ST. AUGUSTINE

Florida Heritage Writing Conference

Last Friday I went down to the "Oldest City" for an all-day conference with all the big shots around Florida. The "Ritz" of the town, the Casa Madrona, hosted about 125 writers. It was a dark and stormy morning... (pictures)

The day was divided into five time slots: four seminar slots plus lunch. During seminar times, we chose a group from one of two subjects. These subjects ranged from character building to research to submitting screenplays. I can't say the catered food was worthwhile, and the conference rooms were less than impressive, but the event was good.

North Florida is suddenly in the rainy season, and clouds are regular observers in our skies. The sweltering summer still lingers, amplified briefly by humidity after the rain.  Mosquitoes regularly feast on me every time I take out the dogs. They don't get it, because of their fur, when I jump around and swat my skin.

It's dark now when I like to ride, so that's not so good. I notice Chattanooga is already in the fifties at night, while we barely get down to eighty. Whew! But when we got here in February, we had five straight days of frost, so I know it CAN get colder... and it'll probably be too cold soon enough.

Not Yet Half a Century

Yeah, I'm getting old. I was born before JFK was taken out. By most definitions, that's getting old.

But other measures are more kind. With the fallout from hurricanes hitting hard up north of here -- not in Florida! -- I looked into some of the past flooding in both Chattanooga and Binghamton, other places I have lived. And the flooding was bad, really bad. In both towns, the water levels took out the downtowns several times. And now floodwalls stand around each city. Recent floodwaters came up to and spilled over each wall, but they did prevent widespread disaster. But because people continue to build along side flood walls and in flood plains, I suppose the timeline of history is blurred, and the age of the lessons returns, making the older floods closer to memory. So maybe I'm not so old after all.

On a more immediate scale of time, the days have grown shorter. I used to take Grover to the beach at 7:45 for his evening walk, and we'd return home sandy, wet, bitten and hungry about 8:45. Now it's dark at 7:45. Still hot, though. So much for the later evening bike rides as well. No more 8pm departures to avoid the dining crowds on the road. The tradeoff seems to be we have different clouds this season. More of the familiar  orange-brown slurry of textures, similar to what we'd see over the Sutter Buttes back in California.

The sea turtles have all hatched by now, a fraction of them making it beyond the first two weeks, and only a fraction of those destined to make it to adolescence. The armadillos are back scurrying, like the squirrels, for the last of summer morsels to gather. And a new crop of frogs -- or a very small species -- is now underfoot and on the door. Cicadas scream in unison, drowning out even the light car traffic. And I finally baked some cookies for Lana, some banana muffins for me and Amy, and homemade beer for myself. (photos.)

SCIENCE, ANYONE?

Let's see what's happening around the nation. 

 American looks more and more like a Christian nation. Huge fires. Earthquakes. Tornadoes.  Hurricanes. Flooding. All at the same time.


Difficult to know what will go on in Congress this session. Probably nothing, since the bills forwarded to committees are all written by lobbyists anyway, lobbyists who have late breakfasts and hire the unemployed to hold a seat in the hallway for them. Funny how the nascent government officials in newly "liberated" countries are accused of bribery, and fined, while the halls of congress are full of unprosecuted bribers.


And talking of conspiracies, I'll be placing a short list of movies, most but not all, documentaries that tackle bits and pieces of our broken system. Hopefully these will be of interest to you visiting this blog. Maybe you've even seen some already. If you like them, pass along the title to someone else who might watch.


This week: 
INSIDE JOB; SO GOES THE NATION; BUSH FAMILY FORTUNES

Goodbye Irene

Update:
Looks like Jacksonville wisely placed itself two hundred miles to the west of Irene's path. What foresight! I'll keep a good thought for those in its path, though, like those in Stone Harbor, NJ; Long Island, NY; Boston, MA...


I was all dressed for a bike ride yesterday afternoon, because the skies were clear, the wind calm, and had high hopes for a spin. But when I turned off the lights to go, rain pummeled the tin roof out back, and I reluctantly had to take off my tights and helmet... and the wind kicked up a mini-storm. Figures! But lucky I wasn't caught out in that localized squall.

I see a string of storms in the South Atlantic, and this is peak hurricane season, so I'm sure we'll face other scares. I've printed lists and maps of shelters, including those that accept animals, and ones that are close to Amy's work as well as to our place. And I got to go food shopping for canned goods, crackers, gallons of water, paper plates, etc. and stuff a cooler full of those meals so we can take it and go.

Grove and I ventured to the beach last night. It was crowded, with some show-off surfers, who mostly walked along the shore instead of getting in the water. Which was pretty wimpy, since the waves weren't more than six to eight feet at their highest.

The beach had a trough of flood water just before the dunes, quickly becoming a temporary swamp. The mucky puddle was about fifty feet long by twenty wide, and about two feet deep. And located right where the wooden bridge enters the beach, so lots of people just stopped there. The stinky foam everywhere was the surprise, though. Really stinky! Even after several attempts, I couldn't wash it off my hands. I can still smell it this morning... Lucky for you all, smell-blogging isn't a common technology yet!

Goodbye Irene

Update:
Looks like Jacksonville wisely placed itself two hundred miles to the west of Irene's path. What foresight! I'll keep a good thought for those in its path, though, like those in Stone Harbor, NJ; Long Island, NY; Boston, MA...

I was all dressed for a bike ride yesterday afternoon, because the skies were clear, the wind calm, and had high hopes for a spin. But when I turned off the lights to go, rain pummeled the tin roof out back, and I reluctantly had to take off my tights and helmet... and the wind kicked up a mini-storm. Figures! But lucky I wasn't caught out in that localized squall.

I see a string of storms in the South Atlantic, and this is peak hurricane season, so I'm sure we'll face other scares. I've printed lists and maps of shelters, including those that accept animals, and ones that are close to Amy's work as well as to our place. And I got to go food shopping for canned goods, crackers, gallons of water, paper plates, etc. and stuff a cooler full of those meals so we can take it and go.

Grove and I ventured to the beach last night. It was crowded, with some show-off surfers, who mostly walked along the shore instead of getting in the water. Which was pretty wimpy, since the waves weren't more than six to eight feet at their highest.

The beach had a trough of flood water just before the dunes, quickly becoming a temporary swamp. The mucky puddle was about fifty feet long by twenty wide, and about two feet deep. And located right where the wooden bridge enters the beach, so lots of people just stopped there. The stinky foam everywhere was the surprise, though. Really stinky! Even after several attempts, I couldn't wash it off my hands. I can still smell it this morning... Lucky for you all, smell-blogging isn't a common technology yet!

HELLO IRENE

Well, we made it all the way to late August without a hurricane our first year.
Now it's late August, and Irene is going to sweep by. She'll probably miss us, but we'll feel her draft.

In fact, she brushed by me this morning. Grover and I went to the beach at 7am to see if I could get any good pics. I'm not sure I can say whether I did. But in less than thirty seconds the beach morphed from a clear sky with offshore clouds (pic) to a full-on drenching rain. Thirty seconds. Fifteen seconds of sudden wind, and fifteen seconds of light drizzle. And you just KNOW I had both my camera and my new phone out there!
Of course Grover freaked out. Are you kidding? He pulled and lurched and twisted around my ankles as I tried to shield my camera and phone under a soggy t-shirt. And the runners and walkers on the beach made a bee-line for the ramp to exit, which of course made him more anxious than he'd already been.
The storm looks large, even from space (pic.) I'm sure that wherever she lands she'll make an impression. I'll keep my fingers crossed that nobody gets hurt or killed.
Something going on, though. We all hear the conservative loudspeakers pooh-poohing global warming. Then we hear how "vicious" Mother Nature is: our historic Florida wildfires, Virginia's bizarre earthquake. Even Lincoln had an event: a propane tanker on fire and a large evacuation. What's next? Can it be mitigated? Probably not, people.
BTW: For all you sympathetic to asking questions, I suggest you watch the documentary on the death of Pat Tillman, The Pat Tillman Story. I'm not a big football fan, nor a war-hero fan, and I still like the personality I saw. Unsettling as the story is, even more unsettling for me was its lack of closure... I'd say it makes you think, but I'm already thinking.

Alas, a Lass

Alas, Lana's summertime here is over, but not before we got to do lots of fun things during her weeks here. Of course, not as much as I intended. No manatees, for instance. And the museum's Art Camp I wanted to get her into was full. But a good time anyway.

During breaks from the Tour d'France on television, we rode bikes along the quiet street out front. She transformed from a shaky rider into a confident one who can speed down the block one-handed and even make a skid. A bit of a daredevil, (ode to biker knees, photo!)

We saw Fourth of July fireworks on the beach, and were bombarded between the festivities of an event just to the south and one just to the north. We sat with a family on the block who has a girl, Abby, Lana's age. Of course they rode bikes together after that.

The art room here became a second home to Lana, and we started many projects and finished some. We made a diorama, practiced calligraphy and painted. We planned out a book and painted tee-shirts. On and on....

And an end-of-month visit by Grandmom from California, (photo.)

And of course the BIG SURPRISE was Disneyworld. Three days and nights, chock-full-o-fun and wonder. Really nicer than I thought it would be: more exciting, more interesting and more enjoyable, despite the heat. We liked the show with the ants and spiders that dropped from the ceiliings, and at the end the seats undulated and "maggots" crawled out from under! The water rides were a hit too, but not the rollercoasters for the girls and not the dark ones for any of us.

The ride back to Chattanooga started so early Lana slept for the first hour and a half. She's a terrific traveler, and we made good time so we could swim in the hotel's pool that first day, (goggles.) She had a week at home first, then fourth grade began...