Jury duty: Crossing Ventura

It was easier to traverse the Delaware:

7:05 a.m.
On my way out, I see a line at the southeast Van Nuys Starbucks.

Mental note: Buy Starbucks stock.

Second mental note: Get basket with which to catch money falling from sky with which to buy Starbucks stock.

7:35 a.m.
It takes a half-hour just to get from Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards to Sepulveda and Ventura boulevards. Now I remember what I hated most about working over the hill at then TV-trade magazine Electronic Media. Just getting across Ventura remains one hard slog.

I stop in front of the Sherman Oaks Galleria. I already knew the earthquake-damaged office building just south of the 101 has finally been leveled. Only took almost 13 years.

But at the Galleria itself, workers were already busy redoing the interior of what used to be Tower Records. Must mean there's a new tenant. Wonder who it is. Mr. Sherman Oaks will know.

I took Sepulveda the whole way. The 405 was OK, but I didn't want to risk it. I had "Morning Edition" to prep me on Bush's Iraq-surge speech. Bad timing for him, what with the new Congress flexing its voter-mandated muscle.

I meant to turn on Sunset for my customary traffic-avoiding route to Santa Monica. I missed it. Wilshire was OK, and I made it in just about an hour.

(The next day, I learn that to go from Sepulveda to Sunset, you need to somehow take Church Lane.)