MILESTONES

Milestones ... we all go through them.  "Rights of Passage" some may call them.  Whatever their name, they are those ordinary events in life that we rarely think about until we go through them ... or watch someone else go through them. They are those ordinary events that change our lives forever.  Take bicycle riding.  We don't even contemplate such an idea until we see a friend, older sibling or other person doing it. Or perhaps what inspires us is that newspaper ad showing shiny bright red, blue and black bicycles.  Whatever ... suddenly there is an urge to learn.  We besiege our Mom and Dad with our pleas and ultimately there we are in the yard learning to ride that new bicycle.  Once we learn this simple skill, the world opens up to us.  Suddenly Dad and Mom aren't limiting our activities to our bedroom or yard, and we are free to explore the neighborhood and visit friends.  Our lives are changed forever by this one simple, very ordinary act. This morning our little parakeet went through one of these experiences.  I am amazed it hadn't happened before.  She is, at age 3, shall we say "a very precoscious" child.  Nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) in her world escapes her notice.  I have never seen a more curious child ... everything, in it's time,gets inspected.  And yes ... I can almost feel all of you who are parents shuddering, wondering which one of those events I am talking about :)  This morning it was the scissors' turn to be inspected.  And of course, what is inspection without experimentation?  Did she cut the dog's hair?  No.  Cut the cat's hair?  No ... that was last week. The sofa or some other expensive piece of furniture?  No ... thank heavens!  Okay ... now have you guessed?  Yes ... it was her hair.  Prior to this event, she had beautiful long black hair that fell to just beneath her shoulder blades.  Now she has a short haircut ... admittedly cute, but short.  Almost immediately after cutting she wanted her long hair back.  And so, as I trimmed her hair I reassured her that her hair would grow long again (if she doesn't cut it again ... which of course I thought but didn't say to her)  Did it change her life significantly?  Probably not.  But hopefully at least a little ... maybe she will have learned the consequences of playing with scissors anywhere near her head!  But then ... I can dream can't I?

FAY BLOWS INTO TOWN

Normally we welcome visitors to our normally sunny Florida shores. In fact, every time we email or otherwise contact friends and family, we repeat our open invitation. We love visitors ... normally. A couple weeks ago however, Fay showed up on our doorstep ... uninvited and unwelcome. Fay ... never a friend of ours ... was better known as: Tropical Storm Fay. Tropical storms and hurricanes are unfortunately no strangers to people in Florida, and as such, Fay's arrival was not much of a surprise. Fortunately for us, she just "brushed" the coast here and as such caused relatively mild damage. At our house, we had a yardful of twigs and branches to pick up, and the inconvenience of torrential rains for 2 days straight, but luckily, nothing other than this.

Being a curious sort of person, I decided to venture out in the wind and rain to see the effects of Fay at the beach. The included photos show some of what I saw. In the first photo you can see in the severe bend of the sea oats that the wind was quite strong. In the second photo note the waves washing up on the beach. Doesn't look too suspect, right? Well, being a resident I can tell you this is not the usual state of this beach. Normally this part of the beach is popular among residents as well as vacationers as a good place to lay out and catch some rays. The waves on a typical sunny summer day do not come up anywhere near this far on the beach. And in fact, looking closely at this photo, one does not really see any evidence of a beach. The third photo shows the high winds blowing the palm trees. My family thought I was crazy for venturing out into the storm, but I was glad I did. As I was going about the Island I was totally awed by the power of this tropical storm. And just to note: I wouldn't be going out and about if a hurricane was in town. More likely I would be evacuated with my family, or in the case of a relatively mild hurricane, holed up in my home weathering the storm. As storms go, Fay was relatively minor and experiencing her directly was both awesome and also a reminder to me to never underestimate storms and hurricanes.

GOOD-BYE FAY ... we won't miss you