Morning walks with Seiko

  Shelter Island provides shelter from storms, to be precise. And that's where we are headed. It's a man-made island, dredged out of the harbor in the 1930's to provide shelter for commercial and pleasure boats. We've already walked the commercial basin (where we buy the fish) and today decided to tackle the SW end of the island. We started early, at an extreme high tide and under a beautiful moon and Venus. Only one guy launching his boat into the bay when we got there. But there were other boats zipping or throbbing by, about one a minute, all heading outbound. Half-hour before sunrise, according to the Seiko Presage and the weatherman. This is a monument to the men who caught huge tuna with straight poles and barbless hooks. The US tuna fleet was predominantly Portuguese, who came here for the fishing.  They dropped their linked lines into a mess of fish and in a coordinated effort, pulled tuna weighing hundreds of pounds up and over into their boat.  We stayed for a...

Due to scheduling difficulties with Mrs. C, I walked alone today, and later than usual. I'm wearing an obscure Seiko Olympic Sports Timer, gold tone with blue. Time is 3 minutes to 8 and those are the original hands. I decided to walk an area called  Sunse t Cliffs (which is not where you usually find good sunrises).   This area became an oasis for the Theosophical Society of America about 120 years ago. After that mystical experiment petered out, it was dedicated to perpetual use for educational institutions. Balboa University, California Western, United States International University and now Point Loma Nazarene University have occupied the area. About 20 years ago a corner was carved off from the college and made into a natural park. After a full century of abuse from mystics, hippies, surfers, druggies and more, the native-plant-restoration zealots are hard at work restoring it to its original chaos of scrub brush. I noticed they are fortifying the area with cactus too. Mo...

Today's watch has been only in my possession about 15 hours, after arriving in the post last night.  I just bought it for the movement inside (I needed some spare parts) but when it showed up it was far better than I had expected for $35. So the SQ with high-corner crystal came walking today. Mrs C always says "Get a room" when she sees this famous sculpture. Just around the corner famous entertainer Bob Hope was performing for a group of seamen at Balboa Naval Hospital I wasn't aware he did sunrise gigs, but he always went out of his way to bring laughs and hope of better times, to the troops around the world. A message we all can appreciate nowadays. A solitary heron waited for the sun to rise. as did one fisherman, hunched over at the end of the pier. He hadn't caught anything by the time we got there. I just missed the final descent of this pelican, but I caught the landing and his taxi back An empty restaurant, victim of the times. Its roof is covered with se...