Thence came I home, and met up with the family at the beach, where we spent some time in the waves. Lots of people there, but we hit the beach at our usual spot and went left, away from the crowds. Once you go left, you get into a portion where the bottom of the near-shore area gets a bit rocky (thank you, swimmy shoes!), and is so less attractive to most folks. The beach also ends at a rocky promontory, such that there are no people at all coming from the rocky direction. This makes for a very depopulated strand, which we took advantage of to let Clarabelle romp as she might like. She pretty much bothered no one. The only trouble with that part of the beach is that it's at the western end of a long (more than a mile) stretch of beach, and the wind and waves are set on a permanent east-to-west slant, such that all the garbage from that mile of beach that doesn't sink to the bottom eventually winds up there. I think there's less garbage on the beach in general than there was four years ago, but there are an awful lot of plastic cups lying about when we get out there. I usually spend the first ten minutes picking up our immediate area - otherwise, I just can't enjoy myself. I usually find a plastic bag or two among the detritus and use them, and get about a pillow case worth, volume wise. A sad duty, but one I perform without complaint.
(For the record, the present document does not constitute a complaint.)
Home, where we played a game the kids bought at Border's (which is shutting down, apparently? Globally? Had no idea!), had supper, hung out and read together a while, and then settled in for bed. (I did dash out to Best Buy at one point in search of a simple clip-on microphone, to no avail. Drat.) Janneke and I then watched the last two episodes of Friday Night Lights, and hit the hay.
Up around 7:30 to go spend the day again on project stuff; I did that until about 3:00. I was interviewing / filming my friend Basilisa, who owns the botánica, as she went about her work day. Big fun. Back to the beach, where I met up with the fam and found this awaiting me:
His name is Benjamín, and he is a Shar Pei. Which some of you know is the breed of dog my family had when we kids were in high school. I told his owner (a nice Colombian-Belgian woman) his name should actually be "Benacá" because he's so irresistible. God only knows how she gets rid of all the sand you can see getting trapped in the wrinkles.
(By the way, the Puerto Ricans call the sea grass that accumulates on the beach "pelo" (hair).)
So, now we're home again, after a supper of leftovers. T is writing a story about a young blue whale named Christine who has two domineering older brothers and who shows them, with the help of Wom, her friend the hermit crab, that even though she's extraordinarily small for a blue whale, she has a mind that's bigger than either of theirs. Q is elbow-deep into reading "The Hunger Games", and claims to love it. "I could read it all in one stretch if I didn't have to go to bed," he says.
Nothing planned for tomorrow - Janneke's going to take the day to work, so it'll be me and the kiddles. We might hit Old San Juan and the Morro castle, which the kids want to tour; might go out to Piñones, an area near San Juan that lots of natives keep telling us we should visit. I'll decide in the morning, I think.
Meantime, here's a couple of pics:
The pets test the limits of society's willingness to accept their love and enjoy each other's company. I think Clarabelle kind of imposed herself, and Skittles was too sleepy to do much about it. Which is pretty high praise from a cat.
Here's the guilty moment after the passion wears off. (Again: For a cat, "passion wearing off" = waking completely up.)
Well, almost completely. (Q took this shot!)
Clarabelle, still feeling dirty. (Another Q opus.)
2 comments:
I loved The Hunger Games trilogy.
Q is living up to his earlier declaration - he's been up since 6:45 and has not put the book down. (It's now 8:06.)
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