The Abbott Family Blog

As you may know by now, we have our morning tradition of going to the beach to do yoga, tai chi/Karate, and finally a dip in the water and a nice thermos of cocoa and a croissant (the croissant isn’t in the thermos with the cocoa mind you) afterwards. Today we were gonna go down but we heard about the red tide.What’s red tide you ask? I dunno. (actually, I do but it’ll take a while to explain) But it makes the sea look like it’s filled with Anjeo Tequila. Apperantly, it’s the strongest red tide we’ve had in 20 years. Also apperantly, lots of surfers get sick and get sinus stuff ‘n all that stuff. Of course, that didn’t stop us from going down!

When we got there, we saw the remains of a sea lion washed up on the beach. The remains were intact, it’s head just looked a little . . . melted off . . .in a way. A little unappetizing for sure,but that wasn’t gonna stop us from getting our morning salt water fix! We managed to quickly snap a few pictures of the sea lion before a bulldozer came, picked it up and buried it.

As we walked farther down the beach to our usual spot, (which is partially sheltered by a bit of the rock cliff which blocks some wind, if any. ) we came across another corpse on da beach. This one was a ray. Haven’t seen many rays up close. I was really keen on taking it home ’cause I thought I could use the skin for something and the bone for picks ‘n things but the thought soon faded.

Then, after our exersize, we jumped in. The water tasted a little fishy, the water. However, when I came out, I didn’t grow another head so I must’ve been okay. We didn’t get sick later either.

The next week, I was sure the ray was gonna be gone but to my surprise, it was still there! This time, I was intent on bringing it back. However, that was until I picked it up. Whoo! It must’ve swallowed a brick ’cause it sure didn’t swallow any helium. It sure is a lot heavier than it looks. I didn’t have any way to take it home (it wasn’t big enough to put in the pack) so I had to leave it there. A little too big to just swing over my shoulder and bike home. Plus, it reeked to high heaven so that didn’t help. (says the family. I kinda like the dead fishy smell. Reminds me of Fisherman’s Wharf)

It was sunny for the rest of the week so every day we went down and every day I still saw that ray. Each time we went home, I wished I brought it and built up a lot of intention to get it the next time. However, time after time, I just “meh. . .”‘d it off. On Monday, I saw somebody had covered it with sand. At least now it’s partially hidden (with it’s tail showing so I could find it).

I’m not sure if I’ll ever muster up the lack-of-anything-better-to-do-ness to actually go get it, but I have a feeling it’s not going anywhere. I just have to make a decision before it decomposes too much.