It’s full on Summer in SoCal. And our Alamitos Beach neighborhood in Long Beach is a perfect place for a Friday evening stroll. It was seven o’clock and we walked down the stairs from our fourth floor condo and onto the street.
Still lots of light. We took our normal morning route, going the quarter of a block down Appleton to Falcon and headed toward the beach. We like to count nighborhood cats on our walks, and while things haven’t been very good in that regard of late, we had hopes in the cooling evening.
By the time we got to the bluff overlooking the beach, no cats. But, there were people, individuals and couples and small groups. Some clearly doing exercise things. Others just strolling. A few stopped for a shorter or longer period of time. We walked down to the walking path and headed left. Out on the water there were a couple of freighters waiting their turn at the docks. A few pleasure boats were tooling along. We couldn’t see Catalina for the gathered haze, but otherwise it was bright. And cool.
People weren’t especially thick, and those there felt a bit different than our morning crowd. A smattering of homeless along with the walkers and runners and bicyclists. A few among the homeless seemed to be eyeing good spots for the night. As usual no one was bothering anyone else. Ours is a pretty live and let live neighborhood. Some old fashioned rock n roll was wafting down from one of the apartments or condos along the way. We could tell which building, but couldn’t decide which unit.
At the lifeguard station we crossed over from the walking path to the other side of the parking area and right along the narrower beach. Not thickly populated, but people were definitely enjoying the late afternoon, actually evening, but still bright. Some were wading out into the water, but most just lounging on the sand. We paused to watch two juvenile seagulls pestering their parental units to be fed. It was clear from their size this time of being fed was winding toward the end. And indeed the parents weren’t totally enthusiastic about being pestered.
And then a five year old girl ran up waving her arms and yelling, “Stop bother them, you bad birds.” Clearly her heart was in the right place. She was standing up to bullies. But, of course, she read the signals wrong. We smiled at the human comedy and continued on.
When we arrived at the feral cat colony we were able to spot two cats. Then, we walked up the stairs to turn back, and saw another cat from the top of the bluff. A pretty good score for us. We continued on to Bixby Park. At the shell a young woman was leading a group of adolescents in dancing to the oldies blaring from a gigantic boom box. We continued on past the skateboard park where the kids were going great guns.
Then we turned down and back to Appleton. At one of our more reliable spots we saw a cat lurking in the window. We continued on and ended up catching sight of a total of seven cats. A record of late. Finally in the block before coming to our building we passed the geezer band playing away in the open garage. Something bluesy, with a feel of soul. My usually reliable companion couldn’t identify the piece. She speculated it could be something original to the band. They’re certainly practiced and could easily be playing their own compositions.
And finally back. By the time we got upstairs and I walked out onto the balcony, the sky was turning dark.
I have hopes for tonight’s perseus meteor shower.
Life can indeed be good.
Don’t know the Vlogers, and the farmer’s market wasn’t up today, but that’s our neighborhood, and more or less our walk…
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