Traffic is Back in LA

There is no bigger reminder that LA is almost all the way out of the pandemic by the return of people doing their pre-pandemic stuff. Which also means traffic has come back with a vengeance, at least tonight. We were merely doing the usual Panda Express run before Lisa picked up Johnnie. We went to the Westside Pavilion. When I saw the backup of cars trying to park I took off. I mean we usually get a nice spot right in the front as recently as Tuesday. But today we left a bit later because Johnnie and I went to the Big 5 Sporting Goods store to get him a new pair of swim goggles. Serves me right. And even when we went to Panda Express Westwood, we were greeted with the same long line. Is it a Thursday thing I wonder? All I know was that it was pre-pandemic trafficky on Olympic on the way there too. Sigh. A year ago there was absolutely no traffic, no traffic at all anymore. The good news? LA is almost all the way back from the pandemic. Which means traffic is back too <sigh>. Guess I would rather have that than still be in the pandemic.... right??

Anyway today was FUTURE day in Johnnie's class and you can see he put on that he was going to be a paleontologist. WATCH OUT WORLD, HERE I COME! I can't help but think boy is that sign ever so right! Wait till this kid grows up... Anyway it was a pretty quiet Thursday work-wise. My IS Team Meeting at 9:30 then my one-on-one with my direct boss Dennis. He has been nothing but helpful with clearing obstacles for me and today it was about that bug Faith doing her usual 'can i get invoices in excel format' bit. I mean can you imagine asking Spectrum to give your internet bill in Excel format? She thinks their IS Reports department is at our beck and call I suppose. Anyway, Dennis did help and so by lunchtime, I was already pretty much done with work stuff, INCLUDING that survey for OCHIN HCCN that I got done in one sitting. They wait 5 months and i get it done in a couple of hours. LOL.

Still I got everything done and so now it's the latest thing I don't have to worry about. And I can pick up Johnnie at school and we can go to previously mentioned quick detour to Big 5. I should have sensed then that traffic patterns are already different. It was almost 6 PM by the time Johnnie got his dinner done and it was already close to Johnnie hand-off time. Of course who KNOWS when Lisa is actually coming. Johnnie actually started to clean up all around the apartment, though not to the degree he did a week ago, he still cleaned up pretty nicely. I could tell that when he puts all the shoes away LOL. There are things he does that absolutely tickle me. Like putting up a sign in front of the bathroom, presumably for Claire the dog that ONLY EMPLOYEES ARE ALLOWED. Where he got that I have no idea. Anyway he went to watch the movie SING for the THIRD NIGHT IN A ROW!! I'm starting to really like that movie myself since it is almost a musical history lesson and I love that Johnnie is learning songs from my favorite lists. Tonight he would not finish the movie. That's because Lisa came EARLY SHOCK SHOCK!! She called at 6:30 and she was already there and parked. Wow! OK then, hand-off done no drama tomorrow since mom and son are off to piano lessons in Pasadena and hanging out at her dad's house after. I started cleaning up the apartment in earnest since I didn't do it last week. And by 8 PM I not only finished 11,000 steps but also finished cleaning the living room and kitchen. I went to bed fairly early tonight, reminding myself I needed to be up by 6 AM to lock in next next Sunday's golf tee time. That's now a routine too and that is just fine with me.