A Plan of Escape

Peter and I have agreed on a vacation plan for the second half of August, which he has already told his office that he will be taking off.

The third week in August, we will stay relatively local, probably getting in some dives at the Shores, and we might make an attempt to hike up to Deep Creek, where the trail is apparently open to clothing-optional hikers.  Peter said he'll bring/wear a lot of sunscreen, especially in those places that don't often see the sun, and I suppose I ought to, as well, as it's no fun not being able to sit, I'm sure, from a sunburned bum.  I told Peter he's lucky to have such thick hair (which I lack), as it protects his scalp from sunburn, which worries me and encourages me to wear hats.  Unfortunately, the remainder of his body is covered with equally sun-sensitive skin (being, ancestrally and by birth from northern climes), so he needs to be (more) careful when out.

For example, we'd decided to brunch in La Jolla the other day, and we ended up spending the day walking around La Jolla, strolling down the main shopping street to the Cove, stopping into a couple of shops.  The first storefront we went into was what Liz and Chris call the Surly Table, where we looked at their countertop ovens, as well as handheld gadgets and tools.  It reminded me so much of Williams-Sonoma that I'd forgotten which shop I was actually in until I looked at some items with price tags, which have the name of the shop printed on them.  I almost bought a spritzer for oil, but could not figure out whether it's a direct-action, or whether it's one that pressurizes and then provides a more even spray.  I want to get one so that I can stop buying Pam, or its store-brand equivalents, at least.

Hmmm...  I just found one on Amazon that looks good, but if I buy two (one for Peter and one for myself), that leaves $1.02 before I get free shipping...

Okay, that train of thought has departed the station, but I've returned to get back onto the train I'd originally intended to board.

So what are we doing for the last week in August?  We will drive up to Monterey/Carmel, where we'd been once before.  We will dive, once again, in, I think, Point Lobos State Park, which is rich in life (I love how big the anemones grow!  And Peter loves nudibranchs), being near the southern end of the range of North Pacific species.  I think they have open diving during the week, which will suit us just fine, since we will be heading back southward on Friday, anyway, to stay overnight and then go out on a dive boat on Saturday to the northern Channel Islands, I think.  Then Peter will drive us back to San Diego.  Should be a good trip.

We'll have the opportunity to encounter some (friendly) sea otters in Monterrey Bay when we dive around the breakwater.  Since we're driving up, that solves a bunch of potential problems.  We don't have to worry about buying another piece of luggage to replace the one that broke last year, though Peter wants me to get a bag for my drysuit (his new drysuit came with a bag, so he uses that) to make it more manageable to carry.  I've also been considering buying a spare mask, though they're not cheap (I paid, for my current one, something like $100).  I'm feeling rather poor at the moment since I just paid for the $5200 replacement of the A/C unit in my condo in Virginia, which I am renting out until I sell it (hopefully next year, depending on how the market holds out).

Speaking of the condo in Virginia, finding out that the A/C needed replacement came from the ironically-named management company, who promptly quit, since they actually would have to work for their monthly pay, and left me managing the condo myself.  I had originally thought about contracting with another property management company, but I think for the one year (or what's left of it before next June), I'll be able to manage it.  I will have the assistance of Rosemarie Johnson, who had helped me buy the condo in 2002.  Wish me luck!

In the very near term, I will attend a Beginning Mandarin class this evening at the Language Door to see if I like the class and to make sure it'd be at the right level for me to start, at the beginning, essentially.  I sat in on the second-level class last week, and it was a little difficult to keep up, though that is because I have near zero background right now.  The teacher was very complimentary toward my efforts, though, which was encouraging.  It might be good to get into a class where I'd have a head start, depending on the other students. If there are other Chinese-Americans, then our class might go faster than a more typical class, which would suit me just fine, as I'd be excited to learn and would welcome a faster-paced class, as long as it begins from the beginning, of course.

I appreciated that the teacher, who has a fruity nickname, went over the characters for the new words in the lesson.  She said that the more complex characters are often made up of more elementary characters, so that by knowing the "root" of a complex word, one can take a stab at its meaning.  Not so different from languages with alphabets, then.  Just strokes instead of letters.  And, just like letters, the strokes are drawn in a certain order.  Down, across, down, across.  I will want to practice recognizing the characters, though, as my visual recognition of objects seems to have diminished over time (and probably quite dramatically since my car accident, which occurred in December, 2006).

Well, it is about time to wrap this up for another day.  There is carrot soup for K to have for dinner, and I will have some when I return from another step along in the adventure that is my life.