I guess I should start at the beginning but it is easier to start at the end so that is where I am now - next week I am off to Denver and from there I plan to go to Montreal and then back here and then.
Last weekend we went to Big Bear Lake, about 2 hours drive from LA and about 2500 meters above sea level so despite the warm weather we are having at the moment it was way too cold to swim in the lake but just right to wallow in the hot tub, unfortunately I was alone in it, no joint and no woman. but you cant have everything and at least once Kyle and his mom shared it with me. It is really beautiful up there and Mitch rented a magnificent house right on the lake, truely awesome! Mind you there is not much to do up there if you dont waterski, but we rented a boat one day and went bowling another and cooked every day and generally hung out and relaxed - well I did anyway.
The weekend before we went to San Diago to visit Lego Land. Shani said it was for the kids but in truth it was for her and me. It was pretty cool even though it was childish. Hey, maturity has never been one of my better qualities!
We walked around the place for hours and I felt like my feet were going to fall off. The next day we took it quite easy and in the evening I was persuaded to go fishing from a boat! It turned out to be fun, everyone caught a fish or two or even more, starting with the 6 year olds.
Everyone, that is, except for me! Each time I put a sardine on my line it swam around for about half an hour without even being touched by a larger fish. After half an hour I would reel it in, release it to try and survive and put on a new one. I went through about 4 or 5 sardines and had nary a nibble (not a bite). But I now understand the attraction of fishing; you're out there in the middle of the ocean (okay, it wasnt exactly the middle but it felt like it), surrounded by white supremacists guzzling beer and occassionaly letting you understand that they are white supremacists (quite sympathetic to Israel, in a peverted sort of way) - and still there is something very relaxing about the whole scene.
Why do people name their daughters Amber? you just know theyre going to end up as strippers! That is absolutely a stripper's name!
The next day it was off to Sea World, which is a not-particularly-interesting vacuum for sucking in money. Except for SHAMU, of course you dont know exactly which one is SHAMU as there are about 5 orcas - and to me (Sorry Talala) they all looked exactly the same. But the Shamu show is truely awesome. The trainers obviously have fantastic rapport with those magnificent
animals that perform so excitingly and allow the trainers to do anything. I don't know if cruelty to animals is involved and it certainly doesn't look as if it is so despite what some people may say, to me it looked as if the sea creatures and the land creatures were working together in love and understanding. It is quite obvious that the trainers love the orcas, and by the way the orcas behave it appeared that they returned the feeling.
The whole park, which is huge, revolves around Shamu, everything else is dwarfed and insignificant in comparison. I have been to a number of aquqriums in my time and as an aquarium Sea World sucks. I had always believed that it was a magnificent aquarium but it ain't! And even though I was disappointed from that aspect, despite the various diplays of sharks,
dolphins, seals, manatees etc. Shamu is enough reason to visit. Rather than try to tell you all about it I will send independently of this email, pictures through a picture site, that way I can be sure you will get them. (I'll post a link once he does... --JB)
Please be patient as I have to wait for Shani to help me with that aspect.
In between this and that I have been bowling a couple of times here, even buying myself a ball, shoes and a fancy wrist support. Okay, I know that doesn't sound very exciting but I enjoy it and I am trying to adjust to getting old. On the other hand I try to make a weekly pilgrimage to Saga's Satchio and in fact this week I am even going twice - on Friday he is having a tribute to Led Zepplin and he expects several hundred people, and at the very least I get to look at and even talk to a number of gorgeous women. Though I have to admit that all American girls sound to me as if they have wierd squeeky voices, but hey, thats just my opinion again.
I guess that from the safety and compacencey of distance I should now put in my 5 (political) cents worth. I went out to a deli with mitch a couple of days ago and at the next table was a three generation American-jewish family, student son, his mom and elegent, white-haired, smartly dressed grandmother. The boy was very much pro-Israel and defending our right to
exist in peace, the grandmother kept saying that what we are doing is not the way Jews should behave. I was tempted, very tempted to interfere, I wanted to agree with the old lady, I wanted to tell her that we should behave like the good Jews of Europe in the 1930s and 40s who did not want to arouse people anger against them, we should let the hizbollah (I know that should have a capital a but fuck them - capital letters are for proper names and in my book that is a totally improper one) kill us with impunity, we really dont want to upset the world.
Anybody who knows me knows that I am a bleeding-heart, left wing, liberal peacenik (Yafeh nefesh, ya'ani) but you have to draw the line somewhere. While some of you may watch cnn and see the horrors and atrocities we seem to be comitting, please remember that we are only defending ourselves. And while this may sound childish - THEY STARTED IT! I know a lot of innocent Lebanese are being killed and I regret it, would it be perhaps fairer in the eyes of the world if every time a Lebenese died we killed an Israeli so that ther would be equall suffering? I dont think so! And any cease fire has to take into account our security needs, I dont want some Neville Chamberlin/Munich type "Peace in our time crap". If the UN cannot guarantee a tribute to Led Zepplin and he expects several hundred people, and at the very least I get to look at and even talk to a number of gorgeous women. Though I have to admit that all American girls sound to me as if they have weird squeeky voices, but hey, thats just my opinion again.
I guess that from the safety and complacency of distance I should now put in my 5 (political) cents worth. I went out to a deli with mitch a couple of days ago and at the next table was a three generation American-jewish family, student son, his mom and elegent, white-haired, smartly dressed grandmother. The boy was very much pro-Israel and defending our right to
exist in peace, the grandmother kept saying that what we are doing is not the way Jews should behave. I was tempted, very tempted to interfere, I wanted to agree with the old lady, I wanted to tell her that we should behave like the good Jews of Europe in the 1930s and 40s who did not want to arouse people's anger against them, we should let the hizbollah (I know that should have a capital 'a' but fuck them - capital letters are for proper names and in my book that is a totally improper one) kill us with impunity, we really don't want to upset the world.