January 25, 2026

News from home inconclusive, but no power outages reported from my sources to this hour. 

Sat at the hotel bar last night with a big Alpha male who ate steak and asked for suggestions where to buy his third house. He lives in LA, but wants a foothold on the east coast. He saw what credit card I was using, and counseled me on how to get more value out of it by using its various special offers. He lost a friend in the LA fire last year, and said that there were insignificant natural causes, but rather that the disaster was caused by governmental neglect and incompetence. “They blamed dry grass because it couldn’t fight back.” Dry hydrants, low reservoirs, cut-backs in the fire department. I believed him. He was clearly used to holding forth and being heeded. 

Walked along the beach at sea’s edge. I don’t believe I did that once when I was here in September. The wind is less and the weather kinder than yesterday. 

Kayakers, swimmers, surfers. It amazes me. 

Blood on the bedspread this morning from my split heel. Already made my apologies to the management.   

Strolled to Jack of Cups for lunch. The first person I met had fled Leicester, as I had Beaver Lake, to escape the storm. His cap suggested he was a cop. He wanted to buy me a drink, but as I was having water, the intention was taken for the deed. Bought candy from a girl who said she loved her job. Bought postcards from one of those beach memento stores. The clerk had been stopped for speeding this morning by the SC Highway Patrol, and she observed that her wages for that day would go to paying the ticket. The road was so rural she didn’t know it had a speed limit. I wouldn’t have bought anything without the sob story. Her friend, the kid who rented bikes from the shed behind the store, came in to exult at having two rentals that day, to the same man, who rode off on one while holding the other. He has cognitive issues, which gives him, as a grown man, the shining demeanor of a happy boy. The food at Jack of Cups, while interesting, gave me almost instant diarrhea, which I discovered accidentally. Luckily, I was in my room then, so the clean-up job, though complicated, was private.  One brings so few changes of clothes one must be meticulous. I divined that housekeeping would arrive just in the midst of it, as in fact she did. Wrapped myself in a towel and told the smiling Filipina that I wouldn’t need her today.

Low tide now, a gray lake of calm water separate from the sea, a happy dog soaring after a frisbee. The girl at the souvenir shop admired my purple cap.