Life's a beach

Woke up late and felt icky but there were some travel plans. Snarl of traffic and no air conditioning in car but many icecubes in the cooler. The tops of the wrists (not just the inner wrists) are nice places to apply melting icecubes. PCH and Malibu and more traffic and finally...less traffic. A town with many shops in Spanish. A bright little restaurant served inexpensive food, like ceviche on a tostada, and the little tacos with lots of meat between two small tortillas. Pacific Ocean is still really cold. Some patches of sand felt softer than others. Flying overhead were some pelicans and people on strange contraptions that kind of looked like flying go carts--they resembled little airplanes, and made noise. They were in a small squadron over the beach and ocean. "Iceplants" was a new word I learned, while walking on some dunes and looking at flowering vegetation. Mischevious seagulls stole a plastic bag of snacks from two girls but then they called their little dog and the gulls dispersed and the girls got their snacks back. When we left we drove by such a dejected looking older man, with a tattered sign about being homeless and how anything would help. I got out of the car and gave one gold Sacagawea dollar. "It's only a dollar." "A dollar is nice..." "I'm sorry," I said. "Sorry?!" Somehow, he seemed to draw himself up a bit, almost as if indignant at the word. "Thank you!" he said, with some force. "You're welcome," I said. I thought it was good he could draw himself up like that...I didn't know how he got homeless. People have theories about how persons "bring it upon themselves," but I didn't need to know at the moment. I thought about what "you're welcome," means. "You are welcome." On the beach I reflected on how it feels to lie on different kinds of sand, while feeling the colder air above you, and hearing the ocean behind you. Some kinds of sand feel more hard and uncomfortable than others...I was glad to not be homeless and have to sleep on the beach, even though sleeping on the beach could possibly be enjoyable.