I applied two coats of Deks Olje to the tiller, polished stainless on deck, resignedly rather than hopefully applied sealant to leaks. These are drips not gushers. I will keep trying, but I can live with them and probably will have to. Then took a last bike ride.
I had considered going to a place that has great fish tacos in Ocean Beach, but decided I wanted a last look at Mission Beach instead and so went that way, stopping at a supermarket along the way.
There was evidence of the storm: sand washed over the seawall onto the boardwalk, standing puddles, a lot of kelp on the beach, both along the waterline and pushed to the base of the seawall. All of which substantiates my observation a few months ago that Mission Beach will not survive global warming and rising sea levels. Neither with Florida.
It was fine to ride my bike. My legs are in shape. A young man did pass me going up the Mission Bay bridge. He was standing up in the pedals on a 21 speed racer. I am not impressed. I made it to the top sitting down on a one speed.
A beautiful day. A final drink on deck at sunset for sure. Here is my view from Central, taken a few minutes ago.
When you have nothing better to do than polish stainless steel, you are either ready or you are lost. I think GANNET and I are ready. I’m old, but I’m getting excited.
Tomorrow night a cold martini with Carol.
Two months from tomorrow and I’m back here.
By that time it may have stopped snowing in Chicago.
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The opinions of Mr. Ambrose Bierce do not necessarily reflect those of management.
Management does not, for example, believe that all beautiful women are as deadly as poison; nor does it share Mr. Bierce’s antipathy for the clarinet, which can be enjoyed in measured dosages, such as the Clarinet Concerto in A by Mozart.
With that out of the way:
daring: one of the most conspicuous qualities of a man in security.
day: a period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent. This period is divided into two parts, the day proper and the night, or day improper—the former devoted to sins of business, the latter consecrated to the other sort. These two kinds of social activity overlap.
debt: an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave-driver. (Compare with management's oft-stated dictum: debts are chains, which is why management has paid cash since 1974.
diplomacy: the patriotic art of lying for one’s country.
egotist: a person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
erudition: dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.
eulogy: praise for a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.
evangelist: a bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors.
