Staff Appreciation Day

We took the day off yesterday and went
kayaking at La Jolla Shores.

The DMV

In this world of insecurity and dizzying change, one thing remains constant. The DMV. The marred grey walls are graceless and unadorned. You wait. You wait with vocal and irate people.

There is one thing new at the DMV, however. The waiting ticket you are assigned is displayed on a TV screen when a window becomes available for you. A voice announces that A020 should report to Window 18. The ticket tells you to "watch for your number to be called." (Shouldn't it say listen?)

Surrounding the list of ticket numbers assigned to windows is a ticker tape stream of information in English on top and Spanish on the bottom.

The English stream instructs one how to prepare for the appointment. The Spanish stream of information are behavioral instructions such as

No tome y maneje ....... Abrochase el cinturon
Don't drink and drive .... Buckle your seatbelt

Don't we native English speakers need to be reminded too?

View from the cockpit at 7800 feet heading east to the desert at 100 knots 

Nöndro Revisited

Thinking of Nöndro the other day while surfing, I calculated that in the past 30 years I have caught more than 35,000 waves. If doing something 111,000 times creates good karma, then perhaps, rather than trying to prostrate myself on the ground 111,000 times chanting a Tibetan prayer, perhaps I can aim to catch 111,000 waves before I die!

I learned to surf as a teenager in the summers but gave it up for a few years. I started surfing almost daily when I was 27. I'm 50 now. That means in 23 years I've caught 35,000 waves.

To reach 111,000 I must continue to surf almost daily for another 50 years. My karmic goal thus is to live to be 100 and in good health.

Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane Dennis is breaking records. It's the first Category 4 storm to hit the mainland US in July since 1871. It battered Cuba on Friday and reports are slow to trickle out from there of the extent of the damage. Its assault on Cuba weakened it so much that it lost its eye on Saturday but as it drifted north over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico it regained strength and is now a classic circular hurricane.

The Florida panhandle and the gulf coast states are bracing for the onslaught. Dennis appears to be tracking in the path of Ivan which caused so much damage last year.

Emergency crews are prepared. They have a quick test to assess whether or not a region needs emergency help. If the "Waffle House" restaurants are open and serving, they move on to the next county. If the "Waffle House" is closed, they know the region is lacking power, water, and a lot of other things. [from the Miami Herald]

Murky Waters

If one ever needed proof that the ocean is a "she" one should go to the beach today. The Pacific waters bloom red and smell fishy. The Red Tide. Red Tide is blooming from Baja California to Ventura County. In Baja it's been a solid red tide for four months now. It just hit OB and Sunset Cliffs this past weekend, though I noticed it up in La Jolla a few weeks ago.

I paddled around in it yesterday from Luscombe's to No Surf. Where the water was clear, it was cold. Where the water was murky red, the temperature was about 5 degrees warmer.

The east coast is suffering an evil red tide right now. That red tide deposits hordes of dead and bloated fish on the shores; it stings the eyes and causes respiratory problems. The red tide in California is more benign. I've surfed a red tide many times and never suffered skin rash or any other problems that the red tide website claims result from swimming in "contaminated" waters. I would not eat shellfish or fish harvested from a red tide, however.

The red tide is an overgrowth of plankton. the plankton consumes all the oxygen from the surface of the water and its murkiness doesn't allow the sun to penetrate the deep waters. Its waste can clog fish gills. The small shellfish eat the plankton, the bigger fish eat the shellfish, and the birds eat the bigger fish; thus the toxin builds up in the ecosystem. It may be due to polluted runoff. It may be a natural phenomenon.

4th of July weekend. Red Tide. Cold water. Foggy mornings. No surf. I think I"ll stay home tomorrow.