The light is difficult today

Even after the thunderstorm, it's promising to be very hot.  The light is just too much, making colors look thin and watered down.  Not a good photo day, except for this:

Hard to get him to stay still for a moment, enough for the camera to focus (if I were focusing manually it would be even more impossible), but I caught him in a contemplative moment when we were climbing on the sea wall and I stopped for a sit down to get a stone out of my sneaker.

Made it home minutes before the storm hit

Timing is everything.  As I was walking in the door this afternoon, the rumbling started.  A little while later, all hell broke loose, torrential downpour flooding the street.  Power went out.  Half hour later the storm was done, power back on in a bit more than an hour, and the street is slowly draining.  I still hear cars making that big wooshing noise as they drive past, so the puddle is still big enough.

At least I got my grocery shopping done today, I don't have to go out tomorrow or on the weekend.  The store I prefer is near Monmouth Park, and the Haskell (it's a horse race) is there on Sunday, and they are expecting zillions of people, so some roads will be closed, and the ones that are not closed will be bumper to bumper (or so the organizers hope). The Triple Crown winner (what's his name?) is here for the race on Sunday, as are some apparently notable competitors.  I don't follow these things, so don't ask me for details, Google it yourself.

It was nice this morning, and got heavier with humidity as the day went on.  Like summer days are supposed to go, I guess.  Then the thunderstorm late afternoon, and poof, it's nice again, if a bit soggy.

We went out very early this morning, so we actually caught some nice sun's still going up type pics, helped out by an interesting cloud formation over the ocean.

Sunday morning on the beach with Pablo

Pretty morning.  May get hot later, but it started out nice.  Cool breeze from the south, usually keeps the temperature reasonable.

Couple of pictures....

Ok, so three is more than a couple.  Let's not get so technical.  The clouds were pretty awesome.  That fisherman has been here since 5 am or so.  This was around 7.30.  I don't think he is here to actually catch anything, just to be alone and quiet and doing something that lets him think.  Or maybe that's just me putting ideas on him.

Then there's Pablo.  We ran into his buddies Coco and Maddy again, they did their play thing, then took off in different directions.  Coco gets to a spot where he just sits down and stays there, unless he is bribed with cheese to follow his human.  Maddy was hyper this morning, racing in circles a lot.  She's a cool doggie.  Pablo was most interested in peeing on everything.   As usual.  Sometimes I wonder what he's thinking, then I remember it's probably just that he's trying to remember if he peed on that spot already, or if he needs to do so now.

Maybe what he was looking at was this:

Someone has started a new beachhenge structure.  Pablo hasn't gotten over to pee on it yet....it's beyond the usual scope of our beach wanderings.  I like this one, it has a native American flavor to it, as well as the pyramid concept.  We'll see if it has a chance to develop further.  It's kind of exposed, so there's a chance a high tide might wipe it out, or the people who destroy nice things might knock it down.  I've noticed the ones that are built closer to the dunes tend to be left alone longer.  No dunes at this area, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Not much to say today

Just a couple of pictures I wanted to post.  Fuzzy headed today, yesterday was better, and the pictures are from yesterday morning on the beach.  Hope you enjoy!

We're still (or again?) having very low tides in the morning.  I like the colors, the tans and blues in many shades, and the sparkly water makes happy happen.

Chicory in review

Took this pic yesterday, morning sun lighting up some chicory growing against a bridge support.  I know, real romantic exciting subject matter, right?

Here's the original:

Playing with it in PSP ( I can't afford Photoshop), here's what I got:

Not that I'm any good at post-processing, but what do you think?

3 H's today

Hazy Hot and Humid, in case you're not familiar with the terminology.  Yes, it's even bad at the shore.  "Cooler at the shore" is not in effect today.

Beach this morning:

Our jetties are coming back.  Not good, we haven't seen them since before the 1995 beach replenishment.  Too much erosion lately.  Does not give me a safe feeling.

Went out this afternoon and tried to buy a pair of shorts, since if I still have any, I have no idea where they might be.  Failed miserably on the shorts quest.  However, and this might also be considered a fail, depending on your point of view, I found a Lindt Chocolate "outlet."  They have a club card, which I now have one of, which collects points that are good for a discount on future purchases.  You know darn well I'll be there again at some point in time, their truffles are my most deadly vice.  The shop also sells them for WAY cheaper than the little bags at Shop Rite.  And they come in bags of 75, instead of the usual 12.  So the two bags I bought (peanut butter, and ultra dark chocolate) are in the freezer, to be doled out over time.  I hope.

They also gave me two chocolate with cherry bars for free, for joining the club.  This place is dangerous.  I'm glad it's a ways away, so I won't get there too often.

So having visited Jersey Gardens outlet mall for my first time ever, I bought chocolate y nada mas.  Fits with my usual shopping pattern.

I must say I was disappointed in their food court.  Nothing there I would consider eating.  Then again, I don't eat fast food types of things unless I fear I might starve to death otherwise.

Also stopped at a place that sells all sorts of I guess you could call them health appliances, and bought a cold pack I can use on my tendonitis-afflicted elbow.  It's a slide-on ring that's full of blue stuff that holds the cold.  Ought to work better than trying to hold the ice core from my big water bottle against the sore area, like I did last evening.   The icing helped, even tho it was clumsily accomplished.  I may have to stop carrying my tablet with me to work for a few weeks, tho.  The extra weight in my bag is likely a big part of the problem. 

Modern technology has it in for us all.

3rd of July

Today is actually the official holiday here, since the 4th is on a Saturday.  No work today, and yesterday's going home commute was the train from hell ~ kind of sounded like a night club without the music or booze. 

One would think I might have been able to sleep late.  It might have been nice.  But no.  Pablo woke me up at 5.45, and up we have stayed.  Well, he's actually hiding under some furniture, probably because of the construction noise from across the street.  They're running a generator, power saws, and maybe on and off a tile cutter, from the sounds of it.  They started making a racket at the legal 8 am, and look to be at it all day.

There's so much construction going on around here that I noticed one of our mocking birds is now making power tool noises.

Being up way too early, we were able to take an illicit walk on the beach, before the bennies got here.  Here's what we saw, no further explanation required, I think.

 

Ok, so a bit of further commentary is happening here.  I can't help myself.  1.  Pablo proceeded to pee on the post, of course.  2.  So far noone has taken down this version of beachhenge, and in fact more, smaller models are beginning to spring up.  3.  The fishermen get here before the sun does, and mostly leave before the beach sitters arrive.  4.  Can't say there's not a cloud in the sky.  But it's a lonely cloud.  5.  Someone unknown put a rocker on the seawall deck.  Various people take turns using it.  I suspect it might be a community project of some sort, I've noticed assorted chairs on other public access decks, too.  I think it's a nice idea.

Waking up too early makes the day awfully long.  Especially when I've got nothing much to do.  Maybe I'll make some more trash.  That's always fun.  

I'm kidding, of course.