The Storm and the Fury

We got mainly a windy day today with 2 periods of brief but very heavy rain mixed in there.

Here is what the beach looked like at various times today courtesy of destincam.com

Hurricane Prep

The past couple of days have been spent on preparations in case we were hit by TS/Hurricane Isaac. 

We are used to all the uncertainty involved with these storms and always have to prepare as if it will hit us.  But this storm jerked everybody around on the entire Gulf Coast (except Texas).  First it was headed right at us hitting Tampa in the process.  Then it drifted East , then back West and continued to the West finally settling on New Orleans.

It is now Monday night and we are out from under a hurricane watch.  The storm is big and has slowed down some.  So far all we’ve got is some wind  and spritzes of light rain.  We are told we may get more than 10 inches of rain over the next 2 days but we will see.  We’ve seen many storms take this path and barely affect our area.

One interesting occurrence while I was battening down the hatches – I uncovered my little turtle friend.  I fed it a nice big glob of cat food so it will not be hungry during the storm.  I also got a good picture.

 

I also ran into some tree frogs by my shed:

A Day in Destin

We took advantage of school being in session thinning out the tourists and a day that had only a small chance of rain to head out to Destin and kayak.

We put the yaks in on the west side of Destin Pass paddled North under the bridge and then East, back under the bridge and into Destin Harbor.  This is an easy place to get the kayaks in and provides a much different environment than the bayou.  It also is a good spot to fish if I decide to try that again.  After seeing a guy land a 20 lb redfish today I may just give it a shot.

When we got over inside the harbor we looked back and found the skies were getting dark and it looked like we were going to get rain.  That made us head back to the car. Here are some pictures:

 

                                          our pirate ship

The rain finally faded, the onshore breeze held it inshore enough to miss us.

Since we were out this far already we continued on to do some shopping at Target, the Sony Outlet, the Columbia Store, Best Buy and Fresh Market.

That pretty well used up the day.

Another Wet Week

Our rainfall is more than 11 inches above average so far this year.  It’s rained almost every day now for 3 weeks.    I picked 2 days –last Sunday and Monday- for kayaking and those were the only days this week without significant rain.  I did get the lawn mowed on Friday, but I got rained on during the mowing.  It rained real hard just after I finished mowing.  The rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow making Monday the next potential kayaking day.

I got the pool leveled, filled and the water balanced now.  I just haven’t used it yet due to the weather.  I had to drain it and refill it to get the wrinkles out of the saggy side.  Penny found the ladder for our pool on clearance sale at Lowes yesterday.  Even though I had built a ladder the one Penny found is made for the pool and will do a better job.   It was very inexpensive, too.  Once again Penny’s shopping ability shines.

Yesterday I looked out the kitchen window and spotted the turtle arriving on the patio.  Later, when I went out to feed the cats he was out there pressed up against the cat feeder.  I took a small scoop of cat food and reached out and plopped it in front of him.  He looked at it, stretched out his neck and started eating it.   I gave him a 2nd scoop which he also ate before doing his disappearing act.

This Week in Review.

Well, it’s been a quiet week in FT Walton, my hometown out there in the panhandle.  It rained every day this week except today.  Some days I was able to get some outside stuff done, some days only inside.

We went to Target last weekend and I got a 16 ‘ x 36” swimming pool which was, of course, was marked down enough for me to be comfortable buying it.  It ended up giving me exercise this week in between rain storms.

First it was clearing and leveling a patch of the back yard.

Then laying out the pool, filling it and building a support structure for a still-to-be-made cover.  The pool was supposed to smoothly pull the wall of the pool up as it filled.  One area of the sidewall, however, ended up filling in with creases being held in by the weight of the water.  I think I can work those creases out once I get in the pool but so far that hasn’t happened since it’s rained so much.  I also had to either make or buy a pool ladder.  Price and availability pushed me to make the ladder.  Here’s what it looks like with the saggy end. 

Now I need to make a cover and get a screen to scoop debris out of the pool.  It’s actually sunny today so I may actually use the pool and try to straighten out the saggy side.

We celebrated our 39th anniversary early at Rodizio Grill (Brazilian Steakhouse) in Pensacola. http://www.rodiziogrill.com/.

Well, we spent the day in Pensacola celebrating.  That was the meal.  We started with a walk through Target.  Then we went to A&E fabrics where Penny got lots of nice material for her quilts and had a huge grin on her face the whole time.  After lunch we went to Harbor Freight for my turn to grin.

Since we were off our diets for the day we stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home.

Finally today we started out the day with kayaking.  The bayous are full of fish now and the Osprey are having a field day swooping in and catching them.

And that’s the news from FT Walton, where all the Gugs are retired, all their kids and kids-in-law are good looking, and their grandkids and grandanimals  above average.

Thoughts of the Week.

I didn’t do much worth blogging about this week.  Since my day off Kayak fishing  the biggest event was our day of shopping on Friday.  Otherwise I did yard work and house work.  Throughout that work I listened to more podcasts from the over a years worth I have  stored in I-tunes.  The podcasts and music I listened to set me to thinking about certain things.  But first the shopping.

We played tourist and went shopping at Kohls and out at Silver Sands.  At Kohls we got stuff for Christy and Penny.  We went to the outlets primarily to check out the Columbia outlet for clothes for our upcoming trip to Canada.  I planned to check out their convertible hiking slacks.  They hadn’t been on sale on previous visits, but this time they were.  Also, because my waist size has dropped I could fit into the size they had on sale.

We always check out the Sony outlet and this time we found them selling out the store.  They are being kicked out of the outlets.  All their TVs were sold and most of what was left did not interest us.  Movies, however, were 70% off so I picked up 6 3-D movies, mainly kids movies like Lion King and Toy Story 3.  I also got Clash of the Titans because I thought Christian might watch it when he visits.  We took advantage of the discounts to get 2 more pair of 3-D glasses.  Now we have 6.  That should be plenty for any time we have guests.

Now, on to my thoughts.

I have some John Denver on my mp3 player right now and listening to him made me think about how music affects our lives.  Many of our attitudes and opinions are formed from listening to and interpreting music.  I like a number of  Denver’s songs.  They usually are simple and emotional.  He sold lots of music.  I always found it interesting that he hosted the Grammys a couple of times but never won one while he was alive.  They did award him one posthumously for best children’s album.  My Mom thought I looked like John and for a while when my hair was long and I was a lot skinnier I did. ( I also went through my Gilligan phase where I looked like Bob Denver.)  What’s with me and the name Denver?

On one of the podcasts, I think Fresh Air, a soldier was being interviewed.  He was asked whether he had any difficulty adjusting to life here after being in Afghanistan.  He said that while deployed he was making important life-or-death decisions every day.  It was exciting and fulfilling. Now, at home, he had trouble adjusting to the relative unimportance of anything.  He said what does it matter if I left a dirty plate out.

Coincidentally I watched Hurt Locker on TV last night and the main Character has the same issue.  (spoiler alert – if you haven’t seen the movie you may not want to read the rest of this paragraph.)  During the movie one of his buddies breaks down emotionally and says that all he wants now is to have a son and that he thought he never would.  The men survive their rotation in Explosive Ordnance Disposal  and go home.  The main character has a wife and a baby boy at home-everything his buddy thinks he wants- but this doesn’t seem to make our guy happy.  The movie shows him doing menial house and yard work and being overwhelmed by the bounty in a supermarket where his job is to pick up cereal.   He says this to his baby boy “You love everything, don't you?  Yeah.  But you know what, buddy? As you get older, some of the things that you love might not seem so special anymore, you know. Like your jack-in-the-box. Maybe you realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. As you get older there are fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me I think it's one.”  The next scene of the movie shows him arriving in Afghanistan on a new deployment.  The movie ends with him walking to an unexploded device in his full protective suit and he has a big smile on his face.

I hope you have what you love in your life.

Kayak Fishing

I went kayak fishing for the first time today.  It is an exercise in space management.  I didn’t catch any keepers but I enjoyed being out there for about 5 hours.

I was fishing in brackish water  and that explains the little alligator gar I caught and released.  He was only about a foot long.  I also caught a small red fish.  He wasn’t the required 17 inches in length – again only about a foot- but he sure was a pretty fish.  The 3rd fish caught was a big catfish.  He actually put up a good fight before I got him to the kayak and identified him. I carefully released him.

I saw lots of birds.  There were 2 osprey that were flying together all morning and peeping at one another to keep close.  I got one picture that shows the bird’s sharp beak and talons.  It’s no wonder they are so successful at catching fish.

It was quite hot today so after I got back to shore and loaded the kayak back onto the CRV I took a dip at the little beach.  It’s the first swimming I’ve done this year and it was refreshing.

I don’t think I’m going to be doing a lot of kayak fishing.  It’s fun but I think I enjoy the kayak more because of its simplicity.  Fishing from one, to me, isn’t as much fun as just paddling and enjoying being out on the water.

My next fishing expedition will probably be surf fishing.