Late Sunday afternoon on the beach
Blue skies
Light breeze
Warm for Southern California water
Families set up with shade, food, toys
All kinds of people in the water boogie boarding, swimming, playing in waves
And further up the beach from the crowds, these sightings:
A tiny little spiky-haired boy with blue floaters on his arms and waist, who moves as if he just learned to run, darting in and out of the surf, laughing and screaming with delight, surprise, and excitement at each lap of the waves, and running circles around his slightly bigger but still tiny sister who is sitting on the beach at the edge of the water in a muddy spot, her back turned away from the ocean, plopped down and unmoving, in her red and yellow and blue jumpsuit, a blank look on her face, her hair matted around her face. Their older brother stands slightly back, watching with concern for both, looking for any sign that he might need to jump in, moving hesitantly around his little brother, like a lifeguard. Two young women in their 20s stand fully clothed in the middle of the scene, arms folded, no particular expression on their faces, softly chatting to each other.
About 10 feet away, a gray and white seagull with a wet black sock in its beak, struggles along the sand for several minutes to carry the sock out to the ocean, and almost makes it--got the sock into the surf, which then took the sock from the bird and deposited it back on the sand as it receded. The seagull picked up the sock again, trying for a few more seconds to drag it back to the water, but dropped it several times, and unlike Sisyphus, eventually left it where it dropped on the sand and walked on without looking back.
And then this carefully constructed creation, another 10 feet or so away and further up from the surf:
Blue skies
Light breeze
Warm for Southern California water
Families set up with shade, food, toys
All kinds of people in the water boogie boarding, swimming, playing in waves
And further up the beach from the crowds, these sightings:
A tiny little spiky-haired boy with blue floaters on his arms and waist, who moves as if he just learned to run, darting in and out of the surf, laughing and screaming with delight, surprise, and excitement at each lap of the waves, and running circles around his slightly bigger but still tiny sister who is sitting on the beach at the edge of the water in a muddy spot, her back turned away from the ocean, plopped down and unmoving, in her red and yellow and blue jumpsuit, a blank look on her face, her hair matted around her face. Their older brother stands slightly back, watching with concern for both, looking for any sign that he might need to jump in, moving hesitantly around his little brother, like a lifeguard. Two young women in their 20s stand fully clothed in the middle of the scene, arms folded, no particular expression on their faces, softly chatting to each other.
About 10 feet away, a gray and white seagull with a wet black sock in its beak, struggles along the sand for several minutes to carry the sock out to the ocean, and almost makes it--got the sock into the surf, which then took the sock from the bird and deposited it back on the sand as it receded. The seagull picked up the sock again, trying for a few more seconds to drag it back to the water, but dropped it several times, and unlike Sisyphus, eventually left it where it dropped on the sand and walked on without looking back.
And then this carefully constructed creation, another 10 feet or so away and further up from the surf:
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