The Double M News - 2001
Torrey Pines Beach is Gone!
I went to the beach to take a walk, but the beach was gone. Big surf from the last two days
has taken it all. There were no brave surfers in the water this day! I saw a father and his two
small children, standing too close to the water's edge, almost swept away by a rogue wave. Aye,
the sea is alive today!
Frisbee with Mark in the late afternoon.
A most extraordinary feast, at the home of good friends David and Carol.
Leonid Meteor Showers at the Fun House!
It was spectacular, of course. I was there and saw it all through a high, but broken, overcast. At one point, I saw at least 5 in a single second.
New Moon Brings Changes
Celebrating today's New Moon, there is a fresh new look to my welcoming webpage. The webcams are now reached with one click,
rather than showing you a dark box between sunset and sunrise. This makes the page lots more
consistent, and interesting, and loads faster.
This afternoon will be major frisbee at Torrey Pines, enjoying the low tide and wide smooth beach.
The Ferrari has been sold. Will probably be looking for something interesting in the Spring.
The biplane is now back in California. You can see it now at JetSource, Palomar airport (CRQ).
Today's Virgo Horscope
At long last, your highly-anticipated appointment with destiny has arrived.
Destiny, as it turns out, is a high-spirited child
that has been expecting a play date with you for quite some time.
As the Moon makes its way through the Sign Taurus,
you too are ready and eager for all the thoughts and feelings that flood into you.
Take a moment to think about what you're going to say
before all of the words come out in one jumbled, unintelligible mess.
I went to Alaska to visit a friend.
We hiked to a glacier, hung out at a gold mine, went to a party,
ate Thai food and drank champagne. We laughed and we shared good times.
We played like, and with, children. And even went to church on Sunday!
We talked of what might have been.
If you had to describe us, it would be a Greek tragedy,
Soulmates separated by great distance, and time,
It was great to be there, and great to be home.
Leaving there, the full moon was just setting.
I endured the trials of travel.
I haven't been able to mention it until now, but for the last year I have been part of a group of
local business people who have been working on starting up a new federally chartered community bank.
Part of my primary responsibilities will be to help with the technology decisions.
Here's our "coming out" press release:
For Immediate Release
For Further Information, Contact:
Tenured San Diego Bankers Unite to Form Landmark National Bank
Proposed Community Bank to Headquarter in Solana Beach
SAN DIEGO - Ron Carlson, former CEO of Scripps Bank, and Ron Bird, former president of Bank of Southern California, announced today they have joined forces to form Landmark National Bank. The management team's application for a national bank charter was filed this week with the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Its flagship office will be located in the coastal community of Solana Beach at 1-5 and Lomas Santa Fe Drive. Landmark National Bank is expected to open in the 2nd quarter of 2002.
"Ron and I share a very strong commitment to offering professional banking services that are responsive to the personal and business needs of the San Diego community," said Carlson. "Both of us - - and our entire board - - will be actively building long-term relationships as only a community bank can."
Ron Carlson has served as President of several local community banks, most recently Scripps Bank where he was the founding President and Chief Executive Officer. Ron Bird formerly served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Southern California. Both men worked together on the senior management team of La Jolla Bank & Trust Company. At Landmark National Bank, Carlson will assume the role of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Bird will be President and Vice Chairman of the Board. Joining them as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer will be Cathy Wright. Ms. Wright held the same position at Scripps Bank.
"We have been successful in putting together an excellent group of community minded bankers," said Bird. "We have assembled an outstanding Board and a very active group of founders to support our efforts. Landmark National Bank's proposed board understands and fully supports the contribution an independent bank brings to the community." Serving on the Board with Carlson and Bird will be:
Ken Baumgartner, President/COO of The Corky McMillan Companies
Tom Wermers, President/CEO of Wermers Construction Company
Christopher Weil, President/CEO of the investment firm of Christopher Weil & Company
Anne Taubman, President/CEO of Seaport Village
Marshal Scarr, Partner with the law firm of Peterson & Price
Larry Showley, Partner with the employee benefits firm of Showley Archambault & Alexander
David Goodell, President/CEO of Del Mar Investment Group
The proposed Landmark National Bank board has secured a permanent location for its main office in the Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, immediately off of Interstate Highway 5 at Lomas Santa Fe. The facility will offer a convenient location for both the Rancho Santa Fe and beach communities, as well as easy accessibility for much of the San Diego community. The proposed Landmark National Bank will offer daily courier services throughout San Diego County. Tom Wermers stated, "This location will serve a significant region of the San Diego market. It is also strategically located to accommodate the management team's substantial following established over their combined 80 years as San Diego bankers."
Landmark National Bank will offer the traditional services of a full service bank to both individual customers and small and medium sized businesses. In addition to a variety of deposit accounts, they will offer a mix of loan products that will include commercial, professional and industrial lending packages, as well as a Small Business Administration loan division and consumer, installment, home equity, construction and real estate loans.
Board member Anne Taubman said, "San Diego is in need of more community banks to serve the needs of individuals and businesses left unserved in the wake of the acquisition of our local banks by major out-of-town financial institutions - - and that is the genesis of Landmark National Bank."
#####
There was an absolutely magnificent moonset last night!
The clouds were still gone this morning,
Mid day fog blew in and reduced the visibility to less than a quarter mile,
Graphic by Bryan Peterson
Orgasm of Silence
There are times, very rare,
It's an untroubled sea
Almost quiet now,
This time quieter still
Yes! Yes! Eternal noise has ceased!
Let's do it again!
Sunset, Del Mar, 9/13/2001 (c)
For almost a quarter of a century I have lived very close to the sea and have come to some deeper appreciation of what can be learned from this awesome masterpiece of Creation.
Over this long period of time, I have always lived in oceanfront homes, with nothing to come between me and my sea.
And even on my global adventures I always find the nearest sea and walk its beaches. Hotels are chosen for their oceanfront access.
I must have my ocean. And for my loyalty and love, the ocean has whispered some if her secrets to me.
One of these secrets is the magical quiet which comes along maybe only once a year, and if you're lucky you might be paying attention when it happens.
Some alternate theories:
The Full Moon setting over the Pacific.
Sunshine brings warm feelings.
Joey blasts into town from Hawaii. Board meeting next week.
A late afternoon drive in the Maranello,
Above photographic evidence uncovered in August 12-20, 2001 trip to Philadelphia
Click on image for more detail.
In other news, there was a story on page 8
With last night's full moon,
Red Tide
conditions continuing for more than a month. (see photo)
New website pages:
Yoga this morning, frisbee in the afternoon.
The red tide is in again, and tonight the waves are magical,
Mars is huge and hanging low in the clear southern sky.
Yoga on the beach at Torrey Pines this morning with Lisette.
Headstands are noted in the upper yogi circles
Later in the day it was even more frisbee with Mark.
And, your humble writer performed a first ever running front body roll.
The frisbee world championships will be in San Diego at the end of this month!
Today was a day for a totally new experience: Rock climbing.
I had no real idea what to expect, and I was more than a little apprehensive.
First off George shows me a couple of easier boulders to get the hang of it.
When I'm wearing his climbing shoes, George amuses himself with doing some climbs in his shower clogs!
Here's a video of George making it look easy.
George took this shot of me close to the top, contemplating imminent success:
It was a great learning experience, but the rocks are unforgiving,
Another awesome day of frisbee on the beach at Torrey Pines.
Still playing with the digital video camera
It's one of my favorite vistas in all the world.
Overcast. Trace of rain. Life is good.
Frisbee was sensational.
Tried the video again today and caught
Mark going ballistic
There were high clouds, even a few drops of rain.
Getting into video feature of my digital camera.
Check out
tonight's sunset.
After hundreds of hours of fiddling with it,
There is always something new going on,
Of course, five minutes from now I'll improve on it!
In an historic frisbee day,
Bodacious frisbee, freestyle jammin', at Torrey Pines beach with Mark.
Mark is getting very good,
Yoga with Sunshine tomorrow morning. Lisette is taking a long weekend.
Pawan and Helen are back from Italy.
Mars is closer to earth than in the last 12 years.
The water and air temperatures have been over 70 degrees, with clear skies.
Last night was magical.
I have heard that this phenomenon
Lisa, Susie and Sean were here to enjoy it too.
Life is very good.
Playing frisbee on the beach
The disc is coming fast and wide.
And then it ends...
From the other side of Life
Pawan and Helen visit on their way to Italy and Pawan gets a ride in the
blue car.
That was yesterday.
That was a good start to a perfect day.
This morning's Virgo horoscope is great! (see below)
Pure pleasure best characterizes this day.
Lisette, who teaches me yoga, married Coby today.
Click on the photo to see lots more pictures.
Major driving experience!
This past weekend, the
Ferrari Owners' Club
put on a great tour:
The overnight destination was Borrego Springs,
What kind of photographer leaves his camera at home?
Good fun:
Still recovering from this weekend and a
Life is soooooooo good. Thank you Lisa and Erin!
May 2, 2001
Universal Pictures decides NOT to use
Mikie's Fun House
I guess the Hollywood life is not for me.
Intermittent Status report:
George Walther
visits with news of Angkor Wat.
Good news:
Lucky break:
New Friends on Easter
A couple of mockingbirds (mimus polyglottos)
have taken up residence nearby.
Their song
delights all day long.
They fly from the palm tree to the rooftop, passing directly in front of my window.
They are very territorial and attack the much larger ravens who happen nearby.
The Double M News - 2006 to current - Blog "My Other Life"
Check out the photos I didn't take:
Leonid Meteor Photos
Rainbow at Dawn, November 13, 2001
My visit was bestowed with a rare sunny day.
Photo taken through dirty windshield of moving car, south of Anchorage, AK using handheld Olympus 2020Z.
I can't tell you her name, but it rhymes with Jen.
We remembered, and thought (but not much) of the future.
But mostly we enjoyed just Now.
and the story line would go something like this:
magically meeting for fleeting moments every few years,
then abruptly hurled back to separate realities:
she to her Castle of Ice in the mountains in the North,
me to my Fortress of Fire by the sea in the South.
Arriving home, the full moon was just rising.
Powerful. Cosmic level stuff.
Away from my surf and warm sun.
I tasted a land forbidding.
And I'd do it again, but only for Jen.
September 25, 2001
Ron Bird or Ron Carlson: (858) 509-2700
The first quarter moon, and Mars just below it, slipped out of sight
on the western horizon of the Pacific just before midnight
in a perfectly clear sky.
giving great sun for an early walk, and yoga, on the beach.
The sand is as good as it gets: slightly "chewey" and moist.
but Joey and I played some excellent frisbee at Torrey Pines without any problems! ;o)
During our frisbee, the sun burned off the fog and it stayed clear for the rest of the day,
giving this most excellent sunset!
when the sounds of the sea slip away
in layers, like an onion,
until there comes a feeling
that something wonderful is possible.
and the winds are calm
and time between waves grows long,
and a mood of all-awareness
creeps over me and the sea.
but yet a wave breaks
and the chance is lost.
We wait, and wait, and wait some more.
The sea is teasing.
a wave is dying in the distance
but still not silent.
If just a moment more...
Hold on, it's almost here!
The bliss of silence in the air...
Hanging there Now, and Now, and Now again.
When will it...
Oh God, it's ended.
Is the silence proof of some Missing Wave?
Or possibly even a Mute Wave?
Am I not supposed to notice?
Is it just a second or two of quiet at the end of the audio track?
Photo taken 3:24am on Sept 1, 2001 with Olympus 2020 Digital.
Aviation & Business Journal publishes a story about yours truly,.
some of which
is actually never before told stuff!
Click here to read it!
A little bit of frisbee and a dip in the 74 degree water,
and what more could you want from a perfect summer day?
How about this:
up Torrey Pines hill, then north on 101 to my first beach home at Swami's,
letting Sunshine take the wheel (very enthusiastically and competently) to Ki's for dinner.
We were having so much fun at dinner that even the neighboring table enjoyed our play.
shows
without any doubt that I was a child at one time.
If I knew I was so good looking at the time I would have stayed a kid!
of the San Diego Aviation and Business Journal, August 2001,
reminiscing about my flying career
and also revealing some new stories never before published.
A pretty good size story with only a few minor errors,
spread over 5 pages, and with 9 photos, all but one taken from this website!
The story was the idea of good friend Robert Olislagers
who is the top dog at Centennial Airport in Colorado, and written by Di Freeze.
(see May 7, 2001 news referencing this story)
all trace of the red tide has vanished.
And now the sea is polluted with sewage!
What next? Locusts?
New moon.
Lots of new writing projects.
Feeling strong.
Yoga!
Frisbee!
Free Computer Lessons
The Last Word
Achieved moves never before seen.
World championships here in two weeks.
as each wave breaks, it flashes an eerie green phosphorescence,
all very briefly, before it fades again into the dark moonless night.
It's really quite spectacular. A natural light show.
New moon soon.
Powerful forces, big changes.
Also, some walking, running, frisbee and a photo session to record the
current status of my headstand (above).
for providing the body with Amrit Bindu, the nectar of life.
Amrit Bindu is the precious droplets of immortality
that are preserved in the body only when doing headstand!
Another amazing yogi fact, related to me by my first instructor Pamela.
My work with him is done. I can teach him no more.
Today he was truly epic with a long distance run down the beach, airbrushing all the way.
Or to be more precise, it would probably be called bouldering.
My good friend George Hoover has been doing this for more than 10 years
at a property he owns in a place called Rainbow, near Temecula.
He's been trying to get me out there to try this climbing stuff for a long time
and I guess I finally ran out of excuses!
And to make it even more challenging for me, he brought along another expert, Mark Chapman.
Nothing like a couple of experts to show a grasshopper how to do it.
The amazing thing is the shoes! I can't believe how sticky they really are!
They're George's shoes I'm borrowing, about a full size too small and very uncomfortable
but they stick like glue. I'm Spiderman!
And then a couple more climbs in his bare feet!! Totally amazing!
And another video of George demonstrating the downside of climbing.
And another showing George doing a very difficult knee lock maneuver.
and the little blood I shed today was just a small indication of the gallons to come
not to mention the broken bones, comas, and more, if I were to take up the sport.
But I probably won't!
Can there be too much of a good thing?
and Mark recorded a few seconds of
the awesome approach to Torrey Pines beach
driving south from Del Mar. Caution: video 4.7 Mb.
My diving catch has now lost me two pairs of sunglasses
in the last two days.
Plus one contact lens today.
I need to get cheaper sunglasses, or a strap to hold them on, or better yet: go without.
and then he turned the camera on me and caught
me doing a back roll.
Beware: 3.5 MB download for 15 seconds of movie.
But it was low tide, giving lots of beach to play.
Beware: 3.5 MB download for 15 seconds of movie.
I can honestly say that I have constructed the ideal webpage (mine).
lots of useful information,
simple.
I executed the left foot toe brush and the right footed double kick,
both for the first time.
Water temp 66. Air temp 64. Awesome.
Perfect wind for airbrushing.
It's great to get in the water!
and having lots of fun with the diving catches, into the water.
We'll get together at Pacifica, and they can meet Shawn.
New Moon and first day of summer just a few days ago.
The frisbee frequency is high..
Bare feet and shorts,
playing on the beach in shallow surf.
Showed Jessica, just turned 13, some airbrush frisbee moves;
she loved it and easily picked it up, a natural!
After the crescent new moon went down,
and the skies were dark,
the surf, just below my window, took on a bright light green color
as each wave crashed to shore.
is caused by plankton which emit a phosphorescent glow
as they become disturbed by the surf.
A Good Way to Die
running through water deep to the knee.
A diving catch, my arms outstretched,
I'm flying, weightless in the air.
I watch the surf embrace what once was me
still smiling, prize in hand.
© copyright 2001, MM
written on the first day of Summer, 2001
after playing frisbee at Torrey Pines beach
And then that leads to a ride for Mark.
Both rides up the hill at 125.
And then downhill of course!
So today I took the beast out to the beach
and snapped a few photos,
played a little frisbee and got some sun on my feet.
A perfect day to hit the beach and play Frisbee!
Romance may be an important part of your renewed enthusiasm and zest for life.
Your health could receive a boost from a new influx of energy.
You may feel as though you're plugged into a source of high energy.
Go after what you need and want.
Travel could be especially pleasurable and emotionally fulfilling.
It was a beautiful ceremony, at sunset, on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.
And for once, I remembered my camera.
Two days of driving, and about 450 miles of
awesome roads, high speeds, and good people.
so I got to stay again at
Mikie's Fun House.
Interviewed by Di Freeze and Linsey Lips (photo below) of the
Aviation and Business Journal
for a story on my flying adventures and how Fate helped shape my life.
Ferrari ride to Mikie's Fun House
for fun, sun,
starry skies, ping pong, swimming,
jacuzzi, good food and wine, and great company.
Rockin' to Steve Miller Band and Madonna on the CD player
cruising easy in traffic and great speed in the desert.
I should have taken photos!
to film a scene in "The Mummy" (#3)
They will be shooting just a few hundred feet away,
in a sandy depression called Sleepy Hollow.
Health: most excellent.
Frisbee frequency: Medium.
Kids: excellent.
Yoga: 17 months of practice, headstands ok, beginning handstands
Financial: comfortable now that Nasdaq has levelled off, cautious.
The biplane is still For Sale, as is Mikie's Fun House.
Car status:
Driver: 2001 Jag XK8 Convertible, dark blue.
Fast car: 2000 Ferrari 550 Maranello.
Collector car: 1965 Mustang Convertible, Hi Performance V8!
Ferrari ride up Torrey Pines Hill.
IRS accepts "as filed" my tax return for 1998, which they had been auditing.
This is the second time I've been audited,
and the second time they accepted it as filed.
Drove the first Ferrari 360 Modena Spyder in California!
Story and Photos!
The flash of their white spotted
wings
in flight is surprising and exciting.
I sometimes watch them for hours.
The Double M News - Archive 2005
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The Double M News - Archive 2001
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