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Happy and Lucky out playing

Nails in the Streets and Bike Lanes

Daily nail pickup

Lets start this blog with an explanation. Three maybe four years ago while walking my dog DeDe I noticed several nails in the street.

These nails were at a turn around on Miner Street South of 22nd Street next to the new marina, Cabrillo Way. Miner Street runs north and south while 22nd Street runs West to East.

Flat tire in Marina Parking Lot
Most of the nails I pickup are around that intersection of Miner and 22nd. I may have failed to mention that I live on a sailboat in San Pedro with my two dogs. San Pedro is about as far south you can get in Los Angeles.

Daily nails on top of jar lid

 At first I threw the nails in the trash but I kept finding them in the same spots. With DeDe we would walk to the beach one day and the next toward the Main Channel so our path were in opposite direction every other day.

Street Corner here

After collecting about a thousand nails in a Von's paper bag I took them to the District 15 Supervisor office in San Pedro's old city hall. Two young staff members listed to short story of the nails and then told me unless they could prove intent on the part of the person tossing the nails nothing could be done. I left them with the nails with the feeling that nothing would be done which is now the case.

I have shown the nails to the Los Angeles Fire Department, The LA County Sheriffs, several LA Port Police officers, Harbor Department Security, various Harbor Department employees, several business owners where the nails show up on a regular basis, two local news papers, Channel 5 and then 11 while a reporter was filming after a fire .



In the calendar year 2016 I posted several nail pictures on Instagram then decided to count the number of nails picked up that year, it was just a little over 2,000 nails.After that I stopped counting but didn't stop saving. When my dog got to old for longer walks we stopped. Then one day she stopped completely. So I started running in the mornings and discovered nails around Ports of Call and various other streets like Crescent Street.

Then nails started to appear at our Marina parking entrance which is Watchorn Walk. Usually they appear next to the mail box beside the office building past the Double Tree Inn on Via  Cabrillo  Marina and contine north along the street. The count can be five or six and as high as twenty.

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another sample below of a daily find

For a while this year there was a drought of nails where I would find four or five but recently the tosser changed his pattern from Miner to mostly 22nd Street. There were 52 this morning between the drive way entrance to Cabrillo Way Marina and Miner mostly on the North side of 22nd. That is where the filming production companies park their trucks and crews here. I have spoken to their security, their vans drivers (after I saw one run over several nails) and the LAPD motorcycle officers that moonlight for the studios.

We (my neighbors) have several theories about the nails and recently we have been trying to establish a time frame to see when the nails get tossed. 

My lovely daughter got me a German Shepherd puppy two days before Christmas and the pup was too young to chase nails which gave me a break. Well Happy is just a year old now and we walk between 7 to ten miles each day. Then Happy ate some people food three weeks ago and had to make a midnight visit to the bushes. Happy loves to chase feral cats and in the middle of the street he spotted one but it was not a cat but a scared little pocket dog. Happy followed it to the bushes below the Fort (we are docked east of Ft. MacArthur)

We now have a Yorkshire mix we have named Lucky. With the GSD I was able to pickup nails in the street without many problems but with Baby Dog and two leads and morning traffic you might hear a lot of cussing.

A work in Progress (To be continued)

Happy misses Arlo's Graduation

As you may know or you may not I live on a 35 foot sailboat in San Pedro with a German Shepherd who may be seven months old since he does not have a green card I am never certain. People always ask me how old Happy is and I often lie about his age. He could be seven months or almost one year old. This doesn't really matter as he continues to grow, eat, bark and poop.

Arlo and his Momma

My grandson finished the 8th grade and as the media is the message I saw him on my smart phone.

Some where I have a picture of Arlo taking a bath but I not posting it.

Butts makes a good pillow

The marina here provides free wifi but right now the bandwidth is so slow I have to resize all the pictures from my phone to post anything on my blog. 

A Nose is a Nose not a Rose

I like the price of free but several user here at the marina would rather pay for a DSL so they have reliable service and a connection that works. My Samsung Galaxy S6 phone has unlimited text and data from the mother fuckers at AT@T who often kill my speed if I use the data, During the last part of May the fuckers kept limiting my data and Instagram basically quit. 

Bat man ears

Today the sun came up without the normal June gloom which was a surprise. Happy's bladder control is no longer pupply like and he doesn't have to get off the sailboat in the dark and he waits to hear the weatherman on the telly before he ventures out.

Homeless during dogwalk
\

During our morning walks and afternoon strolling we encounter various homeless folks. Happy has been prone to bark at these people.  The dog likes to bark at strangers and skateboarders too.

As seen along harbor

Puppy likes to sit in the car and doesn't care if we go for a car ride if we are getting food from the ghetto's Vons or our favorite Center Street Market. I prefer to ride a bicycle to the store but he can't follow. 

One less softball

It is hard for me to leave the boat with the dog by himself and expect to find things not chewed. He does do it everyday but only when you think he is being good.

Homeless with blanket in laharbor

Dog Walking

It starts every morning before sunrise our routine of getting the dog off the boat and taking care of business. All dogs need a job. Happy's job is too whine and bother me. According to the experts petting a dog is good for seniors and lowers their (the two legged) blood pressure.

Happy sitting next to dock box

Happy is allowed to make his own decisions most of the time. He has to wait for me to remove the drop boards so he can exit the cabin. The cabin ladder has four rungs and one extra step and he does very good but needs a little assistance starting the climb up.

\GSD as a Cone head

After he gets up the ladder he goes into the cockpit then climbs over the side board and jumps on to the dock where I have placed a carpet and a horse blanket for his landing target. Then as I cuss I remove myself and look for him. There are small crabs that live on the rocks and they also live on the docks and Happy searches for them. 

My Oakley hat and glasses

The first walk in the morning last about a half of an hour. Then we go back on the sailboat for breakfast. Happy has kibble steamed rice and what meat I cooked the previous night.  After he has been refueled we start out for another walk. Our directions are limited because the main channel in LA Harbor blocks us from going east toward Terminal Island.

Hidden galaxy next to my sailboat

So we either head towards the beach which is a mile away or the closest park where he loves to chase the swallows or walk around the harbor.

Playing with friends

As Happy has gotten older he loves to bark at strangers and sometimes I really can't figure what the hell he is barking at. We have foxes and coyotes and this morning he must has seen one behind a screened fence and he kept barking at the fence. All of the marinas have lots of dumpsters and the closest park lots of trash cans so all day long people are picking the beer cans and plastic bottles and walking or riding their skateboards or bicycles with their booty catch. One very old frail and small woman that seems at times hardly able to walk collects the recycleables and this morning Happy started barking at her. She sat on a bench on Miner Street and waved back to us. An hour later in our walk she was still going strong but slow. 

Epic Mag as seen during dog walk

The dam dog the last two days doesn't want to stay in his bed in the cabin and yesterday he pulled out most of the stuffing out of his bed. Luckily he has two beds. 

morning nap

But when I finally get him to go to bed he sleeps for several hours. My Samsung Phone has a tracking app that recorded how far I walk. Saturday we walked eight miles. I used to use Map My Ride for that but it became too anal a project. The last time I checked it was Sunday but at time I am not often sure what day of the week it is. My watch (Garmin with GPS) and my smart phone display the time and date but I just look at the parking lot and if there are lots of cars it must me a weekend or holiday. 

Growing Pains

I have a friend Pat that has a Labradoodle. Pat and Karma would walk with Dede my former first mate that passed in her sleep on the boat after 14 years of faithful service and Dede and Karma would play several times a week. So without Dede I didn't do much dog walking. Most dog walkers have a regular route and a schedule. After Smarty Pants Frances (AKA) The Bean or simply Beanie bought me a puppy I started to start looking around for Pat and Karma but never saw the two out walking.

Hansome Happy posing

Finally two weeks ago I saw them and Happy got to meet them. Karma was larger (taller) that Happy by maybe two inches.

Riding with the dog can be dangerous

This morning we saw them again in the park and I am pretty sure Happy is taller now than Karma.

Happy Tongue

The dog and I. He is almost seven months old and is still a pup but he is larger than most all the dogs we see during our morning walks. Our schedule starts when the sun rises which is so much better now when he was very small and had no bladder control or pooping machine. He climbs the ladder from our cabin after I remove the drop boards. He then wanders around the dock looking for small crabs that live here. We climb up the gangway depending on what tide it is and Happy goes to the green patch of grass between the two marinas.

watching crows

As he has gotten older he doesn't have the urgency to pee or poop after spending the night in our sailboat. He would rather explore or meet people. This morning he as waiting at the gate for me and was getting petted my a mother and daughter from New Mexico. Happy has lots of friends that  know him my his doggie name of Happy not Stinker or butthead as he is often called.

Happy likes to meet other dogs

We have been to the local dog park in San Pedro but it is about two miles away and we live across from a large city park that has no shortage of grass, dirt and other dogs. There are several marinas in San Pedro where we live and there is a sidewalk that runs around it. So all day long people stroll, ride their bikes or walk there dogs. 

Off lease in park

German Shepherds are not known as bird dogs but Happy loves to chase them. There are Ground Swallows or Bridge Swallows that fly close to the ground and often tease Happy. He loves to chase the swallows but in an open area there can be other dogs that distract him which makes for more chasing that this old fart needs.

Happy loves cones

In the grass between the marinas there are gophers. The fresh dirt in the morning smells tasty to Happy and he is always ready to dig the gopher hole deeper. The city park people put cones on top of all three holes. Happy thinks they are chew toys. 

Happy Tails Growing Up

Have not blogged recently and after a period of being off the keyboard catching up is difficult. My Galaxy S6 is full of recent dog pictures and MP4 files. Sorting them out can be difficult. Most dog owners take pictures of their dogs just like loving grandparents. I was at the local small grocery store here in San Pedro yesterday and the young woman that takes my money was showing be her new puppy pictures on her smart phone.

Not sure how old Happy Tails is. His papers did not get an actual birthday. At six months Shepherds loose their baby teeth and he has been doing that. Pups have 28 teeth and adults have 42 the more to bite you with.

My other dog Dede was a champion for going for rowboat rides whereas Happy needs more experience.

In between fitting his life jacket I had to add 4 inches for his chest growth. When you see a puppy or baby everyday you don't see the growth. We were weighing him using a fish scale attached to his harness but he exceed the 50 pounds the scale could measure. He used to love to sit in my lap but now it is becoming difficult. 

GSD are not known as bird dogs but herding animals. My old dog Dede loved to herd other dogs in park but right now Happy loves to chase birds or bark at them. In the 22nd Street Park where he plays there are many ground swallows that fly close to the grass in circle driving him nuts.

It is sad but the area around Cabrillo Beach and Whites Point are filled with feral cats that have been dumped. There are signs posted that feeding the feral cats are against the law.. Many cat lovers feed these feral packs and of course the plastic dishes all wind up being blown into the water. A morning dog walk on 22nd Street by the sea food eatery may want  you to puke from the cat shit in the bushes.

There are two feral cats that hang around our marina. At first they were living off the rats and mice but several divers that clean boat bottoms started feeding them. Eack morning this black cat in the tree waits for his Monday to Friday feedings. The cat actually follows the drivers in the morning when they walk for coffee. Happy gets there early before the divers and chases the cat. The cat goes up his tree and Happy can't (yet). Rin Tin Tin could climb trees and Happy is learning.

Most toys don't last too long with Happy and the Easter Bunny wasn't any different. 

Malibu Kayaks

I was given this dual kayak in pretty sad shape but I cleaned it and repaired two cracks in it and it is ready to go. Taking a dog out here next to the boat is risky because if he falls off he will have to swim and getting in back on the dock is a hell of a chore. I had a neighbor who was from Los Angeles Fire Department and a LAFD diver. He had a Lab that loved to jump off the dock and swim but it took two healthy firemen to get the lab out of the water. Happy needs to learn at the beach.

Happy has several two legged friends that find balls for him and there isn't any shortage of discarded ball if you walk or ride a bicycle. Recently I had to buy a battery for my Nissan so I could drive to LACMA.

The Magic Flute

I am not sure how long I have been without a car battery maybe 9 months or so. If I wanted to drive the Nissan I would take a battery out of my boat where there are 4 fully charged 12 volts each day by solar panels. My daughter was having a 

Premieres

and I didn't have a reliable battery so smarty pants (as I often call her) sent me the money to buy a battery. Actually Frances sent enough money via PayPal to pay for parking, gas money and a six pack of beer plus chips for a dog sitter.

Happy Staying

After I got "Giant Butts" AKA Happy Tails on a rainy day where my Nissan's battery quit and "The Bean" had to bail me out Arlo (Grandson) was holding the baby puppy  and we took several trips to get the Nissan and dog food and a crying 5 pound puppy into a sailboat. That is when I started reading dog books and have probably twenty plus under my belt. I require a belt for my pants and shorts because the cost of dog food exceeds my normal diet cost. (Starving for a puppy love) .

With the addition of a battery to the Nissan the two of of could roam by car to various parks that were not within walking distance. Happy walks probably 5 miles a day with me everyday but now using the car we could go up the hill to or the local dog park. There are several great places in parks for dogs here: http://www.laparks.org/park/averill

The down side of our new mobility was somewhere shithead got fleas. The dog's name is "Happy Tails" but he has many other callings: Stinker, Butts, Butthead, Dede 2, Shithead

When you live on a sailboat and in the middle of the night your fucking dog starts to scratch banging his leg  the floor of the fiberglass boat like a bass drum it becomes impossible to sleep. 

So I waited until my SS check came in and we went up the hill to PetCo for some flea stuff. The last time I bought this for Dede was half the current price. So $76.00 later we went back to the car where I found my keys and my neck chain were not on my neck but in between the front seats and all the doors and windows up tight. My Nissan is not a coat hanger kind of car and needs a professional lock smith. So $85.00 later and thanks to the locksmith on 9th Street we were rolling again. 

Puppy's Internal Clock is Broken

Most days someone who has not seen us in a week usually comment on the dog's growth. I am not quite sure when he will reach adulthood but he will not be a year old for another six months and I am guessing as the papers I have on him do not show an actual age.




Ten days ago my son Dylan visited us and we went sailing together. Happy Tails or Trails as Dylan calls the dog went for his first sail on the Ericson. If the pup started to whine we put him down below in the cabin and he was quiet. After a while I put Happy back up in the cockpit. When in the dock Happy wanders around the deck and loves to play hide and seek. Also at the dock he jumps down off the boat but can't jump back on yet. Picking him up is getting to be a chore.

The YouTube video of sailing with son and pup needs a little explanation about the start of our adventure. My normal push off is very simple I disconnect all the dock lines put the tiller to the side and walk down the starboard side and push the boat out pushing the stern south and get on mid way put the tranny in reverse back out and when clear switch to forward an motor down the channel.

Well best plans are sometimes altered. My grill was next to the dock step, The old Schwinn was locked to the dock step and my sabot was sitting on the dock finger end so there wasn't any way for me to push clear and Dylan was in the cockpit on the tiller. After I got on board the wind had already turned us part way around and we were getting ready to play bumper boats. The video doesn't show everything but we didn't hit anything and Dylan was filming while dodging.

One of my pets

Happy is not that happy when he has to wear a life jacket and Dylan said he would jump in a save the dog if he fell overboard. My boarding ladder in a rope version and that would have been quite a chore to get the dog back on the deck without an overhead winch.

After 4 years of drought the rain started and this made walking the pup a wet operation but he didn't seem to care. With the sun shine we have started walking several times a day and we probably put in an easy 5 miles a day. Or night because he has not learned how to tell time.

Last night I was up at 2 AM but it could be 10:30 PM or a 4:30 AM wake up.

A neighbor gave the dog a new toss toy that he destroyed and in my dock box I have a collection of torn or broken toys. There are always plenty of sticks to find while out walking and after the rains there is lots of bamboo in the water and they make great chewables.

He has started to chase birds. There are lots of pigeons on the sidewalks and he loves to send to a flight. There are several Blue Herons that visit and one night Happy started barking at the Heron and he also took flight. There are two feral cats that were hunting mice and rats on the rocks but three bottom cleaner/divers started feeding the two cats in the parking lot where the drivers suit up so Happy likes to chase the two cats when the divers are not there. 

When out walking he loves most everyone, people or dogs, in the dark he will bark at strangers. After our sailing adventure Dylan and I rode bikes and Happy chased up. A day later I tried it by myself and the dog refused to cooperate. 

Dog proofing a sailboat is an ongoing chore. He loves the black wires that go to my solar panel regulator. Several covers after being installed usually last only a day. He has not started counter surfing and only eats from his dish but he likes to pick up his dinner bowl and chew on it.

I have a fold down dinner table that I use for my laptop. Today Happy has been very nice and allowed me to use it without a paw in my lap.

My dear and departed First Mate DeDe was not afraid of pit bulls and was attacked twice when we lived in Lake Forest. In fact DeDe used to boss a large male pit around here on the dock. Happy is five months going on six months and is already larger that most Pits we see. Yesterday we met a lady riding a bicycle with a Pit in tow. The Pit's name was Lucky. Lucky and Happy became instant friends. 

I am not sure about my opinion about people riding bikes with a dog on a leash. In San Pedro there are several marinas that get visits from dog walkers and several have dog/bicycle combinations. More on that later.

Hating Face Book Again

Several years ago I started a Facebook account. It seemed a valid reason for connecting to friends and family. I started blogging before FB. I was racing speedway motorcycles and began reporting my races on my blog and posting each new blog on FB.

Then my FB friends started getting hacked and my Yahoo Email contacts started getting spam.

Early on when the ads on FB became a pain in the ass you could block them and of course FB figured out how to stop that.

The ads got me madder as they kept pointing to Dating Russian women or similar scams. So I changed my birthday to a teenager.

Then ads were aimed at selling me something in my living area. So I changed my location to a remote island.

One day while riding around the Rose Bowl on my road bike I saw all these tailgaters before a football game. Several had portable outhouses aside their RVs. When I gone back I did a search on Google about these portables then  saw the product on Amazon and clicked that. The next day my FB sidebar is full of portables.

FB kept changing the rules and procedures and the hackers kept on hacking.


I had two parakeets and got them a Facebook account. It was a great way to see pictures of other pet owners. Then FB closed the account because my birds were not potential buyers.

So I deactivate the account. I waited a while then deleted everything.

My blogging slowed when I moved on to my sailboat to live full time because the WIFI connection was a total waste. It worked some days but most often not.

For a time I lived with my daughter on shore and she had DSL so I blogged a little but not motorcycles. I had been using Goodreads for several years then one day it required my FB account to login. So without a FB account my Goodreads account was blocked. So I emailed them and two weeks later they allowed me to sign on without the FB bullshit.

By accident I discovered N.Y. Bike Snob and his blog. Here was a bicycle guy making money off of his blog.

Then just before Christmas my daughter got me a German Shepard puppy. It is hard not to take pictures of him.

 I use Instagram

 but several of my old FB friends don't so I thought about trying FB again to show my puppy to old friends and republish my old speedway blogs.

I created a new Gmail address and login to FB as a new user. Then the notifications started (more BS).

Then the find a friend (more BS). I added a few old friends and family and posted each new blog on FB. The FB app was deleted on my Samsung Phone right after I bought it. Three days ago I restarted the app so I could post my puppy pictures directly on to FB.

This morning FB will not allow me to sign on without posting detail personal information (more total BS).

So much for this crap so I try to delete account but I can't sign in because they are blocking me until I give them personal info (so Fuck them)

Catch 22 (I read the book) places me in FB Purgatory whereas I am unable to sign in to delete.

Many others have faced this problem and the web offers many solutions but most point you to the three dots on the FB page to delete the account. After many years I can't fight back because I don't have a 3 dot rating.

Puppy Update

Almost a month of sleepless nights as today marks the 28th day since my Christmas present was delivered in the pouring rain (raining cats and dogs).

I have not counted the days of rain we have had the last month but after several years of drought is is surely welcome. Several people here have been grousing about the rain and now the temperature has dropped down into the high thirties. Where we live we are surrounded by walkways that surround the marina. Lots of dog walker are here all day log. Many dogs have rain coats or sweaters but Happy Tails only has his life jacket with a handle on it.

At first he didn't want to wear it but yesterday he accepted the jacket without complaining. When I row I face the stern of the sabot and my old first mate Dede had learned to sit in the bow whereas Happy has to sit in the stern where I can keep an eye on him until he learns about rowing.

Dede actually enjoyed going out for a row. She did not like sailing in the big boat but was alright in the sabot with the sail up.

Our routine of puppy and getting off and on the boat is still pickup and carry. He is learning how to jump off ledges and climb stairs but is not ready to jump on or off the sailboat. He has a shore spot he likes to poop at so we must get off the boat in the dark while it is raining and I use the dock steps at the starboard side of my sailboat. There is a small solar powered led light on the step but it isn't that bright as the sun is still in winter.

Dede could jump from the dock into the boat with one good leap and get off without any problems. When the sailboat was in Wilmington she would sneak off on her own and wander around outside the marina gated entry by simply crawling under it. 

During the past week we had a visitor from space. The SpaceX  Falcon 9 returned on its drone barge and it could be seen from the boat. I have been following the barge and SpaceX because the barge is on by walking or bike riding route. The first stage was here yesterday but is no longer upright today as it is being transported. 

As I see the pup 24/7 I don't realize the day to day changes but people who see any on the weekend always comment on how much he has grown. Most say that I am going to need a bigger boat.

Yesterday he met his first Great Dane and Large Poodle. Happy went running with them but could not keep up with pack. 

When Happy was at the adoption clinic awaiting a new home the other puppies chewed on his tail tip. Today the hair has grown back in and looks great. The hair on his back is starting to change from puppy fur to shiny black teenager hair.