My legs were very stiff this morning...

but I was too filled with curiousity to not go the full distance this morning.  Turned out it was a good decision.

I hadn't realized that in addition to the 4 nail salons on my morning path, there are also 4 dental offices.  All in separate buildings.  All with vastly different signage, including one who makes it a point of labelling himself as 'the credit dentist'.  So my morning walk path is one where you can fight tooth and nail to look good, after all.

Yesterday I saw lots of industrial cables set on curbs next to the street.  Filming must be coming was my thought and today it has.  The trucks were there, although the trailers where actors 'rest' between scenes had yet to arrive.  There was an off-duty police officer flirting with a female production assistant (you can tell she's a PA by the clipboard, radio and "I'm in charge until someone more important arrives" look on her face).  There was a uniformed security guard protecting the craft services cart from people like me as we walk by on the public sidewalk.  But he wasn't very alert.  I could have easily pilfered a banana if I'd been so inclined.

The trucks had the Warner Brothers logo on them, and one had an ad on the side for the TV show "Bones".  Wonder if that is the show that will be filming something along the street.  It looks like it will take place inside one of the buildings I pass daily, and someone wasn't happy with the exterior appearance.  If the planters outside that building aren't there tomorrow when I pass, I'll know why.

The suicide of Tony Scott has been on my mind since I heard about it last night, just after watching one of his movies.  I'm pondering the possibility that he might have recently been diagnosed as having a terminal illness and decided he didn't want to go out fighting from a hospital bed.  Maybe he didn't want to, but the two to three seconds of falling from nearly 400 feet had to be the longest seconds of his life.  In the days before robo-calls, I remember being told the story of a man who was certain he was the last man on the planet, so he jumped off the Empire State Building (then the tallest building there was).  But as he passed the 14th floor, he heard a phone ring.  Too late.

That's how I feel about suicide.  Once you're dead, or about to die and can't undo what you've done, something that might have changed your mind will be too late.  It's a permanent solution to what might have been a temporary problem.  It's an angry gesture, hurtful to those left behind.  I've seen one suicide up close and don't need to see another in this lifetime.  What kind of man was Tony Scott?  I don't know a lot, but one anecdote will show his dedication to his craft.

When they were filming "Top Gun", filming was worked around normal ship activities.  One day while shooting planes taking off and landing while back-lit by the sun, suddenly the ship's commaning officer changed course.  When Scott asked if they could change the course back, so he could keep on shooting with the sun back-lighting things, he was told it costs $25,000 in fuel and other costs to change course.  Scott reached in his pocket, wrote out a personal check for $25,000 to the Navy and told them to change the course back.

I mentioned there was a new display up in the adult novelty/lingerie/hooker heels shop I pass, yesterday.  Well, there's a newer one this morning.  Nothing in the windows at all.  Not only are the windows bare, the wooden doors that keep anyone from looking past the display to see inside the store are wide open.  So there is not only nothing in the windows, you can see behind the counter where the cash registers are.  On the counter were false eyelashes and vibrator batteries.  Now I'm dying to see what will be in the window or on display through the window tomorrow.

I'm seeing a screening tomorrow night which is a mixed blessing.  I don't really have any desire to see this particular film, and I'm having to miss trivia playing to see it.  But I'm hopeful it will lead to more screenings from this PR firm, so off I go.

Yesterday, while returning home from seeing a movie and having lunch with a friend, I passed by a RV dealership.  Or what used to be a RV dealership.  It sits next to the freeway, and now the lots are empty, the building closed off.  Obviously the economy hasn't been good to the RV industry.  There's a go-cart recreation facility next door to it.  It looked to still be in operation, but who knows?  I pass several vacant auto dealership lots in my travels, and that makes me wonder if we really are in a recovery.  The unemployment figures don't seem to indicate any real recovery.