Chapters

Underwater Mafia

Yesterday I went snorkeling. See- in California you can do that. In fact, there is good snorkeling 15 minutes from where we live.

The cove in La Jolla is protected from major currents and has very little wave action. 10 feet from the shore (of a 300 square feet beach) the reef starts. There is waving sea grass that undulates with the swells and tons of out-going sea life. Being a midwestern “wholesome” (I’ve been told) boy I have no idea what kinds of fish were looking back at me, waiting for snacks. So I’m paddling around seeing a fish here and there until I find the sweet spot. There were three huge fish of different type, surrounded with like species all met in about 5 feet of water between some rocks. Like a meeting of the families. And like a meeting of the families, my intrusion was not welcome.

I tried to make myself as flat as possible and would have lifted myself out of the water if I could have, but all of a sudden I was in the middle of a storm of fish. Probably at least 30 larger than one of my hands. The bright orange ones were the most agressive and as they backed me into the top 6 inches of water I got a little panicky. I started poking and swiping at them with my fingers and then fins. I actually kicked a fish. (Yes- “nils kicks fishes”).

Next time I’m going to bring my James Bond spear gun and underwater motorcycle thing.

Carpets of Carlsbad

On my morning to commute I’ve begun to notice an alarming trend:

Every day for the past nine (since I started counting) I have seen 2 or 3 pickups traveling north carrying TONS of carpet. In most cases they have been modified to have extra tall walls to accept the inordinately large burden.

I suppose they must be installing carpet in new houses ever further from the center of San Diego, but why do I see no other types of construction contractors? And why so much?

Bang! Pow! Zap! Whappo!

Sonya and I were standing in line today at the Sprint store. I have a sprint phone, and she wanted to get one. The problem? We needed to get out of there with as much of our money as possible while balancing her need to switch to Sprint from Verizon, her need to have a PDA for residency and my need to look like a super hero to her-protecting her from con-women salespeople.

We ended up getting out alive… but only after I skillfully asked questions like: “Can I have a phone charger with my new phone that I got for free since she’s joining Sprint?”

Suffice it to say, Sonya swooned with admiration