Waiting for Sandy

Nothing happening here yet.  In fact, it's sunny and warm-ish now, tho you can almost hear the threatening movie-music playing faintly in the background.

So far, the gawkers have not come to the beach to see the hurricane, but some surfers have been around, and went away disappointed.  Here's a shot I took with the phone this morning on my Pablo walk:

 

Nice god-rays, assorted boats in the area tho not in the picture, and no surf to speak of.  The cloud bank cleared away around 10.00.  It went west, in case that has any significance.  Maybe it's that left turn thing.

NO LEFT TURN

Tonight I'm trying to figure out what the forecasters are seeing that is going to cause this storm, Sandy, to come up the coast, get to NJ, and suddenly make a left turn and come ashore.  Doesn't it know that this is New Jersey, land of the jug handle?  You can't make a left turn in New Jersey.  It's simply not possible.  Not to mention it's highly illegal.

Impending doom - or something

Here we go again, waiting for a storm to show up and do whatever it might do.  This time it's Sandy, which is still in the Bahamas as I write this, but has been having a gloom and doom effect here since maybe Weds evening.  Skies are cloudy and heavy with wetness, none of which is coming down quite yet.  Weather presenters are going all manic, warning of the end of the world, or something close to it, which is supposed to (maybe) happen Monday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday next week.  The panic-mongering is intense and disturbing.  My mother is packed and ready to leave.

No doubt if something actually does come this way, we will be told to evacuate to the inland portions of the county.  You can go back to my posts from last August/September and see how that worked out last time, when Irene came for a visit.  Considering the inland areas had far more damage than we did here at the beach, I'm kind of hesitant to take that route again.

Then there are the weather savants who think this is going to be not just a hurricane, but a blizzard at the same time.  That would be interesting to see.  I'm getting all my cameras set to go in case that happens.  Then I can have pictures to go with the story when I tell somebody else's grandkids about The Big One (TM).

Sigh.  I'm thinking earthquakes are better to have.  Those kind of just happen, then you clean up and go on with life.  With hurricanes and their relatives, you wait a week or more while you watch the thing approach, lay bets on what track it's going to take, sit through hours or days of mess, and then clean up and go on with life.  Seems to me earthquakes are far more efficient.

Meanwhile, I think I'll stock up on water.  That seems to be the weakest link in the infrastructure around here.  Tomorrow, though.  Have to go to work today.  Life goes on in the meantime.

No need for words

 This was 1983.

This was 2012.

Bravi, Maestri!

Something familiar about this

I suspect that many people will enjoy a book (or a film, for that matter) more if they know the locations where the action takes place, and can relate to what they are seeing or reading in a more personal way.  I felt that way watching the space shuttle making its way from LAX towards downtown LA.

I intentionally did not go to see it on its route, since I find the downing of all those magnificent trees (particularly the ones in Inglewood, with shaped crowns, that used to march proudly down the middle of Manchester) to be painful on a visceral level.  I'm also not a huge fan of crowds and traffic, whatever the occasion.

But one photo kind of summed up the entire event for me, bringing it home to a place which, while I haven't ever eaten there (I don't do donuts), I always welcome as a landmark as I drive by on my way in from the airport.

Welcome home, Endeavour.  When you're ready for guests, I'll be there to see you in your new place!

Epic commute tonite

NJ Transit and Amtrak combined to create an epic commute this evening.  I just missed the 5.32 train, and got on the 6.01, which finally arrived in Long Branch at 10.10.  Yes, you read that right.  Door to door, from walking out of the office to walking into my house, it was a five hour trek.

The problem was first a stop signal not allowing us to leave Penn Station NY.  That morphed into single tracking in the Hudson River tunnel.  Which changed to signal problems between Secaucus and Newark.  Which migrated into total signal failure between Newark and New Brunswick.

I find it difficult to understand how one stated issue turned into the next, then the next, then total system failure.  So I have to assume that someone was lying at the outset, and changed the lie to cover something, then changed it again.  And again.

At least the crew stopped apologizing after we were stuck just past Newark for almost a half hour (after taking two hours to get that far, ordinarily a 17 minute jaunt).  Because honestly, apologies don't make it right, and don't make it feel better, and really don't make the folk who are trapped in the tin can we call a train feel warm and fuzzy about our lousy commuter service.

The good things were: 1. it was not 98 degrees outside, 2. the power stayed on the whole time, and 3. noone bothered to collect tickets (which only benefits those of us who buy tickets every day - if you get a monthly pass, you're screwed anyhow).  I suspect the crew was hesitant to show their faces and thereby draw the ire of the trapped commuters.  Small consolation for a lost evening and a lot of discomfort (I will NEVER use a train bathroom, they are filthy and generally don't work - and lose my seat in the process..).

The bad thing was, noone came around with the beverage cart.  They ought to offer that as a regular service on commuter trains, since we get so very little service for the exorbitant fees we pay to ride NJ Transit.

Naturally, NJ Transit blames Amtrak for the entire debacle.  But what is lacking on both sides is some basic knowledge and skill at logistics, in order to make the best (rather than the worst, which is what they routinely do) of a bad situation.

And perhaps a bit of routine preventive maintenance would be a nice touch.  But no, we have to pay the big bucks to the executives, rather than keeping the system in working order.  So ticket prices go up and up, executive salaries go up and up, and service goes to hell in a handbasket.  Welcome to NJ, folks.  Suck it up and deal with it.

Pelican evening

 

I am not a particularly boat-able person, as I have likely mentioned in these pages at some point or other.  But I have a friend who lives in Switzerland who is the only person on the planet these days who can occasionally get me on a boat.  Maybe there's a joke here somewhere, person from Switzerland, which is obviously landlocked (we're not counting lakes, now), drags person who lives at the beach but hates boats out on a boat ride, and mayhem ensues.  Maybe we can make a sitcom about it.  Hollywood, can you hear me?

Anyway, we had a blast riding the water taxis around Long Beach harbor last Sunday.  We also had a blast last summer riding the ferry on the Seine.  We're figuring on taking a boat to Catalina next time we hit LA together.  But I didn't let myself be talked into the boat on the Salzach, once I saw the pilot doing donuts in the middle of the river.  I have my limits.

We saw two seals, a tortoise, and a flock of pelicans, one of which is pictured above.  The seals just stuck their noses up, it's really tough to get a picture of more of a seal than that when they're in the water. (I have lots of experience getting pictures of blank water from the time we had a pod of dolphins in the river down the block from my house - timing is everything, and my timing is bad.  Also, the lag time on these digital cameras is pretty awful, I used to do better with film.)  The tortoise didn't break the surface, he was just a rather large dark space in the water.  These are the seal noses:

We also had fun riding the LA Metro, which is quite a compliment coming from someone who rides and hates NJ Transit every day.

The mayhem was due to the great idea we had of riding on the front deck of the catamaran as it left Alamitas Bay Landing to head back to Long Beach.  I guess the tide was coming in, and as the boat picked up speed, we got soaked.  It felt good, sort of, but then we wisely (IMO) chickened out and went inside for the fast part of the ride. 

I don't quite understand the physics involved in getting soaked while sitting on the front deck of this (we were way back against the bulkhead), but then, I'm not a boat person.  I also don't think the back deck is any drier.

And actually, I have to credit the woman who sat next to me on the flight out to LA for teaching me a technique for not getting seasick.  She told me all you have to do is watch the shoreline, because it doesn't move (unless there's an earthquake, then all bets are off).  Then even tho you are moving, you won't get seasick.  Amazingly, it worked!  I have to try this again sometime (not too soon, tho).  And if we get that boat to Catalina one day, I'll see if it works when there's no shoreline visible.  THAT will be the real test.

A wind off the ocean

I guess it's not summer anymore, which is a good thing, in my opinion.  Yesterday's picture, since today there are clouds and a wind off the ocean still, but less differentiation, more a solid grey with glary light.  Last evening it rained for a bit, enough to discourage holiday cookouts, even the hearty who thought to set up tents finally packed it in and went inside.  We were with family having the traditional Labor Day lasagna, which fortunately is an indoor event.  There's a story there, but I'm not entirely sure what it might be.  Suffice it to say we discovered Pablo likes lasagna.  He's not Italian (he's a Chihuahua), and neither are we, but lasagna is universal.

From the weather maps, this seems to be the edge of what's left of Issac, coming out of the midwest.  I'm not sure how that creates a wind off the ocean, though, unless we are trying desperately to fill in the low pressure area that is what remains of the former hurricane.  Seems to me that action might keep the rain somewhat more inland, but this morning's walk was shortened because of the drizzle or spray or whatever you'd like to call the water that was hanging in the air.  Misting, perhaps, or what I used to call dismalling, back in the day.

With a little bit of luck, it will clear up sometime later, so we can have a long walk, since we get testy if we are not adequately exercised.  Fortunately or not, Pablo does not "do" water, so if there is rain, we mainly stay inside.  

It amazes me how quickly the season can turn, yesterday summer, today something else.  Like someone flipped a switch.  And it seems the switch will stay flipped, at least the next few days.  It's supposed to rain every day this week.  Sure, we could use the rain, but other places could use it more.  I'd like to share....

Summer's last message

Of course, one could attribute the current state of Spain's economy to this philosophy.  Apologies to my Spanish friends, who are nothing at all like what this implies.

I prefer to take it as advice for the waning days of summer.  Labor Day weekend around here means we get the beach back soon.  It's Bennies Go Home weekend.  It's also a time to reflect on the important things in life.  Like, why is it still so darned hot outside?  And, if I only get the paper on weekends, why do I have such a huge pile of unread papers sitting in my kitchen? 

That last one is probably because I haven't been here much.  Which is good, this is not a good place for me to be in the summer.  I prefer the beach in the cooler months, when there aren't so many mostly-naked and really ugly people spread all over it.  And in the dead of winter, it is beautiful, and empty.  Which is perfect.

Here, in no particular order, are some scenes from my summer.  I'll spare you the travelog, I hate listening to people's tales of their wonderful travels.  Suffice it to say, I had some fun, and I need the sitting and doing nothing right about now, to recover.

 

And probably my very favorite moment:

PS.  If anybody really wants the travelog, send me a note and I'll try to fill you in.

Cid

February 2000 - August 4, 2009