Control Can Be Lost in an Instant: The Day My Brain Froze

Two weeks after our United States infamous "9/11", my brother and I flew from our respective homes to Los Angeles. I was only slightly nervous in the plane. We met at John Wayne airport, climbed into his rental car and drove to San Pedro to take a ferry to Catalina Island--not the first trip for either of us to this relaxing, beautiful, recreation destination.

Santa Catalina Island is a very interesting place, attractive, built "tightly" together so that everything one wants is within a 6 block walk. Every two hours, at the minimum, hundreds of tourists either disembark the water shuttles to visit the island or load with dozens of happy, tired vacationeers to leave it. Catalina is clean, cool and safe. [Excluding some lighting strikes that almost devoured it a few weeks ago.]

We were scheduled to stay 2 nights at a cut rate, clean hotel and visit peopleat the island's popular non-gaming casion where a lady worked that had know our entertainer father, Ronnie Kemper, signer of the song "cecelia", [decades before Simon and Gargfunkle sang a different rendition[.

Part of our vacation included a venture on a glass-bottom boat. Both Catalina Adventure Tours, Inc., and Discovery Tours offers these my first ever in this type ship. The ship only ventures a few hundred yards where SAND sharks were known to feed and colonize. The skipper said the last few trips out, he saw no "large" fish. We hoped today we would see some. Within 20 minutes, we spotted a 4 footer and we "wowed." In another minute, we spotted a 5 footer [just 6-10 feet below us.] Within 5 more minutes, we were slowly cruising over a feasting ground of dozens of 5 and 6 foot sand sharks. Sand sharks have never been known to attack humans or even bother them. They are the "gentle" sharks of the sea.

After a few more minutes, the skipper felt he had cruised over all the sharks in the bay and headed back to port--100 yards away.

We walked and talked and enjoyed ourselves the rest of the afternoon.