Tag: Irvine

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A few weeks ago, I stopped at the post office on the way to work. As I walked to the door, my eye was immediately drawn to the big hole in the wall where, apparently, a car had crashed into the building while trying to park.

Whatever vehicle had done the damage was long gone, and the area around was cordoned off with yellow caution tape. Since I like to take pictures of weird stuff, I snapped a photo with my cell phone. (No, I didn’t cross the tape; it’s just not visible in the frame.)

This morning, I stopped at the same post office again. This time, my eye was drawn to a new addition to the facility:

One of these bright yellow posts stood in front of each parking space along the building. You can still see where the concrete has been spread around the base, and absolutely no paint has worn off. Clearly someone decided not to take any more chances with wayward cars!

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Remember that mall mystery from a while back? There was a storefront under construction at the Irvine Spectrum with an “Opening Soon” sign, but no indication of just what store might be moving in. They opened in December, and I keep forgetting to post a follow-up.

As you can see, all is revealed:

Storefront with three symbols above it, but no words.

…or maybe not.

Unless, of course, you recognize the logos for Hurley International (middle), Converse (right) and…what’s that on the left? With the Nike swoosh on top and the…skateboard? Sunglasses? Something on the bottom?

It’s kind of a throwback to the old medieval-style signs that showed an image instead of a name: the Prancing Pony, for instance (to pull an example from LOTR). Only instead of recognizable images, they’re symbols. Pictograms, if you will, only decipherable if you’re familiar with the symbols already, and they’ve actually thrown an obstacle in the way by muddling the most-recognized logo (Nike).

It seems odd to deliberately use a sign that would make a store hard to name (never mind figuring out what they sell), but I imagine that their target audience is quite familiar with the logos and wouldn’t have any trouble finding the store.

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WTF?!? CNN reports: Tornado warning in effect for south central Los Angeles.

It turns out there’s a tornado warning in Orange County too. I can believe it.

Drove past Blizzard HQ during a thunderstorm. Saw a really nice lightning strike a few minutes later.

Got soaked walking out of the parking structure. Wouldn’t be so bad if the rain was coming straight down. Ducked into first restaurant I saw.

Oh, NOW the storm lets up while I’m INSIDE. Rain & sky are both lightening up, & I haven’t seen any lightning in at least 10 minutes.

Aaaand we now return you to your regularly scheduled California sunshine!

I glanced out the window while eating lunch at Johnny Rockets and saw this brilliant rainbow. I hastily told the server that I would be right back, and was just going to look at it, and left some of my stuff at the table while I came out and snapped a picture. A passing security guard remarked that he had the same idea, but didn’t have his camera. When I went back in, two of the employees were staring out the window at it.

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Wall enclosing a closed storefront, labeled only 'Opening Soon.'

I keep walking past this empty storefront at the Irvine Spectrum, and I have yet to spot anything indicating just what is going in. The phrasing kind of implies that something specific is opening soon. It makes me wonder if I’m supposed to recognize the pattern or something.

Any ideas?

Update: The store is open now, and the mystery has been solved…sort of.