Altadena Above It All

I happened to arrive at Photography by Walt on July 1st just in time to have the ever handsome, wonderful, and wiley Walt Mancini capture the moment for the Star News. Guess I’ll have to take some darn shots now, won’t I? Here’s the link.
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_12758702

Hope you’ll get your camera at Photography by Walt. For $20 they’ll give you the camera, and when you’re done with your 27 shots of Altadena, bring it back (by July 31st, my birthday btw) and they’ll develop the film. Then on September 5 they’ll show 2700 of the best shots. What are you going to shoot? I’m still deciding myself…

For more details, visit Tim Rutt’s altadenablog.com
We’re all gonna have a great time on this great project. I’m not quite a daily poster on my altadenadailyphoto.wordpress.com blog, but check it out anyway. Maybe you’ll get some ideas there.

Happy snapping!

Dear Ms. Swanson Patrick:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for cancer awareness in prospective health care reform legislation. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome your input.

There are at least 47 million citizens in the United States who are uninsured, and approximately 50 million who are underinsured. In these trying economic times, with increasing job lay-offs and the skyrocketing costs of private health insurance, I believe it is a moral and economic imperative that everyone should have affordable health insurance-regardless of where they work, their income, their age, or their health status.

As you know, cancer has surpassed heart disease as the number one cause of death of Americans under 85 years old, striking one out of every two men and one out of every three women. With an increasing number of people with cancer needing comprehensive care, it is crucial that we bolster our efforts to invest in this area. We must make sure that health care coverage is available and affordable for all Americans, and we must make aggressive research efforts to find better treatments and a cure.

You may be interested to know that I am a cosponsor of the Assuring and Improving Cancer Treatment Education and Cancer Symptom Management Act of 2009 (H.R. 1927), that would provide for Medicare coverage of comprehensive cancer patient treatment education services. Additionally, the bill would expand, intensify, and coordinate research programs within the National Institutes of Health directed towards improving the treatment of symptoms and side effects associated with cancer and cancer treatment.

I certainly understand the need for improved coverage and care for those who currently have cancer and for preventative care for those at risk to contract cancer in the future. Please be assured that I will keep your views in mind as the House considers comprehensive health care reform legislation.

An on-going job of a Representative in Congress is to help constituents solve problems with federal agencies, access services, and get their questions answered promptly. On my website, I offer a detailed guide to the services my office can provide to you as a constituent. I also encourage you to subscribe to the Washington Update, my email newsletter which contains information on local events, my work in Washington, and even lets you weigh in on important issues through online polls. Visit me online at http://schiff.house.gov to subscribe. Please know that you can always reach me at (626) 304-2727 or via my website if I can ever be of additional assistance.

Thank you again for your thoughts. I hope you will continue to share your views and ideas with me.

Sincerely,

Adam B. Schiff

Member of Congress

I forgot to post this over the weekend. Way to go Susan!
http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-share20-2009jun20,0,1628042.story

My veggie garden is the size of a postage stamp, but hope to see it grow next year. I’ve long admired the Altadena Community Garden but never seemed to have time to do that. Silly me. What a great way to get to know people.

Wrote this at 2am Friday but didn’t post.

Been a while since I just wrote and wasn’t linking to an event or news item. It’s after 3 am. Can’t sleep. Had to put my kitty to sleep yesterday. Thanks to everyone for their good wishes and sympathies. Cheri was one funny cat.  Being a lilac point Himalayan, she had a lot of beautiful white fur, and she loved heat. It wasn’t always good for her.

When I adopted her from a shelter in Escondido in 96-97, she had faint scorch marks on her fur from sitting too close to the stove. She wasn’t injured, just a little superficial singe. She managed to set herself on fire while with me a  few times, usually by sitting too close to a Christmas party candle. She’d sleep on or in plastic bags, boxes, containers, whatever. Never knew where you’d find her snoozin. The tom cats didn’t dare get near her, she’d whack ‘em. My kinda cat!

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I hear a police helicopter overhead. Glad to know they’re on the job. Things have been a little jumpy in Altadena lately. I attended the Community Action Committee meeting this week and got updates on gang and other activity. The good news is our councilman, Mike Antonovich, has approved more funding for gang control over the summer. The most troublesome areas are around Lincoln/Woodbury.

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Our garden gave us the first fruit of our labor this week. Ok, the first vegetable. Two beautiful fat pickling cucumbers. Tomatoes are thriving, blueberries are struggling a bit, squash is blooming, arugula is hearty. It’s just so satisfying to go into your own yard and pick something for dinner. I need to go talk to the woman down the road whose front yard veggie garden is impressive. She’s using hay and has beautiful racks (I’m sure there’s another name!)  for the veggies to climb. Think she’ll share some secrets with me?  We can only hope.

Ok, back to bed.

Here is the text of the RLF flyer. Please see my previous post as well.