Torrey Pines Beach is Gone!

I went to the beach to take a walk, but the beach was gone. Big surf from the last two days has taken it all. There were no brave surfers in the water this day! I saw a father and his two small children, standing too close to the water's edge, almost swept away by a rogue wave. Aye, the sea is alive today!

Frisbee with Mark in the late afternoon.

A most extraordinary feast, at the home of good friends David and Carol.

Leonid Meteor Showers at the Fun House!

It was spectacular, of course. I was there and saw it all through a high, but broken, overcast. At one point, I saw at least 5 in a single second.
Check out the photos I didn't take:
Leonid Meteor Photos

Rainbow at Dawn, November 13, 2001

New Moon Brings Changes

Celebrating today's New Moon, there is a fresh new look to my welcoming webpage. The webcams are now reached with one click, rather than showing you a dark box between sunset and sunrise. This makes the page lots more consistent, and interesting, and loads faster.

This afternoon will be major frisbee at Torrey Pines, enjoying the low tide and wide smooth beach.

The Ferrari has been sold. Will probably be looking for something interesting in the Spring.

The biplane is now back in California. You can see it now at JetSource, Palomar airport (CRQ).

Today's Virgo Horscope

At long last, your highly-anticipated appointment with destiny has arrived. Destiny, as it turns out, is a high-spirited child that has been expecting a play date with you for quite some time. As the Moon makes its way through the Sign Taurus, you too are ready and eager for all the thoughts and feelings that flood into you. Take a moment to think about what you're going to say before all of the words come out in one jumbled, unintelligible mess.

My visit was bestowed with a rare sunny day.
Photo taken through dirty windshield of moving car, south of Anchorage, AK using handheld Olympus 2020Z.

I went to Alaska to visit a friend.
I can't tell you her name, but it rhymes with Jen.

We hiked to a glacier, hung out at a gold mine, went to a party, ate Thai food and drank champagne. We laughed and we shared good times. We played like, and with, children. And even went to church on Sunday!

We talked of what might have been.
We remembered, and thought (but not much) of the future.
But mostly we enjoyed just Now.

If you had to describe us, it would be a Greek tragedy,
and the story line would go something like this:

Soulmates separated by great distance, and time,
magically meeting for fleeting moments every few years,
then abruptly hurled back to separate realities:
she to her Castle of Ice in the mountains in the North,
me to my Fortress of Fire by the sea in the South.

It was great to be there, and great to be home.

Leaving there, the full moon was just setting.
Arriving home, the full moon was just rising.
Powerful. Cosmic level stuff.

I endured the trials of travel.
Away from my surf and warm sun.
I tasted a land forbidding.
And I'd do it again, but only for Jen.

I haven't been able to mention it until now, but for the last year I have been part of a group of local business people who have been working on starting up a new federally chartered community bank.

Part of my primary responsibilities will be to help with the technology decisions.

Here's our "coming out" press release:

For Immediate Release
September 25, 2001

For Further Information, Contact:
Ron Bird or Ron Carlson: (858) 509-2700

Tenured San Diego Bankers Unite to Form Landmark National Bank

Proposed Community Bank to Headquarter in Solana Beach

SAN DIEGO - Ron Carlson, former CEO of Scripps Bank, and Ron Bird, former president of Bank of Southern California, announced today they have joined forces to form Landmark National Bank. The management team's application for a national bank charter was filed this week with the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Its flagship office will be located in the coastal community of Solana Beach at 1-5 and Lomas Santa Fe Drive. Landmark National Bank is expected to open in the 2nd quarter of 2002.

"Ron and I share a very strong commitment to offering professional banking services that are responsive to the personal and business needs of the San Diego community," said Carlson. "Both of us - - and our entire board - - will be actively building long-term relationships as only a community bank can."

Ron Carlson has served as President of several local community banks, most recently Scripps Bank where he was the founding President and Chief Executive Officer. Ron Bird formerly served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Southern California. Both men worked together on the senior management team of La Jolla Bank & Trust Company. At Landmark National Bank, Carlson will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Bird will be President and Vice Chairman of the Board. Joining them as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will be Cathy Wright. Ms. Wright held the same position at Scripps Bank.

"We have been successful in putting together an excellent group of community minded bankers," said Bird. "We have assembled an outstanding Board and a very active group of founders to support our efforts. Landmark National Bank's proposed board understands and fully supports the contribution an independent bank brings to the community." Serving on the Board with Carlson and Bird will be:

Ken Baumgartner, President/COO of The Corky McMillan Companies

Tom Wermers, President/CEO of Wermers Construction Company

Christopher Weil, President/CEO of the investment firm of Christopher Weil & Company

Anne Taubman, President/CEO of Seaport Village

Marshal Scarr, Partner with the law firm of Peterson & Price

Larry Showley, Partner with the employee benefits firm of Showley Archambault & Alexander

David Goodell, President/CEO of Del Mar Investment Group

The proposed Landmark National Bank board has secured a permanent location for its main office in the Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, immediately off of Interstate Highway 5 at Lomas Santa Fe. The facility will offer a convenient location for both the Rancho Santa Fe and beach communities, as well as easy accessibility for much of the San Diego community. The proposed Landmark National Bank will offer daily courier services throughout San Diego County. Tom Wermers stated, "This location will serve a significant region of the San Diego market. It is also strategically located to accommodate the management team's substantial following established over their combined 80 years as San Diego bankers."

Landmark National Bank will offer the traditional services of a full service bank to both individual customers and small and medium sized businesses. In addition to a variety of deposit accounts, they will offer a mix of loan products that will include commercial, professional and industrial lending packages, as well as a Small Business Administration loan division and consumer, installment, home equity, construction and real estate loans.

Board member Anne Taubman said, "San Diego is in need of more community banks to serve the needs of individuals and businesses left unserved in the wake of the acquisition of our local banks by major out-of-town financial institutions - - and that is the genesis of Landmark National Bank."

#####

There was an absolutely magnificent moonset last night!
The first quarter moon, and Mars just below it, slipped out of sight
on the western horizon of the Pacific just before midnight
in a perfectly clear sky.

The clouds were still gone this morning,
giving great sun for an early walk, and yoga, on the beach.
The sand is as good as it gets: slightly "chewey" and moist.

Mid day fog blew in and reduced the visibility to less than a quarter mile,
but Joey and I played some excellent frisbee at Torrey Pines without any problems! ;o)
During our frisbee, the sun burned off the fog and it stayed clear for the rest of the day,
giving this most excellent sunset!

Graphic by Bryan Peterson

Aviation & Business Journal publishes a story about yours truly,.
some of which is actually never before told stuff!

Click here to read it!

Sunshine brings warm feelings.

Joey blasts into town from Hawaii. Board meeting next week.
A little bit of frisbee and a dip in the 74 degree water,
and what more could you want from a perfect summer day?
How about this:

A late afternoon drive in the Maranello,
up Torrey Pines hill, then north on 101 to my first beach home at Swami's,
letting Sunshine take the wheel (very enthusiastically and competently) to Ki's for dinner.
We were having so much fun at dinner that even the neighboring table enjoyed our play.

Above photographic evidence uncovered in August 12-20, 2001 trip to Philadelphia
shows without any doubt that I was a child at one time.
If I knew I was so good looking at the time I would have stayed a kid!

Click on image for more detail.

In other news, there was a story on page 8
of the San Diego Aviation and Business Journal, August 2001,
reminiscing about my flying career
and also revealing some new stories never before published.
A pretty good size story with only a few minor errors,
spread over 5 pages, and with 9 photos, all but one taken from this website!
The story was the idea of good friend Robert Olislagers
who is the top dog at Centennial Airport in Colorado, and written by Di Freeze.
(see May 7, 2001 news referencing this story)

With last night's full moon,
all trace of the red tide has vanished.
And now the sea is polluted with sewage!
What next? Locusts?

Red Tide conditions continuing for more than a month. (see photo)
New moon.
Lots of new writing projects.
Feeling strong.

New website pages:
Yoga!
Frisbee!
Free Computer Lessons
The Last Word

Yoga this morning, frisbee in the afternoon.
Achieved moves never before seen.
World championships here in two weeks.

The red tide is in again, and tonight the waves are magical,
as each wave breaks, it flashes an eerie green phosphorescence,
all very briefly, before it fades again into the dark moonless night.
It's really quite spectacular. A natural light show.

Mars is huge and hanging low in the clear southern sky.
New moon soon.
Powerful forces, big changes.

Yoga on the beach at Torrey Pines this morning with Lisette.
Also, some walking, running, frisbee and a photo session to record the
current status of my headstand (above).

Headstands are noted in the upper yogi circles
for providing the body with Amrit Bindu, the nectar of life.
Amrit Bindu is the precious droplets of immortality
that are preserved in the body only when doing headstand!
Another amazing yogi fact, related to me by my first instructor Pamela.

Later in the day it was even more frisbee with Mark.
My work with him is done. I can teach him no more.
Today he was truly epic with a long distance run down the beach, airbrushing all the way.

And, your humble writer performed a first ever running front body roll.

The frisbee world championships will be in San Diego at the end of this month!

Today was a day for a totally new experience: Rock climbing.
Or to be more precise, it would probably be called bouldering.
My good friend George Hoover has been doing this for more than 10 years
at a property he owns in a place called Rainbow, near Temecula.
He's been trying to get me out there to try this climbing stuff for a long time
and I guess I finally ran out of excuses!

I had no real idea what to expect, and I was more than a little apprehensive.
And to make it even more challenging for me, he brought along another expert, Mark Chapman.
Nothing like a couple of experts to show a grasshopper how to do it.

First off George shows me a couple of easier boulders to get the hang of it.
The amazing thing is the shoes! I can't believe how sticky they really are!
They're George's shoes I'm borrowing, about a full size too small and very uncomfortable
but they stick like glue. I'm Spiderman!

When I'm wearing his climbing shoes, George amuses himself with doing some climbs in his shower clogs!
And then a couple more climbs in his bare feet!! Totally amazing!

Here's a video of George making it look easy.
And another video of George demonstrating the downside of climbing.
And another showing George doing a very difficult knee lock maneuver.

George took this shot of me close to the top, contemplating imminent success:

It was a great learning experience, but the rocks are unforgiving,
and the little blood I shed today was just a small indication of the gallons to come
not to mention the broken bones, comas, and more, if I were to take up the sport.
But I probably won't!

Another awesome day of frisbee on the beach at Torrey Pines.
Can there be too much of a good thing?

Still playing with the digital video camera
and Mark recorded a few seconds of
the awesome approach to Torrey Pines beach
driving south from Del Mar. Caution: video 4.7 Mb.

It's one of my favorite vistas in all the world.

Overcast. Trace of rain. Life is good.

Frisbee was sensational.
My diving catch has now lost me two pairs of sunglasses
in the last two days.
Plus one contact lens today.
I need to get cheaper sunglasses, or a strap to hold them on, or better yet: go without.

Tried the video again today and caught Mark going ballistic
and then he turned the camera on me and caught me doing a back roll.
Beware: 3.5 MB download for 15 seconds of movie.

There were high clouds, even a few drops of rain.
But it was low tide, giving lots of beach to play.

Getting into video feature of my digital camera. Check out tonight's sunset.
Beware: 3.5 MB download for 15 seconds of movie.

After hundreds of hours of fiddling with it,
I can honestly say that I have constructed the ideal webpage (mine).

There is always something new going on,
lots of useful information,
simple.

Of course, five minutes from now I'll improve on it!

In an historic frisbee day,
I executed the left foot toe brush and the right footed double kick,
both for the first time.
Water temp 66. Air temp 64. Awesome.

Bodacious frisbee, freestyle jammin', at Torrey Pines beach with Mark.
Perfect wind for airbrushing.
It's great to get in the water!

Mark is getting very good,
and having lots of fun with the diving catches, into the water.

Yoga with Sunshine tomorrow morning. Lisette is taking a long weekend.

Pawan and Helen are back from Italy.
We'll get together at Pacifica, and they can meet Shawn.

Mars is closer to earth than in the last 12 years.
New Moon and first day of summer just a few days ago.

The water and air temperatures have been over 70 degrees, with clear skies.
The frisbee frequency is high..
Bare feet and shorts,
playing on the beach in shallow surf.
Showed Jessica, just turned 13, some airbrush frisbee moves;
she loved it and easily picked it up, a natural!

Last night was magical.
After the crescent new moon went down,
and the skies were dark,
the surf, just below my window, took on a bright light green color
as each wave crashed to shore.

I have heard that this phenomenon
is caused by plankton which emit a phosphorescent glow
as they become disturbed by the surf.

Lisa, Susie and Sean were here to enjoy it too.

Life is very good.

Check out the new Art Page

A Good Way to Die

Playing frisbee on the beach
running through water deep to the knee.

The disc is coming fast and wide.
A diving catch, my arms outstretched,
I'm flying, weightless in the air.

And then it ends...

From the other side of Life
I watch the surf embrace what once was me
still smiling, prize in hand.

Pawan and Helen visit on their way to Italy and Pawan gets a ride in the blue car.
And then that leads to a ride for Mark.
Both rides up the hill at 125.
And then downhill of course!

That was yesterday.
So today I took the beast out to the beach
and snapped a few photos,
played a little frisbee and got some sun on my feet.

That was a good start to a perfect day.

This morning's Virgo horoscope is great! (see below)
A perfect day to hit the beach and play Frisbee!

Pure pleasure best characterizes this day.
Romance may be an important part of your renewed enthusiasm and zest for life.
Your health could receive a boost from a new influx of energy.
You may feel as though you're plugged into a source of high energy.
Go after what you need and want.
Travel could be especially pleasurable and emotionally fulfilling.

Lisette, who teaches me yoga, married Coby today.
It was a beautiful ceremony, at sunset, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.
And for once, I remembered my camera.

Click on the photo to see lots more pictures.

.

Major driving experience!

This past weekend, the Ferrari Owners' Club put on a great tour:

Two days of driving, and about 450 miles of
awesome roads, high speeds, and good people.

The overnight destination was Borrego Springs,
so I got to stay again at Mikie's Fun House.

What kind of photographer leaves his camera at home?

Good fun:
Interviewed by Di Freeze and Linsey Lips (photo below) of the
Aviation and Business Journal
for a story on my flying adventures and how Fate helped shape my life.

Still recovering from this weekend and a
Ferrari ride to Mikie's Fun House
for fun, sun, starry skies, ping pong, swimming,
jacuzzi, good food and wine, and great company.

Rockin' to Steve Miller Band and Madonna on the CD player
cruising easy in traffic and great speed in the desert.

Life is soooooooo good. Thank you Lisa and Erin!
I should have taken photos!

May 2, 2001

Universal Pictures decides NOT to use Mikie's Fun House
to film a scene in "The Mummy" (#3)
They will be shooting just a few hundred feet away,
in a sandy depression called Sleepy Hollow.

I guess the Hollywood life is not for me.

Intermittent Status report:
Health: most excellent.
Frisbee frequency: Medium.
Kids: excellent.
Yoga: 17 months of practice, headstands ok, beginning handstands
Financial: comfortable now that Nasdaq has levelled off, cautious.
The biplane is still For Sale, as is Mikie's Fun House.
Car status:
Driver: 2001 Jag XK8 Convertible, dark blue.
Fast car: 2000 Ferrari 550 Maranello.
Collector car: 1965 Mustang Convertible, Hi Performance V8!

George Walther visits with news of Angkor Wat.
Ferrari ride up Torrey Pines Hill.

Good news:
IRS accepts "as filed" my tax return for 1998, which they had been auditing.
This is the second time I've been audited,
and the second time they accepted it as filed.

Lucky break:
Drove the first Ferrari 360 Modena Spyder in California! Story and Photos!

New Friends on Easter

A couple of mockingbirds (mimus polyglottos) have taken up residence nearby.

Their song delights all day long.
The flash of their white spotted wings in flight is surprising and exciting.

They fly from the palm tree to the rooftop, passing directly in front of my window.
I sometimes watch them for hours.

They are very territorial and attack the much larger ravens who happen nearby.

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