This morning at 11:30 I indulged my twins’ appetite
for Taco Bell. Today is after all their third birthday. While we idled in my
car at the drive-thru on Sepulveda, between Hawthorne and Crenshaw near King’s Hawaiian Bakery, I
heard a violent, slamming crash and for some reason I thought that it had
occurred inside Taco Bell. Since
the employees looked calm inside, I dismissed the sound as something that
happens every day like a refrigerator door slamming on the cold box or
something.
But two minutes later while making a right on
Sepulveda (where I make a U-turn at this condo unit by some fountains), traffic
was being diverted into the far right lane. A good pedestrian was motioning on
the side of the road and I saw a white commercial van stuck in the middle of
Sepulveda.
At first I didn’t think much of the stalled van. But
then I saw a motorcycle on the ground. It was shredded into bits. Nearby, a man
lay prone and motionless on his stomach. He had on a motorcycle helmet. Two
people were standing over him.
It then occurred to me that the sound I heard while
waiting at the drive-thru was the motorcycle hitting the van.
I began shaking and decided not to make my usual
U-turn, which would afford my girls a possible vision of the prone driver. I
continued to Crenshaw, made a left, and went down Carson.
Still on Sepulveda, the paramedics arrived. Five
minutes later, on our street, my neighbor, a motorcycle cop, was on his way to
the crash scene, verified by his wife who was in the front yard doing some
gardening. She told me her husband arrives on these "death scenes" all the time.
I’ll talk to my neighbor next time I see him to see
what happened to the driver.
Meanwhile, my girls are ignorant of what happened and
on semi-quarantine since a kid recently went to their preschool with chicken pox.
My girls, who were vaccinated, may or may not have
the pox but we’re keeping them away from babies for another week. And away from
the idea of death . . . for now.
Update:
Here's the Dailybreeze story which says before 2P.M. he was in critical condition. But I talked to the aforementioned officer around 4:00P.M. and he says the motorcycle driver died.
Jonny writes:
I linked this in the comments field on my blog, but check this out:
http://watchlords.forumotion.net/t20494-watchlords-enlighten-me-what-s-the-difference-between-these-seiko-divers
A very helpful (and friendly) discussion about the different levels of Seiko Divers.
I see it as a kind of gradual stepping up. You've got the entry-level or "everyman" divers in the $175-250 range: the very popular SKX007, the "ghetto Sumo" SNZF17, the great Black Monster SKX779, the nice kinetics SKA371/427, etc.
Then you take a solid step up to the $500-600 range and you get the Sumo, which is in a way the "gateway diver" to more expensive watches. The Sumo can either be the crown jewel of an "everyman" collection, or it can be the gateway to more expensive watches and, as I said in that thread, not be misplaced in either collecting range.
After that you've got watches around $1,000, like the Tuna and the Shogun (SBDC007), or the Orient Saturation Diver. These are true pseudo-luxury watches.
At double that, around $2,300 (or $1900 used), you have the SBDX001 MarineMaster 300M, which may represent the best value for a truly fine quality timepiece (although notice that even that has hardlex, although a very high quality dual-curve). This would exemplify why Ulysses says that around this price range you're getting most of what a higher end watch has.
Then you have my absolute favorite, the $4,000 SBDB001 MM600, which is a watch that with its styling and Spring Drive movement can stand up with any watch below about $10,000. Above that is the Grand Seiko, a $6,500 watch which is the highest of the Seiko line and as good as any watch in the world (in my opinion).
I see it as a gradual unfolding. I can see buying a Sumo within the next year, and then maybe a Tuna in 2014, and then maybe a MM300 in 2015 or 2016, and someday a MM600. While I'd love a MM600, I'm also somewhat glad I can't have one now because if I got one I'd be both afraid to wear it and not wanting to wear anything else. Furthermore, the graduated approaches allows me to enjoy every step of the way.