From Both Ends

The good news for you, dear reader, is that this is not about having the stomach flu. It is about looking at the world from both ends of this great island.

The view from North Beach looking south toward the Lighthouse.

From the south end of the island looking west at the setting sun.

There are hundreds of reasons to live here. These are the two I chose to share today.

A Little of This and A Little of That

It is one of those days where the blog entry is going to be a mash up of stuff. No theme today just some things to think about and memories.

This slipped by me the other day. It doesn't seem possible that was 35 years ago. If you are too young to remember it was during the "Cold War". We used amateur players and the USSR used a national troop that was somehow determined by the IOC to be amateurs. The US team was expected to lose and yet somehow at the end of the day they had won. It lives on forever in the line from Al Michaels. "Do you believe in miracles?" Well for at least that moment in time we all did.

The more I read and hear from Bernie Sanders the more I like him. He will have to declare as a Democrat if he is going to make a serious run for President. The deck is stacked against a run as an independent. If you don't know Senator Sanders take a little time and get familiar with him and his stance on issues. If you don't agree with him that is fine with me, at least you will do so knowing what he stands for and against.

So, I'm back poking religious folks in the eye. He does have a point. Since you can't see evolution happen (takes way to long) you have to accept it on faith. Satan didn't go around planting dinosaur fossils in the earth and changing the physics of carbon dating. The Bible wasn't written as a science textbook. So maybe the world is more than 6,000 years old. It leads to the next picture.

Maybe the 10 commandments could be boiled down to their basics and we would possibly be left with the command relayed above. Seems to me that "Don't be an asshole." would take care of all the issues raised in the rule book.

Perhaps there is a valid point here as well. Certainly we are not quoting scripture here and I doubt either song is a blueprint for the afterlife. One must however keep in mind the Biblical references that indicate how difficult it will be to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It does strike me as odd that while you are alive religious folks will tell you to change or you are going to go to hell. When you die they fall back to a more moderate position talking about "God" being your judge and not them. That they cannot know your heart the way "God" does. Then you go to the funeral and no matter how miserable a life a person has lead you never hear a minister say anyone is going to hell. Every time I go to church you tell me that is what is going to happen but when I'm dead all of a sudden you aren't so sure. Come on preacher man (or woman) grow a pair and stand on what you have been telling me. You won't be able to hurt my feelings, for Christ sake, I'm fucking dead.

Parade- Part 2

Back to the parade last Saturday.

 The thing that struck me about this picture when I looked at it later was the guy in the dark jacket. Maybe it was just the moment the picture was taken but when I compare him to the gal I liked yesterday, well what a difference. He seems to care less. Yeah, I'm on a float. When does this end? I have things to do.

 The guys below on the motorcycles were my least favorite part of the parade. They basically stopped here at the corner of Tybris and Butler and revved their bikes up making lots of pointless noise. Well, unless the point was that they are noisy douche bags.

 This is part of the group that posed with the police officer prior to the parade. They weren't actually in the parade they just joined in for the walk down Tybris to the beach.

 I enjoyed this old guy riding around on his three wheeler.

 He was clearly enjoying the day.

 The police make sure everyone knows the parade is over.

Parade

These are pictures from the Mardi Gras parade on Tybee last Saturday.

 You cannot have a parade without the lead group from the Tybee Island American Legion Post.

 They Tybee Island Beach Brigade is a group of ladies who get together and practice dance routines to perform in the parades. They are always fun to watch and to see what they are going to wear.

 Some of the gals really like to sell the act to the crowd.

 Props are good to have as well. The umbrellas were a nice addition to their routine.

 Mardi Gras requires beads. What you will not find on Tybee Island is women exposing their breasts to get beads. There is a lot of effort put in to making this a very family friendly place. The beads were being given to kids who came out to see the parade.

 These were the mint julep ladies. It was a fun take on southern life.

 

 The last picture for today is this gal. It would be easy to make fun of her for her outfit and make rude comments about her weight. I think it is better to go a different direction. I admire her comfort with her own skin. She is out having a good time. Clearly she has more self confidence than I do. I cannot picture myself wearing that out in public. I've been that heavy and I just never could or would feel that comfortable where I could do what she did. So, for her inner strength, her bravery, her willingness to embrace the day and have some fun she is my favorite part of the parade. More pictures tomorrow with my least favorite part of the parade.

Mardi Gras

If you are a regular here at BodineDilligaf you are aware that Tybee loves parades. Saturday was a rare daily double for Tybee since it was Valentine's Day and the annual Mardi Gras parade. I'm writing this on Fat Tuesday and normally you would see celebrations today in places like New Orleans. Well, if you want the tourists to come to Tybee you had better schedule this party on the weekend. Valentines day is also a big deal here with lots of folks wanting to get married on the beach. Many couples come out to renew their vows and this was the big weekend to do that. I asked the current Mrs. Sutor (stole that Mike- I don't think you copyrighted it) if she would like to renew our vows. She declined again. Apparently marrying me was a one time deal. Anyway I wanted to share some pictures from the festivities on Saturday.

 This is a picture of a couple of the golf carts from the Tybee Turtle that will participate in the parade. The Turtle is one of the great things on Tybee. You can rent carts or for $3.00 and a tip to your driver they will take you anywhere on the island. It always stuns me when you talk to locals who have gotten a DUI. They have to be nuts. Call the Turtle, pay three dollars and come back for your car when you are sober.

 This is one of the folks getting into the spirit of the day. It is still an hour before parade time.

 No, this is not part of the parade either. This was just a bunch of folks who wanted to dress up and have some fun.

 This is more of that group of fun seekers.

 They were having a good time especially with the kids.

 It seems one of the requirements for being a police officer on Tybee Island is posing for pictures with folks dressed in various outrageous costumes. They all seem to enjoy the positive interaction with visitors.

 The photo session went on for a few minutes as people kept coming up to get pictures.

 This fella decided to break out the increasingly popular selfie stick.

 More fun seekers waiting for the parade to start. The fun is not limited to the young but includes the young at heart.

 I took this one mainly for the dogs. Lily and I agree that she should not be subjected to such outrages against her person.

The fella in the BBC sweatshirt is Roger. He is one of the regulars at Benny's Tybee Tavern. If you go to Benny's and don't see Roger it is something you notice. He's loud and outspoken on those infrequent occasions when he decides to add to the conversation. He is one of my personal favorite Tybee locals.

Come back tomorrow when you will actually get to see some of the parade.

It's SOOOOO BIG!!!

It is a wonderful time to be alive. There have been such amazing advances in science that it is difficult to know what to talk about. This blog will be about one of my favorite advances. The Hubble Space Telescope has been circling the Earth for the past 25 years. This is going to be about a few images that remind me every time I look at them how insignificant my problems and concerns are.

This is one of the pictures from the Hubble Deep Field. Essentially it is like looking through a keyhole into the deep reaches of our universe. The picture above is from an area about 1/30th of the diameter of the moon in the night sky. The most distant galaxies in the picture are of the 30th magnitude of brightness. In terms I understand that is 4 billion times fainter than the human eye is capable of seeing. The picture above represents 25% of the total image taken by the Hubble. How was this done. From December 18 to December 28, 1995 the Hubble was pointed toward this small area of the sky. The picture is considered representative of distribution of galaxies in the universe. So if you pointed the Hubble in any direction you would expect a similar picture.

This picture gives you some idea of how the image was obtained, where the Hubble was pointed and what was in the picture. The average galaxy contains 200 million stars. This picture shows a minimum of 5,000 galaxies. Do the math. That's a lot of stars. Throw in some planets around each star.

The picture above is a representation of the area examined by the third deep field view by the Hubble. The Hubble Deep Field was followed in 2004 by a deeper view called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The last view if the XDF or Hubble Extreme Deep Field taken in 2012. The picture above is 1 degree of the 360 degrees that comprise the night sky. If you were to look at the entire night sky in the manner these tiny areas have been viewed you would have to repeat the process 24 million times.

This is the night sky the Hubble sees. The universe is full of light and quite likely life.

The caption with this final picture says everything I have to say about religion. If believing gives you comfort that is good. It is unfortunate, in my mind, that there are folks like Ken Ham. He is the operator of the Creation Museum in Kentucky. He believes that the universe is 6,000 or so years old based on dates in the Bible. That men and dinosaurs coexisted on Earth after the flood of Noah. He believes that evolution is a myth. I, however, choose science. The earth is billions of years old. The universe is billions of years older than the earth. Just as the sun is not the center of our solar system, our solar system is not the center of our galaxy. Our galaxy is not the center of the universe. We are a spec of dust off in the corner wasting our time fighting wars over little bits of territory and which imaginary being we should worship. When we have been relegated to the scrap heap of the universe's evolution it will go on as if we never existed. Go out some night away from the lights of the city. Out where it is quiet and dark. Look up at the sky and ponder how important you are in what is going on in the vast unknown.