Mini adventures & random thoughts

Went back out walking this a.m. on the beach. Did not take the dog. The weather was cloudy and windy, and a bit rain-spitty. But I wanted to walk on the beach, so I drove down, rather than spending so much time just walking up there and back. I climbed down the stairs at a place where one of the stair rails was broken off the concrete stairs and three-quarters buried in the sand. The part that wasn't buried stuck out of the sand at an angle, like some drowned spar.

Anyway, where I climbed down, they hadn't put any additional sand down. They're replacing sand washed away by Hurricane Ike, but hadn't done it yet in that area. However, they'd piled sand up on the other side of the next jetty, clear to the top of the jetty. I climbed up on the rocks, from "my" side, but I wanted to walk down by the water, where the sand would be harder packed, and--well, the sand is piled up so high, it makes a little cliff. Higher than I wanted to jump down with my wonky knees. So I walked down the jetty to where the tide had washed the sand down.

Except it had washed the sand underneath, between the rocks, and not on top of the rocks, and when I was standing on what I thought was sand over rock, turned out I wasn't. I was standing on sand with a hole under it. And my entire left leg crashed through the sand into the hole between the two big jetty boulder/rocks. Next thing I knew, I was sitting sprawled on the sand-covered jetty, with my leg down a hole. Didn't hurt me. Had on long pants and walking shoes and socks. The sand made a kind of cushion, so no bruises. Just a big surprise. And a lot of sand down my leg, in my sock & shoe.

But getting up and down those jetty rocks was a lot of work. So I hiked down to the next set of stairs --past the next jetty-- and climbed up and walked back to the car on the seawall. And got rained on, a bit. It's cloudy and windy, but not cold, today. Until the Gulf washes more of the sand down, and makes that edge not so cliff-y, I'll probably stick to seawall walking for a while...I do need to go take a picture of it, though, so you can see what I'm talking about...

Now, we come to the random thoughts section:
I did see 15 pelicans flying out to fish. And did I mention that the seagulls have their black heads back? It will soon be the season for seagull love...

The boy and I watched "300" again last night. And there was a scene with a bird sitting on an abandoned spear (from one of the dead, I think). And when the bird flew away, it made a seagull cry. Except--seagulls can't sit on spears. Their feet aren't right. They're webbed. So they can't perch. They can sit on pilings and broad flat posts and roofs and stuff, but they can't perch. It would be like a duck perching on a narrow branch. Ain't gonna happen. So now, I'm criticizing the birds in movies. (sigh)

Took Dolly to the vet this a.m. after my walk. Turns out, she not only has allergies like the rest of the family (her "white" eye is really sensitive), but she has a wonky knee like her Gigi. That's why she limps sometimes, because her kneecap keeps sliding out of position. Knees, not hips. We got ointment for the eye--it got infected from the allergy irritation--and shots, and she's in great shape otherwise. She was SO excited at the vets. Wanted to sniff at all the smells and play and sniff and play and... I think she scared an elderly dachshund's elderly owner, running up to sniff and play. The dog was a little affronted, but the owner looked alarmed. So we took her out the other way. Dolly, not the dachshund.

Went to see TWO (2!) movies this weekend. Taken and Push. Liked both. Becoming Jane and Hancock came in from Ntflx. Jane came in twice. I reported that it hadn't come (they mailed it from Houston, and it didn't get here in a WEEK. I can drive to the far side of Houston in 2 hours...)(Plus, we got the other movie, watched it and mailed it back before the 2nd Jane came.) so they sent another one. And now I have 2. I will mail it back. I have enough clothes to fold for a movie watching marathon tonight.

I have written 7 pages so far of HARRY & ELINOR FIGHT MONSTERS. I am going to attempt to write this on the computer. We will see how it goes. If I don't get my page count up, I may go back to the longhand...except that I probably wrote a LOT more pages than I have left, since I started, and started over, and over again multiple times. When I write that in longhand, I still have the scratch-outs to show that I actually wrote more. I am saving some of the deleted bits--and have already used some over again--but it's still not as much as the saved. Anyway, I'm getting to the more exciting stuff, so maybe it's going okay...