Bugs Beaches Snakes

Today was the day I went back to Scripps to see the doctor about the microbes that have decided to squat in my lungs. These big medical centers are quite the places--complicated buildings, huge parking lots, everyone seeming to know where they're going but me. It got easier to navigate after I figured out that the ground floor is designated Floor Number Three--not ground floor, not #1 but 3rd floor. Okay--I can deal with that. Apparently when they expanded they decided to go down so they added 2 floors beneath what was the OLD first floor. Information is on level 3 which is ground level, lung docs are on the 2nd floor which one thinks is up until one is told to go down to the 2nd floor and the cafeteria is on the ground floor--basement to most people.
I'm not sure how long I was in the Institute but the parking bill was $5.00 and $3 would buy you 3 hours. I noticed how many people there were ill. I suppose it goes with being in a hospital (clinic?) but there were a lot of sick people. The name of my spawn of satan bug is mycobacterium avium intercellular. Here is its mug shot. This is the enemy. We are preparing the troop surge.
It has nothing to do with birds. If I say it enought it sounds like I've started attending the Tridentine Mass and I expect someone to answer.

priest---Mycobacterium avium intercellulare

people--Et cum spiritu tuo

Enough about germs and illness. My goal was to conserve enough energy to go shopping at a real shopping mall. La Jolla is not a place where people are too concerned with low-bucking it but I did find a Ross. It has been weeks since I've been outside my bedside world and I was pumped!!! The number of different languages being spoken in this Ross was amazing. I'm only used to hearing Spanish whenever I venture out but this was a new take on global shopping. However, almost everything in the store came from China so I suppose that was our common thread.

I got quite a start when I came dragging out of the store. Perhaps because all my energy was gone I was more psychically vulnerable but looming over the entire parking lot was this foreboding Mormon temple. I instinctively crossed myself and hurried to the car. Seldom has a structure given me such case of the heebie-jeebies--and the building is bright white! I could not live in its shadow or anywhere where I would have to look at it. I did manage to squeeze off a few quick shots of it. The photos do not begin to capture either the immensity of the building or the menacing spirit.

That evening Mr. Toccata and I picked up the BEST pizza we've ever had from B.J.'s Pizza. We drove over to Torrey Pines beach to enjoy the pizza and watch the sun go down--not quite the same as being at the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert which was the original plan made in another lifetime--but still, very nice.

Away from the beach a sea gull is just an overgrown pooping pigeon. But, at the beach the sea gull becomes an icon for the various people sharing the sand. However--to the gulls' credit, I did not see any pregnant gulls walking around 5 weeks past delivery wearing skimpy bikinis. Some people aspire to tacky; others have it thrust upon them.

Everything changes at the beach as the sun begins to go down. It happens so quickly! One minute the ocean is glowing yellow/pink/red. Then that orange ball just sinks into the marine layer and plunk! the sun is gone and it's dark.

Well, not quite dark--just light enough to see a small rattlesnake on a beach rock only a few feet from where I'd been enjoying the sunset. I hate snakes and I really hate rattlesnakes. But my curiosity got the better of me. Apparently the snake must have been pretty cold because it didn't move or rattle even though I was only two feet away from it at the most. It didn't even seem to react to the flashes going off in its face.

What is the world coming to when rattlesnakes invade the beaches of San Diego? Sharks in the water; poisonous reptiles lurking amongst the beach rocks? There were many signs of portending doom today.