Look on it as a sign that...

Look on it as a sign that things are returning to normal: Martha Cheresh spotted some tents with all-too-familiar markings on the front lawn of a house that was destroyed in Northridge. Someone had covered the tents with graffiti.

*

OK, so it’s not the Santa Monica Freeway: But Dan Margoshes notes that the heavily damaged Santa Monica Bike Path has been repaired and reopened. Just the thing for commuters who have to pedal to work in Redondo Beach.

*

Next you’re going to tell us the Red Cross has no espresso: Volunteering at a Red Cross relief site in Newhall, Linda Ackerman says she was asked by a woman one morning “whether she might have a choice of flavored coffees, i.e., vanilla.”

*

The view from Florida: Marc Danziger, visiting Clearwater Beach, Fla., a week after the earthquake, came upon a local business whose marquee poked fun at L.A.’s disaster. “I was too polite to mention hurricanes, bugs or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,” Danziger added.

Quakes we have known: Marie Harvey--”Mom” to your Only in L.A. columnist--has withstood the big Southern California quakes of 1933, 1952, 1971, 1987, 1991, 1992 and 1994. And she narrowly missed a couple of out-of-town jolts on a 1925 family automobile outing that could have inspired the movie “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”

En route to Montana, she and her father and her brother passed through Santa Barbara a few days before a 6.3 quake flattened that city.

Then, outside the little town of Coyote near San Jose, their car had a head-on collision. No one was injured but, by coincidence, she had been suffering a nosebleed at the time. “The little girl has blood on her face!” an onlooker screamed.

It took a week to repair the car. The family set out again, only to hear that a 6-plus-magnitude earthquake had struck Montana. Her father could take a hint or three.

“He said,” she recalled, ‘We’re going home.’ ”

*

Commemorative condom: A nationwide chain of condom boutiques has introduced what it calls the Official Condom of the 1994 Great L.A. Quake--a matchbook-type package that contains an “FDA-approved latex condom.” CONDOMania President Adam Glickman said the historic condom was developed partly because “the people of Los Angeles need something to laugh about.” All proceeds, he added, will be given to the Red Cross, which hopefully can purchase some vanilla coffee.

miscelLAny:

Ike Shatori thought it appropriate that a Torrance City Council discussion on tree-trimming involved the administrative analyst of the street services department--Carole Rountree.