A Late Starting Wednesday ...

It was a late starting Wednesday, on several fronts. I was slow getting ready, and McDonald's switched to lunch, so it was IHOP instead of biscuits. Then before we could head down to the sea, we stopped at Jason's to pick up some advance review copies of his novel, and ended up sitting and talking for an hour at his dining room table. (Jason't place has that effect ... )

Finally, we got on the road about 1pm, and listened to some of the new music (Bareilles, Bowie, Destroy, as well as my big record of late, An Innocent Man) I got last week, which is rare for our Wednesday wanders. We were so unhurried that by the time we hit the Windmill, we were already feeling peckish. Unfortunately, the wind got rambunctuous just as we settled onto a bench by the sea at Long Branch. Flying food ensued.

Avon was Avon, still and beautiful and windy. Construction seems to be picking up, and though I doubt they'll be ready by Memorial Day, it looks like they're not giving up on the season. (Belmar & Spring Lake, on the other hand, are much further along.) We went up on the jetty, and lingered a bit in Happy Cove, but the wind was tough and the sun kept coming in and out, so we moved on.

We decided to head down to Island Beach, through Bay Head and Mantoloking and those other towns that got utterly trashed, to see if anything had improved. It hadn't. At all. And even five months out, the sheer destruction was enough to really take the wind out of the day. When we got to Island Beach and it was closed for the day, we felt a bit like we'd taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Deciding to head North early, we drove over the bridge at Barnegat Bay (stopping to rescue a little lost teddy bear in the gutter who captured our hearts) and headed for the Parkway, eventually making our way all the way back to our local mall, for a quick dinner. I was reluctant to go home early, because Bug was doing the massive upgrade on my computer, and I was sure to be over her shoulder and in the way.

When we eventually got home, Bug was still working on my machine, so E came upstairs for some extremely rare Womb time, and we watched most of a Gene Kelly documentary, Anatomy of a Dancer. As I get more and more inspired by dance, I always remember that Gene was the first person to make the art form come to life for me, and now I watch him with even more awe and appreciation.

Bug brought my machine up to me not much more than an hour ago, and here I am, writing my first entry on a machine with a new OS, double the RAM and triple the hard drive space. Happily, she doesn't feel nearly as different as I thought she might. Subtle tweaks, sure, most especially the scrolling direction on the trackpad, but mostly, she just feels faster, cleaner, and ready to go another five years. Huzzah!!!

All for now. A bit of reading, then bed. Back to quiet tomorrow.
Good night.