Produce Day

Yesterday morning the beach was decorated with produce. I took all these photos within a half mile.

First came the onion...

Then a pepper...

A lemon...

And, finally, celery!

I hesitate to anthropomorphize a force of nature, but it almost seems the tide does this for amusement.

Cold Medicine

Yesterday afternoon I felt a cold coming on -- sore neck, swollen glands under my chin, scratchy throat. That called for immediate action, so I prepared my favorite food for nipping a cold in the bud.

Raw garlic is the heart of the remedy, but who wants to eat a clove of raw garlic with nothing else? My "recipe" is peanut butter on crackers topped with garlic slices. This time the taste was enhanced by tomatoes and ripe olives.

This morning all the cold symptoms were gone.

Raw garlic also destroys warts, but that's another story.

Canal Art

Life on a canal provides unusual entertainment. The house has an underwater fishing light that attracts fish at night. Watching a school of tiny fish endlessly circling the light fascinates everyone. I took this photo on a very foggy night and was amazed to see that the camera captured water vapor, seen here as grey spots.

Entertainment is not limited to night. Daytime reflections on the surface water create abstract art that wiggles with the water's movement. Here are just a few examples.

Soon I'll be returning to Kansas, where Nature's art is stationary and less abstract.  I have just three more weeks to collect these visions.

Bummer

Nancy left six days ago. Here she is at La Quinta, waiting for the airport shuttle to take her away.

When the shuttle pulled away, my mood deflated like an abandoned balloon on the beach. There was no cure for the blues until she called this morning. We had a long visit, which gave me the oomph to get back to life.

Bye-bye, Nancy. I still miss you.

After The Party's Over

The people go back to their houses, their balloons forgotten on the beach. The tide seemingly welcomes an expanded palette for it shreds and reshapes the party leftovers to use in abstract art.

Next week Mardi Gras beads will find their way to the beach, but the tide doesn't like to work with beads and probably will ignore them.

Onward Through The Fog

My girl Nancy flew down from Colorado for a short visit. I had ordered warm weather, but neglected to specify sunshine to go with it. Every day was foggy but we went to the beach anyway. Nancy recorded the scene.

The air was so thick with moisture that it condensed on everything, even this tiny feather.

In the distance we saw what appeared to be a flock of sheep.

But they turned out to be Great Pyrenees dogs out for a walk. Nancy quickly made friends.

Before leaving, we stopped to admire a sand sculpture.

I didn't miss the sun because Nancy is sunshine personified.

Ephemera

 The tide is an abstract artist, working in the medium of sand.

Sometimes the tide and the wind collaborate.

Even more transitory than Andy Goldsworthy's work, these sand sculptures will be gone by evening.

I'll be back tomorrow to wander through this gallery of fleeting art.

What We Need Right Now

Harsh winter weather is creating havoc across much of the country, Egypt is in chaos, and millions of our citizens are out of work. We have a lot to worry about.

What we need right now is an active sense of humor. We need things that make us smile, such as my favorite beach house.

We may also need a bowl of chocolate pudding and some escape literature to help us hang on until spring and hope return.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Recently I declared that the worst part of growing old is that the same things happen again and again. Cooking meals, celebrating holidays and birthdays, cleaning out closets, and other repetitive events made me feel I was caught in a do-loop.

I never should have said it because ever since I've had one unpleasant new experience after another. Recently it's been a car that wouldn't start in wet weather. Yesterday the Honda dealership repaired that problem. Today temperatures fell into the low twenties -- rare in Galveston -- and there's no electricity in Sea Isle. The power went out at 8:30 a.m. and is still off at 2:00 p.m. The uninsulated house on stilts is too cold now for habitation.

The public library seemed a good refuge, but I found myself standing in dark stacks and then tripped over a step stool as I groped my way back to the entrance. This, I learned, was due to rolling blackouts necessitated by the unusual demand for heating. This part of the country is simply not prepared for cold weather.

Temperatures will remain below freezing all this week, culminating in sleet and snow beginning on Thursday night and continuing through Friday. Rolling blackouts no doubt will continue.

At this point I sure would welcome a boring, repetitive day!