Apres le deluge, le earthquake, le non tsunami......

These critters may be some of the missing San Francisco harbor seals/sea lions, but these have taken over some docks in Moss Landing. When we biked by later the docks were empty save for a young man who had some sort of water weapon

used, supposedly to deter dock landings. As if. As soon as the young man left, the lions climbed back on the docks. After some of the docks in San Francisco sunk because of the sea lion landings/loadings, new docks were built, not for boats, but for tourism. The numbers grew over the last few years from a few hundred to about 4,000. And this winter they have disappeared save for a few diehards, disappointing all the tourists who have come from all over the world. The word on the street/ocean/ and argument from naturalists is that they are all now playing and eating plentiful herring and multiplying at Oregon's Sea Lion Caves. I say arguing as the naturalists don't seem to understand the sudden increase in numbers of the critters at the Caves. Well, duh.

We, too, are back in Oregon taking care of the elders. There was a writer who said that if you lived on or near a beach, there would be no good reason to not walk it every day. That writer was correct, although the constant rain and 55mph wind as well .as the care demands of the elders sort of shuts down the daily walk. The surf has been incredible and being able to let the dog's run on Mom's beach is worth being out in the wind and rain.

There was a 6.5 earthquake about 100 miles south of Brookings this week. We didn't feel a thing as Mom's house is concrete, including the walls. There was some damage in stores, historic buildings losing their decoration, and a lot of nervousness about a potential tsunami. Robert was coming back from a hospital visit and driving along the coast where it was low and open to wave action and until he arrived back in the "high country" there was some concern about an unscheduled visit to the beach. When a tsunami was forecasted in Hawaii, I had been recovering from an operation in Lanikai. Robert called me from his office in downtown Honolulu and told me to blow up the inflatable dinghy, get my jewelry and get on board. My response to Robert was, "What jewelry?"