Veteran's Day 2009

Veteran's Day is a holiday for me at my current job, usually falling on the actual day.

In the AM I drove over to Manresa; with the plan to surf south of town and then drive north and surf/hike or whatever, maybe check out different places.

Lately, however, my car's key fob has been malfunctioning. Today it was questionable as to whether it would open my car when I got back from surfing. To unlock the car, I had to push the button several times - like it was shorted out or something.

For the last three-plus years I have been taking the thing into the water with me. Granted, I put it in a plastic bag that gets double wrapped and knotted (see the photo) This fob lasted this way for the last two years and then some. I know it's crazy. Someday maybe this will be a topic as to what the fuck am I doing. But, it works, I have swam in creeks and pools accidentally bring my key fob with me; and it's secure - I don't like leaving my keys under my car, or on the tire... especially at the deserted spots.



I didn't sweat it though. I went out and surfed anyway. Despite the fact that I had to push the button five times to unlock the car when I got back. Thank god it worked.

Yes, I went out there and delayed my hassle. It was fun and warm with the peaks. Wearing the 4/3 is something to get used to again - tonight I can barely lift my arms.

The peak take-offs were fun, but then you'd ride into a deep trough carved by last week's 15+ foot surf. I had a good left, and a fun right with my hoola hoop move down the line.

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From there I drove up to Ocean Honda and asked about replacing the fob. The guy there was cool and told me that if I wanted to get another fob, it would cancel out the frequency of the one I had at home. Each new fob is $75.00 and the programming charge - assigning a new frequency, is $40.00. And, interestingly, as the technician was assessing my car, the unlock button worked fine and it was the locking button that wouldn't work. The panic button worked fine of course. It always seems to.

After being informed, I decided to drive home and get the one from September 2007. Quite a hell ride over 17. Sometimes I simply do not know why I get so wound, but I made it over to the L-gizzle (Los Gatos) and back in one hour!

Knowing that my original key fob has lasted so long I will now take care of it in due time.

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I went back down to Manresa, well sort of. Out of curiosity, I figured I'd check out the space between Manresa and Rio Del Mar. Parking at Bush Creek (?, along Sumner?), I walked under the train tracks and walked all the way up to La Selva. Shoot - long walk, but this was fun as I got to do the surf/hike that I intended. It was beautiful and amazingly, no strong wind in the afternoon.



There I surfed some fun rights that would - like Manresa sometimes does, jack up and then back off. I got a few of these and held on until I could surf into the close out as it continued toward the shore.

I wasted a lot of energy with my paddling for the ones that I didn't get.

Whatever, it was beautiful and the water seemed so clean. As the sun set, I got surrounded by porpoises/dolphins (I don't know?) and they were surfing the waves. It kinda freaked me, especially what I had read last week about the gang violence triangle of sharks, dolphins and porpoises... It's complicated!

There was also a killer looking mid level stratus cloud that kept making me think it was a giant bridge or pier that we were surfing under.

At this point, in the darkness I seemed to hallucinate a little. It was a mile plus walk back to the car and I could swear I saw someone hang-glide onto the beach... Later, looking toward the strand at Rio Del Mar, I could see fire trucks with their lights flashing, driving up and down the street through the narrow canyon of homes and the sea-cliff.

I was hoping to see meteorites dropping...