Been busy with work and play. On the work front: I am only putting in 12 hours a day and no weekends on the account of the family being here. On the play front, we went to Disney Land last weekend; yesterday it was a drive down to San Diego Zoo and today we drove up to the beautiful Santa Barbara. Here are some pics in that order.
Disney
San Diego Zoo
Santa Barbara
Well the boy is here with all his political jib-jab, bootlegged movies and home videos of New York rallies and such. It’s going to be a long summer!
I went surfing today. Wonder of wonders, I found a road-side parking spot. Got into my wet suit, surf board under arm, headed for the ocean.
Malibu beaches are supposed to be beginners friendly. And they sure were. Meaning that I wasn’t the worst surfer there. Oh, who am I kidding, I was. Any surfer who falls of his board, just sitting there waiting for a wave has got to be the worst surfer around. In my defense, those things are pretty tippy.
I spent an hour, paddling out, seeing a good wave, paddling hard, catching it, but any attempts at standing up resulted in an immediate and ungraceful fall. With me and the board rolling and thrashing around in the white water. If you’ve ever tried standing up in a canoe and remain stable, you should try standing up on an 8 foot long laminated piece of foam.
So I learnt my lesson: Stay close to the beach and catch the white water and just try to learn to pop up (surfing term for standing up). I think I did it once for about 3 seconds. My personal best.
After 2 hours of this merciless beating, I took my lumps (literally)and crawled out of the sea, exhausted and panting. As I walked back to the car, wet and weary I noticed the admiring gaze of the drivers. “Look at that surfer dude! Must have been surfing hard. Looks like a real old pro. Peace man!”
Cool. I think I’ll get a well-worn short board, one the pros use; walk around the beach with it under my arm and shout out surfing tips to the people in the water. Make up surfer talk “Sit back on the board! Catch the curl before the rip cuts the crest! Look for the break and push hard for the ten!”
I just hope no one ever sees me the water.
I went for a bike ride today on my new bike. My plan was to just ride down San Vicente Blvd to the ocean and back. But SoCal is like an amusement park, there is always another thing to see around the corner.
Santa Monica Pier was unbelievably crowded. Don’t believe me? Just look at this picture! It looks like it’s been invaded by a hoard of locusts. And this is not the worst of it. Or is it? I don’t know. I am not from around here.
The walk on the ocean looked like fun, so I figured I’d just pedal down to Venice.
I am not sure, but I don’t think this guy should be on his cell phone. A really bad idea added on to another bad idea.
Venice makes normal look crazy. I thought I got some looks from the Venetians saying “Look at that crazy guy in a regular T-Shirt, cargo shorts AND wearing a bike helmet. Gee, now I have seen everything!”
A circle dance to the African beat is what has attracted the crowd below. It reminded me of the crazy dance in the city of Zion in the Matrix movie.
These guys don’t believe in any laws, particularly gravity. But that darn Newton, had to go and ruin everything by laying out those laws.
So far Venice has been like strolling back in time, into the sixties. Now time is slowly rolling back farther, by a couple of million years.
Venice Pier is a disappointing concrete structure.
People mostly gather on the pier to watch these masterful suffers. These three older weathered guys seemed to command the waves, float across them, slash through them on demand; it was truly a display of greatness.
The end of the pier is a big roundabout-like area, which is home to the homeless fishermen. It’s good to have the time to enjoy life.
Well, I was in Venice, I might as well ride to the end of the bike path in Marina del Ray; take a look at the the gang of pelicans and watch the boats pull up into the marina.
The channel into Marina del Ray
I am exhausted and realize that I have ten up-hill miles to go back. The ride down to the ocean was a breeze. Literally. Now I have to pedal back up to the hills of Brentwood. What was I thinking? I always do this. Living in the moment is really overrated. A little planning ahead never killed anyone.
On the way back I stopped at muscle beach. These geezers were just lifting weights from the ground to waist high. They didn’t even look in shape! I rename the place fatass beach and move on.
Santa Monica fast forwards me a couple of million years along the evolutionary path. 
So hard to believe that just a couple of miles down the road that mayhem is going on. Santa Monica puts the R in ritzy. It’s like walking out of the slums of Bombay onto the Rodeo Drive.
I almost get to watch the sun go down on Santa Monica Boulevard. I toy with the idea of hanging around for it, then I think #@$ the sun! I am tired, I wanna go home, eat and Skype. The sun will also set tomorrow.
San Vicente was a killer up-hill. But I made it! A dip in the hot tub and I am good to blog.
Had my eyes examined today. The optometrist was a surfer and give me a few pointers on where to surf. Sunset beach, where the Sunset Boulvard reaches highway 1 in Malibu. An it’s best to be at low tide.
I went to Costco to buy a bike, but bought a surf board instead. It was an adventure to get it in the car. But I’ve got it down to a single motion action now. It lies across the car taking the entire passenger side of the car.
I drove down the winding Sunset Blvd and found a spot right on the ocean to park. No waves! A few die hard surfers were still trying to make the best of it.
Park and ride (the waves)
Pretty flat waters.
One Tiny Wave
Then I headed back to Santa Monica board walk and tried out my new fancy Nikon D90.
Canoeing, Surfing? What the heck is this all about?!
My bubbles sits upon a cradle, whereas this one is sits solidly on liquid foundation. Oh, sailboat, where are you heading off to?
