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In Uncategorized

Key West loses elegant and enthusiastic supporter in David Wolkowsky

It is with a deep sense of loss and endless gratitude that the Board of Directors of the Key West Art & Historical Society announces the passing of a benefactor as original and relevant to the history and culture of Key West as the paintings he proudly loaned us.

Key West native David Wolkowsky died in his sleep at Lower Keys Medical Center on Sunday, September 23, 2018. He was 99 when his incredible and glamorous life ended where it began in August 1919 – on the island Wolkowsky worked constantly to improve and preserve.  Wolkowsky’s family moved from Key West to Miami when Wolkowsky was 4 years old. He then earned a literature degree from University of Pennsylvania before embarking on a business venture to redevelop Philadelphia’s Center City and Rittenhouse Square — moves that would make Wolkowsky a very wealthy man.

“David could have lived anywhere, obviously; money was no object, but he chose Key West, and to me, that speaks volumes,” said Cori Convertito, curator of the Key West Art & Historical Society and a close friend of Wolkowsky, who generously shared his own important collection of art and artifacts with the museum. “If we were assembling a folk art exhibit, I could call him and ask if I could come ‘shopping’ at his house. His understanding of the history and the people of Key West was remarkable and unmistakable.”

Wolkowsky’s collection of sketches by renowned Key West woodcarver and folk artist Mario Sanchez became part of an immensely popular and critically acclaimed exhibit. Sanchez would first sketch his nostalgic scenes, comical encounters and Key West political commentaries on paper bags, then carve those scenes into wood. Wolkowsky proudly loaned the society his 71 original Sanchez drawings on paper bags.

A close friend of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and fellow Key West resident Tennessee Williams, Wolkowsky also acquired a collection of paintings and pastels by Williams, whose dramatic works included, “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” The paintings and pastels, one of which features a young Wolkowsky done in pastels — are now on permanent display at the Custom House Museum.

“David always remained focused on the legacy of this town, and he had a vision for Key West that included a return to the glamor and luxury that had defined the island back when he owned the Pier House Hotel and was constantly hosting movie stars and famous writers,” said Shirrel Rhodes, President of the Board of Directors.

Wolkowsky was more than an arts patron, financial supporter and society benefactor. He was more than a name on the card that identifies the owner of a painting on loan to a museum. Wolkowsky made his mark on Key West — and not by simply signing checks.

“Although he was obviously very generous with us financially, that doesn’t come close to representing the entirety of his involvement with and commitment to us,” Key West Art & Historical Society Executive Director Michael Gieda said.

“He was our own personal publicist and PR machine,” Convertito said, recalling Wolkowsky’s visits to the Custom House two to three times a week. “Anyone who had lunch with David would then be treated to a personal tour of the museum. He’d show up with university presidents, bestselling authors, renowned artists, actors, John Hemingway, Jean Vanderbilt, you name it.”

From entire exhibits on loan from his personal collection, to a constant display of fresh orchids above the museum door, which he donated in memory of his dear friend Floy Thompson, Wolkowsky was actively involved in the Society, sharing ideas and opinions as readily as artwork and financial support.

To properly honor his memory – and his unwavering generosity – the Key West Art & Historical Society wants to learn from and disseminate the lessons it learned from David Wolkowsky for this town and the vision he had for enhancing it and returning it to its halcyon days.  The Society is in the process of designing an appropriate way to honor Wolkowsky’s commitment to Key West’s cultural legacy, and will make announcements about the specifics in the coming months.

It is now incumbent upon the Key West Art & Historical Society and us as its Board of Directors to honor David Wolkowsky with as much passion and energy as he shared with us. We will keep our members and the Key West community apprised of our plans to forever remember the man who never stopped believing in Key West.”

For more information, please visit www.kwahs.org.

KWAHS 1_ D Wolkowsky:

David Wolkowsky, third from left, with drink, is pictured with Tennessee Williams, left, and his mother Edwina Dakin Williams, at a birthday celebration held for the literary icon at the Chart Room Bar at the Pier House in Key West. (Photo courtesy Key West Art & Historical Society)


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Fosters needed for shelter animals due to Harvey

Animals transported to Austin from coastal shelters._532398

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Animals from shelters along the Texas coast are arriving at Austin Pets Alive! ahead of Hurricane Harvey.

“Historically, when hurricanes hit, many shelters have euthanized their animals to prepare for an influx of more animals as well as for human evacuations,” said Dr. Ellen Jefferson, Executive Director of Austin Pets Alive!. “We’ve already been receiving calls for help as well as doing our own outreach to coastal shelters – because of our No Kill community. Austin is the safest large city for pets in the country, so we’re planning to do everything we can to get pets to safety.”

Austin Pets Alive! took in more than 230 animal evacuees by Saturday. The shelter was already at capacity. As a result, Austin Pets Alive! is asking for fosters for dogs and cats to help make room in shelters for additional animals. Shelter officials say they’ve received a “truly overwhelming response” to the call for help. But as of Saturday evening, Austin Pets Alive! still has 61 dogs that need foster homes.

The shelter also has an urgent need for large crates, cat litter, litter boxes and wet food for dogs and cats.

Austin Pets Alive! has the all the details on their website.

Copyright 2021 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Reflux and Chiropractic

What is Acid Reflux?

Acid reflux happens when the contents of the stomach back up into the esophagus. The esophagus is the tube that carries food from the throat to the stomach. At the base of the stomach exists a ring of muscle that normally opens when you swallow. This ring of muscle is known as the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). When the LES fails to close properly, the stomach contents of the digestive tract can come back up into the esophagus.

Acid Reflux and Its Effects on Infants

Infants are more prone to acid reflux because their LES may be weak or underdeveloped. In fact, it’s estimated that more than half of all infants experience acid reflux to some degree. The condition usually peaks at age 6 months and goes away on its own between 12 and 24 months. It’s rare for an infant’s symptoms to continue past 24 months. If they persist, it may be a sign of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is a more severe condition. While they may vary, the 10 most common signs of acid reflux or GERD in infants include:

  • Spitting up and vomiting
  • Refusal to eat and difficulty eating or swallowing
  • Irritability during feeding
  • Wet burps or hiccups
  • Failure to gain weight
  • Abnormal arching of the back during or post feeding
  • Frequent coughing
  • Gagging or choking
  • Chest pain or heartburn
  • Disturbed sleep

Spitting up/Acid Reflux

Mild Spitting up is normal for most infants. However, forceful spit-up may be a symptom of GERD. This is especially true if your infant is older than 12 months and still spitting up forcefully after meals.
Spitting up can be painful for some infants as this causes burning or pain in the back of the throat. Some infants will cry or show signs of discomfort after bouts of acid reflux. There are 2 types of reflux: silent and projectile. Silent reflux is more like regurgitation. An infant will often choke on spit up/acid reflux as it attempts to enter back up the esophagus. Projectile reflux/spitting up will shoot out of an infant’s mouth in an uncontrollable manner. Both types of reflux can cause pain in the neck, back, and stomach for an infant.

Treatments For Acid Reflux

There are several effective techniques, which can help alleviate acid reflux symptoms in an infant:

  • Keep infant propped up after feeding for at least 20 min
  • Try smaller amounts and more frequent feedings
  • Proper burping techniques post each feeding
  • Secure latch or mouth during feeding so less air is trapped in the stomach during feeding, this also helps reduce gas
  • Eliminate dairy from formula or breastfeeding moms diets to decrease acid in stomach
  • Probiotic to neutralize stomach acids in gut
  • Some people turn to reflux medication however this only effective in a very small percentage of the population
  • Check for food sensitivies
  • Chiropractic Care:
    • Gentle chiropractic care can help alleviate pain in the back and neck that infants experience with acid reflux.
    • Adjusting the thoracic and cervical spine can allow the nervous system to function more properly thereby helping improve the control of the upper valve of the stomach.
    • Disruptions in an infant’s nervous system can affect digestion, sleep, feeding, colic, and reflux, just to name a few things.
    • A pediatric chiropractor can help alleviate discomfort that infants experience by restoring optimal nervous system function to the digestive tract resulting in less pain, gas, and potentially discomfort related to acid reflux.

Dr. Jennifer Rousseau has worked extensively in pediatric chiropractic to help alleviate common infant and pediatric disorders in children.


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SyS Laboratory – Natural Cosmetics | Privacy Policy

Information  the Comply with the European Data Protection Regulation

1. Responsability

CIF: B-96,118,880

Address: Crta Masia del Juez nº 107

Telephone: 96 1588570

2. Purpose
At LABORATORIOS SYS S.L. We process the information provided by interested persons in order to:

“To be able to maintain the relationship with the client for billing and collection” To manage the sending of the information they request “To provide interested parties with offers of products of their interest, as well as upcoming events or relevant news.

The non-acceptance of this purpose implies that we will not be able to inform you about our news and events.

Data retention:
The data for the management of the relationship with the client and the billing and collection of services will be kept for the entire time that the contract is in force. Once this relationship has ended, where appropriate, the data may be kept for the time required by applicable legislation and until the possible responsibilities arising from the contract prescribe.

The data for sending commercial communications of our products or services will be kept indefinitely until, where appropriate, you indicate your willingness to delete them.

We will not keep your personal data for any purpose for longer than necessary and we will only keep the personal data necessary in relation to said purpose. In addition, we must maintain certain information in accordance with the law or for as long as is reasonably necessary to comply with regulatory requirements, resolve disputes, avoid fraud and abuse or enforce our terms and conditions.

3. Legitimation
The legal basis for the treatment of your data is the execution of the provision of the corresponding service.

The prospective offer of products to clients is based on the satisfaction of the legitimate business interest consisting in being able to offer our clients the contracting of other products and thus achieve their loyalty. Said legitimate interest is recognized by the applicable legal regulations (General Data Protection Regulation), which expressly allows the processing of personal data on that legal basis for direct marketing purposes.

The basis for sending commercial communications to non-customer users is the consent that has been requested, and may be revoked at any time. The withdrawal of said consent will not affect in any case the performance of the contract, but the data processing for this purpose carried out previously will not lose their legality due to the fact that the consent has been revoked.

However, we remind you that you have the right to object to this processing of your data, and may do so by any of the means described in this Policy.

Applicable law:

Online Dispute Resolution Platform (ODR)

4. Recipients
No data will be transferred to third parties, except legal obligation.

5. International data transfers
They are not performed.

6. Automated decisions
We will not prepare a “commercial profile”, based on the information provided. No automated decisions will be made based on that profile.

7. Origin of the data:
We inform you that we only collect data from you, without obtaining it from other sources.

8. Rights
Anyone has the right to obtain confirmation on whether at LABORATORIOS SYS S.L. We are treating personal data that concerns them, and the following information: the purposes of the treatment; the categories of data being processed; the recipients or categories of recipients to whom they have been communicated or will be communicated; if possible, the expected period of retention of personal data or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine this period.
Interested persons have the right to access their personal data, as well as to request the rectification of inaccurate data or, where appropriate, request its deletion when, among other reasons, the data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected. .
Interested parties may request the deletion of personal data that concerns them when one of the following circumstances occurs: that they are not necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected. or treated; that you withdraw consent and the treatment is not based on another legal basis; that you oppose the treatment and that other legitimate reasons for the treatment do not prevail; that have been illicitly treated.
In certain circumstances, the interested parties may request the limitation of the processing of their data, in which case only

This post is also available in: Spanish

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Natural Incense SyS 20 Sticks Orange Blossom

(Code: 03810)

The natural Orange Blossom incense stick has been perfumed using an immersion technique in our laboratory located in Valencia. It stands out for producing a pleasant sensation of well-being body/mind, generating a careful harmony in the home and maintaining a pleasant atmosphere for longer.

The box contains 20 sticks.

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LB Black Leather Belted Dress

LB Black Leather Belted Dress

£150.00 Regular Price
£120.00Sale Price

Long sleeve shirt dress in faux leather with pintuck details, slightly loose fit with stable fabric. Featuring a collar, a gathering at the end of the sleeves with cuffs that button up and a detachable tie belt to highlight your waist. Perfect for an outstanding night out appearance.

We're here to help!

Can't see your size? Contact us using the chat function below, email info@lace-boutique.co.uk or call 01636 679884 and we will do our best to get it re-stocked for you!

The Lace Boutique team x


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Confusing Airline Pricing

If there is a system behind how airlines adjust their fares, it sure is a mystery to me. We are flying to Boston in October for my cousin Erin’s wedding. My dad is flying out with us but staying a few days longer. I worked though some different itineraries, and finally zeroed in on May 4 on a $248 round-trip fare that worked best. I tagged it on Yapta to monitor the price while we waited for my dad to confirm his return date. By the time he decided, the fare had increased to $269 later that evening. It was getting late, so I figured I’d wait until the next morning. I should have held the reservation, but decided not too. Big mistake.

When I logged on the next day, the fare had jumped up to $607.99! For the next few days it alternated between $608 and $607.99. Why would you bother changing the fare for $0.01? Then on May 8, it went up to $627.99 and bounced back and forth between that price and $628. Finally on May 13 it dropped to $448.50, then back to $269 on May 14. I jumped on that and booked our flights.

Good thing too, because on May 16 it jumped back up to $628 where it still is today.

I don’t understand the models they use or their reasoning, but all I know is I’m grateful for Yapta. It has saved me a decent amount of money over the last year. I can’t recommend it enough.


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Visit Us

Stop by and discover why our legendary chocolates call Vermont home. Take a self-guided chocolate tasting at our flagship store on Pine Street, see specialty confections like chocolate-dipped marshmallows being made at the Church Street store, or swing by our Waterbury store and warm up with a rich and satisfying hot chocolate. For safe, contactless, and convenient shopping, visit to order online and pick up at Pine Street.

Pine Street Flagship Store & Café

Come see how the magic happens with a video of our factory, enjoy a to-go tasting kit, and see Vermont’s largest Chocolate Sculpture Exhibit. Shop our delicious selection of gourmet chocolates, gifts, and factory seconds. Then, cap off your visit with an extraordinary drink from our espresso and hot chocolate café.

Address & Contact
750 Pine Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 864-1807

outside the Lake Champlain Chocolates Flagship Store
outside Lake Champlain Chocolates on the Church Street Market Place in the summer

Church Street Store & Café

Find us on the Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, where you can watch us dipping caramel apples or drenching house-made marshmallows in rich, dark chocolate. Enjoy our full selection of chocolates, award-winning ice cream, hot chocolate, and espresso.

Address & Contact
65 Church Street
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 862-5185

Waterbury Store & Café

Conveniently located on Route 100 between Stowe and Waterbury, you'll find our full selection of chocolates, a hot chocolate and espresso café, award-winning house-made ice cream, Vermont souvenirs, and plenty of factory seconds. Stop in with the whole family!

Address & Contact
2653 Waterbury Stowe Rd
Waterbury Center, VT 05477
(802) 241-4150

inside the Lake Champlain Chocolates retail store in Waterbury, Vermont

assorted gourmet chocolates on marble

Build Your Own Box

Discover the best of the best when you visit our retail stores. Explore our full collection of chocolate specialties — from the legendary chocolate truffles that started it all, to mouth-watering confections that can only be found at our three Vermont stores. Build your own custom box for the ultimate chocolate experience!

cone of dark chocolate ice cream

Award-Winning Ice Cream

Any time of year is a good time to indulge in the Lake Champlain Chocolates' award-winning ice cream. Like our chocolates, our ice cream is crafted with only the best local ingredients — including fresh cream, maple syrup, and honey. Stop in to one of our scoop shops and experience our love for fresh, great-tasting ice cream, sundaes, milkshakes and other delectable treats!

woman holding a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows

Lake Champlain Café Menu

It's time to unwind. Slide up to the counter and take a seat at one of our cafés for our take on happy hour. Soul-soothing hot chocolate. Decadent chocolate milkshakes. Life-altering lattes. Old World Mochas. Browse our full menu for the tantalizing array of delicious options. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.


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Home Tags Josh Flagg

Tag: Josh Flagg

real estate los angeles

From Open House Horrors to Clients from Hell, L.A.’s High-End Real Estate Agents Tell All

Six of Los Angeles’s highest-end agents dish among themselves and give us the straight dope about the cons—but mostly pros—of selling eight-figure properties in the middle of a pandemic

This Hotel Has 200 Rooms, All Made of Chocolate

Four Seasons pastry chef Federico Fernandez had to consult an architect for his sweet replica


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Abraham Lincoln: Model President?

Disney released first photos from its upcoming bio-pic on Abraham Lincoln today—and is it just us, or is Daniel Day Lewis’ 16th president a dead ringer for the somber-faced, bushy-bearded models in Joseph Abboud’s latest campaign?  Add it to Honest Abe’s many identities: abolitionist, orator, vampire hunter, Spielberg muse, and it seems, hipster style icon.

Joseph Abboud

CREDIT: Daniel Day Lewis stars as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” Photo by David James, SMPSP, Copyright DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC


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• 6th Grade

    In addition to mastering curriculum and state standards in all subjects, our goal is to build positive digital citizens and prepare students for real-life experiences.

  • Curriculum

    Science - NGSS Hands-on investigations focused on:

    1. Biology/life science - Cellular Systems including Genetics
    2. Physical Science - Weather systems, Earth Conservation and human impact on Earth Systems
    3. Science is everywhere!

    1. Multiplying and Dividing Fractions
    2. Ratios - Unit Rates
    3. Operations with Decimals
    4. Coordinate plane with positive and negative numbers
    5. Beginning algebraic equations
    6. area and perimeter of 2-D and 3D quadrilaterals and triangles
    7. Graphs and graphing

    Social Studies

    1. World History Civilizations
    2. Focuses on: Geography, Religion, Accomplishments, Politics, Economics, and Social Class
    3. Multiple Hands On/Art/Writing Projects throughout the year, such as mummifying chickens, Chinese lanterns, Henna hand decorations, and a pharaoh research project.

    Language Arts

    1. StudySync is used as our key learning material for English. This includes poems, short stories such as Eleven, excerpts from novels of both fiction and nonfiction literature.
    2. We write 2 - 3 essays during the year to help us learn new skills as well as improve on the techniques learned in the past.
    3. We also use supplemental stories to reinforce our new skills.

    Homework Expectations

    Math - Homework is given daily. Homework help is offered if needed
    Science - Homework is given at individual teacher discretion
    Language Arts - Homework is given at individual teacher discretion
    Social Studies- Homework is given at individual teacher discretion

    Feild Trips and Special Events

    Career Day
    Military Dog Demonstration
    End of the year field trip - Drytown

    Classroom Supplies/Donation Requests

    • Dry Erase Markers
    • Wipes
    • Hand Sanitizer
    • Computer Paper
    • Lines Paper
    • Graphing Paper
    • Pencils
    • Boxes of Tissues
    • Spiral Notebooks
    • Donations of money for Field Trip Funding
    • Earbuds or headphones

    Image result for google classroom

    For HMH and other student resources

    Image result for Classlink

    Classlink Code: Lancsd

  • Teachers

  • Mr. Hendrix

    Male Silhouette

    • 9 years in education
    • Attended both Antelope Valley College and University of Phoenix
    • Obtained my Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies and a Multiple Subject Credential
    • Fun Fact: Went on a month long tour playing music all over Europe including countries such as Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. It was an incredible experience!
  • Mrs. Aguiar

    Image result for blank person picture

    • Math and Science teacher
    • 15 years experience in education
    • BYU Graduate

  • Mrs. Brown

    Image result for blank person picture

    • Math and Science teacher
    • 25 years experience in education
    • CSUN Graduate

  • Mrs. Roberts

     Feminine Silhouette

    • 22 years in education
    • Bachelor's in Communications with a minor in African American literature
    • Master's in Education Administration
    • Special Education credential
    • Fun facts:  I love art, shopping at thrift stores, dachshunds, and gardening.
  • Mrs. Johnson

    Image result for blank person picture

    • Math and Science teacher
    • 16 years experience in education
    • Master’s in Education Administration
    • Master’s in Special Education

  • Mrs. Whelchel

    • Language Arts and Social Studies Teacher
    • CSUB Graduate
    • 2 years of teaching


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Sri Lanka sovereign bond will not impact exchange rate: CB Governor

Apr 10, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s 500 million US dollar sovereign bond sale this week will not impact the exchange rate as the Central Bank is expected to buy the proceeds, though foreign reserves will go up, Governor Nivard Cabraal said. In order to retain the dollars permanently in the foreign reserves and not cause pressure on the exchange rate, the rupees in the banking system must be ‘mopped up’ or withdrawn through outright sales of securities held by the Central Bank.

According to Central Bank data about 154 billion rupees have been mopped up through term repurchase and short term repurchase deals of securities, amid low credit growth.

“We would probably take the entirety of the proceeds to the central bank,” Cabraal said.

“So it is unlikely that it will have an impact on the overall exchange rate.”

However there was as long term “positive outlook” with foreign reserves expected to reach 8.0 billion US dollars, he said.

The 5-year 500 million US dollar bond sold Monday has a settlement date of April 11.

A central bank that buys dollars prevents the exchange rate from going up and adds rupees in to the banking system.

When the rupees are spent directly or loaned and imports are generated the doll


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Vaasan Potato holed bread 11x350g

Vaasan Potato holed bread 11x350g
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Vaasan Potato holed bread 11x350g
Product code: 200126
Serving suggestion

Wholegrain holed bread with potato- and oat flakes. Vegan is a growing trend, and by offer your customersing this product you cater for that specific consumer demand. The bread is part of our easy-to-use product range that combines convenience with the tempting aroma of fresh baking.

Baking information: Thaw & Bake

Thaw at room temperature for 1 h or overnight in the fridge. Bake at 190°C for 13–15 min. Steam can be used in the beginning of baking.

Storage at -18°C or colder

Carton EAN 6416577600170
Weight / piece 350 g
Pieces / carton 11
Cartons / pallet 32
Shelf life 300 days
Country of origin FI

water, WHEAT flour, wholegrain RYE flour 12%, potato flakes 11%, OAT flakes 5%, yeast, iodised salt, rapeseed oil, flour treatment agent (E300).

Nutrition information pr. 100 g.

Energy 910 kJ
Kcal 216 kcal
Fat 2.3 g
- of which saturates 0.3 g
Carbohydrate 40 g
- of which sugars 0.5 g
Fibre 5.5 g
Protein 6.4 g
Salt 1.1 g
Lantmännen Unibake International

Sluseholmen 8A
3rd Floor
DK-2450 Copenhagen SV

+45 7628 5000
Contact International Sales

Click here for contact information


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Our goal is to get your laptop back up and running because we have the team and the experience to make it happen for you!

Founder, Laptop Parts Expert, Inc.

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HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) 120W Laptop AC Adapter Replacement

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HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) AC Adapter Replacement (120W)

For use in HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) Series Laptops

HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) 120-Watt, 18.5V, up to 6.5A

Replacement HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) AC Adapter, guaranteed compatible with 1-year warranty. This is a new, Delta original product.

HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) Power Supply Specs:

  • 120-Watt
  • 18.5 Volt, up to 6.5A
  • 7.5mm x 10mm tip, center-positive
  • Alt P/N 391174-001 , 384022-001 , 384023-001 , 397803-001 , 463953-001 , ED519AA , 397727-B21 , 613154-001 , 619484-001
Not Available
Availability: Not Available
Was: $62.50
Sale: $56.25

Read more about HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) AC Adapters before ordering

When ordering a HP Pavilion G7-2341DX (D8X74UA) AC adapter, check the voltage and amperage on the bottom of the laptop to make sure you are ordering the correct AC adapter. Some models have more than one AC adapter depending on the amperage rating. The rating should be taken from the laptop, not the AC adapter because this is the best match of what the laptop needs. You should find a rating that looks like this: 18.5V --- 6.5A. It can be on the label on the bottom of the laptop or in the battery compartment. AC adapters are safe to use within +/- 1V of the laptop voltage. It is also safe to have a higher amperage than marked on the laptop becuase the laptop can only pull the amperage it needs. Less than the required amperage will cause the power supply to burn up because the laptop is pulling more amperage than the AC adapter can give it. Also, check the DC Jack on the back of the laptop to make sure it is not loose. This will cause the laptop to appear like the AC adapter is bad when the laptop is just not making connection with power.

  • LPE12019ACK-1877
  • LPE12019ACK-1877
  • Compaq/HP
  • Not Available
  • New

Shipping Information

  • Item Requires Shipping
  • 1.5 lbs.
  • W1.0000” x H1.0000” x L1.0000”

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(505)327-6281 info@largotank.com

You want tough? We’ve got you covered.

Our truck equipment business was born in the oilfield, and we know what it takes to make things that stand the test of time.

oilfield trucks

Oilfield Trucks

Our proven mounting systems increase the longevity of the truck and the body, allowing each frame to flex independently in off road situations.  We are ever mindful of mud; creating plenty of wheel clearance, blocking fuel fillers and wiring harnesses, and incorporating chain racks.

Many of our beds come back for remounts after a truck is mile-d out (achieving 120k miles plus in conditions that will break a Jeep).  We currently have equipment going onto its 5th truck with only minor repairs and paint needed.

Our product selection is diverse and based on all of the job categories the field requires. Chemical treater trucks, roustabout beds, crane beds, pumper and service tech headache racks and flatbeds, and any other need you might have.

Industries we serve

Oil and Gas

Fuel Delivery

Crane Service

Fire & Emergency

Farm & Ranch


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Living With Cancer

One year ago in July, I was in New Jersey visiting family and friends, some of which I hadn’t seen in thirty years. In June of last year, I visited friends, a high school reunion of sorts, that I had also not seen in thirty years. For a long time, I had imagined these family and friends as within reach and easy to see whenever I wanted. What a difference a year makes…

I am really glad that I made that effort last summer, because I don’t know when that will happen again. My quarantine began last August when I went into St. Joseph’s with the bleeding emergency. I didn’t think of it like a quarantine at the time. My world just got a lot smaller.

Coming out of the chemotherapy in May, I thought that I would wait until my bone marrow and my immune system recovered, then I would be able to get around and see people. This has not been the case. I have been sequestered in my apartment, along with the rest of the world, watching the coronavirus continue to consume the world.

When I first landed my contract at BHP last October, the workload and project schedule left the impression that I would be employed through at least 2021, but the energy sector crash that accompanied the economic disaster eliminated the workload. My contract ended on June 30th along with everyone else that worked on anything related to that schedule. I have been sending out resumes and interviewing since then, but the process is slow and employers seem noncommittal. This story isn’t unique.

In a very broad sense, the whole world seems to be changing. The word that occurs to me around this is ‘seismic’. ‘Incremental’ has been replaced by ‘sweeping’. The ground moves beneath our feet, and there doesn’t seem to be a thing anyone can do about it. I am not about to write a persuasive piece about the state of the world and what I think should be done about it, or whose fault it is. Don’t get me wrong, I have some very strong opinions on the subject. I’m just not going to do that. I’ll be sure to indicate that I am going to write about politics in the title if I ever do that. But this piece is about cancer. My world started shifting last summer, and I can’t make it stop. One thing has piled on top of another until I am here, the summer of 2020, just before the one year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis, and the world seems unrecognizable.

There was a book written in 1970 called Future Shock. I read it a long time ago and I have retained very little of it, but I think about the basic premise often. The general gist of the book can be summed up in this quote from Wikipedia: “The shortest definition for the term in the book is a personal perception of ‘too much change in too short a period of time‘.”

Too much change in too short a period of time? That describes this entire year for everyone. In the past, I have thought of this concept, and the book, in relation to things like the internet or smart phones or 9/11. I’m sure I could come up with many more examples, but none of them come close to the changes we have all been expected to digest in the last six months. Of course, I appreciate that my perspective comes from a place of privilege. I was not a lifetime resident of Afghanistan in 2001 or Iraq in 2003. I am not a Syrian refugee, and even the problems of Syrian refugees have been compounded exponentially with the coronavirus situation. I have tried to imagine what it must be like to be a refugee and also dealing with a health crisis, but it is beyond my experience.

My apartment is very nice. I have resources to weather the storm, and family and friends to help me when I need them. I am a patient at the most successful cancer hospital in the world which happens to be located in the largest medical center in the world. The year is 2020 and stage 4 colon cancer is not an immediate death sentence. I benefit from the decades of cancer research and the experiments and trials of all of the people that come before me. In the two months between the end of my initial chemotherapy treatments and the scans and tests to determine the status of my cancer, I stayed at home and wrote and worked when I could, spent time with my kids, ordered groceries online, and walked for two hours every day in Buffalo Bayou.

But I am not unrealistic. I toyed with the idea of going from Stage 4 cancer to complete remission on my first run through treatments, but I knew that the odds of that occurring were very low. Dr. Tzeng even told me as much the last time I saw him. I was talking to him about the book I had written about my experience with cancer, and he said, “It would be nice to see a book about people living with cancer, because that’s most people with cancer. The cases where we treat the cancer and it just goes away are very rare. We usually treat it, and then we treat it again.”

Going to MD Anderson is a traumatizing experience. I wouldn’t have thought of this, but I took my friend Yolanda to one of her follow up visits for her breast cancer. She has taken me to many of my chemotherapy visits over the last six months. I knew she had follow ups coming. It totally made sense to me that I would take her, but she made a lot of noise about not needing anyone to help her.

Going anywhere in this pandemic is a project, but going to MD Anderson is always a project. With the pandemic, MD Anderson is just crazy. Sometimes it’s empty, sometimes it’s packed, but there are only a few ways to get in because of the new screening protocols, and none of them seem to be near parking.

I insisted on driving Yolanda to and from her appointment. When I picked her up, I recognized the relief, and they hadn’t even done anything invasive. It was just a consultation. MD Anderson is amazing. The people that work there are some of most professional and caring people I have seen in any medical facility, but they do things to you in there. You could walk in feeling fine, and you walk out feeling sick. It is always a relief to leave. I saw that with Yolanda. She wanted food, and coffee, and chocolate, and she was agitated. I recognized myself in her condition.

So when I went for my follow up bloodwork, I was more acutely aware of my state of mind. I had previously recognized my Pavlovian response when driving to the chemotherapy appointments. I would get nauseous as I got closer to the facility, but I hadn’t noticed how angry I would get. As we drove up to the drop off, I wanted to yell at people in traffic and the security personnel around the entrance. I wanted to instruct the screening people at the just inside. I saw the inefficiency in everything.

In the car, I put on my mask, took a deep breath and went in. There are two hand sanitizer stations on the outside of the sliding doors, so I used one of the stations to sanitize my hands. I went through the doors, and everything was chaos.

Before the second set of sliding doors, there was a security guard who yelled at me while pointing at the next two hand sanitizer stations, “Sir! Please sanitize your hands.”

“I just used did that outside.”

“Okay. You already sanitized your hands. Go inside to that lady right there.”

I stepped through the next set of doors to that ‘lady right there’. She was directing someone to do something. She turned around with a pile of masks in her hand and seemed surprised to see me, “Hello, sir.”

We stood looking at each other for a while, “Do you want me to change my mask for one of yours?”

“Yes sir. Could you sanitize your hands first?”

“I just did that outside.”

“You just sanitized your hands outside,” she said it just like the security guard, as if I didn’t know that I had just sanitized my hands outside. She held a mask out to me, “Please replace your mask with one of ours.”

I took the mask from her and replaced my own. She looked at the body temperature detector lights behind her, “Okay. Your body temperature is fine. Please step in line along the marks that you see on the floor maintaining a safe distance from the person in front of you.”

She walked away from and I followed her along the trail of red markers on the floor carefully spaced six feet apart. I stopped when I noticed that the marker I should stop at happened to be right next to the table where she was rummaging through piles of more masks and paperwork. I just stopped at the marker six feet from her.

She turned around and seemed to be surprised to see me again, “You can move up to the next marker sir.”

“That marker is right next to you, so I decided to give you some space.”

“That marker was right next to me sir. Here let me get out of your way.”

She got out of the way, and I moved into the slow moving line to get into the hospital. When I arrived at the screening window, I couldn’t understand why the line had moved so slowly. There were only five questions.

“What is your medical record number?”

“blah blah blah blah,” the medical record number. Will I ever really forget my medical record number at MD Anderson?

“Have you been out of the country in the last 30 days?”

“Have you been in contact with anyone in the last 14 days that has tested positive for COVID19?”

“Have you experienced any symptoms like fever, chills, cough, or shortness of breath?”

“Have you been tested for COVID19 in the last 20 days?”

I went on to get my bloodwork and my CT Scan. That was Sunday, July 26. My consultation with Dr. Kee wasn’t until Friday, July 31, five days later. On Wednesday, July 29, the bloodwork results were posted to the MyChart application on my phone. I went straight to the CEA numbers. My CEA was 23.5.

For reference, my CEA was 423 in September of 2019 and 581 two weeks later when I started chemotherapy. In May, my CEA was at 7.2. A normal adult that smokes has a CEA of less than 5. CEA is a protein that is present in the blood when there are colon cancer cells in the body or when a person is pregnant. I was pretty sure I wasn’t pregnant. 23.5 is nothing compared to 581, but I prepared myself for the news that I would be back on chemotherapy very soon.

Dr. Kee didn’t disappoint me. We had a Zoom meeting. His camera wasn’t working, but I imagined him closing his eyes whenever he spoke. He was able to share his screen, so he went over the CT Scan with me. The nodules in my lungs hadn’t gotten any bigger, but they hadn’t gotten any smaller.

“Because they are still there, and we don’t know what they are, we are just going to assume they are cancer.”

My father had an ex-ray 35 years ago that showed ‘spots’ on his lungs. I made a mental note to check in with him about these ‘spots’ and if anything had come of them. I have made this mental note several time, but I never end up doing it. I haven’t actually spoken to him in 27 years. We have exchanged texts. I even texted him that I had cancer. In response to the texts, he promised to call.

“Wow. That’s terrible. I am busy at the moment. Can I call you on Saturday?”

“Absolutely. I’ll be here.”

Saturday comes no matter what the subject and we don’t end up talking. He calls my brother if it’s really important.

“Larry has cancer?”

Question. Question. Question. Question. John answers as many of these questions as he can, then sums it up at the end.

“Why don’t you call Larry?”

“I will.”

Dr. Kee went on to the liver, “You see right here? There is a small spot at the margin.”

“Oh yeah. I can see that.”

“And with the CEA going from… What was it? 7.2 in May? To 23.5?”

“I’m going to recommend that we go back to the chemo for three months. Another six treatments.”

“Yeah I expected that when I saw the CEA.”

“How is the neuropathy? Any tingling, pins and needles, in your hands or feet?”

The Oxalliplatin causes neuropathy by dissolving the sheaths around the nerve endings. Most, or all, of that will heal over time, but it is annoying, and during the treatments, it makes consuming cold foods or drinks especially interesting. It’s like eating really strong pop rocks.

“The bottoms of my feet are still bothering me quite a bit. Just the heat and the cold make them tingle quite a bit.”

“Okay. Well I am going to cut out the Oxalliplatin this time. Instead of Folfox, we will do the Folfiri. That just switches out the Oxalliplatin for Irutucan. You won’t get the tingling or neuropathy, but it causes diarrhea in a lot of people.”

“So I’m switching out the neuropathy for the diarrhea?”

“Yeah so I will prescribe a couple of medications to deal with that.”

“Do you have any questions for me?”

“Yes. What is the prognosis around this? What do you think will happen with this spot? And the cancer?”

“Well. I think we should expect that you will be on some form of chemotherapy…”Dr. Kee struggled for words that were not “for the rest of your life” and came up with, “…from here on out.”

“I understand that.”

“Yeah. You had a pretty radical case of colon cancer. When it spreads like this, colon cancer is especially hard to eradicate completely,” he paused. I could see him closing his eyes. “But we can contain it. When there is a spot and the evidence is there that it has taken hold.”

“Back to chemotherapy?”

“Yes. It’s back to an intense chemotherapy like this. But there might also be smaller doses in between. We have to trade off toxicity with containment. Intense regimen. Recovery. Check it. Repeat.”

“Okay. Yes I understand that.”

The Zoom meeting with Dr. Kee ended. I exchanged some texts with my ex sister-in-law, Barbara, the pathologist.

“What was the number in October?”

“What is it now?”

“That’s a big difference.”

“Yes. It’s about containment.”

“Just try not to be anxious about it. I know. Easier said than done.”

“Yes. Easier said than done, but I am doing okay with it.”

I came away from this news with some disappointment, but it was really for my social life. It has been over a year since I’ve been able to visit with anyone normally, to go to a grocery store, to sit in a coffee shop… I resolved that I would check in with people that were being careful and visit with them. I haven’t seen my nephew Matthew and his wife Paige’s new baby, Jack. I’ve seen plenty of pictures. News travels fast in family. They called me to let me know they had heard the news from Barbara.

“Maybe I will come out to see you. I know Lucy wants to see that baby. She’s been to the wedding shower, and the wedding, and the baby shower. She really wants to see that baby,” I was thinking of Lucy through a lot of this. She’s 11 years old and very social.

Matt said, “Sure. I haven’t been in the office in some time. And the only people that come over are also social distancing.”

I talked to Elysa. She no longer lives in the building. She moved to Prairie on a couple acres of land with Nathan and the five kids they have between them that Lucy desperately wants to see, “We haven’t been anywhere in weeks. There’s a whole separate apartment that you can stay in. We can just see each other outside.”

“That sounds great. I will come out for a day or two next week.”

Of course, I haven’t seen my mother in months, so I made plans for us to drive out to see her. The next time I dropped off Lucy with Justine, I talked to her about my plans.

“Larry. I’m not going to tell you can’t see everyone, but I think it’s a bad idea. My roommate tested positive, and I didn’t test positive or have symptoms of any kind. I missed two weeks of work without pay, and I didn’t see the kids for three weeks. It’s the worst it has ever been here in Houston. I know the feeling. It can make you crazy, and you want to make plans. Like I said, I am not going to tell you not to do it, but it’s not a good idea.”

I took a deep breath knowing she was right, “You are right. It is a bad idea.”

“I’m not telling you that you can’t do it. It’s a trade off and you have been quarantined for some time.”

“Yes I know. And you could tell me not to. We are both raising these kids. It’s not just me.”

“But I’m not going to tell you. Just think about it.”

“No. I’m not going to do it. Thank you for talking me out of it.”

“It’s just a couple more months.”

“I actually don’t think it will only be a couple months. I don’t know how long it will be, but I can’t think like that either. It’s been a year for me.”

“No. It will only be a couple more months.”

Lucy watched this whole conversation with a silently awed expression as she watched her hopes for a social life disappear.

“I was thinking a little about Lucy as well, but we are just going to have to start scheduling things in Zoom meetings with family and friends so that she can see and interact with more people. Iggy is almost thriving in this environment as he doesn’t have to go anywhere.”

Justine said, “Yeah. Just a couple more months. Play games. I recently was invited to an online show and tell by a friend. Anything to have more social time.”

Will it be another couple months? Another year? Two? I have no idea. I can’t count on any timeframe.

When I was in the middle of the darkest of days over the last couple of years, Troy told me a story about some high ranking officer that was captured in Vietnam and was held in the same camp with McCain. He was imprisoned until the end of the war. He was being interviewed for a documentary or something, and the interviewer asked him how he got through that being tortured and starving.

“You make the best of it. You plan for what you have right now. There would be rumors going around the camps that we were going to be liberated soon, and some guys would live by that. But I always noticed that those guys would be the first to die. You have to accept where you are and find reasons to live under the circumstances right now.”

Another thing this reminds me of is a Warren Buffett quote from 2010 or 2011. I cannot find this quote when I search for it, so I don’t know if he actually said it or if I just made it up and attribute it to Warren Buffett.

At the end of a press conference, a reporter asked Warren Buffett, “Mr. Buffett. When do you think the recession will end?”

“When we stop expecting it to end.”

I have found so many places to use those thoughts. Don’t plan on being saved from the POW camp. Stop expecting your misfortune to end. The only way it will end is when I decide it is over. The cavalry isn’t coming to save me. I could be extremely disappointed every time I get this news, or I could just go on living.

When will we be able to see each other again? I don’t know. My immune system is about to go into the dumps again. I have a very tight quarantine circle. I might break that group to take the kids to see my mother, but each time I go out, I risk an infection that could kill me in the coming months. That could put Justine at risk with her Lupus. Or Yolanda who is still compromised from her own cancer treatments. Or Troy, who has already been incredibly sick but tested negative. So I am going nowhere for ‘another couple months’, or years, or…

When Alvin Toffler wrote Future Shock, he didn’t imagine today’s world. Or maybe he did, and that’s why the book was worth writing. I remember him talking about the cycles of change and how they would just get bigger and more rapid as technology progressed more rapidly. In 1970, how long would it have taken for a virus to get from Wuhan to Houston? Would we have even known it was coming? Before this current crisis is ended, what new mayhem will come our way? We have no idea, but I be it will be something.

So when I think about it, those trips last summer were golden. I saw a bunch of people that I might not see again in this lifetime. I’m not saying that like it’s a fact, but it’s a reality we all must face. The ground has shifted beneath our feet, and we don’t know what this new world means. So schedule those Zoom meetings, and those Facetime calls. Don’t assume this is all going to work itself out, and don’t call me with the expectation that I can eventually make plans in person, because I cannot.

I took the news of my chemotheraphy redux to the people that I owed a personal phone call first. The people that I consider within my quarantine circle. Then I have the wider world of family and friends that I care for and who care for me. This is the original reason I started this blog, to inform the people that would want to know. I know I will talk to a lot of you personally as well. I look forward to it.

This Friday, August 7, I will start chemotherapy again. I am not facing this new treatment as a setback. It’s the reality of my life. Soon enough, we will all be dead, but I will do as much living as I can without the despair and without looking to the horizon for the cavalry. I have it pretty damn good. I have a nice apartment, internet, food, musical equipment. I am writing another book (fiction), while editing the first. Life could be way worse than this, and for sure it already has. I lived through that as well.

10 thoughts on “Living With Cancer”

  1. I can’t help but be angry…because you don’t deserve this…but then I’m sure you would probably say to me that nobody does, but you’re not nobody. You’re Larry Lines, classmate from childhood, nice kid, even nicer adult, with great kids whom I loved seeing as little one’s and then again as pre-teens, so this is different, because you’re not nobody. I will continue to pray for you and for the next time that we can visit because there has to be a next time, hear me? Love you…thinking of you & the kids…and Jonathan says to say hello…hugs from Jersey!

  2. It’s so hard for me to even reconcile the idea that there we were at Thanksgiving a couple years ago, you’re healthy and we’re enjoying great conversation, then a year later you have cancer, I still couldn’t really accept it, just seemed surreal as you look invincible and to hear that you’re back to treatment again boggles my mind and once again I can’t seem to reconcile my perception of you with a reality in which cancer could possibly affect the great and awesome Larry.. We are keeping you in our prayers and I hope when this covid crap is contained we can have you all over for some pool time. Miss Lucy and her fireball energy 😉

  3. Years ago I recall A Dr saying, “We will eventually treat cancer like diabetes and just maintain it” i believe we are there now after reading this. Every single day there are new discoveries in medicines that are changing peoples lives. None of us know what tomorrow will bring…enjoy every single day. We love you!

  4. Man, I am sorry I haven’t been more in touch recently. Dealing a little with Mom Bouncing in and out of the Hospital. She had to go to the Cath Lab today and have a procedure done. I think a lot of her issues just come with age. Unfortunately, we all kind of have an expiration date. God knows when it is though….

  5. James came for dinner last weekend and we had an awesome jam session. At one point I thought to do a video for you but then we got distracted with “Runaway.” I was aching for you to be there. One day, you will be. <3

  6. Dear Larry, Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your journey. I’m especially inspired by your awareness of the suffering in the world, and the blessings that you have …and I want to tell you that you are in my highest intentions for abundance and well-being, as well as my prayers. Warmly, Sally

  7. My mother used to say, Barbara something is the matter, Larry isn’t talking. He is the youngest of three and it didn’t bother me . Tthere one lest Mom ECHO.
    Your verbiage started at the tender age of 3. We would be in the car and conversation would start. I would say Larry stop talking.
    I guess those years gave you the opportunity to collect information . Also, you’re a wonderful listener. Have an very broad ,accepting and forgiving base.
    I enjoy all your writing . Thank God for laptop because your penmanship is atrocious . And no one will ever have to know😉😘

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Santa is socially distant this year. Here’s how you can visit him

Zoie Dabit, 4, waves as she climbs onto a bench. She's separated from Santa by piles of gifts and a Christmas tree.
Zoie Dabit, 4, of Northridge and Santa Claus practice social distancing at Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Elusiveness has always been part of the Santa Claus brand.

He comes and goes in the night, leaving little trace but Christmas presents and cookie crumbs. He lives at the North Pole, of all places. The only way to contact him is by snail mail.

Only during the holiday season does Santa become accessible, offering up his lap while he poses for pictures and listens to wish lists. In this pandemic-plagued year, he’s doing his best to maintain a presence at malls, family gatherings and Christmas tree lots, but like the rest of us, he has had to adjust.

Socially distant St. Nick comes in many forms, among them face-shield Santa, drive-by Santa, Plexiglas Santa and, inevitably, $750-an-hour Zoom Santa.

At the Westfield Century City mall, he’s tucked away inside an ornate Cinderella-esque carriage. At South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, he’s available for distanced visits by appointment. Over at the Grove, he’s riding atop the shopping center’s emerald-green trolley twice a night, waving to customers below.

Santa Claus waves as he sits inside an ornate carriage at a shopping mall.
Larry Buckelew, as Santa Claus, greets visitors at Westfield Century City.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

You can still take photos with Santa at Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, but don’t try to climb onto his lap: A red-ribbon-festooned bench placed six feet in front of him is as close as you can get. Santa stays in the background, flanked by two towering Christmas trees, and leans forward to greet kids as they peer furtively over the divide. “So what would you girls like for Christmas? I’ll see what I can do!” he half-hollers.

“I thought it was a toy at first. Then I saw him moving and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s real,’” said Marcos Rodriguez, 26, who took his kids, 5-year-old Alyssa and 3-year-old Gabriel, to the farm Saturday to see Santa because “there’s nothing else to do.”

(The precautions serve a purpose. At a Christmas parade in Georgia this month, dozens of children were exposed to the coronavirus after posing for pictures with a costumed Santa who afterward tested positive.)

Kids always want to visit Santa, and this holiday season parents need something — anything — to entertain them after nine months of back-and-forth playground, park, theater and school closures. For businesses, having Santa on the premises, even if he’s not doling out hugs and candy canes, is a surefire way to draw customers — especially important when many have been reluctant to leave their homes and spend money.

Three kids in coordinated Christmas outfits and masks sit on a bench and wave to a socially distant Santa.
Griffin Hodge, 5, left, his sister Delaney, 7, and brother Wyatt, 10, visit Santa at the Janss Marketplace in Thousand Oaks.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Cherry Hill Programs provides more than 1,000 Santas for 700 malls and other retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, with hiring and training beginning each January. The Marlton, N.J., company has been encouraging guests to make advance reservations for its contactless Santa experiences and is requiring everyone age 2 and older to wear a face mask. Santa and staff are required to undergo daily health screenings and temperature checks.

Some Santas have deemed any in-person appearances too risky, even though forgoing them can be a considerable sacrifice.

“When you’re a Los Angeles Hollywood Santa Claus, it can be very lucrative. So it is a loss of income,” said Greg Gill, 59, the longtime Santa at the Wilshire Rotary Christmas tree lot on Larchmont Boulevard. The automobile broker from Altadena decided not to don the red suit amid the pandemic this year.

Santa is getting creative this socially distant Christmas during the coronavirus pandemic

“In September I thought to myself, ‘This is not going to happen,’” he said. Dressing up as usual “wasn’t going to be consistent with Santa’s values. It’s really not open for interpretation.”

Although the Larchmont gig was done on a volunteer basis, Gill began receiving inquiries from people wanting to book him for private parties as he became more established. Last year, he earned about $500 per 90-minute appearance. Plus incidentals: “If it’s a long event, you have to feed Santa and have parking.”

“I have been in a 16-year cycle: Don’t shave, grow your beard, make sure the outfit’s put together,” he said. “How do I feel this year? I’m like a superhero whose powers are not here anymore.”

Other Santas have opted to go the virtual route.

Families are using technology in so many ways, and it just made sense to FaceTime or find some other way to talk to Santa.

Ed Taylor, who is offering virtual Santa visits over Zoom and FaceTime

Around six or seven years ago, Ed Taylor, one of L.A.'s most famous Santas, began supplementing his in-person Santa work with phone calls and video chats. This year, he added Zoom to the mix and said he had received hundreds of bookings from families around the country and from Japan, Australia, England, Ireland and Poland.

“That whole concept of visiting with Santa virtually has been growing for quite a while. It’s just timely. Families are using technology in so many ways, and it just made sense to FaceTime or find some other way to talk to Santa,” said Taylor, who lives in Oregon but used to fly to Los Angeles for several months each year to fulfill his Santa duties. “And then of course this year — it’s a tipping point.”

Zoom Santa is not cheap.

Taylor — who has dressed up as Santa since 2003 and has starred in Chrysler and Kohl’s commercials, appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and made a cameo in a Gwen Stefani music video — set up a website to tout his virtual-Santa-for-hire services. Prices range from $100 for a 12-minute off-peak call to $750 for a 55-minute Christmas Eve or Christmas Day call.

Ed Taylor, dressed as Santa,  smiles as he does a virtual St. Nick visit on his computer.
Ed Taylor has found a lucrative business as a virtual Santa on Zoom and FaceTime.
(Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

“Santa will Zoom, Skype, FaceTime or use most any other service to have an amazing ‘Virtual Visit’ with a person of your choice,” Taylor’s website says. “Santa right there, in person, from the NORTH POLE … what could be better than that? You select your day and time and prepay for the chat.”

“I’m at 398 booked visits already,” he said in early December. “It’s really kind of exploded.”

Taylor noted the upsides of virtual Santa, saying he’s better prepared because parents can give him specifics on their kids in advance; families also get a video recording of the encounter. “In many ways,” he said, “it’s a better Santa visit.”

As of Tuesday, all of his appointments were filled except for the ones on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Taylor, 66, won’t say how much he makes annually from being Santa: “I’d take too much heat.”

“My rates are considerably higher,” he said. “I do OK; I’m very happy with the income. I’m a SAG-AFTRA member now.”

But for some parents, fatigued after a year of being largely homebound with their children, screen Santa just won’t do.

“I wanted a real Santa, not a virtual one,” said Maritza Rodriguez, 45, who drove more than an hour from Huntington Park with her two daughters so they could take photos with Santa at Underwood Family Farms on Saturday. “Everything’s been Zoom for them.”


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How to buy a live Christmas tree

Man preparing Christmas tree
Ernesto Lopez prepares a Christmas tree for sale at Avalon Nursery & Ceramics in Los Angeles.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The holiday season is here, capping off a year that has suffered from a notable lack of merriment since March.

Between battling the general lack of good cheer and facing down the prospect of spending the holidays at home, people are embracing Christmas decorations. For some, that means putting up a live tree for the first time.

“People are going crazy for Christmas,” said Mac Harman, who sold live trees for nine years before founding Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and holiday decorations. The Balsam Hill website’s “Christmas in July” sale saw a 50% increase compared with the previous year, he said, and demand hasn’t slowed since.

Some consider it a faux pas to decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving, but is the stress of the pandemic turning more people into early decorators?

Brandon Helfer is the owner of Mr. Jingle’s Christmas Trees, which sells live trees at several locations around Southern California. He said he’s seen a notable increase in first-time tree buyers, particularly from people who tell him they’re staying home for the holidays this year instead of traveling to visit family.

If you’re one of the first-timers making a foray into live trees, here’s what you need to know to have the optimal evergreen experience.

Before you go

Decide whether you want to go to a lot. The business limitations from the city of Los Angeles and the state don’t specifically mention Christmas tree lots, but since they are retail and outdoors, they will likely be able to continue operation. (If that changes, we’ll update this article.) But if you’d prefer to minimize your contact with the outside world, call your local lot and inquire about delivery or curbside pickup. Helfer said he’s had an increase in both requests this year, which Mr. Jingle’s has hustled to accommodate.

“COVID forced us to really change the business model,” he said. “We try to keep that old school feel but be technologically advanced at the same time.”

You should also decide whether you want to get a precut tree from a lot or nursery or whether you want to cut one down yourself. Several farms around L.A. offer the cut-your-own-Christmas tree experience. There are lots of precut ones from family farms all around Southern California.

Want to get in the holiday spirit? These family-run tree farms allow you to choose and cut your own Christmas tree.

Whether you’re doing in-person, pickup or delivery, you’ll need to know what size tree your home can handle. Measure your ceiling height and subtract at least a foot, Harman said, so that you have space for the tree topper. Don’t forget to measure the width where the tree is going as well.

Many lots accept credit cards, though some are still cash-only. Call ahead to check or be prepared to make an ATM detour. Like everywhere else in Southern California, bring a mask and be ready to maintain at least six feet of distance from other people. You don’t need to bring twine or anything else, except maybe an old blanket to protect the top of your car.

Places like the Home Depot have trees available and offer delivery, but Helfer said big-box retailers tend to offer lower-quality trees. The best quality trees are more likely to come from independent lots that specialize in the business.

At the Christmas tree lot

In Southern California, expect to pay between $50 and $200, depending on the size and type of tree you buy. The median price of a real Christmas tree purchased in 2019 was $76.87, according to a national survey from the National Christmas Tree Assn.

The price will depend on the height and the type of tree.

Do the scent of pine and twinkling lights give you a boost? Shop for Christmas trees at these family-run tree lots.

You’ve already determined how tall your tree can be; next ask a worker which varieties the lot offers.

Most California lots will have Douglas and noble firs, which grow on the West Coast. Douglas firs are light green with fine needles; they’re typically less expensive and more fragrant. They’re also notorious for not lasting as long and shedding copious amounts of needles. Noble firs have thicker blue-green upward-growing needles and are more expensive; they will keep the Christmas cheer going longer and require less sweeping but might not have as much of that seasonal fragrance. (Thankfully, there are scented candles that can make up for that.)

Also ask when the tree was cut down. The reality is that 30 million trees cannot be cut down simultaneously the weekend before the three-week-long tree-buying season. The bulk of the workforce who chop down and transport Christmas trees are migrant workers who typically begin after grape harvesting season ends in the fall, Harman said, so the very first trees available might have been cut a few weeks earlier. You either want a tree that was cut recently or one that has been stored in the cold for preservation.

The lot might offer to make a fresh cut on your tree. If not, you’ll want a saw handy at home. In either case, leave at least 6 inches of tree trunk between the cut and where the branches start. Some places offer to add flame retardant or flocking, which makes it look like your tree was subject to a snow flurry.

If you’re a first-time tree buyer, you probably don’t have a tree stand, which will probably be sold separately at the lot. You might also be able to find wreaths and garlands, though they tend to sell out quickly. Mr. Jingle’s locations offer one-stop shopping for Christmas decorating needs, including lights, ornaments and tree skirts, though that’s not the case at all tree lots.

Once you’ve selected your tree, ask about a tree shaker. It’s a device that gives your tree a good hard shake, so that all the loose needles it would lose in the first couple of days hit the ground on the lot instead of in your living room. Not every place will have one.

Welcome to our comprehensive gift guide for the 2020 holiday season.

Wherever you get your tree, it will have twine and someone willing to help you hoist your bounty onto your car’s roof and tie it down. This is where having an old blanket to put down first comes in handy, though it isn’t necessary. Be sure to tip.

Back at home

Once you get the tree and the stand inside, it’s time to set it up. Some tree stands have a spike in the middle on which to impale the tree; others use adjustable bolts or fasteners to hold it upright. Optimally, Harman said, you’d have one person holding up the tree, one person crawling under it to adjust the stand and a third person standing across the room to assess straightness. But if there’s only one or two people in your household, you can still make it work. And if your tree ends up a little crooked, well, it’s not like many people will be around to critique it.

In terms of location, Helfer said you’ll get the longest life out of a tree that’s away from a window (even one with the shades drawn — the trees don’t like heat or sunlight), heat sources (which can be a fire hazard) and drafty air. You can mist it from time to time, particularly if you’re misting other houseplants anyways. Just be careful about the electric lights.

Water your tree every other day. Don’t fill the water basin all the way up: Trees suck up water during the day and let some of it back down at night, so you’re risking a messy overflow. The water level should be only two to three inches higher than the base of the trunk.

Now it’s time for the fun part: decorating, putting the presents under the tree and enjoying this unique holiday season.


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Drought and bugs have killed tens of thousands of trees in the Santa Monica Mountains

Rosi Dagit, a senior conservation biologist with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, measures the diameter of a dying alder tree during a tour of Topanga Creek.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

When biologist Rosi Dagit wants to give people a glimpse of the urgency of the problem afflicting trees in the Santa Monica Mountains, she takes them to a withering oasis in Topanga Canyon where hundreds of sycamores, alders and willows are dead and dying.

Just six years ago, the creek offered all the arboreal comforts needed for frogs, newts and protected fish such Arroyo chubs and steelhead trout to avoid extinction: leafy canopies to control water temperature and prevent algae blooms, and willows buzzing with insects for nourishment.

Now, streamside trees weakened by drought are being ravaged by fungal diseases and swarms of insects the size of sesame seeds — imperiling not only the lush canopy but all the creatures that live in the stream.

Bore holes caused by beetles known as fruit tree pinhole borers.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times )

During a tour on Friday, Dagit saw damage almost everywhere she looked. Willows had lost their leaves from a fungal pathogen that coated their boughs with a crusty white residue. Sycamores and alders were splotched with half-dollar-size lesions caused by tiny beetles. Native shrubs were giving way to weeds.

On a 150-foot stretch of creek lined with 78 trees, Dagit counted only 15 still alive.

“The ecological consequences of losing all these trees are profound and, on a personal level, so sad,” said Dagit, a senior biologist for the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.

New surveys of the 154,000-acre Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area conducted by remote sensing instruments on NASA aircraft and teams on the ground revealed a loss of about 9,100 — or 6% — of coast live oaks, and 114,000 — or 32% — of riparian trees including sycamores, alders and willows during five years of severe drought that ended in 2017. About 38% of the area’s chaparral also died, NASA scientists said.

Ripple effects on the environment may already be underway. For example, mayflies, which float on the surface and are an easily accessible food for fish and frogs, have been replaced by tiny chironomid midges, which spend much of their lives hiding in sunken leaves. Whether Topanga Canyon’s fish and frogs adapt to the shift remains to be seen, scientists say.

Dying trees and shrubs have exacerbated the plight of Western pond turtles, California’s only native freshwater turtle. “The roughly 200 pond turtles left in the Santa Monicas eat and reproduce in water, and spend much of their lives hunkered down in chaparral and leaf litter,” Dagit said. “With fewer places for them to hide from predators like raccoons and ravens, we’re finding more and more pond turtles with their eyes pecked out and missing legs.”

The death of streamside trees threatens fish habitat in Topanga Creek.

“We’ll have to wait and see how it all plays out,” Dagit said, shaking her head. “But I never thought I’d be witnessing the possible extinction of so many plants and animals in this area.”

The magnitude of the devastation hit home as researchers including Dagit and a small army of volunteers began studying the results of the surveys of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area’s matrix of public and private lands.

A summary of those findings will be presented Tuesday night at the Topanga Library in Topanga.

The data, which also came from the catch basins of more than 46 traps baited with chemical lures to attract insect pests, indicated that the hardest-hit areas were riparian zones where trees help control the environment of the canyon bottoms, creek flows and ponds they overhang and surround.

The native trees of the Santa Monica Mountains adapted over thousands of years to prolonged dry periods of drought. But aerial surveys using instruments designed to measure infrared radiation levels emitted by living and dead vegetation determined that the scale of the tree die-off was unprecedented in modern history, scientists said.

In addition, tree mortality rates were highest in areas that had the most number of days with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees, and the least number of days with rainfall.

Rosi Dagit points out a willow tree that is dying because of drought and insect infestation in Topanga Creek.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times )

Those conditions lowered water tables in canyon lands and deprived waterways such as Topanga Creek and Malibu Creek in the southern portions of the Santa Monica Mountains of historic flows, Natasha Stavros, an applied science systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said.

“Good rains like we had last year will not be enough to recover many of the losses we’ve seen,” Stavros said. “That’s because trees that have struggled through five years of drought depleted their natural defenses and resources, inviting fatal infestations of bugs and disease.”

Still, Dagit found reason for hope in a clump of green willow saplings pushing up through the creek’s muddy banks, about 30 feet from a water level gauge installed in the 1930s that was left high and dry in 2011 by diminished flows.

“Fish need trees,” Dagit said.


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After firing Lane Kiffin, USC’s next play is big: hiring right coach

The final night of Lane Kiffin’s USC head coaching career began in beauty, desert temperatures dropping, the sky above Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium shimmering, the excited murmurs of fans hurriedly filling the stands dressed in shorts and flip-flops.

It looked as if the only person not bathed in hope was Pat Haden.

As the Trojans jogged through their pregame routine, Haden stood forlornly on the sidelines with his USC cap tucked low on his head and his hands stuck deep in his pockets. He wasn’t doing his usual meeting and greeting. He was just staring, wearily, unsmiling, as if only four games into the 2013 season he had seen enough.

“You can tell, this Kiffin stuff has really taken its toll on him,” said a bystander.

Four hours later, that toll was finally exacted. Kiffin was fired by an athletic director who ultimately agreed with the overwhelming majority of his constituents.

Haden, it seemed, could no longer bear to watch USC play football.

The Trojans football culture is as visceral as it is vicious, as much about Hollywood as head-banging, yet Kiffin never took his nose out of his play card long enough to understand.

The Trojans football culture is about an internal swagger, yet Kiffin’s off-the-field exploits with deflated footballs and phony uniform numbers reeked of an internal smarminess.

The Trojans football culture is about being smarter when you cannot be stronger, yet Kiffin’s play-calling often hurt the team far more than any scholarship ban.

The Trojans football culture is about always competing — former coach Pete Carroll nailed that one — yet four of Kiffin’s final seven losses were by double digits, and in two of those games his teams allowed 62 points.

Even for a forgiving sort like Haden, who inherited Kiffin yet still vociferously supported him for 3 1/2 seasons, the Trojans had become unwatchable.

The firing was not designed to ruin Lane Kiffin, but to save USC football.

“We realize our history has been great and we need to be great again,” Haden said during a Sunday news conference.

There has been much wondering about which moment on Saturday night finally finished Kiffin. There are many possible moments, but a good guess might be the fourth-and-one pass thrown out of the wildcat formation by running back Tre Madden with the Trojans trailing by 20 late in the third quarter. It was a play called by someone who had lost all contact with the pulse of his team. Madden thew a wobbler that was intercepted, and four plays later the Sun Devils scored to put the game out of reach.

“At the end of the day, it became a gut feeling that we weren’t making the progress that I felt we needed to make, that I thought we should be making,” said Haden. “It’s never the perfect time to do these things, but I felt it was the right time.”

Kiffin, a tireless worker who deserves credit for going 10-2 in 2011 and temporarily steadying the program in the wake of probation, politely declined to comment for this column. But surely even he would admit that what USC football is, he isn’t. The Kiffin failure should remind USC of exactly what it needs to succeed.

Call the upcoming search, “Finding Pete.”

Although Haden will have difficulty duplicating Mike Garrett’s hiring of Pete Carroll, he showed he understands the importance of a Carroll-like aura by naming former Carroll assistant Ed Orgeron as the interim boss.

Orgeron is Pete without the slick. He is raw voice, raw emotion, running motor, the sort of guy to infuse the program with the Pete passion it so desperately needs. He is the anti-Kiff.

Said Haden: “This is supposed to be a game of fun and joy. One of the things we’re looking for in Ed is to bring that fun and joy back into the game of college football.”

Said Orgeron: “I’m going to have some energy, some excitement, high-fiving guys, having fun.”

USC needs to begin its search with that sort of emotion, channeled through someone who has the smarts and savvy to run what is essentially considered an NFL-type program.

This is a program that needs a coach who walks the sideline as if he owns it, treats the program with respect, and makes certain that his team will — here’s that phrase again — always compete.

It is silly to target former USC players simply because they are former USC players. Just because they once played there doesn’t mean they can deal with the current climate. It is also silly to target only big-name former NFL guys simply because they coached on Sunday. The difficulties in recruiting can turn a former great NFL coach into an average college one.

Be careful of small-school types. This is a big job. Be wary of journeyman big-school types. This job needs a fresh view and idealistic voice.

The list of potential coaches is already long, and will probably be reworked a dozen times before Haden actually starts officially searching, so simply reciting a dozen names here without supporting data makes no sense.

You know what USC needs? It needs to hire someone who is its third or fourth choice, someone who just happens to be on campus to watch his daughter play volleyball and decides to stop by Haden’s office to say hello.

Truly, the hiring of Carroll shows that USC’s next move can come from anywhere, at any time, as long as Haden is willing to trust the same instincts that led him to creating this vacancy in the middle of the night.

USC football was once the best show in town, and Haden is charged with finding someone with the boldness and genius to burn those bright lights again.

Finding Pete.

Twitter: @billplaschke