San Diego sunshine

Christmas, to me, means going to San Diego. That's where many of my relatives live, and where I was born, and where I have been every Christmas except one. It's hectic and crazy and about 1000 miles of driving (and let me just say that driving up and down CA isn't nearly as enjoyable as getting out of CA!). My mom made a funny comment down there, she said something like it's really so wonderful to see everyone, but it's not a good Christmas experience. Perplexed and befuddled, I asked her what she meant by that. She said "well it's just so hectic and crazy." Well yes, I agreed, it is, but to me that IS Christmas, it's all I've ever known. What a revelation. It was especially insane this year though.

The drive home now ranks at the worst drive back from San Diego ever. (I remember when I was a kid the transmission on the old Suburban crapped out along the way, so that might have been the worst drive TO San Diego, but I'm not sure that counts, I was very young). 500 miles in 11.5 hours. Los Angeles was a parking lot. And then about 50 miles south of Los Banos (me driving, Mom passenger, in the minivan) the tire pressure warning light came on. Eh, no biggie, that light has been on the fritz for years and comes on for no reason at random times. Well, about 15 minutes later, hurtling down I-5 at 80mph the right front tire blew. Thankfully it didn't jerk the car around, and I felt it right away and since I seem to be the queen of flat tires I knew what was wrong and got over on the shoulder ASAP with no damage to the rim. There was no way I was going to try to limp home at 55mph on the spare "donut" tire, so about a half hour later the AAA tow truck arrived and we got towed to a Walmart tire store in Los Banos. They put on a new tire and we hit the road again. What an adventure.

Now, I thought I got rid of the tire curse when I sold the Taurus. I had 14 flats in the 15 years that I drove it, and probably 4 or 5 "goose eggs" on tires that I got fixed before they blew. I thought the curse was on the car but I have to wonder if it's on me. I hope not. I made it to Georgia and back in Jan's car with no problem, and I made it to Wyoming and back in the Avalon just fine. So I hope this was a fluke. But, it is now 15 flat tires in my life.

Anyway, here's a little sunshine for you, these are a few pics I took in San Diego.

Pacific Beach:

Crystal Pier, Pacific Beach:

A Willet:

Pacific Beach:

Okay, gull ID is not my strong point, but I think what we have here are Heermann's Gulls (the dark ones with the dark orange bills), a Western Gull (the light one with pink legs), and a California Gull (the light one with yellow legs). And yes I totally had to look that up, and I'd never heard of a Heermann's Gull before.

Brown Pelican. I took all these pics with the little pink camera. Not too shabby! Cropped photo, of course!

La Jolla:

Seals in La Jolla:

99.99% of the people there probably thought this was just another gull on the street light. It's actually an Osprey. :-)

After Christmas

I survived the Christmas insanity! I hope everyone else did too! We got back from San Diego yesterday evening. I think I have only missed one Christmas in San Diego in my life. There is always the temptation to think "well, it would be so much easier/less hectic/more relaxing to just stay home" but the truth is I'm not sure Christmas would really happen if I wasn't down there. It's part of the routine, part of the holidays, part of my life. We have our big family get-together on the 26th every year, so the 25th is always a travel day. Sometimes we fly, sometimes we drive. This year we drove. Almost 500 miles...bleh. Still beats flying though (not a big fan of air travel).

My grandparents' house seemed so much bigger as a kid. It's like a time warp to be there every year, everything almost the same as it has been forever, except the people keep getting older... Ever notice how as a kid, people never really seem to age, but then as an adult, suddenly people really seem to age a lot from year to year? It's weird.

It was fun, it's always so nice to see everyone, though there is never enough time in the day to catch up with all 30something people who are there. Then again, I don't tend to be all that good at catching up anyway, except with just a few people. I wouldn't say I'm the black sheep, but perhaps D.J. was right when he said I'm the black rosecomb of the family. :-) It's not a bad thing.

I am in rather dire need now of some solitude though. My tolerance for family togetherness isn't the highest in the world. I know that sounds horrid, but...it's just who I am, I need time alone.

We had almost two inches of rain in the last few days, and it's totally gross outside now. I haven't worked the horses for quite some time now, and I can only cross my fingers that the birds will end up in decent condition. I don't have the facilities to keep all the birds indoors (nor would I really want to keep them all indoors) so it's kind of an iffy situation here in winter time. PPBA is a month away. Aaack!

I spent today cleaning the house, which ranks right up there with smacking my thumb with a hammer.

I have not drawn anything since the 23rd, and it's kind of refreshing, though I'm starting to feel ancy like I ought to be getting back to work. The art table is just across the room, taunting me. I needed a break though, to preserve some semblance of sanity. I will start again on Monday. I am disappointed though that the back pain hasn't gone away. It's better, and maybe by Monday it'll be even more better (grammar, I know), but I think it's just going to be something I'll have to live with unless I can come up with a more ergonomic way to draw....and so far I have not. Of course, thinking about it makes it worse, but trying not to think about it means I end up thinking about it more. I have been told I think too much. I think that may be true. ;-)

And last but not least, to the disappointment of anyone on dialup, I am going to post a zillion pics I took in San Diego. I will not show family pics here, in the interest of privacy, but I took a zillion shots of the ocean, and I think that'll make a nice contrast to my usual horses and art and chickens and cute cats. Enjoy!

Anemone in the tide pools. I'd been hoping to find hermit crabs (they are so cute!) but we were on the tail end of low tide and they were farther out than I was willing to risk walking, so I settled for admiring anemonies.

Mussels.

Coastal bird ID is not my strong point, so I had to bust out the bird guide when I got home. Elegant terns.

Ring-billed gull.

Western gull.

The following pics are all taken along a short stretch of beach in La Jolla.







Seals lounging in what used to be The Children's Cove. This apparently has generated a great deal of controversy. It's this little inlet that used to be a beach where kids could play (I remember playing there!) but in recent years it's been taken over by seals.

One view of San Diego from the top of Mt. Soledad. (I took several shots, none are spectacular, so I just picked one).

On the very top of Mt. Soledad there is this huge cross. If I knew more about it I'd tell you who put it up, but I don't. There is a sign though, proclaiming that the site is not city property and therefore the city cannot be sued for having this giant cross there. Probably somebody got offended by it. Good grief. I thought it made a really striking photograph with the late afternoon sun behind it.