I have an affinity for mechanical wristwatches. There’s nothing wrong with a quartz movement – in fact, the most accurate time keepers are probably quartz. But there’s a certain romance with a purely mechanical watch movement powered by a mainspring and meticulously assembled from tiny plates, gears and jewel bearings. Automatic watches have self-winding mechanical movements.

I had quite a collection of watches at one time. I kept my automatic wrist watches on watch winders – a special case that rotated the watch periodically to allow the rotor to wind the mainspring and keep the watch running. Like everything else, I pared my collection down and now I have five wristwatches and one railroad pocket watch. I’ve been favoring my GMT Master II for several years and it’s overdue for a service.

Monday I rode the Spyder to Ben Bridge Jeweler at Fashion Valley Mall. About a year and half ago the watchmaker there, Israel, serviced Donna’s watch. It takes about five weeks for a service – the watch is completely disassembled, all parts are inspected and any worn parts are replaced. Special lubricants are put on the bearings. Then it’s reassembled and regulated. It’s not an inexpensive job – in fact, the service costs more than the average wristwatch costs new.

Meanwhile, I’m wearing a watch that I bought several years ago when I had a Moto Guzzi motorcycle. One of the guys at the loosely organized Moto Guzzi Club commissioned a limited number of watches built with an ETA automatic movement and iron magnetic shield dial. The ETA 2824 movement is a common workhorse built by the Swatch Group and is used in many watches.

Moto Guzzi watch on my hairy wrist

When I came back from Fashion Valley, Donna was back in bed. She had tummy trouble – we think it may have been a case of food poisoning. She spent the entire day in bed. Fortunately, she was better the next day.

She didn’t need me to do anything for her, so I went to Ocean Beach to the recreation center and played pickleball. I found out that the times listed on the USAPA site were wrong. The site showed pickleball from noon to 2pm – which is what I remembered from last year. Now they play from 10am to 2pm on Monday and Wednesday. I was able to get several games in and had a good workout.

It was overcast when I rode the Spyder to Ocean Beach. I thought it was the typical morning marine layer which would burn off. I was surprised when I left the rec center to find a low overcast still hanging around. I rode to Pacific Beach where I stopped for tacos and a mist was falling lightly. On the way back to Mission Bay, I hit a rain shower. It was brief though and the sun finally broke through by 4pm.

Tuesday morning I had to retrieve some things from the trailer. While I was at the storage lot, I noticed the tide was very high in the bay and the morning sunlight was beautiful.

Morning sunshine on De Anza Cove

Tuesday and Thursday pickleball is played at the Pacific Beach Recreation Center. Again, their hours have changed. It used to be noon to 4pm. Now it’s 10am to 4pm. The longer hours of open play makes it less crowded as people come and go after playing for a couple of hours. I barely had break time inbetween games. I played from noon to 2:30pm.

Later, I went to the Offshore Tavern and Grill to collect the spoils of my second-place football pool result. I got a free drink and five dollars. Winning is better, but I can’t complain. A funny thing happened when I left the RV park for the tavern. Just as I pulled out of our site, Donna saw my cell phone on the counter. She knows I don’t like to be without my cell phone. She grabbed the phone and ran after me. A car went through the automatic gate ahead of me, so I didn’t need to wait for the gate to open. I rolled out before Donna could catch me.

I was about to exit the Mission Bay RV Resort property when two women from the office came out and waved their arms to flag me down. I stopped and they said, “You forgot your phone.”  I thanked them and turned around. I assumed Donna had phoned the office and I had to go back to our coach to get my phone. About then, Thomas, the security supervisor rolled up in his cart and handed me my phone. I was surprised and a little confused.

Later Donna told me that Thomas saw her running after me. He pulled up beside her in his golf cart and took the phone and came after me. He must have radioed the office girls and told them to stop me. What an effort – just because I don’t like to go out without my phone!

After I returned, Donna and I took a walk around the Mission Bay RV Resort at sunset. The phase of the moon is creating spring tides. Spring tides don’t have anything to do with the season – it’s about the water level springing up and down. Spring tides occur when the gravitational pull of the sun and moon combine, causing higher than average high tides and lower than average low tides. At sunset, the tide was lower than I ever remember seeing in Mission Bay.

Low tide at sunset

Boater paddling in the low water

Donna made panko crusted rockfish filets for dinner. She served it with a kale salad with dried cranberries, pine nuts and parmigiano reggiano cheese. It was a delicious meal.

Panko crusted rockfish

Today we’re in for another beautiful weather day. The forecast high is in the low 80s with abundant sunshine. Donna volunteered to do more data entry for the Girls on the Run organization. I think I’ll head over to Ocean Beach for more pickleball.