Trying To Remember What I forgot

Playing Superlotto Plus cost me $5.00 and after the purchase the ticket goes into my wallet where it gets lost in time. Bought a ticket last Friday at local market and here it is Tuesday and I finally remembered it. Probably would have been better to leave it n wallet as the numbers were not winners.

Yesterday I rode my road bike and of course I had forgot the left hand shifter (STI) doesn't like to drop from the top ring to the lower one but I ride the small ring most of the time anyway. Also need to buy a spare tube and a new butt. 

To ride I had to find my bib shorts,pump up the Michelins and of course shave my legs. Considering how old I am I must admit my legs look pretty good. Might have to buy a small backpack to carry a camera while riding as my little not so smart phone does not take great pictures. 

So this morning I took my Mini Sony Cam along with the dogs to try it again. You have to use these gadgets all the time or you will never push the right button. Two commands are "Play" and "Movie". That always confused me which is simple to do. I am thinking about  importing a New Caledonia Crow to help me with these puzzles. 

Cruise Chip in town

With the Sony this morning I got a nice movie of Happy barking at a squirrel he treed but my thumb is also in the shot. Then I then tried to shoot a Cooper Hawk on a branch but could not find the bird in the viewfinder. Where is my smart crow when I need him.

The Corvus family is good at remembering faces so maybe I could get one that remembers instructions too. After a couple of miles walking I put the two dogs in the Nissan and returned the Sony to the boat and got a Nikon. Though I was only gone for a few minutes Lucky was pawing on the drivers window waiting to get out and walk some more.

Lots of Mocking Birds in the park today and darting ground swallows. I don't rush the dogs and they have plenty of time to smell around.

Blocking the sidewalk

There has to be some Pros and Cons about these Lime Green bikes. Now what if a person in a wheelchair or a walker wanted to use the sidewalk? There are lots of dumpsters and trash cans around the harbor and an regular army of people who pick through the trash for bottles and cans, One very old grandmother walks around using her crane or walker collecting. She really has to struggle to go up the hill on 22nd Street. Yesterday she was standing in from of the Vons waiting in front o pickup discarded plastic water bottles. I always smile and say hello to her but never give her any money as she might have a Porsche in her garage (I don't have a Porsche or garage anymore). There are two regular dumpster divers here that drive Prius. They arrive in their hybrid get out and walk the marinas carrying a bag collecting bottles and cans.

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)