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I came to San Diego in April 1993 specifically to “come out” and try to reconcile my conflict as a special person with my Mormon (mom) and Catholic (dad) upbringing.
My first 11 months in San Diego were spent enjoying all the beaches in San Diego County, getting a nice tan (which I currently am paying for), meeting other sun bunnies, and studying the world’s great, and not-so-great, religions.
After 11 months, I decided that I really didn’t need religion, didn’t need to reconcile who I am with any manmade religion, only with Mother and Father Nature. I’ll just leave it at that.
The preface is for the following bas relief which I found above the main entrance doors of a monastery here in San Diego:
The religion to which that monastery belongs was founded in the late 12th century.
Look closely at that bas relief.
We could presume that the lower figure is Christ on the cross.
Let’s presume the figure behind Christ is God.
Notice the placement of God’s left hand?
On Christ’s nipple!
I’m not presuming to know anything about this religion, but what’s with that?
Look at the expressions on the faces.
Here’s my dialogue:
Christ: First tortured, now sexually assaulted.
God: Finally, I get to play with myself.
Upper left child: Ew. Incest. Necrophilia….
Upper right child: Will God do that to us when we grow up?
Is this a foretelling of what would happen in the Catholic Church many centuries later?
Were those activities prevalent all along?
….
And, for the record in response to Monday’s post, thanks for all the tips and tricks. None of them work anymore so I’m stuck with the new WordPress editor. And, to be blunt, it really really bites………
P.S. I expect to lose a few followers who will be upset and offended. That’s okay. Still hope they have a wonderful life.
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I don’t know what species of bird this is but it sure is purty.
It was zipping here and there all the while that I was doing a home inspection.
If I went outside to take its picture, it would fly into the bushes.
I got this picture from inside through a screen window with a 300mm lens.
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My plans to explore San Diego’s historical landmarks in numerical order came crashing down this morning when I realized that I could not get to San Diego Historical Landmark #16, Whaling Station Site, because it is smack dab in the heart of Naval Station Point Loma.
In other words, it is inaccessible to the general public. What! How can a historical site be inaccessible? Oh, the nerve….
The site is next to the San Diego Submarine Base, and if you take a boat tour of San Diego harbor you can sometimes get great pictures of submarines.
There’s a road, 209 on the map but Rosecrans on all the street signs, that goes through the middle of the naval base and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is directly above the submarine base, so if you stop and walk to the edges of the cemetery, you can get good pictures of the submarine base and submarines currently in port.
Continue on Rosecrans out to Cabrillo National Monument and enjoy the best views of Shelter Island, Harbor Island, North Island Naval Air Station, and downtown San Diego.
The Whaling Station Site is where shore whaling had its start in San Diego in the 1850s. Shore whaling involved shore sites where whalers cut up the whales they had taken in the harbor and at sea. The blubber was boiled down for oil, which was coopered and stored for shipment at the site. The San Diego whaling station produced as much as 55,000 gallons of whale oil annually.
Shortly after the United States Government took Ballast Point in 1869 for military, quarantine, and lighthouse purposes, the whaling station was forced to move.
I did find out that the Whaling Station Site is accessible one day each year, on October 14, when is when Cabrillo National Monument was founded.
I guess you know where I’m going on October 14, 2016….
For the introductory blog post to San Diego’s historical landmarks, click on San Diego’s Historical Landmarks.
For previous posts in the San Diego Historical Landmarks series, go here.
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Two pictures of the guard kitty at yesterday’s home inspection.
He was big, fluffy, beautiful, and on duty at the front entrance throughout the inspection.
Had a little attitude, too. Maybe he knew he was being forced to move….
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I have a new job!
It’s definitely not what I thought I would be doing at the age of 60½ but it meets my needs, pays very well, is fun, allows me to drive a lot (which allows me to find new and exciting things of which to take pictures), and allows me to listen to my vast music collection during the times that I work.
The company is a startup subcontractor to Amazon Prime Now, itself a startup here in San Diego.
I have had a 2-hour training session, a 4-hour training session, and a 7-hour training session. Today, I start full-time with four more 7-hour training sessions before Amazon Prime Now launches in San Diego on November 18.
Because I’m a subcontractor to the subcontractor, I can work as much as I want, any day I want, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and midnight.
The holiday season will affect my pay so to start I’ll probably be working 12 hour days, five days a week, and take advantage of the higher rate of pay for the holiday season.
Jim and I are a one-car family, so I will have to schedule my work around taking him to his job Sunday through Thursday at 1:15 and picking him up at 10:30. By the end of the year because of the holiday pay, we just might be a two-car family.
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The first time I went to Houston was 1973 when I was 18. I was mesmerized by the freeways, especially the “spaghetti bowl” interchanges in and around downtown. When I moved to Houston in 1977, I often would drive out of my way just to drive the spaghetti bowls. Of course, that was back when gas was 59¢ a gallon….
Here in San Diego we don’t have a lot of great spaghetti bowl interchanges but one of my favorite is the interchange in Mission Valley where Interstate 8 passes under Interstate 805. It’s a huge interchange. Looks like this:
It’s possible to see Tokyo to the west and New York City to the east from the top of the 805…..
Going north is a long, steady climb, while going south is a steeper, shorter climb. Both sides make for a great test drive in a new car if you’re searching for horsepower….. Just sayin’.
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San Diego County has over 70 miles of coastline.
The first time I made it to San Diego, in 1973, two friends and I were on a timeline, created by yours truly, for visiting the national parks, national forests, national monuments, and cities with a population of more than 100,000 west of the Mississippi River, all in a little over three months.
So we skipped the beaches, preferring the San Diego Zoo as our San Diego attraction.
My second visit to San Diego County was in May 1992. I drove the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to Monterey. At the first vista point, I thought to myself, “I could live here some day.”
Eleven months later I was back in San Diego, to stay.
During my first year living in San Diego, I made it a point to visit all the named beaches in the County.
When Staycations became fashionable with the Great Recession, I decided to revisit San Diego County beaches. One that I visited recently is Fletcher Cove.
As you’ll notice, Fletcher Cove Park was not there until 2007. I suspect there was a little beach, as there still is, but this illustrates why it is always worthwhile to go again to somewhere you’ve already been.
The park also is known as Pillbox because of its history as a gunnery installation during World War II.
According to sources, “the beach gets wider at low tide but pretty much disappears at high tide.”
It’s easy to get to the beach from the park because you simply walk down a sloping ramp, much better than some beaches where you have to play like you’re a goat and traverse the sandstone cliffs that are 200 feet high.
There are public showers and restroom facilities as well as picnic tables and a basketball court located on top of the bluffs next to the Marine Safety Department Headquarters. There also is a nice community center in Overlook Park which is right next door to Fletcher Cove Park. Only an ugly chain link fence separates the two but that is of little consequence since the picnic tables and walkways are full of mosaic beauty; you’ll never notice the fence.
A train station for the Coaster is three blocks away, Pacific Coast Highway and downtown Solana Beach are a block away.
Lifeguards are on duty year round, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. during the winter months, and from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. during the summer months.
The parking lot serving both Fletcher Cove Park and Overlook Park is at 111 S. Sierra Avenue in Solana Beach.
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As a toddler I had a significant interest in trains since my dad and granddad both worked for Missouri Pacific Railroad in Texas.
When my dad died in 1961, my mom moved us from Palestine, Texas, to Logan, Utah.
My interest in trains remained, though, so much so that whenever I ran away from home, which was often, I would walk the railroad tracks instead of the streets and highways.
Much more fun…………
I used to think that maybe I would become one of The Boxcar Children.
When I came here to San Diego, walking the railroad tracks was frowned upon.
In fact, in some areas they will give you trespassing tickets if you don’t cross the tracks at designated crosswalks.
Unfortunately, though, railroad tracks often separate the beaches from the cities, so one sometimes has to walk a mile or more to get to a designated crossing.
Thus, beachgoers, especially those with children or large surfboards, often park wherever there is parking (and there’s not much!) and walk across the tracks, which is what I did recently when I came across the most interesting NO TRESPASSING sign.
From what I have read, the theory behind that NO TRESPASSING sign is that people are looking down so as not to trip on rocks and train tracks, so that is the logical place to put such a sign. Makes sense to me………….
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