Hurricane Predictor: Ghost Crab Sees His Shadow!

The Ghost Crab of the Atlantic Coast,  has become an infallible predictor of hurricanes!  If he emerges from his tunnel on Memorial Day,  and sees his shadow....a hurricane WILL strike the Eastern Coast of the U.S.!  And he has seen his shadow this Memorial Day!

 Stock up on bottled water!  Purchase a generator,  and save the receipt!  Batteries!  Flashlights! Grill gas! Chainsaws! Weather radio! Ice!  Top off the tank in your car!  Fill extra tanks!  Buy a siphon!  Evacuate NOW,  before the mad traffic chaos on I-95! Get manual can opener and a shopping cart full of canned goods!  "Spam" is   food!  Study cannibalism!  Buy defense weapons for the potential marauders!  Shop Walmart again...cause AMAZON PRIME ain't gonna come through for ya this time! Get some beer for the hurricane party!

    Thanks,  Ghost Crab!   ...for the heads up!   Heading to the Walmart now before the shelves are emptied!  You are Summer's own little ground hog,  you devil-ya!

Transhumanism?

Transhumanism.  What is this innate need for humans to transcend themselves?  

 Having been raised in the religious sect, I sometimes think that ....if there is a God, or a "GrandMaster" of the universe who created us...... that it would only be natural through the course of evolution that we would tend to imitate Him, or gravitate toward His essence. God is a mathematician...and somehow we have found a way to break down the complex into simple binary code. God is a scientist...and we have just begun to understand and manipulate the complexities of DNA. God is "all knowing"...., and we created Google. In the "afterlife"...some religions believe that there will be a "communion" of spirits in Heaven...and that we will all meet again,...and so, we have created the internet. If we are the essence of God, perhaps we will always, even if unwittingly,...develop and evolute in manners akin to Him. But who the Hell knows !?  ;) 

Halifax River : Feral Cats

Here they come!   Lazy summer  Sundays!   For those of us who are willing to pay the price for starting our fishing adventure at 11 a.m. instead of the 'crack of dawn,  ...the warming waters of Summer will assure incessant hookups with feral cats!   Huge populations of the hungry critters have moved in!   They have taken over the 'vacant lot' that used to be an oyster bar on the bottom of this tainted waterway. And so,   I throw them a small sustenence of baits ,  to help feed the poor starving whiskered kittens.

Feral Cats!  My mind's own fantasy creating a proud, nurturing moment...where me and my generous charitable character have helped to  keep some of God's untamed  furless  creatures from certain starvation....when in fact,  I am contributing to their overpopulation!

     The feral cats of the Halifax!   Instead of Meow Mix,   we toss them these:

Delicious and healthful, sun-pinken-ed shrimp.

     There is only one word that can accurately describe huge channel bass (redfish), black drum, gator trout, snook, tarpon, ......and especially the shell-cracking sheepshead..... that have made their way this far up the Halifax River this time of year .....

                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                           

                                                 LOST!!                                                                                                             

The oysters are dead!   The bottom is slime!  The huge schools of flittering menhaden or fingermullet...can no longer congregate on top of the oyster bars in relative safety.  The predator species that follow them,  or forage along lively oysters,... enter the area confused,  and wonder how they have stumbled into this barren wasteland!

Sometime this summer,  frolicking  schools of bait will make their way quickly through the area ...and the larger fish will follow.  But they will leave as quickly as Daytona's  300,000 NASCAR racefans , who cycle through the area after a short  but thrilling week of auto races..

For the race fans,  we have built hotels!  Subsidized an "International"  airport!  Filled the strip down ISB ( International Speedway Boulevard ) with shopping,  and malls,  and restaurants, and an invitation to "stay a while",  on our beautiful World's Most Famous Beach"!     It is our bait !    And our catch?  That big beautiful wad of cash in the pockets of the carefree tourist!

But fish have no pockets.  No wads of cash.  And the oysters we provide our tourists come from hundreds of miles away!  The fish hotels, (oyster bars)have been  destroyed by carelessly swung wrecking balls of pollution and wetland devastation.  These waterways forced to swallow hairs shed from the beast of economic growth,.. and coughing up fur balls.    Any visiting finned critter that accidentally makes his way here....won't be staying long.  He will be a  'daytripper', for sure...

Soon, we may reduce ourselves to the risk of eating THESE lovely creatures!  Puffer fish. Paralytic poisons within them worse than cyanide!   The tasty morsel of flesh around it's bones becoming  increasingly tempting!  Hmm....are we starting to wonder what kittens taste like?   NO NO.!..Not cute little furry Simba!   The furless ones! ...... that live on the bottom of the Halifax,  of course!    Ahhhh! , ...Mercury -Schmercury!  Neurons are an excessive and over-rated biological commodity!  Consuming a little  merc here and there can't  hurt me!  And puffers and kitties are ... unregulated!!! ...at least,   for now...

Get 'em while you still can!

Tight lines!  elrok

In the name of the Father...

It has often been said that short prayers can be the most powerful!  The curious introspective nature of my Dad.  I can remember him  making the sign of the cross often  in doubles. As if to finish one  prayer,  and then move on to the next.   But never a word spoken...
So,  what was he praying,  I wondered ?   Just what was this silent  conversation he was having with his God above?

There was none.

His LIFE .... was his prayer and his testament to his Father and Savior.  Not words,  but actions....and perhaps  a subtle and humbled request for guidance .
Words mean little sometimes,   but they can prompt action.    It was his actions in life that were his prayer to his Father above.

And so,  as he blessed himself even  as he rose from his bed at dawn, his eyes cracking open  to resumed consciousness.  Before lifting his feet to the side of the bed and into his slippers....he would make the sign of the Cross and  utter this simple prayer.... "  In the name of the Father,  and of the Son,    and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  "

  And then he lived his life, in just  that manner..

...in the name of the Father.....