The Perfect Job

It was a beeyouteefull day at the dog beach today. Cloudy. Has been for days, but still a big blue sky and the water felt warm. I guess because the air was a little chilly, and by chilly I mean 67ish degrees, but I was sporting my jean jacket so that means chilly. It was kind of an odd day too though. They’re doing some beach erosion work. Necessary I guess, but lots of heavy, noisy machinery is not really what you’re looking for at the beach. Last week when my pal and I were there, we were talking to a surfer dude, his dog’s name was Marley, didn’t get the surfer dude’s name. Unfortunately. Marley’s dad was telling us the sand level on the beach is lower than they want and they were bringing sand in from other areas and dumping it onto this beach. Or something like that – Surfrider Foundation and erosion and this huge ship the four of us sat and watched maneuver really closely to shore and gathering and dumping and the San Diego bay sand was gross so they were finding new sand and I gotta be honest, he kind of lost me. It’s not that Marley’s dad or the subject was uninteresting, but when I’m sitting on the beach, looking out at the waves and the sky and the birds and the dogs and the surfers, it’s hard for me to keep my mind from wandering. Really wish I had paid closer attention though. A. It would have been much more polite. And B. I would have known what they were doing today!

We also saw two dead seagulls washed up in the surf today. Now, I think seeing one is a pretty unique thing to see, but two? Two seems almost ominous. I didn’t get a photo of either of the dead seagulls. Unfortunately. Wanted to, but my pal kind of wanted to eat them, so I steered clear. I did, however, find the most beautiful shell. There aren’t a lot of shells at the dog beach, almost none actually. Lots of rocks, and I love me some rocks! But just a smattering of mostly broken, mostly average, mostly not interesting enough to bend down and wash off and stick in your pocket type of shells. This one though, caught my eye.

Some seaweed caught my eye too. There’s a lot of seaweed on the west coast, most of it brown and sort of slimy. And when it’s low tide, it’s my pal’s most favorite thing to stop and sniff and pee on. It can sometimes take us fifteen minutes to walk ten feet. This bunch was different though, like a mermaid’s wedding bouquet.

So, what career can I have where I spend all day walking on the beach, playing with the dog, chatting with surfers, taking photos, and collecting rocks? Cause that sounds like a great job to me.