Beach Day

The alarm sounded early and I showered up and headed over to Carlsbad for my dentist visit. Dr. Bell got me right in and started grinding out all of the old worn out filling. Never a bad thing to ditch a little more of the mercury collected in the multiple fillings in my mouth. Dr. Bell is about as close to painless as you can get in a dentist and checks often to make sure you are not hurting. He’s always apologizes for putting you in distress. One of his patients even made a wall hanging of the Sorry board game to hang in one of the exam rooms. He says ‘sorry’ each time before putting the drill to the enamel. I count it a good thing that the person applying the discomfort is cognizant of the potential pain and is doing everything possible to ease the situation.

They took another scan of the tooth with the CAD system and are set to fabricate my crown from the little block of porcelain on the milling machine in the back. Pretty space age technology. Should ready early next week.

I’d heard somewhere that a little exercise helps the lidocaine wear off faster, so I drove down to Tamarack and took a walk along the boardwalk. Beautiful sunny day. The beach was crowded with people enjoying the warm winter morning. January 31st and in the 70s. Can’t beat that. Lots of people surfing, but not much waves. Even a few brave souls skinning it down by the power plant.

I tried calling my friend Dave, but he was off in Nicaragua. I drove down towards Encinitas when PJ called me as I was approaching Ponto. I pulled over to talk but the reception was poor so we decided I’d call back from the gas station up the road. I pulled in and interestingly found myself parked next to one of Dave’s company’s work trucks. I grabbed a Monster drink and called PJ back. We talked quite a while. More setbacks for Pete’s myeloma. We are praying hard and sending all of our love. Tough being apart from the wife when she needs someone to lean on. 

We hung up and immediately the phone rang. It was Dave calling back from Nicaragua! Modern communications. It’s getting to where we can call anywhere, anytime. I remember the days traveling in Mexico when you had to go the long distance phone center and pay a bunch of cash to get sent into a little booth after they connected your call. Anyway, I was meant to talk to Dave because he’s had the same surgery I’m getting tomorrow and was able to reassure me that it wasn’t too painful or debilitating just a lengthy time before I’ll be able to get back in the water. Even longer than I had guessed🤕

I drove over to my old stomping grounds in Cardiff to visit my friend Danny and we sat around on his deck and caught up on the latest goings on. It’s good to see him, seems like not much has changed. He’s jacked up his shoulder and is going for a hard core surgery next week. Looks like a long recovery time on that one. 

I drove over to Cardiff Seaside Market and paid a visit to the deli. I used to walk down regularly from my house on the hill and load up on the excellent gourmet food they are cooking up down there. I got some chicken skewers, a carton of rice and one of their famous chocolate peanut butter magic bars. I’d forgotten how good the food at their deli is. I’d also forgotten what it feels like to pay $25 for a box of lunch. 

I sat out on the patio watching the beautiful people come and go and thoroughly enjoyed my Korean BBQ chicken. Even have enough left over for another meal later on. The numbness had pretty much worn off by now and my teeth were starting to ache. I decided to take it easy for the afternoon and just hang around the beach and see what has changed. For as short a time as I’ve been gone, there are a number of business that have changed and new construction in the works. I went to Moonlight and walked around. They are building a new lifeguard headquarters to replace the old building down on the sand. Some volley ballers were working the courts and a few surfers were catching some smallish waves down towards D Street.

From there, I drove over to the meditations gardens at the Self Realization Fellowship and wandered around for a bit then found an empty bench and did a short meditation. The waves at Swami’s looked like a lot of fun. Crowd wasn’t too bad and guys were getting some decent waves, both at the main peak and over a Boneyards. The serenity of the gardens always has a rejuvenating effect and I decided to walk through the campground and see how the waves were looking at 85s.

Since I was down there, I had to pay the Kook a visit to make sure he was still standing. Still standing in classic Kook tree pose that is.

It was getting close to afternoon traffic time, so I figured it was time to head back to San Marcos and rest my bones for the evening. Sandy had gone to the farmers market in Escondido and bought some salmon and scallops, so Pop broiled them up and we ate them with spaghetti squash and brown rice. Healthy and tasty.  

Talked to PJ a couple of times. She moved back to the RV for the next week until another casita opens up. Hard work by herself. Lots on her mind and not sleeping the greatest. Sorry I’m not there. Tomorrow she’s going whale watching with our friends Bryce and Arlene, a good diversion for the day.