Friday, April 29, 2011

Dune Report

The weather has grown steadily nicer and more temperate over the past five days. Yesterday was almost a perfect day. Warm and clear skies with a gentle breeze. The wind gusts had been much stronger earlier in the week. Not necessarily unpleasant in their briskness, but yesterday seemed idyllic by contrast.

In fact, lying on the beach yesterday, it was difficult not to imagine that we live, as Voltaire's character Dr. Pangloss says in Candide, "in the best of all possible worlds." Of course, just as Voltaire's generation saw that platitude destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1655, so also the tornadoes sweeping the south over the past few few days should put to rest any such nonsense that we live in the best of all possible worlds. Still, yesterday was a good example of why we continue to live in Southern California, even though my music career is still born (the only reason why I would stay in Southern California aside from the glorious weather) and Alma's art career could probably use a shot of New York City.

Yesterday was also Alma and my 9th wedding annviersary. We had a nice day. I went out to buy groceries and bought her a pretty spring bouquet while I was out. I also bought her a new bicycle seat for her exercise bike and she bought me some new sweat pants for workouts.  I made us Cajun style red beans and rice for lunch along with corn muffins. Last night, we capped off the day with a lengthy bubble bath together in candle light and with soft instrumental music playing.

But the highlight of the day, in my opinion, was the extended period we spent at the beach. It was a nice enough day that each of us could wear shorts and t-shirts. Alma said she thought she could have gotten away with wearing her bikini top under her t-shirt. I never felt like it was warm enough that I wanted to take off my t-shirt. But I probably could have had I wanted to. We took a blanket and Frisbee with us. But the first order of business was to take our daily walk which each of us did barefoot! The loose sand had been warmed pleasantly by the sun and even the cooler hard pack was not cold by any means. However, I got slapped by couple waves and I can tell you that the water is still icy cold. I don't know how the kids can play in the water -- maybe children are not as sensitive to cold temperatures as this old fart is.

When we returned from our walk we lay down on the blanket. The balmy breezes and gentle sun soon had each of us snoozing and listening to the white noise of the waves. We never did get around to playing any Frisbee. Alma never did get around to drawing anything in her sketch pad.

I wish every day were as nice as yesterday. We will be heading down to the beach in about 2 hours for another extended stay today and it looks to be as nice as yesterday.

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