters behind.  All that flying and falling trees made for numerous power lines down and power out for me for two-and-a-half days.  The clean up was all outside instead of inside, but still took plenty of man power to get things back in order, not unlike the aftermath of Northridge.

Once it became apparent that it would be days instead of hours before power was restored my neighbors and I got the brilliant idea to cook up all the perisables in our fridges and have a giant “candlelight potluck” party on the first night.  Chilly as it was in the house it was fun just talking with the neighbors, commiserating on the lack of power and just feasting and enjoying all the wine.

Anyway this was also a great test of the Earthquake kit.  Out came the flashlights and candles.  We even tried out the “Heater Meals” that were coming closer to expiration date, they were edible but not terrific. The principal behind it is pretty easy. One simply takes out the heater package, adds water that is included in the packaging to activate the chemical reaction that creates the heat. Once that is done you quickly fold the top over and place the heater on top of the food package. 10 minutes later it is done and you have a meal ready to eat. (Well sort of, in spite of all the steam your food is just warm. The food is fine for an emergency but it is lacking seasoning. The included “saltless seasoning pack” is mostly pepper which is to say the food is still a little bland even with it being used).

After the clean up was done and we entered the second day we were very greatful that we had packed “baby wipes” into the earthquake kit.  They turned out to be very handy for sponge bathing among other things.  (We had no hot water as we have a tankless water heater that needs electricity to work).

We had a nice time with the kids.  It was the first time in a while where we just sat and talked while playing card or board games without distractions such as TV or Xbox to ruin it all.

I did learn that I need to stock more batteries than I had in the EQ Kit as they did die off much faster than I had expected.  I decided that we need to have more snacky type items in the kit as prepared meals aren’t as easy to do nor happen as often in an emergency.  Grab and go stuff has a lot of merit in the kit.

Several of my neighbors broke down and got generators.  Turns out a basic one that can run a TV and fridge can be had for around $130.  I may spring for one as at least once a year whether we need it or not here in the foothills we do lose power for a while.  Would be nice to know what is going on in the city as well as not lose a fridge worth of contents.  Once the lines die down at the local OSH I may just break down and get the generator for future emergencies.

By Saturday our power was restored and the fridge was nice and clean ready to be restocked.  I can’t say that it was a miserable time living a few days without power, but it was enlightening.  I doubt it would have been as much fun if we hadn’t had broken out all the perishables and had a party the first night.

8 years ago today the very first post went up here at blogging.la.  I for one have had a ton of fun and some interesting adventures courtesy this blog.  We’ve done a lot from the inane parking tard posts, to series to contests to Classic Eats and the Donut Summit.  We’ve blogged from the heart  covering everything from Downtown to the fringes of the suburbs and everything in between.   A lot of L.A. has been documented on this blog.  What has been your favorite post here?