Some sweet music

We came away from the Farmers' Market at Shelter Cove on Hilton Head Island last night (Tuesday, May 20, 2014) having experienced a couple of treats and a disappointment that it was not really a "farmers' market." Only one stand offered fresh vegetables and these came from the market in Columbia more than a 100 miles away. I had a pulled pork sandwich - rate it as good. Now for  the treats. My dessert was frozen key lime pie covered in chocolate on a stick. Outstanding.
While we - me and Joyce - were walking around and eating we listened to L.J. Bush (info@bushwackdLIVE.com) who played music we and others enjoyed. His melodies were soft and his words we understood. Truly a refreshing sound from that frequently heard out in outdoor venues.

Alligators and the black squirrel

This afternoon Joyce and I took a ride in a golf cart to the 11th hole on the North course here at Moss Creek and counted 11 baby alligators in a ditch nearby. The momma and the papa were nowhere in sight. These babies, currently about 30" long,  will - if they live - grow to about five feet in length. At that time Moss Creek management will have to decide what to do with them.
One day this past week some of these gators were on the fairway as golfers played through.  These are the first gators I have seen since moving to Moss Creek in March 2013, although friends have reported many earlier sightings. These two are the cover picture on my album.

 On the way home we stopped to look for a larger gator but he would not surface. It was quite hot and probably he stayed under water to keep cool. As we were about to get into the cart we saw this black squirrel.  These are uncommon in this area. At one point I took a head on camera shot and said "turn for your profile." We laughed as he did exactly that. I do not pretend to converse with squirrels.

Complete blog here.

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Loving the daily newpaper

Letter to the Editor

The Island Packet

 Hilton Head SC

(Published May 8, 2014)

 

The people in this community must really love the daily newspaper.

Every day, it seems, someone provides grist for front-page stories that usually carry over to inside pages. There is always a fresh murder, rape, child molestation, robbery, car theft, or drug offense involving heroin, cocaine or marijuana. On slow days, there are reports of horrific traffic accidents and thefts from charities, businesses or government offices.

And when things really slow down, local government steps up and brings us fresh courtroom dramas involving all of the foregoing.

There is hardly any room in the daily morning paper for the shenanigans of the White House and the Congress, especially the latter.

Francis X. Archibald

Moss Creek

My walk - in free verse

I went up Wax Myrtle Lane

At Cat Brier Drive I went right

An instant decision

Usually I go left.

A car came toward me

One step off the edge of the road

Onto the grass

Until it passed.

Then a waste haul truck

Came along

Again, I stood on the grass

Until it passed.

Two women did I encounter

Walking in the opposite direction

One talking on a cellphone

The other being ignored

We passed without exchanging greetings.

Onto Timber Lane

And through Stablegate community

A man and his dog

A plastic glove on hand

To clean up after the dog.

Rat-a-tat-tat, I heard

And, again, a second volley

I stopped and looked

But could not see the woodpecker.

The day was cool

The sky was clear

I turned left on Moss Creek drive

And left on Cat Brier

And right on Wax Myrtle Lane

I was home

My daily walk was over.

 The Complete Blog

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Joyous Greetings at Easter 2014

Joyous greetings to all in this new Easter season. It is a time for reflecting on all the good and many years we have enjoyed in the company of each other and with friends gone on. For renewing our camaraderie with family and friends, many of whom we do not see every day but carry in our hearts. And, last but not least, for giving thanks to a forgiving and blessing God our Father, and for all those who are near and dear to us. We are truly blessed. We live in a great country surrounded by mostly good people. We have taken advantage of great opportunities. It doesn't get any better than this.

New growth symbolizes the new Easter season.

A child's retirement says you are old!

At dinner on March 17, 2014, the first anniversary of my marriage to Joyce, I told her, two of my sons and a daughter and daughter-in-law, that I was experiencing signs of getting old: Walking has slowed down, I've given up bike riding, hearing is less than what it used to be, and a few other things (best left un-described) are a bit slow in responding. “But what really makes me feel old,” I said, “is having a child retire.”

A retirement ceremony, scheduled at the CIA where my second son, James, an attorney, had completed 27 years of service in various legal positions, had been cancelled because snow shut down the entire federal government in Washington, D.C., on St. Patrick’s Day. Talk about the luck of the Irish. We had the retirement dinner anyway and told James how much we loved him and how proud we were of his service to our country (in addition to an earlier four years as an officer in the USAF.) Three of the agency's leaders passed along laudatory comments about James and his service. I only wish we could have heard them in person.

My wife and I drove to Washington from Hilton Head, S.C., and the trip was uneventful until we got about 90 miles south of the nation’s capital where, for no explicable reason other than density, traffic slowed down to a crawl. We beat the snow, however, but it started to come down and stick on the ground around 7 p.m. on March 16. 

The most notable event of the return trip heading south on March 18, was passing a multiple vehicle accident in the north bound lanes. It looked like a car had been on fire. As we came up on the scene, there were too many vehicles (cars, 18 wheelers, and emergency vehicles) stopped and jammed together to figure out what happened. Not being involved and unable to assist we kept on going. Joyce was at the wheel and measured the traffic back up as stretching two miles from the accident site. It was less than a stellar day for a lot of people.

Our car (BMW) on the left.

One year married and already out in the cold (LOL)

Birds puffing out their chests to keep warm

The retiree with his shovel and friend.

 

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U Pick

About six or seven miles from our home, five acres of daffodils stretched out before us. And this was only one field. A second field is nearby. On a sunny Sunday afternoon we turned off U.S. Highway 278 in Bluffton, SC, and traveled on a paved secondary road and then a well maintained unpaved road to what had been for years a dairy farm. "I milked a lot cows in my day," Chuck Merrick, the owner and operator of U Pick Daffodils, told us. He laughed easily, "a dairy farm is like the 7-11 store." It was not necessary to say which life he preferred. "Cows get milked at 4:30 am, the daffodil farm opens at 10."

Note the "ant" warning.

Ladies picking their own.

Joyce bought some for a friend going in the hospital.

The old pack mule, with a light load.

The click-able link in the first paragraph will take you to a brief history of Merrick's farm and family. Both are interesting and enjoyable, especially the notes about the grandsons.

(Complete blog here.)

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The view from the Top of America ... Look, enjoy and be amazed

One World Trade Center is rising like a Phoenix and is being prepared to open. The link below opens the gateway to a staggering and magnificent 360-degree image taken 1,776ft up on the top the nation's tallest skyscraper, as well as other photos of the site.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2574788/The-view-America-Staggering-360-degree-image-taken-1-776ft-nations-tallest-skyscraper-released-One-World-Trade-Center-prepares-finally-open.html

Hope you enjoy! 

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It's embarrassing

I begin each day with coffee, English muffin, and the local newspaper, The Island Packet. It is a ritual I began when I retired a couple of decades ago. Former Chief Justice Earl Warren started his morning paper with the sports section because it is “about winners” and the front section is “about losers.” I wade right in, however, and take on the front section, then sports and end with the comics and feel good stories.

Today, before I left page 7 of the 10 page front section I felt embarrassed for our country and personally down hearted that we have in many quarters not advanced much in the last 50 or 60 years. Discrimination, hate and meanness still reverberate throughout many segments of society.

In Oxford, Mississippi, members of a fraternity hung a noose and old confederate flag on the statue of James Meredith, the first black to enter the University of Mississippi in 1962. The offenders have been kicked out of the fraternity and the fraternity chapter has been suspended indefinitely by the national organization. While the response is good, the basic act itself is vile and contemptible.

Down in Texas, the rock guitarist, Ted Nugent, on the campaign trail for a gubernatorial candidate publicly called President Obama a “subhuman mongrel.” Later as protests arose he went on a radio station to apologize – not to the President – but on behalf of “much better men than myself.” Obviously, referring to the candidate with whom he was stumping for votes. Such insults are the stuff of meanness, hatefulness and stupidity. They demean all of us and are unworthy of Americans.

And then there is the Arizona legislature, which it is fair to say, leads the country in anti-immigration legislation and other progressive acts called for in the 21^st Century. This time gay rights are the focus of the legislative ire.  Over “shrill objections” of Democrats and three Republicans, a bill has been passed, and is on the governor’s desk, which allows business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays. (It doesn’t say how to identify gay people.) Opponents of the measure said it was clearly designed to allow discrimination against gays. Governor Jan Brewer’s decision may come next week. The business community considers the bill another “black eye” for the state, and a major distraction as Arizona prepares to host the Super Bowl next year. Reportedly four companies have put on hold plans to open facilities in Arizona until they see if the bill becomes law.

And this is just three stories on one day. Tomorrow it will be something else. It is embarrassing.We are better than this; if only we would act it.