Those of you not living near Los Angeles may not know, but everyone near me is bracing for Carmageddon, and it begins tonight and doesn’t end until early Monday morning. How does this affect me? Well, our vacation begins today and although we had planned to stay in town, all of the day trips we planned are now cancelled because of this freakin’ closure. Well, maybe not cancelled forever as we could go later in the week. That’s certainly a possibility.

The 405 freeway, one of the major arteries through Los Angeles will be closed for a 10-mile stretch. It’s wicked on a good day, but with this closure, folks flying out of LAX or coming in for that matter, are totally screwed. Folks who work in the area (UCLA for example) are screwed. You get the picture. People are booking up hotels left and right just to make sure they make their flights. Movie theaters along that strip are offering free popcorn for those people willing to brave the chaos. Just how loyal will those Harry Potter fans be? Hmmm.

So, if you have time this weekend, tune to the news to see how we are doing because all the news agencies are running special coverage shows to keep us all informed of what a clusterfu*k it’s sure to be. Notice how Kate and Will visited LAST week? Even THEY knew.

It’s sort of funny though how everyone is gearing up for this. It’s the talk of the day around here.

“Hey Phil, are you getting ready for Carmageddon this weekend?”

“Sure thing, Sally! Got the lawn chairs out and the hibachi grill so we can make s’mores along the side of the road. We’ll be stuck there anyway so why not live it up?” (think Clark Griswold).

“Oh Phil. You’re so funny!”

Bang. Bang.