In the second week of January, I drove down to the LA area for a convention. I had made the plans months earlier, so everything was set in stone before the devastating fires happened. On my drive down, my path took me near two of the nearby fires.
It was very surreal to drive through Los Angeles while all of that was happening, and then to arrive down at Long Beach, virtually untouched by the fires. The path of the winds also pushed the smoke away, so besides the yellow skies in the distance, we didn’t get any of the effects.
It was like we were cloistered away in our own world while a disaster burned around us. Because I was away for this trip, I didn’t have my usual news consumption, so that added to the disconnect. The weather around us was quite lovely.
On the first day of the convention, my friends and I walked through an intersection and saw a delivery robot. I didn’t even know this was a thing. It looked fascinating, and also a bit silly.
Even though it was winter, the weather in the area was usually pretty warm at this time of year. Add in the palm trees, and I felt like I was enjoying summer. The buildings around the convention area was pretty nice. This wasn’t my first time here, but when I attended last year, I didn’t have my camera.
With my camera ready, I had more of a frame of mind to look out for the scenery instead of just beelining to and from the convention center.
On the last day, a friend and I scouted out some spots and took photos of each other. It was quite sunny, and difficult to see much on our screens with how bright the sun was. Lots of squinting but it was a beautiful and bright day.
I had a nice time at the convention, but I definitely had mixed feelings about the trip considering so many people lost homes around us. It was the closest I’ve ever experienced of that disconnect between major “world” events happening in parallel and your day-to-day life carrying on completely untouched.
