First Person: Seal Beach Pier offers perspective on a life

Catalina, downtown Long Beach, the dwindling snowpack atop Mt. Baldy and Saddleback Mountain were all visible from where I was standing. Though it was the last day of January, devil winds from the high desert had cleared the air and warmed the temperatures into the 80s. It seemed a perfect day to visit my old friend, the Seal Beach Pier.
The life of an out-of-work writer is both steady and uncertain. Some days I’ve been crushed by complicated freelance assignments, others I’d conside