The Top 5 Things That Need To Change Before 2012

Seriously? You really believe that I would steep so low as to create a headline that would pull in more readers? Maybe I should have put something about Casey Anthony or Michelle Parker in the title too....sheesh! Still no surf, but upcoming camping trip with the boys looks to hold decent weather, and it IS near the beach. Maybe I'll bring the surfboard along just in case. Anyway I will attempt a list, just so I cannot be accused of deception: 1) I need to quit wanting more stuff - the house is overflowing, the attic is overflowing...I need to just play with the toys I have. 2) I need to use my mornings more wisely. I'm getting up earlier, but I seem to spend a lot of it puttering around, surfing on the web, etc. 3) I need to get back into making music...I don't know, slump or what, but I need to snap out of it. 4) I need to spend more time enjoying the current moment and less dreaming about the future...or worrying about it. 5) I need to be more inventive with my blogs!

A Cold Day In December

It's been a long time since I have written. The waves have been bad for every weekend for more than a month now and the last time I could have surfed, I was recovering from have a bit of skin cancer removed from my head. Today is the first day this season that I had to wear a coat to work, almost a 40 degree drop in temperature in one day. I guess that it is days like these that make us appreciate how balmy it usually is in Florida. I'm actually enjoying the cold today, but it did prevent me from running this morning. If I had this weather for a few weeks, I'd probably go out anyway, but a cold day here and there means a day of rest once in a while. Before the cold came, I was working on a new plan; running 5 miles and then paddleboarding around the lake...all before work in the morning. I found that by getting up at 4am, I could do this and really enjoyed the outdoors before the 9 hour day of computer work. The only problem is that it leaves me sleepy by 8pm at night...we will see how long this lasts...

Again...

There it is again...a restless night full of dreams, another version of the same dream I've seem to have had forever: Everything has gone to hell, but somehow I'm happy, living on next to nothing in a efficiency apartment. It's just me, my surfboard, and a bunch of empty beer bottles. Nothing much else matters, because I'm across the street from where I like to surf, and no matter how horrible my job is, I've got time to hit the waves every morning. There is nobody else in the dream and I'm acutely aware that I might die any time and I'm not really sure who would handle the details, nor am I that concerned about it. I'm not sure if this represents my happy place or is it just the final solution to problems I can't fix..

The Dream Day

I've had an infrequent dream for years, that I'm 15 years old, skipping school and learning to surf with my friends. A lot of it is some sort of twist on a real life event. The water is perfect glass, I'm wearing cutoff jeans and riding on the bruised banana, a 8 foot yellow surfboard, with a large brown softspot on the deck. For some reason in the dream, it is important that the fin is a clear red plastic. I'm not sure if that is a dream of lost innocence, or some kind of perfect happiness that I have been pursuing, but today I caught it.
We pulled up to the beach this morning and saw waves right off. They should have been smaller, according to the forecast, but we saw many surfers out and many catching waves. Old guys on longboards, paddleboards, girls, young ones on short boards and it just seemed to be a picture perfect day.
I looked to the south of the pier, and only saw 3 surfers there. We headed that way and got right out. It was nothing but fun. Hooting, hollering, laughing and cheering each other on, it seemed to be that my dream day had come to life. There were so many ridable waves, that we finally had to let some go, just to rest up.
When it was time to take that last wave in, I stalled a bit, thinking I wanted a memory that would last a while. I got it when I took off across the face of one of the larger waves in the set and saw my friend watching from the beach. This wave held me through the middle section and actually started curling over my shoulder. The perfect end to this was not the wave, but seeing a young surfer girl paddling out, getting that perfect camera view of me coming towards her down the line. That's when you know it really happened, when you see the look in their eyes.

Surfing Irene

Irene the hurricane skipped right past us and did most of her work to North Carolina and the New England area. We were fortunate in that she passed us just close enough by to send us some good waves. Friday was the day, and it was hyped-up well in advance by our local surf forecasters, but I always knew the big day was not for me. What I wanted was the leftovers. Friday came and we were greeted with photos of amazing surfers on waves that looked photoshopped, not like Florida waves at all.
Saturday, my friend and I headed out early in the morning to a spot that was protected and more likely to offer something we could ride on our longboards. There were plenty of surfers in the water by 8am, but the waves didn't look all that daunting, at least until I paddled out during the middle of a set. I knew this wasn't a normal day, when on the way out, I had a perfect opportunity and chickened out at the last minute. After a bit, I figured them out and had a great morning of riding some waves that really had some juice to them for a change.
The best part is that the conditions were the kind that usually spell SKUNKED for me. sizeable waves and a hard off-shore wind that makes them difficult to catch until the last minute. It seems that the board I have been riding for the last year has turned into that board that fits me just right...too bad it took 40+ years to find it!

I Must Have Cut Him Off In Traffic

Ah, perception versus reality. You think you are generous, and others think you are a miser. You think think you are big and others think you are small. I wonder what they call it when your self-image is too far off? Or, could it just possibly be that the perception is miscued?
We took personality tests the other day, and from less than 5 minutes of my time, I was told that I was highly agressive, which probably has a large number of people at working rolling on the floor laughing, and this does not include the friends and family that will be howling as well. Self-image not-withstanding, I have been told for ages that I am more like a golden retriever personality than anything else. I'm "too" nice. I couldn't supervise because I'm "too" nice. I don't have the roughness needed to survive what management has to deal with every day.
BUT...perhaps, like the tin man, the only difference between me and the tough individual that defeats all enemies in his path, is a piece of paper saying that he is agressive. OZ has given me that paper and it has changed my life.
I was always thinking of a post-retirement job of selling hotdogs on a stand at the beach, but I am now considering the post of leader of the Golden-Age Hells Angels....hey I got references!

As Long As You Have Bait, You Have Friends

We had a bird join us while my son was throwing the net for bait yesterday. The funny thing was, the bird flew on board right after my son made his best catch so far. You'd have to believe that the bird was watching to see if there was going to be enough food to risk hanging around people. He hopped around our boat, just barely out of reach, looking for an opportunity to get into our baitwell. My wife tossed him a fish and he flew off with that, but returned moments later. I wanted to see what he thought of a pinfish (another kind of bait that we had) and he poked at it, looked up at me and flew off for good. I guess beggers CAN be choosers!

The Runner's Lesson

What struck me right off was the cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth while he spoke, like something from an old movie. He had that grizzled, just-got-up-from-a-bender look, and was having this animated conversation on his rather large cellphone. I see him every day, a portly guy in his 40's, walking his two dogs, leaning back into it with the new one that is on a leash. The other dog is some kind of sheepherder dog and always comes up to me in a friendly way to see if my dogs have left him some kind of dog-DNA secret message.
The two of us cross paths every day, me doing my morning jog, and him, I think, walking to 7-11 for a pack of cigarettes, or exercising the dogs. I begin to wonder if there is really somebody on the other end of that cellphone call, I mean, it's 6:30 in the morning and the guy is quite a character from what I can see.
There is a lot of comfort in seeing the same things every day and running the same place, but yesterday something happened. There is another jogger I see every day going in the opposite direction and yesterday I saw him turn off on a side street. You see, I run down the main highway, because I measured the distance in my car, and knew how far I could go in an hour, but suddenly it ocurred to me that I don't have to run the same place every day, just go for 30 minutes and then turn around.
Today I went down that side street and a new world opened up to me. Instead of a busy road full of cars, there were beautiful homes and little lakes and new people with their dogs. It was always there, why did it take me so long to find it?

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #3

Although I'm not 100% sure of ever going on another cruise, I would say that there were some things I don't know how you would ever get to see otherwise. One of these is pulling into port of a beautiful island. The landscape view from the ship far surpassed most of what you get to see as a tourist dropped off at port for a few hours. Here is where a cabin with a balcony was so great. Sure you could go somewhere on the ship and see the same view, but there is something about getting up in the morning and looking out from your bed and seeing an island coming into view. That image is burned into my mind. Even just looking at the photo above reminds me of how peaceful that feeling was.

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #2

Being that this was my first cruise ever, and that I had been told so many stories about what to expect, I was still a little surprised at some very simple things, like watching the sunset for an hour, or watching storms off in the distance. It was kind of like having a beach condo, except that the water was moving. Our cabin was much nicer than what I expected and even the bathroom was larger than I had been led to believe. This may have been why our trip cost so much, to get these luxuries, and for the next 7 nights I slept like a rock, no headaches, no nausea or anything. Actually I did better than I usually do on a trip. Pam thought it was because of no plant allergies to get used to.
The only problem on the trip was overeating...I was prepared for this, but I was not prepared for how good the food was to be. I didn't understand that every single meal was going to feel like a client with a large expense account just took you to the nicest place in town and told you to order whatever you want. I'm still running 5 miles a day in 100% humidity to make up for that indulgence.

Slowly Going Nowhere at Great Expense: #1

It was hard to imagine me going on a cruise, especially a 7 day cruise, but it happened just a few days ago.
I go to the beach almost once a week to go surfing and have look at these giant ships in the port each time. I never could see why so many people would pay so much money to sit around doing nothing and eating way too much food, but I think I have a better handle on it now. I had many of my friends tell me horror stories about getting seasick, about getting bored...or about getting wasted and spending too much money gambling. I was plenty nervous driving up to the ship a week ago Saturday. The money was gone, but there was the fear of huge add-ons to my bill, and the fear of being trapped and bored to tears on a boat full of people that wanted to do nothing all day for a week.
The first big surprise was how nice and efficient boarding was. It was how I wished an airport experience would be. Then we went to our cabin and found it to be about twice as large as I expected and with a really cool balcony. I was already getting into it and I hadn't seen the food yet...

I Heard The Hawk Call My Name

Man, if I was an American Indian back in the day, I would know that there was some kind of omen about today. I have remarked before that I sometimes see more wildlife in a short walk around our suburb than I have on trips to the great wilderness parts of our continent. Perhaps it is because hunting is not allowed in the city limits, but I like to think that like us, animals prefer the warm climate and have somehow learned to deal with the environment man has made.
I ran in the house this morning after my daily run, exclaiming to the missus that I saw more exotic wildlife in the last hour than I did on our whole trip to Canada last year. There was a large hawk sitting right above me on the telephone line not far from home and then coming down our street I spied the local armadillo foraging about in the shrubs. That was a good start to the day. The cool weather, a good run, and getting to see some happy animals. I knew that this was a good sign, maybe even for the week.
I found myself ready for work early and took two steps out of the front door with the daily garbage in hand and stopped dead in my tracks. There on the edge of the roof of my house, not 30 feet away, was the large hawk. She perched for for a minute or so, staring straight at me, feathers all fluffed up, before she took wing...message delivered.

The Story of The Crow

I was walking out the front door of my house when a large shadow passed directly overhead. I ducked and looked up, expecting to see a large hawk or heron flying by, but saw nothing in the clear blue sky. Then something totally out of place caught my eye. A large black bird was perched on the edge of my roof, very close to me, with his beak wide open. He was a large as my macaw and although I love birds, this did not feel like a friendly visit. I see lots of birds, but could not remember seeing a crow around my house before. He did not seem afraid of me standing there and merely moved around the roof a bit, keeping an eye on me the whole time.
I ran back in the house to tell my wife about this giant bird, and then heard my wife screaming that there was a crow in our screened pool area. Our pool screen has a few small holes in it, but usually the only birds in there are my parrots when we take them outdoors for some weekend exercise. I was expecting to see that giant crow attacking my small conure, but instead I saw a small crow with a yellow beak trying to find his way out. He was hiding in the plants and then flying around, looking for an opening in the screen.
I quickly put the conure back in her cage and opened both doors. The crow then came out and walked around the deck to the doorway and flew away. I have not seen either bird since, but I have to wonder, was the large bird asking for my help?.........

The Day I Never Even Bothered To Hope For

My wife screamed, and I came running from the bathroom to see her with the sports section of the newspaper held up in both hands. All I had to see was the photo of a ripped young man in track clothing running towards the camera and the caption, but she kept reading the story anyway. Once I realized who he was and what it meant, I was pretty choked up. It was Marvin, the very guy that my website and music was about. The guy who knows nothing about me, but someone we talked about a lot when he was little.
When he was in my wife's kindergarten class and I was working in public schools, I saw up close and personal about the haves and have-nots, and wondered what would possibly happen to this kid with off-the-chart intelligence coupled with the worst-possible environment I could imagine in this town. Would he end up in jail for murder or would he succeed against all odds, against everything people know about education? To me, it was some kind of fundamental quest, wondering what it takes to do such a thing. We hear stories like this all the time, but this time, I was there. I read it in the paper when the police killed his dad while he was reaching in his pocket for his cellphone. I was there when another public school refused to accept him because of his behavior (I didn't know they could do that!), and all along, I wondered could his brain overcome everything else?
In a really strange twist, it must have, because it decided that sports was what he needed....just google Marvin Boone Sprinter...to read about the story I am celebrating today, the sunniest day this year yet.

Somehow I know This Won't Be The Last Time

So, yesterday it was a nice letter in my mailbox, asking me to please move my floodlight so it didn't shine in the neighbor's bedroom. That seems like a reasonable request. The only thing is, this is the second complaint since they moved in a few months ago, and probably the 4th in 28 years. My guess is the lady has delicate sensibilities. I never thought about asking somebody to move a light because it bothered me, I just rolled over. I've never thought of telling someone to shut their dog up or anything at all. Not saying that people shouldn't do it, it just never occurred to me to do that. I'm sure this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship, one that will grow by tossing objects back and forth over the fence and saying mean things in the nicest possible fashion. If only I could find an upper class British citizen to give me some lessons....

The Neighborhood

What not to do when you first move into a new neighborhood: complain to your next-door neighbor about his dogs. I was out working on th VW when he approached, nicely complaining about how my dogs bothered him. The dogs were in the backyard with my wife, but they had been barking a bit before, at the movers, I thought. After he left I wondered if that was just a ruse to get me used to him complaining a lot...the thing is, they hadn't lived in the house for a day when he came over.
I thought about that a bit, trying to not make any noise when I was outside, except for deciding that a lot of stuff needed pressure cleaning, like my whole driveway. I was considerate about it, I waited until 8am on Sunday to do the work.
Then something strange happened last Saturday. The neighbor on the other side of his house drove by on a Harley, early in the morning while I was out working in the yard. I don't know why exactly, he must have had engine problems or something, because he stopped in front of my neighbor's house and revved the engine for at least 5 minutes......

The Vantage Point

This last weekend was nice,but normal in many ways, until I thought of all the people in the world that might disagree. We were attacking Libya, Japan was still reeling from the earthquake, tsuami, and the nuclear reactor meltdown. The moon was up and bright, the closest to earth in 18 years. All of this, and I was out surfing, mowing the yard, and watching videos with my wife at night, just moving right along, looking forward to a vacation in the near future. It really just depends on where you happen to be sitting when it all goes down. I am gladly accepting the distance this time around..

The Gift (from 9/8/2001)

It has happened again. One of those moments I have that won't be forgotten. Once my family was friendly with another family that had children the same age. We participated in our children's sports together and generally hung out at the events. As we grew to know each other, I found that the father and mother were very modest, in fact I had known them for a while before I found out that the nursery they owned was in fact a chain, like Home Depot. Once I realized they were wealthy beyond my wildest imagination and just visiting us normal folks, I changed and felt a little jealous that I could never provide for my family like that or give gifts they could afford to buy. My life was changed again when we were invited to their house for dinner.
She cooked everything from scratch and he doted on us like the perfect host. I thought, what more could anyone give you than their time and love? She could have called the best caterer and have them bring one of everything without blinking, but instead we ate family style, and every bit of it was authentic food that she had made.
Note to myself: Make sure my kids get that lesson as well!"