More Forgetting

Large numbers can be scary.  The human brain contains around 100 billion neurons and with the various connections lots, lots more. My Toshiba laptop has 300 GB of disc and the picture folder contains 67.8 GB of data or 27,456 files in 510 folders. If I looked at each picture for one minute it would take me almost 19 days of not stop viewing to see them all. Not all my pictures are on my two laptops some (duplicates) are stored on two off-line devices. Then there is the SD chips for my three cameras, one tablet, Sony, plus 2 phones which is 196 GB of tiny tiny memory.

Beside the pictures there are books that have been read. I started using Good Reads a few years back and have close to 500 books on my "have read" list. That is close to 13,000 MB of Kindle reads. I am lucky (my little dogs name) that I remember who I am each morning. My Garmin watch tells me the time and the number of steps I take and that info along with pulse rate can be saved and stored but I stopped doing that (storing the recorded data).  Recording my bike trips was really anal and after several years I quit that bean counting too.

My son Dylan has Netflix and I used to watch that but stopped even after I got Chromecast working.

Now I watch my son on YouTube (Dylan Stark Channel) and use Amazon Prime to watch science films. The morning news and weather is so full of commercials for medical aids and new cars sales it taxes the mute button on my Samsung remote. Watching Japanese cooking shows on PBS is much more fun.

The morning news has traffic reports but I rarely every drive my car and the only traffic here is on Gaffey in San Pedro if you try to get on the 110 Freeway. Last year I paddled my stand up paddle board more miles that I drove my Nissan. The Telly weather girls are too cute but if I want to see the weather I look out the widow or a hatch. If I need a wind report I listen to the halyard banging or the sailboat rocking. My German Shepherd grew up on our boat and the rocking is second nature to him.

This morning the Dynamic Duo and I walked over to Cabrillo Beach and checked the surf and shore birds, not much of either today. Then on the way back I stopped to take some pictures of our new friends the Cooper Hawks and watched the nest buildings. Yesterday afternoon one of the Coopers was flying over the next marina trying to catch a smaller white bird but I didn't have my camera with me and missed some great aerial performances. 

The pictures shown here were was past shots that are several years old. 

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. 

Ups and Downs

Ramping up daily

When you live in a house your sidewalk usually does not move and your driveway may be on a slant but it stays that way day to day.  If you live on a mooring you go up and down with the tides so the changes appear relative. If you live on a dock as I do which floats in place tied to a piling you go up and down but inside the boat everything remains the same.

piling at high tide

So the docks go up with the tide and back down again but the land stays put. The gangway between the docks and the shore slides on a large steel roller as the water rise or lower. The angle of the gangway can change dramatically and at very low tides or swing tides the hike up can be a workout.

In fact I have seen older seniors unable to go up the hill. Using a dock cart with a good load of two deep cycle batteries might required and extra hand to help or a motor. Walking up the ramp at real low tides wearing cycling shoes with cleats could kill you. I use three different styles of cleats, one is for old style platform pedals that have toe clips, one is for newer Shimano Dur-Ace and my Fixie use Time pedals.

6 inches more at it will flood

This week we are having King Tides which are extremes compared to the normal spring tides. The calendar is about to change in about a week making it officially winter. The spring tides occur twice a month and the reference is to the spring action of the tides not the seasons of the year.

Please don't step on me

For some tides and ocean waves can me a baffling mystery. Many moons ago we were driving up the coast from Santa Monica to Lake Cachuma to go water skiing. Little did we know that you couldn't ski there. On the way up I got in to an argument with Carson about the waves. He said the waves were caused by the tides and said "No, it the wind". Carson probably grew up with Dorthy in Kansas where I grew up by the beach.

Old Man's at high tide

The tides makes the wave take different shapes at the sea bottom changes with the depth. If you have every surfed a rocky beach the walk in at low tide can be a real pain.

Cabrillo Beach

Last month when we had a Super Moon my neighbor flatly refused to consider the sun and its tidal influences. An avid fisherman and boat owner denied the sun was involved.

Sea Hare Cabrillo Beach Tidepool

Low tides are hard on the creatures in tide pools that get invaded by shit heads resembling an invasion of Japanese picture takers.

gangway rides on this roller

Since your house or apartment stays put you over the air TV stays the same or if you are a slave to cable or Direct you don't need to worry. But today my sailboat will change in height by 8 feet so at spring tides my Telly reception improves or sucks.

Samsung hidden behind bicycles

The above nonsense is my son Dylan YouTube Channel breaking 5,000 subscribers.

Tandem is from Epic Bike.

All my pictures shown here were taken with my Nikon D80. In the sidebar there is a video of the high water mark at Cabillo Beach YC and that was taken with my Samsung S6

Another late afternoon edition. My son has a new Stranger BMX 20 inch frame out.


 

This Video above was taken Wednesday afternoon at extreme low tide by Point Fermin during my afternoon bicycle ride.