So, startng my attempts to update somewhere in the vicinity of weekly...

Life hasn't been super interesting of late, but if I'm going to update regularly, it's important to do it on "boring" days, too (right Sarah?).

Cold and winter have officially come to White Rock. It's rained pretty hard for a few days, and it isn't raining now, but it is windy and looks chilly and the waves are pretty big outside the window. The boardwalk and pier are pretty tourist-free, and only diehard locals like ourselves are venturing out for walks. Daylight savings time ended on Sunday, which means that it's getting much darker when Andrew comes home, and that the Amtrak goes by in pitch darkness. We've watched it get darker and darker every night as the Amtrak goes by. It's kind of depressing.

My current favorite thing to do out on the White Rock pier is feed seagulls. Unfortunately, no birds have been coming to my feeders. At all. This is terribly depressing, but we do have plenty of seagulls. I tried to save scraps, duck-bowl style, and take them out to the seagulls and crows, but unfortunately, the vegetarian duck-bowl fare didn't do much for carnivorous scavengers. So duck-bowl food is now just compost, and food I couldn't put in the duck-bowl becomes seagull food. Like shrimp tails, for instance. Seagulls are amazingly good at catching food in midair; it's more exciting than feeding a dog. Seagulls also have incredible radar for picking up signals that someone is feeding them. For instance, last night I walked out on the pier with three shrimp tails left over from my pad thai that I got from a restaurant (I am getting pretty good at smuggling seagull edibles out of restaurants). I intentionally chose a seagull sitting by himself, knowing that I didn't want to try to split three shrimp tails with a whole horde of seagulls. So I threw them out quickly and (I thought) subtly, and within three seconds I had an entire flock of seagulls--20 or 30--appearing out of nowhere and circling above me. They're pretty incredible.

There are lots of ducks out in the bay now, too. Diving ducks and dabbling ducks and occasional wandering alcids. Some of them (surf scoters) like to ride the waves during storms and fish for mollusks dredged up from the bottom. If waves go over their heads, they just dive. It's pretty incredible to watch. Mallards, on the other hand, haven't grasped the whole concept of diving and just get buffeted around, occasionally losing their balance rather awkwardly in the waves. It's pretty hilarious to watch.

I did officially turn down the job I was offered. It was only an hour a week, with half-day sub jobs when available, and it just wasn't going to be enough money. So I am back to "normal" subbing, and will stay that way until something else comes up.