Apa L has been revived at an auspicious time for me to announce my house-moving. This will be my last fanzine to carry the address of the Sour Flower Tower. As of the day after tomorrow, my new address will be: 8943 East Arcadia Avenue, Apt 12, San Gabriel, California, 91775. I don't have a new phone yet, but I'll list my number as soon as I do -- by next week, doubtlessly.
My move is being prompted by the mighty Xerox empire, which is currently going through some reorganizational throes. My current job is being reorganized clear back to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Xerox thinks it can be performed more efficiently. Fortunately, I'm not being transferred with it. Xerox checked around and discovered that it also needs a technical librarian at once of its subsidiaries in Pasadena, only about 30 miles away, so I'm being transferred there. And since I don't care to commute 50 or 60 miles a day, I'm moving. I think that my new home will also have the added advantage of being about 10 miles closer to Los Angeles than I've been for the last year and a half, so I'll find it a trifle easier to get to LASFS Meetings and other fan doings.
To celebrate the occasion, I am having a bit "Moving Party" on Saturday. For the benefit of the newcomers among us, Moving Parties are an old LASFS tradition, at which fans show up to move the fan being moved, in the daytime, and there's a party for the movers at the new house in the evening. In this case, things will start about 10:00 a.m. on Saturday. I hope to have just about everything packed into boxes by then, so all the moving should involve is moving boxes (mostly of books) from Santa Ana to San Gabriel. There will be a spaghetti dinner, fixed by Bĵo, at my new house in the evening for the movers; following which we'll probably all adjourn to the open party at Dave Hulan's, since Dave says he lives only about a 10 minutes' drive from my new place. So join us for a day of fanac and fun.
My current address in Santa Ana can be most easily reached from Los Angeles by driving down the Santa Ana Freeway to Santa Ana. In Santa Ana -- about a half-dozen offramps past Disneyland -- take the Orange/Garden Grove interchange offramp, going toward Orange. You'll see an offramp for Flower Street almost immediately. Take that, and drive down Flower for about 30 blocks. The last big cross-street you'll pass is Edinger; I'm a half-block past that, on the right. If you're coming from Santa Monica or Long Beach, take the San Diego Freeway to the Bristol St. offramp (which is where the Fwy. currently ends). Head north (to the right) on Bristol to Warner Avenue, make a right turn on Warner and go to the next stop light, which is Flower. Turn left and go on for half a dozen small blocks. The next stop light is Edinger Ave., and I'm a half block before that on the left. 1704-B is the left rear duplex.
For those who want to join us at my new home, 8943 E. Arcadia, in San Gabriel is roughly between East Pasadena and the San Bernardino Freeway. Arcadia Ave. is just two blocks south of the intersection of Rosemead Blvd. and Huntington Drive, and my new apartment is practically on the corner of Arcadia and Rosemead, on the left if you're going north (towards Pasadena). You can take the San Bernardino Fwy. to Rosemead Blvd. and drive towards Pasadena until you get to Arcadia (if you come to Huntington, you've gone too far). If you're coming from Pasadena, you can drive out Foothill or Colorado to Rosemead, then turn right on Rosemead and come down to Arcadia Ave., which'll be two blocks on your right after you cross Huntington. For instructions on how to get to Dave Hulan's party from my place, ask Dave tonight.
It's been a fair while since the last LASFS picnic/outing/field-trip, and though winter is hard upon us, it'd be a shame if we had to wait until next spring to do anything. Therefore, after picking a clear date on the LASFS calendar, and checking with about a half-dozen fans to make sure it should be a popular idea, I'd like to schedule a LASFS outing to the Busch Gardens on Saturday, Nov. 16th (weather permitting).
Busch Gardens is an attraction run by the Busch beer people at their bottling plant in the San Fernando Valley. It consists mostly of a large, beautifully landscaped park, colorful birds from all over the world, and free beer. There are three different pavilions for the three kinds of beer that Busch makes; the last LASFS trip there consisted mostly of wandering back and forth between the pavilions, sampling the free beer (they have soda pop for the non-beer drinkers, but you have to pay for that), and watching the birds and bird shows. Most of the birds are loose, and it's interesting to watch treefuls of macaws flitting about, pheasants and peacocks wandering through the bushes under your feet, flamingoes and other water birds in the lagoons, and about a hundred other species being generally colorful. There's also a tour through the bottling plant. Even if you don't drink beer, it's a spectacular way to spend an afternoon; if you like beer in addition, you can't miss it. I suspect that most of the small group who went there last time will be looking forward to it. So, assuming it doesn't rain that Saturday, let's plan on meeting at the entrance to Busch Gardens at 10:30 a.m. on November 16th. If you can't make it by 10:30, come whenever you can and look for the rest of us inside. Directions will be provided for those who need them.
