Santa Barbara has an ethereal atmosphere, of course commencing with one over it otherwise known as the sky. I have yet to visit on a day with many clouds but it usually is during the summer and Californiahood blazes proudly here as anywhere under maybe not a Sierra blue but one which watches with the same gravity.

During a walk through beach embracing Chase Palm Park I heard the sounds of instruments at another park across Cabrillo drive. One of their summer Thursday free shows and I remember one the previous summer; Friday and the weekend have the kinetic charm of bustling but it is just a little more fun both on my conveyance, the train, and for wandering around on a weekday.

Looks to be a country band. Back across the street and what is this on, less used by me than the tourist pedal path closer to the water, the sidewalk? Alternate squares with white numbers on a black plastic circle. A veritable mini monument to obsessive compulsive disorder and I just have to contribute. Walking north, 216, 215, 214 . . . Hold on, I get it and got it. "It" edition two is an item that is in my pocket, well, just because.

Walk east and here is circle or perchance square (I have known a few intellectuals who can shut this down right here) "222". Out of my pocket comes, and yes I am eccentric, how have you guessed, a black guitar pick with "222" on it. This was found in my apartment courtyard, probably dropped by the kid in unit 2 who stubbornly tried to get "Crazy Train" beyond the first bar. I lay it down next to the circle.

If this were Hollywood, the scripts would have matched. Close, but like many cover versions enough of a difference. This is Santa Barbara, and my own script fits the ethereal mid afternoon.

I take a train to Santa Barbara which arrives roughly 11 a.m., and always catch the pageantry of the north bound Coast Starlight making its burgeoning stop an hour and a half later. It was on the Starlight two months before and hundreds of miles north in which the same guitar pick figures, and that is for another entry.