the rix mix

Some picture perfect cumulus clouds late afternoon, sun nicely positioned to iluminate them. Maybe not picture; it's very difficult to capture clouds with a camera or a brush.

I was asked last night if I'd been to the shore this year. No. I just don't like the train trip. If I go to Point Pleasant Beach, I'm really interested in being there for only 2 or 3 hours. I take a stroll through downtown - by the time I arrive the bookstore's about to close; go to the boardwalk, play a few games of pinball. short walk on the beach, then a hike up to Manasquan Inlet & back, get an ice cream cone for the walk back to the station, & I'm done. The train ride is about an hour & 45 minutes without delays, with one transfer & 20 stops. The return trip usually features squawling babies, loud teenage cellphone talkers, a couple of drunks, & the cars get more crowded at each stop up the coast.

I consider what it would cost now to drive to Point Pleasant Beach or any of the locations between Raritan Bay & Seaside Heights I thought nothing of heading off to early on summer evenings because I was bored, or it was hot, or I just felt like looking at water, clouds, & birds while I sipped an iced coffee. That kind of $2 gallon impulsiveness is history, & not ancient history. When I worked in Woodbridge I regularly put 20 to 40 miles on the car plus the price of take out food to squeeze in an hour watching tugboats or sand pipers, I was right by the Route 9 cut off with the famous "To Shore Points" sign, which always beckoned me. If I resisted that, when I got off my usual highway exit, making a right instead of left sent me toward the Sewaren waterfront & public boat ramp across Arthur Kill from Staten Island. My small car was stocked with two beach chairs (one adjustable), a camera, binoculars, notebook & pens, & a copy of Sunflower Splendor: 3000 Years of Chinese Poetry with a sun-faded cover, the props of my sanity.

Labels: jersey shore