Beach!

Work wasn't very fun today. It wasn't awful by any means, but I think I had a case of the Fridays or something. I was tired of taking the same test, over and over and over. It's a part of research so I usually don't mind it but today it just drove me up the wall. I got a headache, and I could not wait for 3 o'clock to swing around. After an eternity of tests, 3 o'clock finally saved the day. I zoomed out to my car, drove home, let Navi out of her crate and ran around the apartment with her for a while. I had myself a little snack and Navi was cute enough to win herself a little snack, too. Then we ran to the beach where I played with her for a while. I really like the beach; it's called the Albany Bulb. There is a little beach on the main land that nobody seems to swim at so there are a lot of dogs and kite surfers. Sometimes I worry that the kite surfers might hit a dog while trying to come to shore, but they always seem to be mostly in control of the path they take. At one side of the beach, a long peninsula reaches out towards the bay. It's not a natural peninsula; it used to be a landfill where lots and lots of trash was dumped. Eventually they stopped dumping there, and over the years nature took over. So now it's this fun park to go wander around, and it also seems to be a canvas for all the artsy hippies in the area. There are always people spray painting on the broken pieces of concrete laying around or people dragging old metal from the woods to build sculptures with. A lot of kids make fortresses in the woods or other hangouts where they lay around drinking beer all day. A lot of homeless people live there, too, but they never bother anyone. Navi likes to play fetch on the beach with random driftwood, especially on windy days since she can crash into big waves. She's not very good at bringing what you throw back to you, though, so after a while I give up and wander along the peninsula. It always seems to change because the waves bring new things along the shore, people drag things around, and there is always new art to see. The tide was the highest I've ever seen it today. Navi likes to chase splashes, so I throw rocks into the water and she tries her hardest to swim fast enough that she can snap at the splash. If you let her catch too many splashes, she gets sick, so I try to throw them just far enough away that she's close enough to try to swim for it, but far enough that I don't have to clean doggy barf up later. It requires talent. I usually throw them too far by accident, and Navi shoots me a disgusted look while she's swimming that seems to say something along the lines of, "You moron! I'm not stupid enough to even try getting that splash! Throw me a splash I can actually catch!!" People always give me weird looks when I'm throwing rocks into the water, but...it makes my dog happy. At the end of the peninsula, there is this huge pond where the water is mostly still. It is connected to the bay at this one location, but only at high tide. Normally during high tide, you can skip over rocks for a 30 or 40 foot section while walking around the pond, but since this was the highest tide, it required a more elaborate dance than usual. All the rocks were covered by water except when a wave had just gone over and the water was pulling away. I had to be in mid-air while the waves came, and on a rock just after the wave went over, and in the air again for the next wave. A very elaborate dance indeed. Navi gave me strange faces as I hopped and skipped from one rock to the next. She was just wading through the water splashing me while wondering what I was doing, and she would always stand on the rock I needed to hop to before the next wave came through. I would have to shout "hurry up! go away! move!" while we were scampering around and she made me get wet a few times. I finally got to the other side with slightly damp shoes but I didn't fall! I had a few close calls. Then I continued to make Navi chase splashes and then I had walked around the entire pond. We headed over to the part of the park with lots of statues, and wandered around there. It is really cool that someone came along and decided to build pretty astonishing statues out of scrap wood and metal. I will add photos later. After wandering around a bit more, we headed back home where we both vegged out and watched TV waiting for Tim to come home.