Interesting people cannot escape Don Ray

Los Angeles -- Wonderful flight. A bulkhead seat on the aisle with wonderful leg room and a nice guy sitting next to me. Three very good movies. The food was even good. Not a long wait for immigration, baggage or even for the Prime Time shuttle van to Burbank.

There's a special god just for travelers and she gives keeps track of good and bad experiences so she can be "The Great Equalizer" I guess (I'm tempted to make "The Great Equalizer" a quiz -- it's a character in my other favorite book -- it's fiction and it takes place in Los Angeles in 1963). Anyway she took care of me today -- even on the freeway journey home. A wonderful woman sitting behind me overheard me leaving a message for the contractor who was supposed to have my Burbank house fixed and painted when I got home. He left me messages that he had been sick. When he didn't answer his phone today, I left him a message suggesting that maybe he'd been kidnapped by a band of Trolls and couldn't escape.

The woman was amused and we chatted. She gave me a few lessons on how to deal with contractors. It was clear she knew her stuff. I asked her if she was a contractor and she said "No, I'm Tinkerbell."

She wasn't kidding. Her real name is Margaret Kerry and she was the model Walt Disney used for Tinkerbell when made the film "Peter Pan" back in 1951. She was returning from England where she was doing some personal appearances. She's been an actress since she was a kid. She's also done voice-overs for "Clutch Cargo" (Lips) and a lot more.

We were laughing about experiences with contractors who say they'll be somewhere and then don't show up. I thought about calling him and saying, "Sure. You were sick. Uh huh. And I drove home from the airport with Tinkerbell!"

She's a most charming woman. She has a Website: wwwtinkerbelltalks.com, but her links are not right. I wasn't able to get past the first page. I'll e-mail her and tell her about it. She lives only about two miles from me.

It just goes to show, however, that there are interesting people everywhere. You just have to strike up a conversation with them to unlock their stories.


In my last blog entry, I revealed the secret of the last "Mystery Photo" (see way below for the original photo I posted). I'm putting up some other shots of the new roof job atop an historic building the British built in about 1925.



It's at the top of the highest hill in the oh-so-massive city of Ibadan. I'm also including a shot that shows you the view from up there. In every direction there's an ocean of the reddish-brown roofs. Some of these houses were build of mud (similar to adobe) more than a hundred years ago.













I'm not retiring the blog. There are still a lot of things that are in my head that want to get out. If you have any suggestions for making it better, please let me know. I'm not a very good judge of what people like.