Father's Day

Father's Day in Orange Beach was spent in a relatively low-key manner. The biggest thing that was done related to the landscaping at LBF. My parents recently had grass, citrus trees, muhley grass, and gardenia bushes installed. There was only one minor problem--when the grass was planted, the landscaper inadvertently covered the access to the water on the pier. So, my dad set out to try to find exactly where it was so the landscaper could come and cut the grass from around it.

Dad had his own way to set about the task. He decided that he needed to set up a grid to tell exactly where he had already searched. Mom and I were there to provide the "feet" to keep the grids in place.

Getting ready to set up a grid in the yard

Sticking rods in the ground to try to locate the water shut off

Success!!!

This was an interesting process, but I'm glad he was able to locate it so he can get access to the shut off valve for the water on the pier. YAY DAD!!!

What A Mess

This morning, my dad, my mom and I made a trip over The Pass to see the oil situation and what was being done about it. Of course, the only boats we saw in the water were helping with the clean-up effort. And, my parents informed me, that if you are working on a boat, you MUST have a life jacket on--and every person we saw did just that.

We saw lots of booms spread out over The Pass. We didn't see any people working on the cranes, but they obviously were putting in a major boom at the mouth of The Pass. We saw lots of little fish in the water and some birds perched on the booms. We didn't see oil in the water, but we did see oil on one of the booms. Also, as we were walking back to the car, my mother discovered that she had oil on the bottom of her flip flops and we noticed gobs of oil on the sand. There doesn't seem to be any smell, fortunately.

It is a sad state of affairs. There were people in the water, but there are swimming advisories everywhere warning people not to get in. Of course, we heeded them and did not get in. However, in our little corner of the world, we have seen birds flying around our harbor, fish jumping, and we even saw two dolphins feeding this afternoon. I pray that they get the mess stopped soon so that the damage to our coasts can be minimized.

Booms spread through The Pass

(Click on the picture for a better view)

The metal boom across The Pass

Crane at the edge of The Pass

One of the booms

(Notice the oil and the logo on the boom)

Oil on the bottom of my mother's shoes

Oil clumps on the beach

Eight Years

It seems like just yesterday that this was going on:

Dancing at Our Reception

June 15, 2002

But eight years have passed and I'm not really sure where they went. We celebrated with dinner at Hot & Hot Fish Club on Southside, which is one of our favorite Birmingham restaurants. Among our random dinner conversation, we reminisced about our wedding ceremony (which took all of 13 minutes) and our reception (which we both thoroughly enjoyed and had to be "encouraged" to leave so the guests could). My favorite memory from our reception has to do with Ken's singing. We were dancing and singing along to "With This Ring" (a favorite beach song by The Platters from our growing up years) when the band tripped a breaker and the power went out. Ken didn't miss a beat--he kept right on singing! I laughed so much and really haven't stopped laughing since.

I feel truly blessed to have this man in my life who encourages me and allows me to be who I am. He makes me laugh, both at the world outside and at myself, and loves me for me. We have a true partnership and I couldn't ask for a better person with whom to share my life.

So, Ken, thank you for the last eight wonderful years. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

Hot & Hot

June 15, 2010