Yesterday being Yom Kippur, I fasted. I don't do this out of religious conviction, of which I have very little, but because it's a good thing to be reminded once a year what an incredible privilege it is in this world to be able to eat whenever you want. So like most Jews, on around afternoon I feel this fasting thing getting old, so I take a Yom Kippur walk. Usually every Jew in the neighborhood who's not in shul is strolling the streets by 4, but yesterday it was pouring again, as it has been for over a week. I went down to the river and I was pretty much alone. Turns out it was high tide, and I mean HIGH. So much runoff from the rain makes high tide way higher. Waves slurped over the wall and onto the path. All but the tallest pilings were completely underwater. Seagulls, who usually perch on the pilings, floated in a little flock because there was no place to sit. The noises are different when the water's this high: the surface of the water slaps against the underside of the piers, creating a dark sound you don't normally hear. Briefly, the rain let up, and the seagulls, and the grackles, sparrows and finches who live in the trees, took to the air until it started pounding again. I wonder if they do that to dry their wings? My poor little cormorant was trying to dry his wings this morning, standing on a piling facing into the breeze, though it was still raining. The cliche is, this is good weather for ducks, but the ducks are nowhere to be seen.