evening walk

In lieu of photos (I left my camera when I went walking) here is a literary photobook.

I could live with flocks of parrots around. As I began my walk this evening, ten or so flew over my head; there's something about green birds with flagrantly colored faces that make me feel like I'm sipping a piña colada with nothing to do.

I brought my head back out of the clouds just as I started seriously considering flapping my arms and trying to join the parrots. On I walked, passing a shirtless guy carrying a surfboard, and a few bicyclers. I plodded down towards the beach, on a path between a botanical gardens "annex" and a park of football fields. A sign for the park lists banned activities including discharging firearms, driving recklessly, campfires, and airplane traffic.

Not too blazing hot this evening, a standard 2.4-child family sat in a common area near the beach entrance snacking on buffalo chicken wings and coke. Seagulls congregated aggressively waiting for bones to be tossed to them -- and they can commence their next round of Smear the Queer with the food. Just like children chasing the guy with the ball, the gulls squawked and chased the food-holder. Actually, come to think of it, perhaps they were playing their own verson of Australian rules football... Nonetheless, a seagull who was overwhelmed with competition tossed the nugget into the air where it was caught by a large raven. The raven, who promptly landed with his snack, paused and let out a "caaawah", which the seagulls took as a cue to go away and queue up for the next offering from the family.

Amused by the game, I grinned and walked towards the water. The waves were crashing in at odd angles, though every once in a while a perfect wave would curl slowly from one end of the beach to the other; this is an arduous process (for the water) that surfers love. The longer it propagates, the better. I approached the fingers of the waves as they slid up the beach and let out a big sigh. Ocean sounds are relaxing, even when it's cloudy. A sticky bit pestered my foot and I shook off what seemed to be a little blue jellyfish. In fact, little blue carcasses were lined up all the way down the beach. It looked like Normandy beach on D-day, except the jellies were invading. (Link to what you don't want stinging you)

I absorbed the sounds of the ocean and watched a seagull pick a fight with another (then many others joined for no reason), before hopping over the line of jellies and heading back. On the way out, I passed the flock of gulls that had been feasting on the family's scraps. They were searching the grounds for what the raven might have left behind. One of them was staring at me, so I picked up a pinecone and threw it into the herd. They all approached it, but were in denial that my offering was such a lame one so they kept looking for what I had really thrown. I chuckled and started to leave, but one persistent bird followed me for about 100M. I turned and said to it, "Are you serious?" and it stopped, drew its head back (in disgust I think) then shook its head and left me alone.

The waves were picking up momentum (I could hear them behind me) as if predicting the clouds rolling in over the mountains to the west. I took their cue and rushed back to my room.