Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us

I accidentally left my phone at home on this morning's beach walk, always a good thing after the initial panic (long ago, before my first iPhone, I imagined a world where all of us would have smart phones that weren't accessories, but required devices, like a remote control that was necessary for us to function. Like when you lose the TV remote and can't remember how to make it do anything using just the buttons on it?).

Always a good thing, but not pictured:

• A snowy owl, a huge lady* that looked like this, perched atop of the chimney of a beach house, basking in the sun.
• Five horses, with riders, strolling down the beach. Not strolling — what do horses do that's slower than a trot? That. Clover was investigating their presence, sniffing their hoof prints in the sand, long before we finally saw them. She was so good, sitting reverently as she watched them go by.
• Also, why are horses allowed to poop at will on the beach and no one scoops? Is horse poop, like cow poop, more quickly composted and less...bad...than dog poop? I could Google this, obviously, but choose not to.
• That feeling when you turn back after walking miles along the beach, and the spot you came from never seems to get any closer, and at some point you realize it's fine, what could be a lovelier purgatory than walking forever on a beach with the sun shining and brisk wind and your best dog and best person beside you?
• That feeling when you get back to the rocky spot you passed an hour earlier and realize the tide's come in too high and you're going to have to retrace your steps for a mile, exit the beach, and follow the road back to your car. BUT THEN you see the snowy owl again, moved to another sunny spot, and you run into the annual Christmas bird count folks* too. And everyone's waving Happy New Year from yards away.

And we made it to 2021, which is something! Clover rang in the New Year from the basement, where for some mysterious reason she skittered off around 10:30pm. When I got up I thought she had come back to bed in the night and was still there with Mark. She scared the crap out of me emerging from the dark when I was getting cat food out of the pantry.

*these experts told us she was a lady.