The Beach

The beach at Tybee Island needs to be restored from time to time. The technical term is beach renourishment. The 10 million dollar contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company of Oak Brook, Illinois. Over the course of the next four months approximately 1.3 million cubic yards of sand will be added to three miles of the beach front. The area being renourished is from the North Beach near old Fort Screven to 18th Street south of the fishing peer. The work is being done to protect the community from waves generated by passing storms. The additional benefit is the enhancement of the public beach. The cost is divided between the federal, state and local governments. The federal share is 60.5% with 39.5% divided between the state and local government. Tybee Island estimates its share will be about 10% of the total cost. The beach restoration project began in 1974 with a 50 year projected project life. The last restoration took place in 2008. The project will end in 2024 when reevaluation and hopefully a new project will be put in place and funded.

How is this done? The project uses a dredge to pull up beach quality sand from a site about a mile off shore. The sand is pumped thorough a submerged steel pipeline to shore where workers using large construction equipment place and smooth the sand.

 This is the only photograph in the series that is not mine. This picture is from the 2008 beach restoration. I had to use a photo off the internet because they won't let me get this close.

This is the current project. This Tybee resident is glad to look out and see an Illinois company doing the work and using Caterpillar equipment made in Illinois to do the work.

The tower in the center of the picture is used to measure the depth of the sand added to the beach.

This is the incoming pipeline and the spray in the center of the picture is the sand being ejected onto the beach.

This is the pipeline that runs about a half mile along the beach at this time. It is about 18" in diameter and standing taking this picture I could hear the sand and water moving through.

This is where the pipeline turns and heads into the Atlantic Ocean. The dredge can be seen in the background about a mile off shore.

Aside from the machinery the beach was quiet. A few curious folks like me coming down to see what all the activity was about.

Walking

Lily is my companion on daily walks. She's a real trooper and goes as long and as fast as I do. Don't worry I'm old and fast really isn't a good term for how I move. I wanted to share some of the things we see on our walks.

Everyone has palm trees. There are a few folks who take the time and effort to make theirs a bit out of the ordinary. Why not have a little fun with the tree or stump?

If you read this blog on a regular basis then you know a bit about Tybee Island. That it was once home to Fort Screven. You would also know that I am a history buff and enjoy seeing old things preserved and repurposed. This house sits on Battery Gantt. So the owner got a foundation built in 1900 and built this stunning house on top of it. Since it was designed as a coastal battery the views of the Atlantic Ocean from the house must be stunning. Sorry, but you will have to be satisfied with the view of the house I get when I walk by.

Fences generally are boring. These folks put some effort into making a statement with theirs.

The anchor sits at the corner of Butler Avenue where you turn to head for the south end of the island. It was recovered in 1988 several miles off shore. The rock the plaque is on was a ballast rock from the sailing ship that carried the anchor.

Sometimes along your walk you see something unexpected. I know there have been many searches in the Middle East looking for this artifact. I was stunned to see it on Tybee Island. I had imagined it was much larger and that it didn't have an outboard motor. Even given these items I am convinced it is the REAL DEAL.

Connect the Dots

Today is mid term election day. Four BILLION dollars has been spent by various candidates and groups to convince us if they or their person is elected things will change. Not just change but change for the better. They would have us believe that terrorists and Ebola are at our boarders just waiting to see how this election goes before they strike. Some even combine the two and it is terrorists with Ebola waiting to invade. Apparently they are just waiting out the incubation period to make their move. Every day I get 20 or more emails asking me to contribute money to various folks trying to get elected to the senate, house, governor or some other equally annoying position. My contribution will be triple matched so my $5.00 donation will become $20.00. I've done the math and my $0.00 donation triple matched is still $0.00. The election is being bought and paid for by folks who are giving lots more money than the $5.00 or $10.00 or $20.00 they pester me about. When elected these fine public servants won't be beholden to you and me. No, they will be at the beck and call of their buyers. The very rich who got them elected. They will proceed to lower taxes on the rich, destroy social programs which help the poor and less fortunate while they wrap themselves in the mantle of Jesus. They will claim to be prolife while they restrict abortion, push for capital punishment and wage a war against Islam. They are prolife as long as you are leading a life according to their rule structure and beliefs. If you grow up and convert to Islam they would like you dead. So today I offer you an opportunity to do something productive with your time. Since we are all being screwed over by the top 1% of the top 1% perhaps these connect the dot pictures will help you understand how completely I believe we are all being screwed over. Please print and connect the dots.

101,510

101,510 is an odd title for a blog post. What the hell does it represent? Carol conspired with our youngest son John and got me a fitbit. It looks like a wrist watch without a face. It hooks wirelessly to my iPad and keeps track of my daily activity and sleep pattern. It is my electronic fitness nagger. Well, actually the fitbit and Lily. The number in the title to this blog is the number of steps I walked this week. According to the fitbit it was 45.86 miles. Since Lily walks with me every time I go she also walked that far. Since she has four legs does she get credit for 203,020 steps? I'm not sure how that works. My goal for the week was to surpass 100,000 steps. It wasn't easy especially since yesterday was cold and windy. The cold wasn't so bad but the wind was kicking up the fine sand that is everywhere here. Walking around with grit in your eyes is not fun.

The fun part of this has been Miss Lily. She gets excited after we get up and start getting dressed because she knows it is time to go for a walk around the Jaycee Park. When we get back home it is time for breakfast. She gets a treat or two and then takes a nap until lunch time. She and I usually take a long walk after lunch. It is generally about 3 miles and around an hour long. We usually stay on the north side of U.S. highway 80 but seeing the same scenery (for me) and smelling the same ground (for Lily) is getting a bit stale. We may have to venture more on the other side of the highway. The good news is that tourist season is over and this has become a sleepy seaside town once again. It is good because the streets here are narrow and their are very few sidewalks. You walk along the side of the street and hope nobody driving is texting or drunk. There is plenty of texting and driving going on down here. After the second walk Lily settles in for another nap. See a pattern here? After supper we generally take another short walk and call it a day. Lily is excited each time before the walk and is jumping up on us to encourage us to hurry up and get out there with her. She is getting better about other dogs. The things she dislikes are people on skateboards and bikes that come up to her from behind. Oh, and cats. She really has a thing about cats.

So the plan was for this to help with my diet. Everyone talks about diets. Low fat, low carb, high protein, vegan, paleo, and on and on and on. The real answer is simple yet difficult. It is why we always look to the fad diets. We don't like difficult. The simple thing is eat less and get up off your ass and do something. Surprisingly sitting on the couch watching TV and eating potato chips does not burn calories and cause weight loss. If it did millions of Americans would be losing weight. The other interesting thing when you start paying attention to what you eat is the size of restaurant meals. Do we really need a whole days worth of calories on our plate to feel like we got our money's worth? Is it necessary to stuff ourselves into an almost comatose state because we are at a buffet? I'm not pointing this at anyone but myself as I have a long history of doing all those things. I started dieting a couple of months ago and so far I am down about 25 pounds. Before you or I start thinking that is great keep in mind that I still have 75 to lose before I reach my goal. Will that happen? I don't know. If history is any indicator then the answer is no. The things I have going for me this time may help since Lily and fitbit are dragging me off the couch and out on the street. Good lord, I've become a streetwalker!

Whatever

Just some random things in this post and thoughts of a Halloween many years ago.

If there was ever a reason to skip that trip to McDonald's this is probably the best one ever. Special sauce on that Big Mac--- don't ask.

One misspelled word and the hunt for a new job begins.

What school is this for? Seems like an issue. Must be a WalMart store.

Wish this was a joke. It isn't. Is this really the best way to spend this much money?

When I worked at the prison that happened every day on the way to my office. When I was in a housing unit wing talking to inmates probably spoke to that many in a couple of hours. Generally they were the easiest guys to work with in the place. Drug users, guys who commit property crimes and sex offenders always had some lame excuse for their conduct. Guys who murdered someone, they knew they had done a bad thing. They were also in for a long time so they knew they had to find some way to make the system work for them rather than spending all their time fighting it.

Audrey and Johnnie getting ready to head off for a day of fun at school. Halloween was always a good time to be a kid in grade school.

The year was 1977, the place- Mary Davis Juvenile Detention Home. The man, the legend Mike Blythe. Your first day working in a locked facility with juvenile offenders is always interesting. You don't have a clue what you are doing or what to expect. At the Mary at the time it was just you and one other staff member of the opposite sex and up to 20 or so juvenile offenders. Halloween night 1977 was Mike's first night of work at the Mary. Shift starts at 3:00 p.m. and the afternoon is spent with recreation and staff preparing and serving the evening meal. After the meal and chore cleanup by the kids they head back to the dormitories for showers. When those are completed they return to the main area for evening recreation. Tonight is special, It's Halloween. The recreation tonight is pumpkin carving. Every juvenile offender is given a pumpkin to carve and a sharp knife. So, imagine being Mike. First night of work. No idea what is going on yet. Everyone has a sharp knife except Mike. The only thing standing between them and escape is Mike and a set of keys he and the other staff member carry. Everyone has a sharp knife. Fortunately for Mike everyone chooses to carve their pumpkin. It is the most interesting first night of work anyone could ask for.

There Be Monkeys Here

The here referenced above is not Tybee Island. We got no monkeys here but surprisingly there are monkeys close. Lots of monkeys. Free range monkeys. The more I learn about this area the more I realize how ignorant I was of the south. So where are these monkeys? Morgan Island, South Carolina located in Beaufort County is also known as Monkey Island. It is about an hour drive from Tybee Island and accessible only by boat. A colony of free-ranging rhesus monkeys was established on the island in 1979.

Morgan Island is a 4,489 acre marshland island with 635 acres of upland. The island is uninhabited and home to a breeding colony of about 3,500 Indian origin rhesus monkeys. A 370 acre portion of the upland supports a semi-tropical maritime forest when the monkey colony resides. The monkey colony was originally located in La Parguera, Puerto Rico at the Caribbean Primate Research Center. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates there were incidents of free ranging monkeys infected with the herpes B virus escaping. The CDC also reported outbreaks among locals when the monkeys became overpopulated. South Carolina offered an island for research. In 1979 over 1,400 were relocated to Morgan Island. There are only two rhesus monkey colonies in the United States with the other being on the Silver River in Florida. Rhesus monkeys were released at Silver Springs in the 1930's and became feral. They remain along the Silver River run and can be seen when traveling the river. (A little note for Mike in case he wants to go about 2 hours north to the Ocala, Florida area). The monkeys on Morgan Island are owned by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases which is part of the National Institutes of Health. There is no research done on the island. Several hundred monkeys are captured each year and transported to labs around the United States for testing for diseases. Visitors are strictly prohibited on the island but those who venture near by boat often see the monkeys swarming toward the beaches to protect their shore. Depending on your viewpoint, fortunately or unfortunately, the monkeys have not chosen to invade South Carolina.

Unrealized Potential

Oscar Traveras age 22 and his girlfriend Edilia Arvelo age 18 died in an automobile accident in the Dominican Republic on October 27th,  If you don't follow baseball or are not a St. Louis Cardinal fan you may not know who Oscar was. That is a hard word to use- was. Oscar came up to the major leagues this year and was developing as a player. He was ranked as the second or third best prospect in baseball. Would he have developed into a superstar? Was he the next Albert Pujols in the Cardinal organization? Unfortunately we will never know. It was two lives cut tragically short.

Organizations like individuals have an identity and a personality. The Cardinals are no exception. The reaction from the Cardinal organization was well done.

Chairman Bill DeWitt, Jr. "We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family. Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight."

John Mozeliak, General Manager. "I simply can't believe it. I first met Oscar when he was 16 years old and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest."

Manager Mike Matheny. "In my opinion, the word "love" is the most misused, and misunderstood word in the English language. It is not popular for men to use this word, and even less popular for athletes. But, there is not a more accurate word for how a group of men share a deep and genuine concern for each other. We loved Oscar, and he loved us. That is what a team does, that is what a family does. You will be missed, Oscar."

It is the way you hope your team will respond when faced with the tragic loss of a player. Oscar was an outfielder and played right field. Last night at Busch Stadium this was the scene. The only lights on the ones in right field as a tribute to Oscar.

RIP Oscar.