15_the_circle | dangerous streets / uninteresting

[OT from cottage renovations]

for much of the past couple of weeks I have been in heads-down mode, partly as a result of making an effort to add southern California rail lines to the codeline telemetry daily anomaly and traffic summary. this exercise has been a virtual tour of places with which I was once familiar and it has been interesting to see the infrastructure and other changes that have taken place over the 29 years it's been since the region was home.

interesting, but fraught with peril.
many of the control points are named for nearby streets. not generally a problem, of course, but some are more dangerous than others.

the Alameda Corridor has a control point (map) near the Sepulveda Boulevard grade crossing. for those who haven't lived there, Sepulveda Boulevard runs 43 miles from the N end of the San Fernando Valley, crossing the Santa Monica mountains by way of its namesake pass and going through the West side neighbourhoods and communitities, ending down in Long Beach. when I lived in West Los Angeles it was on the other side of the VA Cemetery from my apartment.

the control point is near the the Boulevard's S end, miles away from the famous intersection but still enough to get that catchy tune lodged in my head -- it's been "Pico and Sepulveda" ever since and once it has taken up residence there's no safe way to get rid of it.

what's really strange is with more than 16 million Live Journal accounts out there, as of this entry not one other user has listed pico and sepulveda as an interest and felix figueroa doesn't turn up any hits at all. in a way that's cool, exemplifying the song's refrain "where nobody's dreams come true".