February 10, 2023:
Through a break in the monsoon I drove to Ocean Beach, really just to ground myself in the reality of "home".
It isn't, though. 34 years of growth have filled in the canyons with condos, added lanes to the freeways, added people to all the square inches. The density is what we used to say we hated about L.A. Yet OB smelled like OB: salt, skin and tanning lotion. And Poma's is still there, and The Black, and while The Strand and Spaceway are gone and Margarita's is a diner and Consuelo's is gone and Nati's is gentrified, the pier is still there and the streets and I still know which lane to be in to get onto I-8 East.