Needing A Rescue Beacon For The BP Spill

With her velvet hair and violet eyes she scans the room like a beacon from a lighthouse piercing the blackness. Is the signal for wayward sailors meant for a lost love? She can't place her finger on exactly what she's searching for, but only acknowledges that something, someone is strangely out of place as a missing puzzle piece that would complete the so longed for image.

Do you find yourself sometimes fantasizing about being a character in a story? Where the end is destined and there is always a middle and a beginning. How simple our lives would translate and operate if we had our very own authors prethinking and penning our every word and deed.

There are times I've wished to have never began a story or subplot, choosing to skip a chapter. Of course, you never know you should of omitted that part of the story until after you've read it, well, and then...it's too late.

Because it's there...already engraved onto your memory, never to be forgotten. What then? You can't forget it so you must find a way to live with it. You also can not erase or change the past. There isn't a device which freely allows you to travel to a previous time in history.

I adore people who embrace tragedy with open arms instead of wallowing in the toxic waste of self pity. Strength and courage of mind and heart bottled into a course of action that flows freely like a river, just like the oil that flows freely beneath the life spring of waters in the Gulf of Mexico. I'm not quite sure where my course of action will take me, but be certain...my river will flow and you will soon know.

Dancing With Old Man Winter

Coming off a two week holiday hiatus, has the kids and I back in school and soon to be facing the full onslaught of Old Man Winter. I've got my dancing shoes on and I'm ready to tango with the old fella. I've stocked up on a bit of water, organic chips and salsa, cans of water packed tuna, instant coffee, apples, oranges and I've made a few quarts of soup. I've wrapped exposed pipe, gave my trees a drink to insulate the ground, rounded up all the furry creatures and made cozy beds for them inside the house, left the shed door open for any wild creatures that may need to take shelter for the next two nights and have rented a movie just in case the worst case scenario presents itself.

Grandma Mohler phoned me just a few minutes ago. We wished each other a Happy New Year and then she began excitedly to tell me about a mishap, some sort of explosion by the airport near Jackson. She was worried because it was a gas line and her kitchen stove functions with natural gas. I found the article and read it, told her they had turned off the gas and extinguished the fire quickly. I also told her there were no injuries reported. She wanted to know who owned the company, I told her Gulf South and that they were based in Houston. She said, "Well, that figures, they do all sorts of things wrong in Texas."

Well, I didn't argue with her, I mean she is my grandma.

Longing for Long Beach

Last night, a friend from Port Aransas, Texas related her evening on the island, likening it to the perfect place to be. Cool night, perfect temperature for the ocean and how fun it was to be a local. I then commented how I had grown up on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Long Beach specifically, and how I missed a few of the things, and missed being a "local". Well, I didn't want to complain too much because I scolded someone else recently for being a whiner.

Then I blogged about the possibility of having to move again, and wondering exactly where I would end up, Long Beach hadn't really crossed my mind until I got this email this morning:

"I saw your post from last night. Seems you may be a little home sick.(MAYBE) So I thought I would throw a little more wood to the flames. It is a cool 74 degrees right now with a high of only about 85 today, and for the next 5 days, or so, with lows in the 60's to 70's. I know you are looking for possibly a new job, because of yours running out in a year. So, why not you look around here. There has been about 5 or 6 new schools built around here, between Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, and the county. Hancock County is building a bunch of new schools. Thought I just throw that out there. AND about the beaches, they're better than ever, very clean now, the county is spending a lot of money on them. They have also built a new sidewalk system, and break walls along the whole beach from the Pass to Biloxi. With new parking bays and sitting areas all along the beach front. It is nice. Well, thought I just toss that bone out there. Have a good day.

P.S. I like the part about the going fishing at the beach. Brought back good memories. Put a smile on my face. If you know what I mean?"










And...it gets worse...now that the word has spread that I might be considering Long Beach in my future...I've been getting pictures now attached to all those emails. I've got some pretty great friends, considering I haven't seen some of them in like eons...to be remembering me and wanting me to move on back. I guess, I'll have to consider throwing my hat in the ring on that one.