Dry Docked

My boat just spent Sunday sitting high and dry waiting to have her bottom groomed so instead of sailing the bounding main with my Russian sailor buddy I visited another sailing buddy in Dana Point that also possess the intelligence to be a proud Ericson owner. Her boat sits next to a Catalina, (having owned two of them) which makes her jewel shine brighter in comparison. After I bought my first sailboat someone informed me after the purchase not before that Catalina's were the Chevrolet of sailboats. The trip to Dana had a two fold purpose, one to visit my sailing buddy and the other was to go surfing.

In the morning the VW was loaded with all the stuff that I some how need to function. When I was a teenager we went to the beach in Santa Monica almost everyday and all we took was one towel to lay on and dry off with nothing else. So after loading what looked like a garage sale in the van I drove to the beach with the dog. Going to the beach is one of the hers favorite past time. She gets to hang out with all of her surfing friends, getting leftovers if someone is grilling and petting from strangers. After arriving and disembarking I discovered than someone had forgot to put the wetsuit in the van. Now as captain of a VW van one would think that the crew would pay more attention to important details but they apparently don't. I called my son at home and requested backup if he was gong to the beach but he had gone the day before and he just told me to "trunk it." That suggestion was declined as the surf was not big enough to warrant freezing my ass off. So our crew sat around bull shitting at the picnic tables.

One fellow who had just got out of the water informed me that he had been in for four hours without a wetsuit. This encouragement fell on deaf ears as I lacked the insulation or padding as he did. Most surfers that I talk to don't discuss much outside of surfing but our group fell in to a decent discussion of "what's wrong in the world today." I brought up some of the recent remarks my Robert Gates about how we can't help the people in Burma unless they allow us as the United States respects the sovereignty of other nations. As I was speaking my peace I referred to Dr. Gates as our Secretary of State and former Directory of the CIA. Later after rethinking my remarks I remembered that Gates is Secretary of Defense. Now I actually know a little about Burma and I would not drink beer or tea with Than Shwie but I do understand his reluctance to welcome aboard our Navy's warships. Here is a fellow who ran the CIA saying trust me, whose boss, the President is also the son of a former CIA Director. I just recently read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi and she recalls the time spent there during the war between Iraq and Iran. I remember there was a war but really didn't recall much but with the Internet one can get so much information that was never available before. There are now realms of reading disclosures about the CIA if one cares to look them up and another tool available today that was not available when Iraq and Iran battled for eight years is Google. When I discover a foreign word or phrase when reading I Google with my IPhone instead of turning to the dictionary. What you can find is simply mind blowing.

Well in preparation today I will hangup my wetsuit in the van before setting out which will allow me to forget something else. In the month of May I have forgotten a pair of sox's, an inter tubes, numerous tools, clothing, phone, sun glasses (still at the boat), creams and lotions, you name it, I will forget.