The Daily Grind

Trying to take good photos is a little bit like riding on a roller coaster.  Sometimes you go up a roller coaster and its quite boring and sometimes you go down the roller coaster and its exciting.

Yesterday, was one of those trudge up the roller coaster to try to take a good photograph.  Tu and I, as we do drove around San Diego looking for interesting things.  I found some good places.  I took some good photographs of odd things in the seedy neighborhoods and along the San Diego docks.

When we got home.  I had heard that there were going to be some brilliant fireworks that would be shooting off at 9 pm along the waterfront in San Diego.  As part of the Summer Pops series in San Diego they light off fireworks when the concerts end, and since this was labor day weekend they were going to have a really nice show.

So we headed in the car and went to Centennial Park in Coronado.  It was a very nice night and surprisingly we had the beach almost to ourselves.  But we were an hour early so Tu sat on the blanket while I played around trying to get the composition just right so when the fireworks went off, I could just snap away.

As I was playing with the camera, I managed to delete all of the good pictures that I had taken earlier in the day.  I cursed myself.  You can never get those back.  So here I was at 9pm with nothing to show for the days work  (well it wasn’t really work, we had fun).

Well, I finally got the picture composition right after screwing everything up and took some fair pictures of the city against the still of the night.  Since I already have this picture from multiple other trips, I decided to turn it black and white.

A boring black and white shot of San Diego

Then the fireworks started.  But they started not even close to where I had my camera setup on the Tripod.  So I had to move the camera about and in the process missed about half of the fireworks.  Then when I did get it setup, the camera was positioned too low and the pictures were coming out blurry.

Then the fireworks ended.  So after all day. I really had nothing to show for it.  That’s ok though.  Tu had salvaged the affair by FaceTiming the firework show to all her nieces and nephews in Vietnam.  They were screaming with delight watching the fireworks 6,000 miles away.  Now that made it all worth it.  Time for her to share something, a part of her life with her family.

Well the Daily Grind can sometimes give you the best moments of all.  This is Tu waiting on the blanket, FaceTiming her nieces as I fumble with my camera deleting good pictures and replacing them with bad ones.

My Polaroids

Saturday Morning Beach Walk

Is there any kind of climate

Any scene for painters eye

The almighty hath not crowded

Neath our California Sky

Blue Baby Babylon

Mission Bay Boardwalk

The Story of a Boy Raised by Grizzly Bears

Once upon a time there was a boy with a deep dark secret. The boy was a feral child.   He was born to human parents but shortly after his birth, he was stolen by Grizzly Bears!  The rogue bears had taken the boy because he had skinny legs and they wanted to train him to run in the bear olympics of 1980 in Alaska to represent the bears who had never won a gold medal in running.

They say children raised by Grizzly Bears have  a strength, intellectuality and moral fiber unlike other children and of course of taste for fatty salmon and sleeping long hours during the winter.  And this boy certainly did.

A picture of the baby boy and his Momma Bear

It wasn’t easy being raised by bears.  For example, bears rarely shower,  and they poop on trees.  The boy needed to learn how to poop on trees.  Also the boy needed to learn to fish.  Momma Bear would take boy to fish on the sea.

Momma bear says to little boy, “catch me a fish sucker. I love fishys”

The little boy grew older.  They trained him to ride Big Wheels and to play video games.  But the bears were very protective and everywhere the boy went on his bike, the momma bear was right behind making sure that no wolves ate him.

Momma bear was always by his side.

 The boy learned to speak only bear language.  He would grunt and go “HRROOOGH” and make growling noises.  And he would run too.  Everyday he would run 10 miles to train for the bear olympics, in 1980, in Alaska.

Momma bear said to the boy, “Go Run Sucka, win me a gold medal!”  HRROOOGH, said the boy

But growing up was not always easy as a bear.  When the bears would eat they would get very angry and yell. The boy preferred to eat quietly with a knife and fork.  It was hard on the boy.

The boy looks on in disgust as the Momma Bear yells for another potato or bread or whatever.  It was always something.

 When the boy graduated from school.  He wore a brown suit and wanted to hang out with his friends but Momma Bear got up in everyones grill and wanted to be the center of attention.

Biting his lip, the boy tries to ignore Momma Bear.

Since there was beer at the event and bears love beer, Momma bear got quite drunk and disorderly and embarrassed the boy terribly.  It was  sight to behold, Momma bear drinking bear and cavorting like a fool.

The boy smiles nervously while Momma Bear destroys the party.

Well anyway as the story goes, the boy gets so disgusted with Momma Bears drunk behavior that he told her that when the Bear Olympics in Alaska in 1980 were over that he was going to leave the bears forever and live like a real boy.  So he trained very hard and ate lots of salmon guts and well the rest is history.  You can read about the boy that won the “big one” or see the feature film that is in production and geared for release in 2016.

That boy went on to win the Bear Olympics, in 1980, in Alaska

So that is the story friends.  So does anyone want to know the last big secret of this story?  Does anyone want to know who that little boy turned out to be?  Well, kids that little boy is me. I was the little boy raised by bears that trained, and eventually won the Bear Olympics in 1980 in Alaska.  And thats also why you may notice that I like to rip the heads off salmon when I see them even today.

Years later. Me with Momma Bear.  Unfortunately, we barely keep in touch now.