Oceanside, California

The sunrises and sunset here are heaven. Orange, yellow, gold, red canvases painted daily by the master. Coming off 101 I drove to the Pier. What a view! Pelicans, egrets, sea lions, fishing boats, sailboats, and surfers. It was a visual feast.  A Pamela Anderson kind of beach too. 

The halibut fish sandwich from the daily catch market was delicious.  My cockapoo Madigan savoured the myriad of sniffs while I gloried in the seaside scenes of picnics and bright blue skies. When the seas were high the surfers ruled. When the winds were high the multi coloured sail kites provided the visual delights.

I am staying at the Oceanside RV Park across from Tracy’s Piercings.  It’s a really uptown place for my F350 Ford ,Adventurer Camper and Harley Nightster Special.  Used for fishing trips in Northern Canada they’ve seen less orderly surroundings.  Extremely helpful administration and superb facilities. Very dog friendly.  

The Oceanside community caters to young and old and very young looking old.  There’s all manner of  fitness places providing a  wide range of activities Vital Climbing Gym ,the Nevarez Boxing Centre, Axe fitness so many more.  There’s no evidence of the American obesity epidemic here, or unsafe streets.  I loved walking the dog in the area along the beach and on the paths leading to the beach.  

In addition to the exotic Tracy’s Piercings and Marine tattoos , there’s all manner of the traditional California yoga, therapeutic massage and beauty rest studios.  There’s the big mall with Walmart and Better Buy on the other side of the I5 but along the coast it’s just small speciality food shops and little stores.   There’s the widest range restaurants but with a dog ,I prefer take out places. There’s quite the variety.    Vietnamese Pho and Hawaiian Barbecue are really good.   As would be expected there are countless gift stores and hand made art along with galleries of the finest California.  Personally I liked Breeza with it’s great tourist gifts and clothing. I liked the salty hoodies and unique colourful beach bags.

Right now I’ve laundry being done at the nearby laundry for a great price . I’m planning on walking the dog down to the coast and then loading him into his box on the back of my Harley for another ride about the neighbourhood. It’s really quaint. The houses are all shapes and sizes individualistic from hacienda style to modern and a lot of what looks like they started as seasonal beach cottages only to expand into luxury homes. 

I like the coastal churches and am intrigued by one called the Rythym Church.  That must be stomping for Sunday Services .

What a wonderful place to visit. My friend loves Carlsburg that’s the next place south.  I’d been to Encinatas 20 minutes further and  loved it too.  The Self Realization Fellowship ashram is there. Right now I’m loving Oceanside. For those who love God in nature this place is heaven.  

 So glad to have found it thanks to a call to the Good Sam Club accredited Oceanside RV Resort. The staff enthusiasm was well placed.   

June 7, 2020 Loosening Lockdown, Sunday morning, Little Birds

I slept in this morning. Laura woke up with Gilbert and gave him a little walk. When I woke I gave him his heart medication. We’d spoken with Dr. Biernacki at North Road Animal Hospital yesterday.  Gilbert’s  now on a higher dosage of one of his meds. Gilbert is doing better. He still coughs because of the congestive heart failure secondary to his valve disorder but he’s happier and perkier. He doesn’t want to walk as far but he seems really happy especially when Laura is around.  He crawled into bed with her this morning and ignored me.

Another day without exercise or meditation but I continue to pray.  Breakfast of sticky buns and coffee. I’m reading Justo Gonzalez’ History of Christianity. I read a chapter or two then put it down. So sad reading the hundred years of Christian persecution until Emperor Trajan  essentially said what the army said about homosexuality.  We’re only persecute it if it’s in our face. Then a chapter on the apologists. I’m enjoying this because it exposes the false perceptions about Christianity but also details the essential Christianity. It’s ironic Christians were called Aetheists because they worshiped an ‘unseen God’. Plato and Socrates spoke of a purer idea and Logos , the word is consistent with star stuff and the universal genetic code of all. Science and the Big Bang today are so spiritual.  I remember being ecstatic learning the Periodic Tables in chemistry and later holographs.

I’m also reading Malorie Cooper’s, How  Wearing Leggings Changed My Life.  She’s a science fiction writer from Saskatchewan who has come out about her transgenderism. I’m loving her fascination with fabrics and identify so much so with the smooth and silky feeling. I would read sci fiction as a child and loved this one series with blue aliens and the human explorers had these body suits that were sensuously smooth but totally flexible and like another layer of skin but impervious to harm, with self heating features that allowed the wearer to step into outer space and also travel on any planet with this circular clear lightweight helmut.  

I loved the sarong in the tropics and wearied of all the heavy parkas and clothing that were required in the north. I’m not surprised that someone from Saskatchewan would find an interest in easy clothing. I like functionality. I love jeans on motorcycles and wool pants hunting.  I really appreciate the rough clothing for rough work but have never really liked men’s clothing in the workplace for many years. Back in my 20’s and 30’s especially in the dance world and theatre and television I felt men’s clothing had promise but when I moved into the sciences there was this emphasis on ‘drab’ and a constant attempt by people to dress like the lawyers whose clothing was a kind of pseudo military drab.  They called it ‘power wear’. I have had jackets and slacks made from thousands of dollars fabrics but it always seems boring compared to the freer female wear.  So I’m enjoying Malorie Cooper’s , How wearing leggings changed my life. It reminded me immediately when my leading fashionista patient told me about spandex laced jeans and overnight I was wearing them with joy, no longer fighting against my clothing to move. I’ve become lazy and sore with age so appreciate all the help fashion can give. 

I was listening to a church service earlier too, enjoying the love of God and celebration of the teaching of Jesus.  I just never saw God or Jesus focusing on sex like the perverts in some congregation.  Family was celebrated by Christians. I truly believe that growing up as a child in church with a church attending Christian family was one of the greatest gifts. Yet feminism struck and I married non Christian women. At first we didn’t want children young so opted for birth control. Then the feminists put careers and that feminist girl control of sex and all the restriction on sex and all the men are wrong, women are right, estrogen versus testosterone, and testosterone is bad, and all the laws against men, and really it was awful. The girls were into threesomes with lawyers hidden under every bed and sex was utterly unlawful if it was heterosexual.  The College of Physicians and Surgeons registrars claimed ‘women don’t lie about sex’ . Overnight men were the persecuted object in Canada.   Smug is the word that best describes modern feminism. Arrogance,smug, controlled and mean, everyone offended and always offensive.  I was  affected. I lost respect for the Christian church when it joined the Communist rage of cultural marxism.  All the abortions and me first mentality. Well maybe it’s just flip the coin. The worst of men acted like that in some past now the worst of women act like that. In between there’s all of us bumbling around.  I would rather be alone with my dog in the woods than go to any social function with unknown women who could be offended. Laura and so many great women I know are the exception but it saddens me that women collectively have preferred Justin Trudeau, the pervert and chauvinist who says feminist to your face while diddling little girls behind the lawyer’s back. 

Children were also the social police. They define the adult’s behaviour most days most of the time.  Gilbert encourages a different behaviour from me.  Added to that mother knows right and again the gynocentric society labelled males as dirty and pornographic and women as motherly. But now we have Fifty Shades of Grey, Benzhazi Hillary in her pant suits and Feminism as Abortion and anti male. 

 I’m all beat up and just trying to do the right thing.  Meanwhile my ex was finally trying to kill me and kill herself and me and the whole of the world doesn’t get the ‘borderline’ !!!  I specialized in it, the cultural equivalent of suicide bombers and victim warriors.  Covert and Overt Aggression.  Then I worked in jails and asylums with male and female  psychopaths and sociopaths.  There’s simply not enough time and resources to fix stupid. So I turned back to God.

God isn’t interested in genitals. God doesn’t care if men and women have anal oral or genital intercourse. Clearly there are varying health benefits. But a lot of biblical wisdom was simply good health practice in the day. Hence don’t eat pork in dessert countries.  Hygiene is a modern aspect of the religion of sciences and medicine.  It’s interesting considering ‘washing’ is good and bad. Recent state promoted hand washing rituals have a negative consequence of increasing risk of transmission of disease unless we are using oils to replace the natural oils which protect against microbe transmission.  

Laura and Gilbert just returned from another walk. I”ve showered. I’ve actually got shorts and tshirt on and had another cup of coffee. I remember when Dad read the Winnipeg Free PRess cover to cover and it was considered an education in the day.  For years I enjoyed Sunday morning reading the New York Times cover to cover I had shipped into Winnipeg. Later I’d read the Manchester Guardian Weekly religiously overseas and Science and NEJM and I even loved listening to Barbara From on CBC.  That was back before the media was hijacked by communists and corporate fear mongering interests. I have even given up on much of the BBC in the last decade as it fell like CBC to sharia communist propaganda and censorship.  I read from a dozen competing sources today to get the news having acquired a sixth sense for propaganda. 

I’ve this new interest in ‘little bird’ photography,thoug. It excites me.  I’ve been into photography since my Dad interested me as a child.  I got my first RICOH dual lens and Dad converted the old ice hut for me to have a real dark room in the basement in my early teens. . I’d be my year book and school photographer and go on to take pictures for the newspapers and compete, even doing some weddings and portraits, but always interested in nature. I‘ve been getting paid for photography since I was a teen.  Never enough to quit my day time job but certainly enough to pay for dark room equipment and advanced camera lens. 

 The cost of colour photography was prohibitve so I didn’t continue with the color darkroom and while I had Pentax, Canon and Nikon SLRs wit colour, I’d just pretty much snap pictures. I was writing and publishing stories across canada and sometimes internationally so would include photographs I’d taken. My polar bear and beluga whale photos from Hudson Bay were incorporated into the government tourism guides for Manitoba. I sold a lot of pictures to companies for advertising purposes.  My photos of the Northern Medical Unit stint became part of the university’s recruitment. I even had portrait pictures back then that were used in corporate offices and placed on  university walls. I really did have a gift for portraiture which I think was part of my psychiatrist ability to see the best in people.  

 Such things come and go. I became interested in video more and have endless films of sailing and hiking and mountain climbing and vacations.  Lots of scenery and wildlife and less people. Beginning in my 40’s I was more alone and less in a crowd. Then when I joined AA I stopped taking pictures of all the parties and dances and people I was with simply because of the anonymity clause. I started my blog over a decade ago and with Facebook again became interested in posting pictures. I’d had my favourite photos blown up and posted on my walls but now just had all the joys of digital photography, taking dozens of shots and choosing the best for uploading with a journal story.  

I’ve become lazy photography.  I liked the Fido’s and money  when I was younger but now enjoy the instantaneous gratification. I am interested in taking pictures of little birds, my latest interest, a long way from the event photography or the bands, Simon and Garfunkel on stage circle 1970 and many other bands, or the sports photography and fires for the newspapers, and the travel photography for medical journals, sailing and hiking photography outdoors, big game, the classic moose and bear shots that almost got me killed in the process, all the crane and big bird photos.  I‘ve stayed with Nikon, the D5000 body and 500 lens and the wide angle and the zooms. 

 I grew tired of carrying all the gear and fell in love with the Nikon Coolpix line I could take too places like St. Petersburg and Delhi.  Older I became more concerned about attracting thieves expecially after being threatened by a a thief pointing a gun at me at night in Mexico City.   I was taking a picture of the beautiful cathedral lit up in the years I was fascinated by church’s and Christian icons. .  I had to chase the guy away with a knife despite the rule never take a knife to a gun fight.  I scared him and his friend. Faced with the gun I thought what stops him from taking my camera and killing so I refused to give him anything but pull out a knife and screaming  chased him.  Luckily he forgot to pull the trigger and his friend and he  escaped  the mad photograper running behind  their Honda 125 motorcycle.  

There was even a few years there a decade or so ago where I stopped carrying a camera in Mexico and Southern California because I was thinking it was affecting my ‘experience’ of my life, the thinking and feelings of the ‘present’ when carrying a camera. Twenty years ago I carried a sketch pad for a bit feeling that this was purer and helped perception more. 

Now I’m into little birds. I have always enjoyed ornithology, my brother and I and the family spotting birds in childhood and youth. I had the Golden series of little kid books and graduated to Audubon. My Scottish uncle was the seagull photopher for Audubon. My brother specialized in predator bird pictures and had his beautiful photographs displayed in museums.  My nephew now makes movies and does astronomy pictures. I feel that though I love my iPhone 11 with it’s spectacular camera that so made Laura and my India trip a joy, I‘ve now got the latest Coolpix P1000 thanks to discussion with my nephew. It‘s the right tool for little pictures.  It has a  magnificent telephoto and is helping my insatiable  thirst for taking little bird pictures. I get an ‘aha’ feeling each time I get a pure picture.  It’s joyful.  

Vancouver BC to Seattle to New York City to Moscow

It was a bit of a gruelling flight stretched over a day and 2 nights. .  First Vancouver Seattle then overnight  Seattle to New York City.
Some idiot left his iPhone charging in the Seattle Airport Lounge.  (Alternatively, a devious unconscious will go to any length to get the latest iPhone.)
Arriving in New York at 7 am, not having to fly out to Moscow until the afternoon, I took the A train to Manhatten.  What a thoroughly different city Manhatten is in daytime. Just people going about their business, not at all the ‘party central’ of night Manhatten. I found the 5th Avenue Apple store and bought the latest iPhone 5S. Thanks to iCloud back up I was able to download contacts and apps including the Kindle with Moscow and Russia Lonely Planets.
With time to spare I caught a taxi back to the JFK and linked up with my friend Barrett who’d  just flown in from Alaska.
Now a 9 hour Delta flight from NYC to Moscow.  Captain Phillips was an awesome movie. Tom Hanks is an amazing actor.  Lone Survivor was a terrific Afghanistan war film of a platoon caught outside the wire and the morality of beyond Geneva conventions.  A lot of stiff messages and a large dose of reality.  I also liked the new tv series Turn. The Tom Clancy Ryan movie was fast paced intrigue and adventure,  with some excellent filming in Moscow. I’ve really enjoy world travel  if only for recognizing all the places I’ve been. in movies and on tv.
I drank lots of water which helped with flying. I take an extra Vitamin water along these days.    Still the trips  a bit of blur.   The pilots flew fine and the  Delta staff were great .   Still I felt like I’d done a couple of nights of obstetrics call when  I staggered off the plane into Russian Customs.
Given all the issues of visa,  concerns right now with international relations,  and fears from past cold war days, I was happy that my contact with Russian officialdom was anticlimactic.    Barrett's dual citizenship put  her ahead of me. She waited,  then we both headed off to the washrooms.  I shaved.  I didn’t ask what she did.
A guy offered us a taxi into the city ranging in price from 300 to 3000 roubles.  The lonely planet recommended 1500.  We took the bus instead changing to the superb Moscow subway where they joined up. The Moscow Subway stations with their tile and art are exquisite..  In NYC the train had been faster transport than taxi because of traffic jams.  Here in Moscow the traffic wasn’t much better.  I love rapid transport trains and subways.
People dressed alike in Russia and America. There were stunning women and handsome men in both places.  I don’t tend to look at the poor and ugly. They’re there too. I have this thing about ‘cookie cutters’ and see recurrent ’types’ wherever I travel.   I liked the high fashion in NYC and Moscow.  There seemed more wealth in the subways of NYC and wider ethnic variation.  I didn’t understand a word in Russian and couldn’t read the signs in the Russian alphabet.  Barett speaks and reads Russian. I enjoy having a translator.
I remembered renting a car in Greece and realizing I couldn’t read any of the road signs.  It had been exciting ‘winging it’.   Everywhere people helped me then. The same was true in NYC and here in Russia.  Barrett asked directions from strangers. Everyone was so helpful. Travelling around the world I find the vast majority of people are really decent. It’s so easy to overlook this especially when fear gets the upper hand.
Eventually we found our way to the apartment she’d  rented on line. Homey, not fancy but more than adequate. Secure building, clean, pleasant rooms.  The owner was there with her ‘little girl’. The little girl practiced her English on me. I had no Russian to practice on her.  It seems that despite reading up on the language all that’s remained is ’spaceba’, thank you.  The little girl, 3 or 4 ,knew all the parts of the body in English and all the furniture in the room.
The apartment is  a block from Red Square.  People rent their apartments to tourists just as people rented their lawns to motorcyclists at Sturges Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota where I rode my Harley last summer.  
After we got the apartment keys Barrett had us hiking all over Moscow.  I love the exercise I get being a tourist.  We  bought our Russian Sim Cards for our cell phones.I like my new iPhone even more now that it’s actually a phone.
I’ve been using the iPhone to take pictures of the place I’m at and the surroundings so when I get lost I can show people pictures of where I want to go. This worked really well in Azerbaijan last November.  One picture is worth a thousands words especially when you don’t speak the language.
Barrett’s other mission was to get us train tickets to St. Petersberg and Lenins home.  She accomplished these though I wasn’t allowed in the building. The dress code didn’t allow men in sandals.  A big business complex.  I and Jesus waited outside while suited hooved men and women in very pretty sandals came and went.
After Barrett got the tickets,  we went grocery shopping in a deli. I love seeing the variety of groceries the world over.   Barret's mostly  a vegan and likes eating in suite.  I’d personally been eyeing the KFC’s and MacDonalds and thinking of ordering pizza.  Instead  I bought Russian bread, cheese and Riga sardines. Nothing like hanging with healthy eaters to help steer one clear of fast food.  Gilbert, my dog, is a good influence with exercise but I think he may be the best person to follow when it comes to a health human diet. He does have some particularly peculiar tastes.
A ‘gypsy taxi’ brought back to apartment but first took us by the Kremlin.  For a couple hundred roubles Russians are happy to ‘taxi’ folk along their way.  The Lonely Planet says don’t get in if there is more than just a driver. and not late at night outside bars. Apparently this is  especially true if you are an attractive drunk foreign woman alone.   We had excellent results with just getting from a to b.  Being older has it’s benefits.    I don’t worry at all about sexual assault travelling at my age, not that I’d complain.  Now people want to 'strip me' for wholly different purposes.
Back at the apartment I literally crashed.   Barrett woke me on her way out for an evening with friends at a night club.  I was invited but, really, a glorious nap versus clubbing, with the techno music urban young people like, I chose the nap.
Now I’m awake. I’m planning on going a walk to nearby  Red Square.  Lonely Planet says it’s lovely lit up at night.  Apparently the ‘red’ was a ‘mistranslation’ as it was originally called ‘Beautiful Square’.
Other than that more people look slavic, the distinction about Moscow, other than the alphabet and foreign language, the onion and cross church architecture and the huge ‘Soviet’ and even pre soviet era complexes is in the atmosphere. The atmosphere of a place is what makes it so distinct.  There’s a unique ‘buzz’ here. There’s industry and  a robustness.  More smokers. People appear very busy just like in NYC.  I like that big city buzz. And lots of young people. So full of possibility.
Right now I feel great with a nap and a cup of instant coffee.  A shower and change of clothing will make things even better. Then a walk in Red Square taking night photographs.  I’d especially love to see St. Basils.  I love celebration of the highest ideals of man the world over.   My life is blessed.  My nephew Graeme is probably doing something similar right now in Poland. My brother is always photographing too.  We are a photographic family. Historians. Travellers  Dad  loved cameras especially early movie cameras and Mom always loved to travel.   It’s in the process more than the content.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - the movie

"I loved Ben Stiller in the museum movie," I said.
We were standing outside Empire Theatres in Kanata trying to decide which movie to see. That seemed to sway the group.
The Secret Life of Walter Middy is based on the James Thurber short story.  Ben Stiller directs and stars as Walter Middy, a reticent negative asset manager at Life Magazine. He's trying to find the courage to ask out Cheryl Melhoff, played fabulously by Kristen Wiig.  Sean Penn is perfect as the Marlon Brando type Sean O'Connel hot spot adventure photographer. Eventually daydreaming Middy is pulled into real life by a need to speak to Sean. To this he must overcome his reticence, face his fears, embarking on the adventure of a life time  find Sean  whose literally gone to the ends of the earth.  Shirley MacLaine plays Middy's wise mother.  This is humour at it's best and boy meets girl at it's finest.
I loved it.
My brother is a wildlife photographer and my nephew is an amateur film maker. My sister in law is an academic. We all loved it.  After, it was one of those great movies where everyone was describing their favourite part in the movie.  Having been a fly in doctor in northern Canada, I loved best the scene of Walter in a northern bar with a drunk pilot who offers to fly him out to a fishing trawler in the North Atlantic.
A really good family feel good movie . Perfect pick for the holiday season.
I loved it.