Gus puttered with his various projects and spent hours on San Clemente beach, where he claimed the world's most beautiful women gathered to sunbathe... Laughing and joking, Gus had talked a blue streak about the beach and all its lustrous beauties.  When he died, he'd say, he wanted his ashes scattered there so all the gorgeous girls could sit on his face for eternity . . .
    Only romance--the lasting kind he yearned after--continued to elude him.   The up side was that he met and dated a  number of attractive new women.  The down side--most of them, he was convinced, had dollar signs in their eyes.