Talking Trash

I went over to the beach early this morning for a walk. It was peaceful and the water was very calm. As of then, there was no oil on the beach where I was, but helicopters and planes were flying overhead. I’m sure they were tracking it. Was another scorcher of a day. Was up to 98 this afternoon in my back yard – and that wasn’t even in the sun!

Anyway, I was wandering around this morning taking pictures and just trying to take in the scenery. Been cooped up in the house too long. I left the gulf side and crossed over to the sound side. Was tootling along happily when I come upon this little vignette!

And can you believe some moron would leave TWO plastic 8-pack ring holders just lying on the sand for some unsuspecting bird or turtle to nab onto thinking they’ve found a nice jellyfish??

Everyone is screaming about how the oil is ruining our beaches and then we (collectively) turn around and do this to those very same beaches!!! If you can pack it up and bring it in with you, you can danged well pack it out with you, too!!!!! I’d call ‘em pigs, but that would give pigs an undeserved bad rap. So I corralled all their crap onto the t-shirt (an adult’s t-shirt, mind you) and hauled it up to the garbage can, muttering all the way. I was still fuming when I got home.

All was not dreadful, however. I found the most beautiful , perfectly formed shell well above the waterline. I checked it out and it looked like a creature might still be in it. I certainly couldn’t remove it. Since it appears to have been out of the water for a while, I dunked it in the sound to see if there would be any reaction. I think I saw one little bit of movement but that could also have been just the water seeping into the crevices. Anyway, I couldn’t bring myself to haul it home with me knowing there was a chance that the creature was still alive, so I flung him back into the briny deep – or in this case, the not so deep, but definitely wet, where he’d have a chance if he was still alive.

I’m not really a beach person, although I used to love to go to the beach to watch the sunsets, and I do admit that I love a beach picnic when there’s a full moon. Particularly in the fall when its just crisp enough that a sweatshirt is needed. I’m fair skinned, blue-eyed and burn to a crisp very easily. Growing up in this area, my nose and forehead stayed sunburned during the summer as a child. Mama would send me out the door with a straw hat on, but it would be off and discarded as soon as I was out of her sight. And sunscreens were only thought of on the rare occasions when we went someplace “swimming”. Course, I never learned to actually swim until about 6 or 7 years ago and I’m still not exactly like a fish. Funny, you’re supposed to be able to swim and breathe at intervals, and somehow I’ve just not got that timing down yet!!!! Seems like a detail that could be important.

Y’all take care.