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.

I'm Giving Up Hope on Federal Fiscal Responsibility - Commentary

There is a current analogy to my view that 'any efforts to rectify the inconsiderate California drivers would be pointless.'
And that is 'the Federal governments collusion with big banking is close on the heels of California finances that have gone in the toilet' – paraphrasing:
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter (Reside) Here"
Stress Tests Are Over. The Stress Isn’t.
With almost 40 pages of charts, graphs and scenarios, the program was a “deliberately stringent test,” its authors said. Clearly, the message they want to send is that the banking mess we have endured for the last two years is finally becoming manageable. We'll see

Happy Mother's Day to All "My" Mothers

I would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to my three generations of mothers where ever they may be. Ihpe your special day makes up for the other 364 ha ha ha.