Friday July 9th
The Haitian Prime Minister was murdered yesterday, the new Delta variant is killing people across the world, climate change is scorching the planet while I went to buy fish. Our outdoor Fish Kiosk, a tiny drive-through with a kindly owner who has been fishing for fifty years, opened the sliding window to greet me. The list of available fish was small, and a sign said he was now only open three days a week.
‘What happened’ I asked? He explained that the frightening heat wave that sat over the Pacific Northwest last week with temperatures in the hundred and twenties, had killed the fish, most of which come from the ocean further north, close to Canada. Aldo, he said, restaurants have been bulk buying what is left. His business exploded during the Covid shut down and he hired more staff, was open for longer each day, and more days a week. ‘I am selling five hundred pounds of salmon a week’ he told me a few months ago. We talked about the shortage of water too, as our nearby Lake Casitas water source dries up. He wondered why people are buying homes in Ojai still. ‘Don’t they know there will be no water in the lake, our local water source, in five years?’ he said. He handed my bag of salmon and shrimps out the window, it was all he had to sell, and I was glad to have it.
