See Do Think and Feel

  When I go for a run, go geocaching, scooter, bike or play disc golf, I like to listen to music, an audio book or a podcast. It's not for everyone, but I find the audio can often add to my experience. Gliding past the roller coaster at the Mission Beach boardwalk listening to Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffet or the Beach Boys ... ahh! But San Diego is a busy place, chock full of other pedestrians, bikers and cars, any of which could sneak up behind, surprise me and make for an unfortunate encounter. For this reason it's important to me to be able to hear what might be coming up behind me and maintain situational awareness . I've experimented with a couple variations on the portable audio to solve the situational awareness problem and they are just "OK". I have one that I wear around my neck. Looks like a black horseshoe (see image below). One shortcoming is that it's fallen off several times and clattered on the pavement. They really aren't designed to run with. ...

 "Every Day Carry" or EDC is a "thing". Search it up on Google ( here are some search results ) and you'll see hundreds, nay thousands of references, websites and companies devoted to this topic. I think you'll be amazed at what some people claim to carry every day. Some gear choices are very fashion conscious, matching colors and styles. Others are very self defense themed (hand guns, knives, etc). Collections might have themes of rescue, handyman or a little bit of everything. I've gone through several iterations of what I carry when I leave the house. NOTE: What I describe below is actually what is ON ME. I will sometimes carry a small sling bag that contains even more items and sometimes a daypack (backpack) that contains even more than the sling bag. Although they are both trimmed down to what I believe is essential, the full daypack has just about everything that I might need (and have used!) on an outing. I won't go into DETAIL, but just for e...

 Scootering with my dog Selah on the last day in April CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR A LARGER VIEW If you HAPPEN to be in San Diego, have a small dog, a doggie backpack and a scooter ... here's a great way to spend the day.   :) Bring your dog to Fiesta Island Dog Park. LOTS of off-leash run-around space. Sea World across the Bay We then drove to Liberty Station, formerly known as the Naval Training Center. It's now open to the public. Housing, grocery store, restaurants and lots of open park space.  This is my scootering route for the day. Starting off at Liberty Station and turn around at Seaport Village. About 10 miles total. The path along the Embarcadero is full of people watching opportunities. There are historic boats on display, part of the Maritime Museum. Cruise ships and the U.S.S Midway aircraft carrier. Beautiful sights all along the way! Starting location at Liberty Station Turnaround point near Seaport Village Met these stilt-walkers at the starting spot A st...

  The other day, I went to Guitar Center needing some strings, lemon oil for my fretboards, some picks and maybe a few other knickknacks.  It’s been YEARS since I’ve stepped into a Guitar Center, maybe over a decade. I used to visit all the time, just for fun. I’d go there just to browse and see what might catch my eye. I’d sometimes end up buying some affordable, reasonably priced music instrument: I bought myself a couple Djembe drums and taught myself how to play them, I bought a pan pipe, an Udu drum, harmonicas and taught myself how to play them. Irish tin whistles. You get the picture.  As I pulled up this time, I had this vague memory in the back of my mind. Somewhere back there I recalled and remembered: sales people at Guitar Center were rude, indifferent, arrogant and not helpful. Jerks. Nah. Must be memories from a couple bad encounters. Besides, it was over 10 years ago and there can’t be the same employees still working there. As I stepped in, I had that almo...