civilization is only skin deep

It was a beautiful day in San Diego. Hot enough for me to turn on the AC. I had today to myself essentially, and for the first half of it I was convinced I was becoming my dad. First, let me say, it's fun driving around Greg's big V8 truck. The thing only has 20k or so miles on it, runs wonderfully...there's definitely something to be said for high-clearance vehicles. Every time I drive a truck I want one. And then I go to put gas in it and am disabused of such foolish notions.

This morning I took a drive through some rocky canyon-like area, it really was beautiful. Clear, blue, sunny sky, window down, radio loud... I ended up in some smallish town, where I stopped at a yard sale and didn't find anything interesting. Looking at some of the stuff out on those blankets, I wonder if the people seriously believed it would sell. Who knows, though. One man's trash... I learned about the Battle of San Pasqual in my California History class a couple years ago and was surprised to see the historic site for it only 15 minutes from here. I went by there and did a little hiking - it was such the perfect day for that. I also stopped at an ostrich farm, where I picked up some ostrich jerky. At this point I am positive I am becoming my father. I'm saving some of the jerky to give to him when I get back. He's probably already tried it, considering his odd quest for all things meat, but I figure in case he hasn't it'd be a cool thing. After a brief stop at the North County Mall (basically Valley Fair, for those of us in the Bay Area) I headed back to Greg's place.

I'm taking care of this little Lhasa Apso dog named Pitoofa. I'm not sure that's how you spell it, but it's the closest I can come. Pitoofa is insanely in love with her masters, but she is also insanely in love with getting attention. This dog will not stop vying for my affection, and then when I give it to her she has this way of nonverbally saying "well, it's good, but I still wish you were Karla." It's insulting. She'll probably sleep on my bed tonight, but I know I'll just be a warm body and she doesn't really care who I am. Sniff.

Perhaps my greatest disappointment today was Cal's drubbing at the hands of Oklahoma. Maybe it's the whiner in me talking, but it sure seemed like Cal was getting called pretty tight with the fouls and the refs were letting the Sooners run all over the Bears when they were on defense. Really though, Oklahoma was the better team. It seemed like Cal didn't know what to do, they were totally off at the beginning, at one point there were three bears around the ball with no Sooners within twenty feet, and two of the Bears knocked the other one down. The crowd had a good laugh at that. It was a good final game for Wethers, I suppose, as he really shined and really single-handedly supplied that little bit of hope that kept me watching till the last few minutes.

Well, tomorrow I'm up for preachin' at the Bridge. I think everything will be fine, I trimmed and tuned the message today. I'm a little concerned about the length, and hope it's not too dry...I'm doing expository rather than topical, which is a big change not only for me but for my audience. With the empty house, I would verbally practice giving the sermon and by now I'm sure the dog thinks I'm insane; at first it perked up Pitoofa. Then she started walking around looking for who I was talking to. Finally, she settled down and looked at me with what can only be described as a mix of bemusement and pity. Hmph.