Walking on the beach

Where I'm staying there is about a 10 story tall cliff next to the beach and the ocean. And condominiums are all along the top of the cliff. So, I guess I was told that if you can see the ocean from your condo, your condo is now worth 2 million dollars. But, if you can't see the ocean your condo is worth 700,000 to 1 million dollars. We are renting  one into the beginning of January through Christmas of the 2nd kind. But, we are within 100 feet of a beautiful view of the ocean where there is a 10 story tall redwood wooden staircase with a locked gate (and I have a key that works both directions) near the beach (where you would have to be a Class 5 rock climber to get around the cage to the keyed gate) with about 100 feet of vertical exposure to get around. So, I use the key to walk up and down so they take this privacy stuff of people who live in condos by the edge of the ocean on a cliff pretty seriously. They also have pools and hot tubs here but it's wintertime and it doesn't seem like a real good idea in the wintertime to me. Besides, I have a hot tub year around the back yard of my home in the SF Bay Area 1 mile from the beach there too.

So, today I walked down the 10 stories to reach the beach and at 63 degrees (it finally made it up that high with full sun) I noticed there were no surfers today even though there was surf because they all got spoiled by 80 to 85 degrees temperatures last week along with the still 60 to 62 degrees water this time of year locally between San Diego and likely San Clemente in the ocean water.

I wasn't completely surprised that I was the only one on the beach for at least 1 block which seemed kind of magical for ANYWHERE in Southern California because there are literally people everywhere and I'm still not used to drivers being just as aggressive as I was taught to be growing up in Los Angeles County

I really have to think more what I'm doing because every driver is just as scary as I was trained to be who drives in Southern California between about Santa Barbara and Mexico. So, when I have competition at this sort of driving I have to really watch it to stay alive where everyone was trained to drive like I was in the early 1960s. What I mean by this is you might see 5 cars cut into and behind you missing your front bumper or rear bumper by only a few feet while all of you are driving 80 miles per hour just as you are all trying to get on the freeway via a two lane entrance (and simultaneously two lanes are trying to weave through you before they miss the next exit on the freeway). Both my wife and I can still drive like this but I have to really think about at least 10 variables or more at a time to be successful at this because San Diego might even be more difficult to drive in than Los Angeles is because people often seem to drive even faster in San Diego County than Los Angeles County simply because the freeways are mostly newer and because of that more designed for 80 mph than some in Los Angeles County. So, 10 lanes on one side of the freeway is not unusual at all in San Diego county on freeways. So, because of the amount of cars you really need to be aware where you want to get on and get off the freeway unless you drive all the time in the slow lanes which is hazardous itself because of the sheer volume of cars getting on and off the freeways here, especially during morning and evening rush hours during Monday through Friday. Tonight we were caught in traffic for about 1/2 an hour taking side streets trying to get north far enough because the freeways at 5 pm were about 10 times worse.

So, walking on the beach alone today just after noon at 63 degrees is very welcome not only to me but for anyone around so many people most of their lives as they live in San Diego or Los Angeles or Orange County or Ventura County or Santa Barbara County along the coast. I think 20 million people now live between Santa Barbara and San Diego and the Mexican Border here in California at this point.