America's Got Talent

Speaking of Labor Day, Rockaway throws a "Carnival in the Park" the last weekend before school starts each year. The 2011 entertainment consisted of these four ladies, The All American Cloggers.  They clogged routines to taped music and took rest breaks between each song to catch their breath.

Really, you can't make this stuff up!

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Written on a hot dog wrapper, this sign posted on the outside of the "Purple Trailer" (aka, the hot dog stand) points to the fact that Labor Day has come and gone and the tourist season is over.

Kettlecorn salesman, Jerry Garcia, continues to sell, sell, sell, not willing to believe summer has come to an end.  If the weather has anything to say about it, he is absolutely right!  Just for the record, we don't believe the rumor either.

Rejuvenation

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, 

and to have my senses put in order."   

--John Burroughs

Time Traveler

The smell of the mahogany immediately transports me back in time.  I am a young child sitting in my grandfather’s shop watching him build a boat from lumber and nails.  Glancing around the room at the piles of sawdust and machines, I see the screws and nails sorted into containers which earlier had served as my baby food jars.  My grandpa is a man of few words, so we quietly enjoy each other’s company as he crafts the wood into a sleek runabout.

I run my hand along the varnish and hear my parents tell me not to step on it until I have washed off my sandy little feet.  I sit washing my feet in the river and look out across the water.  My grandmother  is floating along with a big grin on her face, waving at me.

The tow rope hook on the stern takes me to the “endless summer” just before I became a teenager when I was trying desperately to learn to water ski.  Neck deep in water, skis out in front of me, hands cramped around the rope’s handle, I have been dragged behind the boat like this for months with no luck.   This time something is different when the engine engages, I suddenly find myself popping out of the water looking down with surprise at those big red skis as they cut across the waves.   I look up at my dad driving the boat and his face tells me he is clearly as excited as I am.  Instantly, I love the feeling of zooming along atop the water.

Inside the boat I spot one of my daughter’s “floaties” she wore when learning to swim and I am once again a young mother.  I hold Kate up while she splishes and splashes about in the river and then we get in the boat so I can dry her off.  Her wet bathing suit leaks through the towel to make a damp spot on my clothes as she sits on my lap for the trip back to the dock.  Her braid whips around in the wind and tickles my face.

Then I travel back to the present, a mature woman at Saltair Station where my loving husband has just unloaded  that same precious boat built by my grandfather all those years ago.   Here in Bob’s wood shop,  my grandfather is with me and the circle is complete.

Changes in Latitudes...Changes in Attitudes...

Jimmy Buffett is singing my song as I end my work week and head for a vacation filled with Cheeseburgers in Paradise.  Yes, Come Monday, my Son Of A Sailor and I will be sipping our Boat Drinks, keeping a lookout for Fins To The Left and Fins To The Right.  Saltair Station is just a few stops from Margaritaville and that is where this Hula Girl At Heart will be dancing the Last Mango In Paris for the foreseeable future!

Bucket List

These four matching buckets were sitting on the beach right next to each other close to the waves. There didn't appear to be any small or large kids nearby. For the hour or so we were on the beach, they never moved.

Perhaps they were "art" or just washed up into this perfect formation.

That's Neap

Celestial Mechanic Bob and I have been observing that the same days the high tides are really high on the Oregon Coast, the low tides are really low. We also noticed this phenomenon happened during full moons and new moons which lead me to believe that witches and pagans were somehow involved. Well, possibly, but it turns out science has an explanation too and has determined two specific types of tides.

Spring tides have the largest tidal range and these coincide with either a new moon or a full moon. The term, Spring, refers to “jumping or moving forward” not to the season. So when a storm moves onshore during a high spring tide (as in Hurricane Irene last weekend) it gives extra cause for concern as the consequences can be severe. Low spring tides are good for clamming.

On the other hand…

Neap tides result in less extreme tidal conditions and occur during waxing and waning moons. The tidal range is at a minimum, slack water time is longer and the tidal currents are not as strong. No one seems clear about where the term Neap came from, although I have a theory on that too. Neap is derived from the noise, “Neap, neap…neap, neap,” made by those fuzzy two-headed characters on Sesame Street as they bounce around the screen causing trouble.

So we learned something today and are another step closer to solving all of the mysteries of the universe. We now turn our attention to answering to the age-old question, “Why is the ocean water so dang cold in the summer on the Oregon Coast?”

Thanks to Sesame Street and Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide for clearing this up.