Padoodle
There is nothing quite like Scruffy the dog when she feels like barking all day, every day. Certainly we are about to be pounded by an earthquake out here in the southern sun.
I went to the ocean the other day after taking Bill home from the airport. Burbank was gross, as always, a true armpit that hasn't been opened in far too long. Traffic was gross. LA was gross. Bill was in good spirits, and we tried and failed to see the new Batman movie. Hollywood on a Saturday afternoon is fully loaded with filmgoers. Almost cartoonishly so. Anyway, I drove out of LA is stinking traffic, only to get as far as county line before getting a call from Bill that his work clothes were in my trunk. Amazing. So I drove back to LA in the stinking traffic only to drive out again in very stinky traffic. Oh man. Stink. Anywhoo....
I went to El Matador. The tide was ebbing for the first time (California has mostly mixed semidiurnal tides, with two high tides of succeeding size) in the day, and I watched the leaf barnacles feed. Most people were sunbathing or playing beach tennis, but I couldn't get enough of these barnacles. They look like alien flowers, a stalk with a cluster of white toothlike plates at the tip. There are six interlocking white plates, and when they open to feed they extend their six pairs of legs out into the water to sift for food. The legs are chocolate brown and look more like feathers than legs. All barnacles are sort of like crabs who have glued their back to a rock (or a whale for that matter) and they wiggle their legs around to find food. There was a whole garden of them, probably more than ten. When I'd touch them they would pull back, but inquisitively come back out almost immediately.
I've decided to get a Master's degree. I am going to go to a small laboratory on the coast, in between Santa Cruz and Monterey. It's called Moss Landing Marine Lab. It's really really cheap, and it'll only take a year or two. I'm in no real rush, but I'm going to try for next year, or the year after. I don't know. My plans change every few minutes.
I went to the ocean the other day after taking Bill home from the airport. Burbank was gross, as always, a true armpit that hasn't been opened in far too long. Traffic was gross. LA was gross. Bill was in good spirits, and we tried and failed to see the new Batman movie. Hollywood on a Saturday afternoon is fully loaded with filmgoers. Almost cartoonishly so. Anyway, I drove out of LA is stinking traffic, only to get as far as county line before getting a call from Bill that his work clothes were in my trunk. Amazing. So I drove back to LA in the stinking traffic only to drive out again in very stinky traffic. Oh man. Stink. Anywhoo....
I went to El Matador. The tide was ebbing for the first time (California has mostly mixed semidiurnal tides, with two high tides of succeeding size) in the day, and I watched the leaf barnacles feed. Most people were sunbathing or playing beach tennis, but I couldn't get enough of these barnacles. They look like alien flowers, a stalk with a cluster of white toothlike plates at the tip. There are six interlocking white plates, and when they open to feed they extend their six pairs of legs out into the water to sift for food. The legs are chocolate brown and look more like feathers than legs. All barnacles are sort of like crabs who have glued their back to a rock (or a whale for that matter) and they wiggle their legs around to find food. There was a whole garden of them, probably more than ten. When I'd touch them they would pull back, but inquisitively come back out almost immediately.
I've decided to get a Master's degree. I am going to go to a small laboratory on the coast, in between Santa Cruz and Monterey. It's called Moss Landing Marine Lab. It's really really cheap, and it'll only take a year or two. I'm in no real rush, but I'm going to try for next year, or the year after. I don't know. My plans change every few minutes.
posted by nicholas at 1:54 PM
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