Wrenching with Cousin Len

I got into Miami where Len picked me up at the airport and we went up to Sebring, FL to hang out for a few days. He is in the process of putting a Land Rover body on a Chevy diesel Blazer. (it reminds me of some women) We needed to move the grill out to get more front-end room. And the diesel is real easy on the wallet too! After a short visit here including a brat-BBQ and fish tacos to get my Mexican tastes tuned up again, I am off to Aleta's for some grandkid pestering.

I'll Be Back or Where Ever I Go There I Am

I'm down the road...or in the air. I'm back in the You Es-es A. I'm visiting my cousin near Sebring, FL before I go up to PA. Catch ya'll later.
p.s. The phone is back on.

Father's Day at Kick Back Beach

My morning swim - my view. I acually went for a swim twice this morning before dragging the rum to the chair. Did you notice there is no glass!
It brings to mind Prince's tune "Raspberry Beret" and the line~
"'cause I was a bit to leisurely
Seems that I was busy doing something close to nothing
But different than the day before"

Saturday Afternoon BBQ At The Beach

Brats on the BBQ, beer in the cooler, and Jimmy Rabbitt's streaming radio show for tunes. I could not think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon. You would never know it's the rainy season. The housekeeper Cynthia said it rained all day over in Soufriere. That's where the Pitons are and the elevation change makes for MUCH more rain.

Sunset is Chased by Moonrise

And then a couple of hours later you can walk around again without any lights on and the light on the ocean is about a quarter mile wide.

The sunsets here are absolutely awesome. I could sit here and look at them for hours. Unfortunately they don't last that long.

Waking Up With The Morning Patio Coffee

I have been here in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia for three months now and have enjoyed every day and night of it here. The waterline is 43 steps out the front door and I find coral fans and conch shell quite often. The night has one of those South Pacific moods where the moonlight on the ocean is a quarter mile wide.
I came here and lived in town for a week to get my bearings but was fortunate to find a most hospitable landlord Terry LaTouche of True Blue Cottages. The internet service is excellent with CNN service from Bogata, Racife' and Santiago as well as La Monde and BBC Worldwide.

Every Day Is An Ocean Swim Day

The race to the water lends new meaning to the phrase "pell mell".
The sun is really hot here compared to California.
I was surprised that nobody got cooked.

Have We Lost The Reason For Grandparents?

In the ancient world, when social groups or tribes were traveling up the east coast of the Mediterranean from the Great Rift or even later crossing the Bering Sea via the Aleutian land bridge, there was a necessary function for everyone.
When the children were old enough to help their mothers gather roots and berries, the fathers were out hunting game, looking for better living places and protecting the extended family unit. The older women would help with processing food, making and mending clothes, and other ‘close at home’ chores. The older men would make hunting weapons, build new living quarters and the like.
But today in efforts for autonomy, self sufficiency or being farmed out because of available living space, the elderly and grandparents are no longer able to pass along their hard earned knowledge to both children and grandchildren. Now granted there are sometimes self-sufficiency hurdles or other psychological barriers for grown children to deal with just as there are dictatorial parenting and other parenting problems needing resolution. That brings us to other communication problems evidenced by divorce and abandonment. In tribal times there was no “other” place to go or escape to. While I am not advocating Cain and Able conflict resolution a dialog still remains to be maintained or initiated.
One rainy fall day my children and I accompanied my father and mother on a drive around where my father grew up. The family burial plots for his aunts and uncles and other family members as well as old homestead locations were seen. My father knew these places like the back of his hand from spending over 7 decades there and we all enjoyed his sharing. For me it went by all in a two hour flash one Sunday afternoon – and unfortunately, few specifics stayed with me.
A better understanding of maintaining/documenting a family history needs to be done. A better use of earned and learned life experiences would benefit both children and grandchildren ~ and coincidentally make grandparents useful again besides just babysitting.

House Guests for a Week - My Daughter and Grandkids

Aleta brought Ella and Philip down to visit "Grumpy
Grampy" for a week. We went down to the kiteboarding
beach to go swimming. They were amazed to watch the
waves from the Atlantic run into the Caribbean waves.
They spent at least part of every day in swimsuits. BBQ's
were the order of the day interspersed with shrimp & grits
and Hungarian goulash. And the local rum "Chairman's
Reserve" is really good here particularly if you get the STRONG 160 proof stuff.