Wednesday, July 14, 2021

A BEACHY RAMBLE


As I mentioned in my June 18 BAUMblog, my close ex Jessica, my podmate Elizabeth and I spent two days at the beach in San Francisco. We saw many wonderful things. This was one of them:
Jessica took this photo. These are pelicans. We saw SO MANY pelicans, most much closer than this but not so artistically fabulous. Pelicans seem like relics from the time of dinosaurs. There's something goofy and prehistoric about them. Do you remember when pelicans were threatened with extinction? They ingested DDT pesticide with the
fish they ate, and it made their eggshells too soft. Henry Gibson, a goofy pelican-loving comedian, wrote a heartfelt poem in 1970 about it:

It's not the same without pelicans you know?
I mean dinosaurs... Well they're too big to miss...
And besides, it was their own fault.
But we all grew up with pelicans!
I hope the ducks hold out.
But Henry was WRONG! We got rid of DDT and the pelicans are EVERYWHERE! We saw SO MANY PELICANS flying at the beach. Have you ever seen them plummet into the water when they spy a fish? One moment, they're zooming along and then suddenly they drop like a stone. Very exciting. We didn't see that this time. Pelicans make me happy.

This concrete pier is constantly repainted. First time I've seen it with olde English lettering. Very nice. Not often that you find graffiti in ancient script.


An impressive accomplishment.
Left: A work of art I took home with me.

Right: A delicate necklace of shell fragments, carefully assembled.


Next day, we took a walk on Lands End, the northwest corner of the city.
We encountered a dog almost identical to Elizabeth's Paisley! That was kinda exciting. You don't see identical mutts every day. That's Paisley on the right. Jessica, who lives in Manhattan, has been looking for the perfect dog forever. She confessed to me, after two days of driving around with Paisley in her lap, that she had found her Dream Dog. Sadly, Paisley is already the perfect dog for Elizabeth.

We drove back along 47th Ave. (I think) and encountered an absolutely spectacular environmental installation, with a Star Trek/pirate/whatever motif.

I'm not usually happy to see evidence of smoking, but this cigarette butt seems to indicate that the artists, who created this overwhelming environment, actually use it as a place to sit and relax and have a smoke.

Well done, artists! A true gift to the streets of San Francisco!

Moving on, there were morsels of delight scatter through the neighborhood.

The finest skeleton surfer in flip-flops I've come across lately.

I confess, I would never have the nerve to paint my house like this. But I'm always thrilled to come across someone who does! You know they did EXACTLY what they wanted!





This is the Honey Hive Gallery and Community Center.
While the Doggie Diner is long gone, the Doggie Diner Head remains as the mascot of the Outer Sunset. A group of citizen activists put up a fierce fight to keep the Doggie Head when the actual diner went kaput after many years.


Our last morning, we went out for a final walk on the beach. We discovered the parking lot full of vans and trucks from the the Fire Department. We asked this astonishingly gorgeous mermaid with her wetsuit half off what was going on.
Apparently, every firehouse has a specialty, and the specialty of her firehouse is ocean rescue. They had just finished their monthly practice drill to keep up their skills, and were packing up to head home. Unfortunately, I cannot remember her name. She said they had done an unusually large number of rescues in the past year -- around 250. She loves her work as a firewoman. She is able to work three days straight and spend the rest of the week at home with her kids.

Quite a lovely encounter to cap off our beach adventure.

Well, Bloggelinis: That's it. Just another beachy ramble. The Outer Sunset still has that funky San Francisco vibe. All for now. Terry

 

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