Thanks, everyone! Hey, the God Bless You Lady of Ballona Creek was out again today.
Originally Posted by
Secret Squirrel
I think I will take your advice and talk to the family that picks the aluminum out of the trash cans along the same path (toward Playa Del Rey). I have seen them over the years and the kids have graduated from "riding in bike trailers" to "pulling their own trailers". The only problem is that they tend to hide from me as I pass them at 3:30 am.
OMG ... I would love to talk to them, but the circumstances have never seemed right. I love that family! I've been watching for years as they had more children, and as soon as they were able, the children were out of the trailer and on a bike. Have you seen their oldest daughter lately? She is going to be a
MONSTER cyclist when she gets older. Right now, she's carrying a significant load behind her and tooting right along. And to see them stop off along the way and pick up bottles, cans, and trash ... I tell you, if I were a journalist, they would be very high on my list.
I had another crappy experience on my crappy commute this morning.
You all know about the big moon we had last night. It would have been nice to find someplace and watch the moon rise, but I had no time for that. I got a good snootful of it this morning, though. I dunno what it is about the light at the Redondo Pier some mornings ... but this morning was one of them.
The moon dodged behind the clouds, so I packed it up and continued up the coast. Right near the Manhattan Beach Pier, I stopped to wait for the moon to peek out of the clouds. I was off the bike path and in a little alcove with some stairs. A gent appeared behind me with a dust pan and a broom. As I took picture after picture trying to get a tough exposure right, I heard him behind me sweeping the steps off.
Finally, a pause. I turned around.
"Can I ask you to scoot over, so I can get the rest of this?"
"Sure. Hey ... if you don't mind me asking, are you doing this out of the goodness of your own heart?"
He laughed. "Yea, I guess so. I don't even live here but a few months of the year, but I like to keep it clean for everyone. Funny thing is that I sweep the Strand too, go get the sand off for the bicyclists. And they're the ones that give me a hard time about it."
"Yea, everyone's in too much of a hurry." I allowed. "Let me thank you for the rest of us."
That segued into a chat about cameras and cycling. Darryl was quite the cyclist himself before he crashed and hurt his neck.
Oh yea. And meet Darryl ... the sand sweeper guy of Manhattan Beach.
Oh ... and this was the pix I was trying to take. Meh ... glad I got a pix of Darryl.
