PIKER RETURNS TO LITTLE FANFARE

I am back on the tainted soil of Los Angeles and happy to be here. I think I may finally be vacationed out. Although, I'm considering taking a trip down to Mexico for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. You'd venture I would go just to squeeze one last drop out of this whirlwind summer, but I'm actually starting to think like a rational adult. I believe it's time to stay in one place and attack my personal challenges head on -- namely acquiring a vehicle, obtaining a job, receiving health benefits, consolidating my debt, reinstating my subscription to The New Yorker, going off the dole, and work my way back into a life that includes disposable income.

My recent journey East included an amazing week on Cape Cod with most of my immediate family and My Girl. We rented this great house close to Skaket Beach in Orleans, where we played tons of games -- Dominoes, Rummikub, Phase 10 -- completed and shallacked a very difficult puzzle, and spent lots of time at the beach. Skaket Beach is unique. You can only swim at high tide because at low tide, the water recedes about a mile away from the beach, creating sandbars in its wake. Even when you walk the mile out to the water, it's too shallow to swim, you can only wade in it and try to avoid stepping on crabs. We also took a day and drove to the very tip of Cape Cod in Provincetown and went on a whale watch. The boat found a young humpback whale just outside the harbor and followed it for three hours or so as it breached, or leapt out of the water, over and over again. The highlight came as the whale, clearly aware of our presence, swam up to the boat just under where we were standing on deck, rolled over onto its back, gave us a close-up view of its belly and fins, then swam under the boat and came out the other side. I was tres mellow from the dramamine, but enjoyed the touristy three-hour tour much more than I thought I would.

Travelogue to resume later, as I must go tend to my neglected LA piker social life.