The Diver

Another one of Karina's boyfriends in Escondido was a 30 year old divorced man named Richard who lived with his mother in an apartment across from ours at Fountain Estates. He had a 7 year old son who visited him every other weekend. I remember that because he never got tired of reminding me that I was closer to his son's age than his. I'm not sure what Richard's point was given that he was probably less mature than both of us :-)

Richard (I remember his last name but I won't disclose it) didn't have a regular job. I suspect that had something to do with avoiding alimony. But his stated profession was "abalone diver". And I seem to recall that he was also a diving instructor - that brought in a few extra bucks...
But Richard's true love was his trimaran (triple hull sailboat). He had designed and built it in Hawaii and sailed it (solo) back to the mainland. It was extremely small for an ocean-going vessel but it was light and could be made water-tight. He said it had survived storms with 30 foot swells - it just floated over the crests like a cork...

The trimaran was moored in one of the marinas in Oceanside and that's where he spent a good deal of his time... That's also one of the places he and Karina went to drop acid. (I always avoided hallucinogens but Karina never avoided much of anything.)
Apparently one night Karina had a "bad trip"... She told me that she was lying in the bunk trying to make it stop but the boat was bobbing up and down and the alarm clock wouldn't stop laughing at her... It went on for hours. I don't think she ever stopped having flashbacks.

BTW - that was not the only thing she never fully recovered from: While we were in La Jolla she was hypnotized by a friend and "regressed to a past life". She ended up in a state of absolute terror - screaming that she was being murdered - and the guy couldn't wake her up. When she finally came out of it she was really messed up. I witnessed the whole thing - and it was pretty darn frightening... Now - I have no idea what was really happening. I'm not sure I even believe in hypnosis let alone reincarnation. But I'm 100% sure she wasn't "acting"... It's just another one of those things I can't fully explain.

Aside - I guess this would be as good a time as any to say a few words about beliefs:
Early on I was raised to be a devout Catholic but as I entered my teen years my mom's belief system shifted to mysticism, reincarnation, numerology, astrology, UFOs, channeling and pretty much anything else that wasn't "mainstream". But the simple fact is that I have yet to encounter any explanation for our existence that holds water.
The only logical conclusion I can reach is that we do not exist - but I find that hard to accept given that I seem to be sitting here writing this :-) Truth be told - I suspect that our puny brains are just too limited to grasp the nature of our existence. And I think that's a good thing. (I suspect that's the whole point of the "snake and the apple" story.)

When I was growing up I found the whole "reason for our existence" topic puzzling and troubling. But at some point in my late teens I took a step back and asked: "Does it really matter how we got here?"... It seemed like the questions we should be asking are: "What should I do with my life?" and "How should I treat those around me?" And it occurred to me that if your beliefs about the origin of man affect how you behave then your personal belief system is deeply flawed... So the issue is moot: We're here - get over it :-)

Still - the though that man might be the ultimate intelligence in the universe does strike me as rather silly... I mean - that would make this one incredibly lame universe - right? ... But then I'm only human... So there ya go... And I totally digress...

Here's some home movie footage I shot of Richard and Karina by the pool at Fountain Estates. The newspaper headline puts the date of the clip around July 30th, 1969:



Note: Karina was constantly changing her hair back in those days... Sometimes it would turn orange or green so she'd bleach it and start over.
OK - I suppose I should admit that I used "Sun-in" on my hair that summer - trying to get some of those surfer-like highlights going... It didn't really help - but it's one of the few times I can recall paying any attention whatsoever to my appearance :-)

Richard and Karina had one of those love/hate relationships that seemed to drag on forever. It was fueled by alcohol and drugs and constant tension... And my problem was that Richard and I had become buddies. He had some obvious flaws but he was also really clever and had a wicked sense of humor. I enjoyed hanging out with him and Karina was putting him through hell... He never knew what she was going to do from one minute to the next. (I don't think she even knew.)

That put me in a really awkward spot when they had their final blow-up. There was hours of back and forth - screaming and door slamming - the mothers got into it too... I'm rather surprised nobody called the police... And (as usual) I was stuck in the middle - the "straight man" in the comedy sketch :-)

Yeah - I never did anything but try and interject a bit of sanity and everybody ended up mad at me. Go figure...