It's been so absolutely lovely here that we can't but take hour-long walks every day with Holden. It.. it almost feels like... california. It almost feels like home.
There's a giant lake nearby here that we frequent, home to many ducks and geese and birds; otter scurvy. The game is to draw as many ducks to us as possible by plying them with bread treats, but to get as few seagulls as possible. Because seagulls suck. They fly around your head and poop on you when all you want to do is sit quietly and toss bread to polite ducks. So we have Holden toss out some bread, but he can only give them to ducks and "good seagulls", which are the seagulls that sit on the water nicely and pretend they're ducks. It's pretty smart of them. But the "bad seagulls" are the ones that fly around and try and scoop up the duck bread at the last second. They get NO SOUP, I mean bread.
It was terribly cute though, it must be duck mating season or something because all the ducks here come in pairs. One little cute girly duck and then a big quacker who's constantly protecting her. Sometimes they sit nestled up under a tree catching a snooze. And ONE time, this one lass had TWO beaus protecting her! Lucky lady!
Maryl told me a pretty outrageous, "wild" rumor, one that she let me on to after I remarked how a lot of guys around here suddenly went shirtless, due to the weather (which is only about 72F by the way). She said it's common, most guys in the summer here go shirtless, why, don't they in california? Well sure at the beach, and maybe on super sunny days in santa cruz. And then! And then she says, that, during the summers here, it's perfectly legal and not just legal but (semi-)NORMAL for women to go topless too. Topless aaaaand braless.
What kind of crazy mixed up world is this, I ask? She said it's due to the feminists - they were upset that only guys got to go around shirtless, and that they wanted equal opportunity... but since they don't wear bras anyway... they had to make it legal. Though some places say no shoes no shirt no service, which is a sign I see often but never applied it to that imagery.
And as I’m typing this, the more I have to assume she was pulling my leg. But, oh, I promise, I will be sure to blog about it as soon as it ever happens, if and when. Because that's really the important stuff, when you think about it.