Weather report and the sea lions are back

This morn, bright beautiful and gawgeous (ie, the sun is out), and there is the pleasing scent of ocean.

Its odd. even though SF is at the end of the southern peninsula of the Bay, surrounded on three sides by water, its rare that you can easily smell the ocean here unless youre right by the shore. And sometimes depending on the prevailing breeze, not even then.

But this morn, my head out the back window of the Milan streetcar puppydog style, the whiff hit me somewhere after Pier 39, so I hadda jump out by a nearly deserted Fisherman's Wharf.

A rule of thumb in a big city is to NEVER take a deep breath, instead taking exploratory sniffs for air quality. Yer life could depend on it.

However, apart from the faint sourness of pollution and the stinky sea-lions at Pier39 (theyre back!), it was a mild, sweet, briny smell that just had me wandering around taking it in.

Compared to other ocean cities Ive been in, the ocean smell is softer, not as sharp as say New York, Jacksonville or Miami. Dunno why that is.

kind of a nice perfume I first noticed this past sunday on the foggy marin headlands beach.

Very evocative.

well, with the advent of labor day, this is supposed to be the summer of San Francisco, with warm weather and the fog at bay.

Im gonna enjoy it as much as I can.

*breathe*
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Speaking of weather, weather is set to roll up Florida big time in a few days. Hurricane Frances doesnt look to be any laughing matter. And this time, it doesnt look like North and North Central Florida is gonna be as lucky as it has the last 20 years...

JPennant: lil!
tigerlil: My favorite buddy!!!!!
JPennant: how are you sweetheart? :-)
tigerlil: Always could be better, dear.
tigerlil: Why is it I rarely find you online .... been signing on the past two wks fairly often.
JPennant: well, I dont have access to online at night where I stay - and i decided to cut back my computer time to a few hours per day.
JPennant: so I can live a fuller life :-P

tigerlil: Hurricane is aiming dead at Jacksonville 140mph should be at us in the next day or so.
JPennant: get out of town hon
JPennant: be safe
tigerlil: Thinking real hard about it. Now go do your thing :-)
tigerlil: See you later.
JPennant: ok my dear. talk to you later


JPennant: get outta town!
McClint: I already am out of town at work
McClint: :-)
JPennant: unless youre surfing, then thats different
McClint: hahaha
McClint: there's nothing here yet
McClint: probably wont feel anything until friday evening
JPennant: yeah, it seems to be parked over the Bahamas
McClint: almost exactly the same as charley... and maybe even Floyd. that was a weekend wonder
JPennant: doesnt seem to be turning
McClint: dammit why can't these hurricanes come by during the week?
JPennant: LoL. slacker
McClint: i could use some days off instead of wasting my weekend with panic and rain

McClint: you should go to weather.com and click on the Tropical update page and read the very flowery language they use
McClint: it's almost like they are bucking for an award or soemthing
JPennant: lessee
McClint: ohhhhhh they changed it
JPennant: ha! Its VERY nautical. ;-)
McClint: oh man i shoulda saved it. it was full of shit before
JPennant: heheh
McClint: "As we enter the end of summer and our thoughts turn toward the autumn leaves and football games..."
JPennant: LOL
McClint: he even called it "Fierce Frances"
JPennant: heheh
JPennant: could expect no less from 'Buzz Bernard'
McClint: hehehe

JPennant: damn, surfers around the world must be salivating
McClint: oh yeah

And a friend in Orlando, where its slated to roll through answered my query as to why she doesnt plan to evacuate:

From: lisa b
To: Joe Pennant

Everyone I know is, but I am a volunteer for the county Emergency Team, and have to help with the phones and clean up. Schools are closed again and most businesses are letting people go early Fri to get prepared. Although, they should already be prepared.
Well, we'll see eh? I'll be offline obviously throughout the weekend.

Wow. That's tall.

I hope they all get through it safely.