The 30th of June

Human Curiosity

I see spell check is out here, so you are just going to have to deal with my inability to spell and the gad (just double chcking there) grammar.

No matter how many years I spend on this planet, human behavior always seems to puzzle me.  Either it is truly amazing or I am just too dumb to recognize what really goes on.

The poor people out west are losing it all to an inferno, yet the TV spends mega time talking about Tom Cruise's divorce...Huh?

A simple flame could stir the heart to all kinds of things human.  Love and hate!  Passion or neglect!  Warmth or cold!  Weddings and divorce.  Even war! And we humans are right there demanding a front row seat!

Yesterday.   Mother Nature, neglect, stupidity, maybe even intent, but I doubt it, started a blaze in our little town.  A pretty big blaze but certainly nothing like the wildfires consuming parts of Utah and Colorado.  But a decent fire in itself.

OK, it's a big local fire.  Lots of smoke.  Lots of radio and TV coverage.  And lots of photographers (like me).  I guess my Mother was right.  I should have been a lawyer.  I just love to ambulance chase!  So I was one of them.  And then I stand back the next day and write about how amazed I am that so many people showed up to watch. 

I worked in New York City for 20 some odd years,,,,and they were odd,,,, and spent most of my lunch hours just wandering around the city people watching.  Unbelievable what you can see when you open your eyes.  A soda and a "Dirty water dog" for lunch and I had an hour just to watch what people were doing.  Truly incredible.  Try it some time.

I understand that it was some kind of plastic or petroleum based re-cycling plant.  Well, I guess they found a way to re-cycle the re-cycling plant.  But my point is, I have never seen so much vehicular traffic on our little streets. 

Stick yer nose up in the air, see the smoke and follow it.  That seems to be the credo for us ambulance chasers.

Yesterday, 113 degrees here on the south side of the Sun.  I'm going out now and watch my bird bath boil.

The 28th day of the sixth.

YIKES!

I am having a real rough time, not turning this blog into a political discussion.  But then I don't run a benevolent democracy here!  So I probably should not.

RECOVERING

Not from the recent trip up north.  Not from some insidious illness which will probably overtake me within the next twenty years.

BUT

From Gamecock overload!

That's Gamecock like in the University of South Carolina baseball team.

Every year at this time the "Boys of Summer" become the "Men of Omaha". 

And this year is no exception.

The fans are all set and as a fan, I for one am shaking my head in awe.  Last night we earned the right, for the third straight year, to play in the finals of the College World Series.  Of course it was tense and late (12:30 our time), and we beat a great Arkansas team for the right to play Arizona on Sunday in a three game series.

That's sort of like eating your spinach just to get to the broccoli! 

Ray Tanner, the coach, brings this team to the top at just the right time and they all play their hearts out.  That my friends is the difference between College ball and the pros.  The pros are always so worried about breaking the multi-million dollar bodies that the game is simply different.  But the coach just seems to get it done.

Tanner at last year's parade.

And the fans are ready for a 3-peat!

It's just a good thing they're not playing on the West Coast....I never would get any sleep! 

Congratulations to the "Men of Omaha"---- Go get um!

The 15th of the 6th

Things you see and generally never do!

South of the Border

"Can we stop Dad?"

"NO, and we're not there yet!"

"Look Sombreros!"

This is an iconic spot along the "Blue Hair Highway".  That's Interstate 95 North and South along the East Coast.  Been on it most of my life for one reason or another.  Maybe it was a short jog through Philadelphia or a longer one up to Mystic.  Or the long haul to the southern states.  At any rate I never stopped along that ribbon of concrete and asphalt to take a look.  Too many miles to make and too little time!  There have been books written and photo journals made of some of the famous highways in the country.  Rt. 66 and parts of  Rt. 1 are only two roads that come to mind.  A book written by William Least Heat-Moon entitled "Blue Highways",  is a really great read.

This thing has been here for at least sixty years that I know of. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_of_the_Border_(attraction)

Actually it started out as a Beer stand in the 1950's, so my recollection is not too far off.  When travelling with my parents in the sixties and seventies to and from Florida vacations, this was one of the places the kids always wanted to stop and the parents said .... "Next year".  Well, there never was a next year, but last week I did do a drive by.  Bought a soda at the convenience store which had the old wooden shelves and look of the fifties.

Next time I am going to take the time. The only comparable roadside nostalgia I can think of are the old "Burma Shave" signs.  They too advertised for miles along the major highways.  Remember them?  Today's billboards just have no class for the most part and are simply clutter.  But back then some admen had some real creativity and South of the Border continues to advertise uniquely for at least seventy miles north and south of their location. 

Another one of those things I have always taken for granted.

The 14th of the sixth

Nostalgic

Having just returned from the place in which I spent over fifty years living, playing, working and photographing...............it is, I guess, only natural to get a little nostalgic.

A lot of great writers have taken us to the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, but I did live it.  If you dig long enough through the 2011 archives,  you can find my series on "Minding the Roots at Tavern Creek" and you will begin to understand my devotion to that place.

My morning's cup of Pike Place Roast and the rare early morning quiet of this South Carolina urban neighborhood allows my mind to drift (again).  Places like the Chester River come to mind.  A major tributary to "The" major tributary that we call simply "The Bay".

The Sultana leading the Ellsworth to port at Chestertown, MD.

River life is constantly changing.  Every loop you make on the mower presents another scene.  Every time you lift your head from some other chore around the house, the view is different.  Or often as not nothing is changing.

I miss steamed crabs.  For years we could pick them off the pilings of the docks with a dip net.  Net them in the grasses of the shallows or simply throw a couple of pots off the dock.  Then things slowed down and there was a period that very few could be found on the Chesapeake.  Now, I understand they are back.

Like clockwork, "My" osprey pair would return each March 15th to set up housekeeping on the platform I built for them just off the dock.  I hope they still return to that spot because I have seen at least a dozen pairs raised on that piling nest.

Another river dweller.  This one atop a buoy which would rock and roll with the wake of every boat to pass.

And finally the night scenes and the last cup of the day.

The 12th of the 6th

PARTY DUDE (not)

You obviously have noted that I have not been around to enthrall and beguile you with my prose for the last four or five days.   Shame!

But it's been over the river.

And through the woods!
(Yes that is a Eastern Bluebird)

To the graduation of my grand daughter, Elizabeth Warner Norcini from Great Valley High School in southeastern Pennsylvania.

First was the "Perp" walk.  Note the stylish shoes.  The ones in the middle of the frame.  The light blue for National Honor Society.  Proud of her a little bit...yeah, big time!

Then mission accomplished.

Not sure why, but Blogger does not seem to handle video too well.

Presenting the graduate and her sister.  Love them both very much!

So, that's my excuse for being absent.  I can get a note from my Doctor if you insist, but probably not.

 Three parties, 1200 miles and a lot of people I have not seen for years makes for one very tired boy. 

The trip home was a non event except for the rains in North and South Carolina, but all in all it was a wild week end for this old man.

 Yes, it's out of focus......but by this time I couldn't tell!

The sixth of the sixth

One of the reason I do so love the state of Maine.  The coast is so interesting.  If you can stay away from the interior of the state on Moose watch, you can find little spots like this.

Curtis Island Lighthouse

Just outside of Camden, ME which is an great little town in it's own right.  It's the town where most of the tall ships can be found taking tourists for ocean going vacations.

The fifth of the sixth

SNOOZE ALARM

6:30 AM, off it goes.  Nobody has to be awake at that hour, but the next hour of torture begins.

I used to bound out of bed on the first signs of light coming through the window on the East side, now I am not to gently nudged by that mechanical device man has created to add another crease in my cerebellum.

I hate those things.  It's hard enough to part the fog in the morning.

After the first ring, little things seem to happen out of nowhere.  You need to scratch your butt because, and only the Lord knows why, of some itch that has been created from absolutely nothing that makes sense.  But you gotta scratch!  Then of course minutes later your nose itches.  Do you use the same hand?  Critical decisions at such an early hour. 

Then the alarm goes off again.  Maybe if you caress it with feather like strokes it will take longer to go off again.  Or perhaps you smack it with the flat of the hand in a vain attempt for a terminal shot.  Early in the morning in that twilight sleep, I like to lay on my belly.  But the most comfortable side to place my head is the one with the nostril which is full this morning.  Meaning, I have to breathe through my mouth and that doesn't work.  And then the &%(&^&^% alarm goes off again.  Now the dogs are whining and want to go out. 

Bring on the Pike Place Roast cause it's over and I can't enjoy the modest rain we're having until I have my Starbucks at my side.

On top of all that the spell check doesn't work.

All of this is God's way of getting even!

The fourth of the sixth

The lighthouse at Saugerties on the Hudson.  New York State!

This was actually a bed and breakfast when I made the image in 2000.  Saugerties New York, is above New York City and to the east of the Catskill Mountains.

Fire Island Lighthouse

 Long Island, New York

The nude beach at Fire Island is just to the right of this icon.  Talk about phallic symbols.

The first of June..."Forget-about-it"

Still stuck on Buffett and Pike Place Roast.

  And some more Florida lighthouses.

As far as I can figure, Buffett is right.  I have become the people my parents warned us about.  But not to worry...........it won't last long.

Since I am too old and poor to live the life of an island hopper either in the Keys of Florida, the Bahamas or perhaps the Caribbean. 

In most cases back in the late 1800's and early 1900's, lighthouses had to be visible for at least 15 miles out to sea.  At least on a clear day.  That meant two things...height and lamp power.  So the nature of the lighthouses in Florida changed considerably depending upon the location and terrain upon which they were built.

Amelia Island Lighthouse is now in an older housing development and not all that close to the water.  But it is on a bit of a hill which makes it a little higher on the horizon.

Amelia Island Lighthouse

West of Jacksonville by way of a long, long ride on Interstate 10 you can find Pensacola, the Navy base, and the Pensacola Lighthouse.  This is another shore light much like Amelia.  Maybe a little bit better maintained because it is on the Naval base there.  But most of the buildings and tower are fully intact.  Of course in an age of new methods of travel, radar and GPS the houses have been neglected to some extent as a method of keeping mariners over water and not on sand.  Consequently, the trees around the old houses have grown and while making for pretty pictures, the beam of light has been to a certain extent blocked.

Pensacola Lighthouse

The further south you travel in Florida, the flatter the state becomes.  More islands, beaches and sand.  But what always takes my breath away is the color of the water.  Aqua just doesnt' make the description.  And a lot of the lighthouses are off shore.

Alligator Reef Lighthouse

The water is surpassed only by the type of sky found every day over the state.  As I said in a previous post, these shots were made during September.  A notorious storm month and those conditions just make the combinations of water and sky a photographer's dream come true.

Boca Grande Lighthouse

Well, that enough babbling here on the "Coconut Telegraph" for today.  Have some yard work to do and a few new listings to make in the stores.  I have to admit that I have done reasonably well this year with the websites.  Stacked up against past years, this one has been decent.  If the economy ever gets back to where it should be, then maybe we'll be in a position to take advantage.  In the meantime, Buffett is going to just have to give me some pleasant moments of nostalgia.