There’s something to be said about the ability to watch an epic ginormous surf contest live from the comfort of my own desk, though someday I will spring for a seat on one of the boats to watch the show.  Official photo galleries are here.  S.F. Gate has more -  this one is particularly good.

 On that note, as soon as I finish my coffee we’re off to search for waves more appropriate to our skill levels. 

Needed a moment of zen this morning, so I took one.  Maybe two or three.  Ninety minutes later I was still sitting on the jetty, drenched from the spray and feeling much better about things.

These were taken at the Point Medanos Jetty in Mission Beach.  Surf was pretty big, so only the very good and the very foolish were actually out in the water, and fortunately the foolish didn’t seriously hurt themselves.

Well, what is a blogger supposed to do after completing a grueling quasi-athletic event such as the Penguin Plunge?  Well, go to Disneyland, of course. 

Actually the plan was for a day of Disney and two of central coast surfing, but weather forecasts and surf conditions suggested we postpone the central coast leg until another time.  The end result has me back home two days early (and two days before any clients think I’m supposed to be back!), exhausted from a day with the Mouse, and feeling kinda old after brunch in my hometown, a place I barely recognized. 

The visit to the Magic Kingdom allowed Spinner to work on his fear that the Mouse was still trying to kill him.  Since we survived with no further injuries, that goal was successful.  We also had the opportunity to check out their holiday decorations, especially the Jack Skellington ‘When Holidays Collide’ version of the Haunted Mansion, which absolutely, totally and completely ROCKED.  For the first time in years the Small World attraction looked fresh too, even if our boat’s dispatcher looked like he was sending us off to some unimaginable fate. 

This morning we shot up to Huntington Beach in hopes of finding some decent surfing, or at least a good brunch.  No surf.  Good food.  Great restaurant location.  Even a same ol’-same ol’ cholesterol scramble goes down pretty good when you can watch dolphins doing flips while you’re waiting for more coffee.  The classic prints on the walls helped set an atmosphere that almost overwhelmed the big-chain management. 

This was the first time I’d been back to Huntington’s pier in many years.  Even the pier had little in common with the one I grew up knowing, with big chunks of the original destroyed years ago in a storm.  The rebuilt pier and renovated Main Street both struck me as just too commercialized.  It’s not the place I knew anymore, even though two blocks away were the same old cottages that have been there since before I was born.  It’s attitude that’s important, and that’s changed.

It all keeps coming back to the sinuses.  While emerging from the food coma Thursday I felt a bit sinusy and did meds to get me through a late client meeting.  Then after walking in the coastal night air and sitting in a Starbucks for an hour going over documents I felt worse so I did more sinus meds.  While my sinuses felt great, my eyeballs and throat dried out, and some of the sinus meds got lost and thumped on the nuked prostate, as cold and sinus meds tend to do.  That wiped out my Friday.  So I was off meds for a while and force-feeding healthy foods to my sinuses.  Now I’m trying that moderation nonsense, but after napping most of the afternoon I suspect I won’t sleep tonight, which will just make me cranky. 

 I’ve got to get them  (and the rest of me) healthy enough to work Monday, survive the Penguin Plunge Tuesday*, and head out on a little surf trip the rest of the week.  Of course a couple days bobbing up and down in the ocean will probably just give me a head cold and get my sinuses all uppity again, but you’ve got to enjoy these things when they come up. 

On a related note, what do the sinuses do for me anyways?  Why can’t I just jettison them like tonsils or sobriety?  (more…)

I was supposed to be working this morning, because it’s been a slow month heading into the slow season, and I’m due in court in Farm Country at 9:00 Monday morning.  Then I was supposed to be surfing, so at least I’d get some exercise if I was going to blow off this morning’s yoga.  Now I’m taking the camera down to the beach with the plan being to get some sand between the toes and some caffeine over the lips.

The power to shift space and time is wonderful, and would be amazing if only I had a bit more self control. 

It’s a beautful Friday morning without a cloud in the sky. The litigation-heavy practice is stalled with the following items on today’s agenda:
a) wait for other people to answer their mail,
b) wait for other people to return phone calls; and
c) wait for other people to find a clue.
Let’em eat voice mail. Time to relax a bit. I see water in my immediate future. Either skimming along on top of the Pacific Ocean with the aid of polyeurethane and foam or drifting through the chlorinated pool following the taunting little line that just keeps saying one more lap. Then get some sunshine on the pale white body. Stretch out and listen to some old CDs in the warmth of that pesky star. Gotta get some return on the outrageous rents and other cost-of-living factors here in San Diego. I’ve got some ideas for the evening too, but nothing as formally planned as the aforementioned items. I might be broke, I might be frustrated, but at least I’m not dealing with this any more. Time to stretch.