The Neighborhood

We've seen two interesting things at the beach recently -- "beach" meaning the parking slots on the hill overlooking the Redondo Beach Pier and the sea. This is a frequent stop for us while out running errands. It's a game to see if we can see Catalina or not and it's usually "not."

The first was the sight of one of those block-long limos gingerly ooching itself up and over the speed bumps to pick up a wedding party, milling around the parking lot. Apparently, it was a wedding on the sand as all of the participants were barefoot, including the bride. Much laughter as they sorted themselves out and clambered willy-nilly into the vast cavern of the limo.

The second sight was sad. The other day one of our local scuba divers (this "beach" is one of their favorite areas to embark) got into a bad situation of some sort and was declared dead at the hospital despite the best efforts of the RB paramedics to revive him.

We'd stumbled on to the memorial. A group of people stood on the sand; a smaller number had gathered to form a circle in the shallow water. This group was wearing big white t-shirts (pulled over their street clothes) and they had a floating bouquet of flowers. What struck me was the trust of these people -- the sea had taken one of their own, but they forgave it and in fact had gathered by it to celebrate a life now lost to them.

Today the city of Hermosa Beach is dedicating (to whom or to what is unknown) all of the "improvements" to Pier Avenue, one of the two main drags in that fair city. These "improvements" it must be noted removed half of the parking slots on the street, took out even more space to have palm trees planted down the middle of the road and they were a real bummer for the businesses there during destruction and construction which ran from January to last week.

We drove down Pier after going to the library book sale, but though the dedication was scheduled for 10 a.m., at 9:50 a.m. there were only a few desultory efforts to get ready -- a couple of small tents on the sidewalk, a bunch of balloons tied at this door or that one. Not many people walking their dog or shopping either. Life is easy going at the beach. We like it that way.