Beach fireworks...and kayaking is funner than fishing.

I went kayak fishing over the underwater canal lights last night at 10p. No bites on my line and my buddy Ed (who actually knows how to fish) got 5-6 hits, no fish. It was a full moon and absolutely beautiful last night. There was a pregnant stingray left on the bank after being caught by a fisherman. She ejected her babies there. One was dead, the other I put in the water and it swam away, and the 3rd was sickie but revived and swam in my bait bucket for hours until it finally died. I wish I'd had my aquarium set-up to put it in. I caught a baby squid in my cast net; I didn't know they were in this shallow bay behind the houses. He reached his tentacles out of the water in the bait bucket and latched onto the holes to hold himself up at the surface where O2 exchange was better so he could breathe...too many baitfish in there took up all the oxygen though and he died hanging there, tentacles locked onto the holes above the water. So smart, the squid, cuttlefish, and octupus (seriously). I gotta admit I felt like a loser as I've always admired them and here I caught one just to suffocate while trying to escape my bucket. I got creamed by growing winds and by 0130a I beached the kayak and walked to my car to drive back and collect it rather than paddle against that wind. After unloading everything and a shower at 3am the verdict was in....exploring in a kayak would be much funner and easier than fishing in one...and no carrying neat animals in buckets just to look at them before they suffocate. I know this sounds soft but I don't care. So much of who we are is how we're raised. My dad always had great empathy for animals and while he trapped, hunted, and fished for food growing up on a farm, he would not do so recreationally. While I like those activities, it's lately been more a hassle than fun and exploring for its own sake it more fun, less hassle.

Last Sunday my neighbor did a great lesson on our own misconceptions about ourselves and others, affecting our actions and eventually our lives' courses. My favorite quote was "God's not as concerned with our problems as He is with us." Almost as important is that he used my omnipotent 2x3ft fresnel lens to illustrate magnified problems or self-distortions. See the giant magnifying glass in action during his intro here : http://www.bayareafellowship.com/bafweb/mcenter/index.php?se_id=14

using it to cook: http://www.armory.com/~images/?s=solsticeCook2001&i=02
...to melt coins: http://blogs.msdn.com/jrule/archive/2004/07/29/201082.aspx



Last week we went to the beach for 4th of july where families and firework renegades alike ingite huge amounts of pyro. There was so much

going off so close Sunny asked if we could move back to the dunes (we did). Note in the pic the kids covering ears and Mariah's mouth literally hanging open from sheer awe... some kids quickly opted to stay in the car the remainder of the evening.