Sunday March 8th Oh Oh! I am in Trouble

I'm in trouble. I received an email from my friend Ken a week ago asking me why I had not put the blog out for March? And I responded that I normally put it out the first Saturday of the month, which was yesterday. Sorry Ken you were right.

Then, I just received a call from my friend Larry. He called to remind me that I didn't put out the blog yesterday! Now this entire blog post will be about why I missed it yesterday. I'm just kidding. It was great to hear Larry's voice. Larry is in the middle of being treated for melanoma of the brain. It is located by the area of the brain that controls the speech center so it's difficult to speak. The words are all jumbled up together. Anyway, it made my day to hear his voice.

Somewhere in the early 90s Harriet, I and our family started going to Sonrise Community Church. We met Larry and his wife Judy at church. Larry was leading the praise and worship service. It was really fantastic! Then I found out that he liked to surf along with Bob who was on the Praise Team. We all started surfing together every Saturday morning and taking our kids with us. We even went on multiple surfing adventures into Baja California deep into the bowels of the earth, so to speak. We did that for many years. I guess I'm going down memory lane. Larry and I both got interested in flying drones at the same time. So, we both ended up getting drones and going out and making surf videos. Lots of fun.

My friend Ricardo in Hawaii called and left me a voicemail. He was just checking in and he mentioned that it's been a really nasty winter lots of wind and bad weather.

I only videoed one time in the month of February. The waves have been so small. Surfing smaller waves and I'm referring to 1-3 foot waves is more difficult than when the waves are 4 to 6 feet then you get a lot more energy and you can do more things on the waves. I videoed at Windansea in La Jolla about a week ago.

It looks like we might have a wet March here in San Diego. From what they are projecting this next week, lots of rain.

Maranatha,
Frank

My Girl

Feb. 1, 2020

The last couple of weeks of my vacation in Hawaii turned out to be very rainy and windy. It started on January 2 and it rained for two weeks and the wind was blowing between 20 to 30 mph. The previous year I was there during the same time,  we got some rain, but there's always a break and that's how I expected this year. Ricardo said that this is normally the type of weather they get in February.

It's really kind of hard to describe because living in San Diego we have nothing to compare it to. I would think that during the two weeks in January they got more rain on the North Shore then we get an entire year in San Diego area. Because of this I decided this is my last trip. You just can't count on the weather to cooperate.

It's really nice to be back in San Diego and peace and quiet. I miss my kids and grandkids. We always have such a nice time together.

Other than the above there's not a whole lot going on here. So, how's your new year starting off?

Probably the most exciting thing this happened in the past month is the software upgrade to my Tesla. I have the ability to text somebody without getting on my phone, just pushing one button and letting the car know who to send the text to,  then I dictate the text. When someone sends me a text while I'm driving the car, I get a notification on the screen and I push one button and the text is read to me. It's really very cool.

I hope everyone is having a good month and looking forward to a good year.

Maranatha,
Frank

1-4-20

I have been in Hawaii for almost 2 weeks. There has been lots of rain and more rain. I just took a pic of the pool area wet in the light rain falling.

 The above pic was taken at the gate that leads from my little studio apt. to the front house. The pic below, I turned around and took a pic of my little private front yard. I have grown to enjoy this small slice of Paradise. The flora is just incredible, it's like everything is on Steroids. The picture should be downloaded in a day or two. Do I sense frustration? At home we all have High Speed Internet. What takes seconds at home takes about 10-15 mins per pic, if we do not loose our wifi. I know this is hard to believe.

Sorry I hit the wrong button and I was not finished, still working on getting the pics download

This a view looking toward the gate.

I have been able  to shoot 4 videos, the rest has been bad weather. I think they get more rain on the North Shore of Oahu in a couple of weeks than we get in San Diego in an entire year! Well I don't know if the pics I wanted will ever download. The WiFi is on the order of the Third World speed, not very good. I will try and add pics when the internet is working, who knows when.

Going to church tomorrow with some of the friends I have made while here over the past years. The Pastor is so right on. At the Christmas Eve Service, he preach about Christmas and how it has slowly over the years been perverted by the World and we should resit the pollution of this world.

My long time friend Dr. Brad, his wife and 2 college age daughters come over on Christmas Day. A few days later they drove up to the North Shore and we spent the day together. I took them to all the surf spots and we had a great time. It was the highlight of my trip.

Oh, on the 30th of Dec. Ricardo who lives in the main house invited me to go to dinner with him and Randy.We went to Turtle Bay Golf Course Restaurant and it was packed. We get a table and Allen Sarlo comes in and he is invited to sit at out table. I listen to surf adventure over the past 40 years. We also saw Herbie Fletcher, another great surfer. All these guys know each other, it was very cool.

New Years Eve was spent with Ricardo, his fiance Lisa and I.

Of course the most important pic is of my Harriet. I still miss her and I wish she was here with me to enjoy the beauty of God's Creation. I love you Harriet!

I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Maranatha,
Frank

Dec. 7th Sat.

I forgot to post my blog this morning. My friend Larry reminded me this afternoon.

November, I made a few surf videos. I mostly am preparing for my trip to Hawaii on December 23. I purchased the newest little drone from DJI which is the company that I like their drones. It will make my flight and transport much easier with the fact I'm losing about 50 pounds of equipment.

I found out a few days ago that my friend Brad, whom I surfed with 4 quite a few years and have been friends with for over 20 years, is taking a family vacation to Hawaii the same time I will be there. They will arrive on Christmas day. So that will be a lot of fun. I'll make sure to take some pictures and include them in the next blog post.

Thanksgiving day was spent bundled up on the sofa, I had come down with a cold and I'm just getting over right now, it was a bad one.

Daniel called a few days ago and gave me an update on his adventures. He's driving those big semi-trucks and delivering products throughout the Western states. Mostly he just drops the trailer and then picks up another trailer and hauls it to another city, possibly another state. He told me that he will be close to his cousin Jeanette's house on December 24 and they will plan on spending that day together. Jeanette is one of the nicest people you could ever know. And her husband is named Dan. He's a great guy too.

I sure miss Harriet. You know I think about her every day and the good times we had together. We were married for 44 years and most of those were really good years. As any married couple will confess there are always problems. Now that I think about it I don't think it was ever Harriet's fault. Harriet is the best thing that has happened in my life, excluding salvation through Jesus Christ.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! May the Lord bless you and keep you and may his face shine upon you all the days of your life!

Frank and Harriet

Sat. Nov. 2, 2019

I got in trouble for not having posted this first thing in the morning!

The big news is that my brother Sam, got married. His wife's name is Melanie. She is very nice. I am glad they have found each other. Sam sent me a link to view the pics of the ceremony. Unfortunately I can't download a pic to share. This is one of those deals where you order prints.

Daniel was in town for one day on the 30th. We went out with our good friends Larry and Judy. I do have pics of that.

We had a really nice time. Daniel is driving the large Truck across country for Thrifty truck company. He said that it might be possible to have a load coming into San Diego and we could meet for a mean and fellowship.

A couple of months ago Daniel had mentioned that I never let him drive my Tesla Model 3. So after breakfast I had him drive. He made a few power runs as you accelerate from Mission Gorge Rd. onto 125 South, you can do a mini hyper jump if you know what I mean.

It is about 7 weeks till I leave for my Hawaii trip. I leave on the 23rd of Dec and stay for 4 weeks. I am staying at my friend Ricardo's on the North Shore of Oahu. Hoping to catch a few good North Swells like I did last winter. Very exciting when the waves are pumping and there are really good surfers out there cranking it. Makes for fun videos.

Speaking of videos, I purchased a new drone to do just that. My friend Larry sent me a link earlier this week about the new DJI Mavic Mini drone. For the size, which when folded up is about the size of a large cellphone. It shoots up to 2.7K which is good, but only at 30 fps. It does have a 30 min. flight time per battery, which is really good. This would be fantastic taking it to Hawaii, instead of the 50 lbs of equipment.

That is all I know for now. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Maranatha,
Frank

                                                          I Love you Honalu!

Sat. Oct. 5, 2019

It was Harriet's birthday a few days ago. Harriet would have been 70 years old. What can I say, I still miss my Girl!

I finally finished with the water leak that started at my Dad's house a week before I left to house sit in Hawaii. My friend Larry went to my Father's house every other day a drain the water that was pooling in the area of the leak. It took six weeks for that to dry up.

This water leak was a big deal and a very big project. I hauled 1800 lbs of gravel to cover the area after I filled the holes back in. You have to do what you have to do. This was not my favorite project, but it had to be done.

Tesla finally came out with the update I talked about in May. It is called Enhanced Summon. So if I am in a parking lot, I can have my car drive to where I am, then I get in the car and drive off. The max distance at this time is half the length of a football field, 150 ft. I have tried it a few times and it works pretty good. Top speed is 5 mph in this mode.

They included a bunch of stuff in this last software update. Now you can get Netflix, YouTube and Hulu on the screen in the car as you can see from the picture below that's my YouTube website.

Since I purchased my Tesla model 3 in January I received at least a dozen software updates. With each software update my car improves its ability for self driving and all the little extra features. At this point Tesla's have the ability to self navigate from the time you get on an on-ramp to a freeway, changing lanes as needed, changing freeways while in the navigation mode and then finally coming to your offramp and exiting and returning the controls back over to you. Now, the next really big software update that's coming and it's supposed to be here by the end of the year is for Tesla's to recognize signal lights and stop signs for city street driving. Slowly but surely Tesla is putting together a car that will be able to drive you to where you need to be in a couple years without any assistance or input from your part.

I watched the interview of Tesla's CEO Elon Musk a month ago. He made a good point, when self driving cars become 200% safer than a human being driving the same car, then no human intervention will be needed. Actually when you think about it, if a full self driving vehicle is 200% safer than a human being driving, then any human intervention in the driving of the car would be detrimental to the drivers safety. Because he would have twice the chance of getting an accident if he was in control instead of the computer.

That is all I know. I am getting ready to pick up the grand-kids for a Sat. outing. 

I love you Harriet,
Frank

Sept. 7 Sat.

Aloha! I am here on the North Shore of Oahu. I am house sitting from my friend Ricardo. I am sitting under the gazebo in his back yard. Tomorrow I fly back home having spent 3 weeks here.

Here is a view of the front of the house.

The landscaping is the best I have seen. I am going to include some pics of the flowers, and plants.

 

 

This is not only a beautiful house, but the grounds are incredible!

I took a pic of a sunset at Shark's Cove. 

                                          The Heaven's declare the glory of God!

On Sept. 4th it was Harriet's and mine anniversary, it would have been 48 years. Harriet has been gone for 4 years now and there is not a day that goes by that I do not miss her. In this beautiful place I am staying and I keep thinking I wish Harriet was here to enjoy it with me. She was the best part of my life and I still miss my girl.

I am surprised at the weather during the summer. I would have thought that we would have had less rain and wind. I only made 3 surf videos while here, the conditions were not conducive to flying my drone.

That is it for this month, I wish you all the best and a really big Aloha from the North Shore!

Maranatha,

Frank