Pelicans aren't the only ones fishing

September is a quiet month for Culebra and many of the islands. But there are some things going on beside peaceful, tranquil quiet moments! You can have your quiet shattered with the billfish and blue marlin tournaments over on the big island, for one thing. There's more, and as ever, I turn to Zain Deane's blog to clue me in. Of course, some are over as we're already moving into September, but I've had a backlog of email from my trip and am still responding to mail I got in late August, being the ever so efficient person I am about doing things like that.

In between rain showers yesterday, the pelicans were going a bit mad and no surprise, I was enjoying the dance. Like fish, a few shots got away from me, always the best ones...the gull landing on one of the peli's backs and snatching a fish right out of its bill came out totally blurry. But I won't forget it and hope you can try to imagine it...

Here are some that didn't get away, some on the edge of not great but go with the moment!

These three kept me mesmerized for a good while

Here is the gull that must seem a thorn in their feathers

They are just such odd looking birds

Wing on wing

Watch carefully...like so!

I spy, with my little eye...

Solo beauty

Covered

I can hear them splashing out there again and since I don't have to water the garden, it will be a good way to spend a few minutes before I find out if my engine will give me any problems after its enforced quietude. Because YES!!! I am going to open today - regardless of sunshine or lack thereof...and lack there is.

Welcome to another day in Paradox!

Letting go

Erika's remains are worse than anything Erika had, and worse is relative...simply a rainy day. But a rainy day making this Labor Day weekend a soggy shadow of its *coulda been a good one* potential. So after fussing and fretting all morning, I finally decided to just roll with it.

Whenever a potential hurricane is near, I always make a huge pot of soup in my 5 quart crock pot. Beans with chicken or beef or split pea or whatever will take a small amount of time to heat up, will go well with rice and will make us feel happy and full if the rest of the world doesn't look too tasty. Thankfully, it usually just means I have a LOT of soups in the freezer, or I give away the majority and save some for regular meals.


This time it is split pea with ham. I believe I've mentioned here more than once my affinity for split pea soup. I can eat it no matter what the temperature and still enjoy it. But on a rainy cool day after sweltering weather, it is a very welcome meal to throw in the pot for heating, cut up a scallion or two and tap on some of the Hungarian hot paprika I got when on St. Thomas. I love this paprika, even though I've never been able to use an entire tin of it before it gets rusty and clumpy. And yes, I've put it in the freezer in a bag but then I lose it in the vast depths. God only knows what is in the bottom of my chest freezer...thar could be treasure, matey! Or...a lot of paprika.


There is another aspect to this symbolic letting go. Sometimes it is enough to make the rain stop. You can't do it on purpose, you really have to let go...And it seems to be working. As soon as the soup, well, ok, it's more split pea mush the way I make it, was in the bowl, the pounding decreased to a soft tapping and is still on the wane. The thunder is retreating. Of course, I don't dare look at the radar until I'm done eating, but who knows?? Maybe I'll be able to go to town and open...someday.

The cat, looking like it is winter.

The yard, which will be in glory soon from what is finally a very drenching rain

The radar, which shows it makes absolutely no sense at all as to why the rain is slowed down

Life is weird, and then it gets weirder. And split pea mush for brunch is very delicious! A good friend sent me the new Pat Conroy South of Broad which means I think it is time to climb in next to the cat and fall into a Carolina mood.

I read the news today, oh boy

I find myself, in the last year or so, less and less able to read the news. Well, just the phrase 'the news' doesn't mean what I mean. Is the news by Fox? By Huffington Post? By any of the plethora of supposed news reporters that report so called news, now that news and entertainment have become so incestuoustly mixed?

Years ago, and I'll take a stab and guess at least 20, I was reading an article on the demise of newspapers due to a lack of interest in the reading public. Or perhaps, just 'the public'. It was too hard, they moaned. USA Today was founded in 1982, so maybe that 20 year figure is not quite right. But Al Neuharth, its founder, knew a thing or five about what was going on in America, and it worked. I remember when it was called McNews and that was not a compliment. But soon, other newspapers around the country were using more color graphics, publishing polls asking what the READERS wanted to read. Huh? Well, they have that now...


I remember when the Wall Street Journal wasn't entertaining unless you had deep pockets and a stockbroker. It wasn't supposed to be entertaining! It was the Wall Street Journal!! Remember? Grey suits? Oh yeah, but then it became 27 year old gazillionaires who forgot to take any sort of lit class in college on the way to theiir MBA's and the idea of reading for pleasure and the idea of reading for business got all mixed up because what was life without business and pleasure was something you could buy, otherwise why the business? You following this, buddy/buddette?



And then it all went to hell. Oh, not THIS time! Contrary to what the conservatives are trying to push, hoping for the ever so short attention span of the broad American public, this is far from the first time we've been in an economic bust because of big business playing games with money. It's just that this time the game got bigger than the players. Oopsy! So now, pleasures of the ones still holding the bucks (not me or most I know, but there are a fair amount out there) have to be had sub rosa...which I would imagine puts an illicit little thrill factor in them. So this is just another flow in the cycle. There there, relax, it will be over soon, one way or another. Really! Check the news!

Does it seem that I digressed from news being barely recognizable as news anymore? You know, the facts? Perhaps, but it's all of a piece. Because when news became infused with what used to be called, officially, commentary; when news became infused with what people used to see as entertainment, then people stopped really knowing what was news. They could get a side, a face, a voice to tell them what the news was and give up on the practice of thinking about what position they actually took on what was actually going on.And that...is depressing.

My solution? I think I'll go back to what I used to do many years ago. Before computers, before internet (and yes, Virginia, before internet there were computers...what the heck did people DO with them? It staggers a withered imagination to contemplate), there was and is this nifty device called a shortwave radio. Often, news from other countries, in English, gave me more insight into our country than ABC, CBS and NBC. Maybe the shortwave stations will be as corrupt as the online and on air so called news broadcasts, who knows? Maybe I want to turn on the radio and have it magically be broadcasting from 1972. Or...I'll just work more in the garden, fish more, cook more, buy the paper for the crosswords and use the internet for research and entertainment (same thing). Which might be the best course...sort of like looking to the sky for the weather...

Oh, and what does this have to do with Culebra? Pretty much everything, as the trickle down effect pools right here...where people come because they want the simplicity of a way of life fast vanishing and the tug of war to keep it versus those who would, in bulldozerish swaths, take it away to line their own futures - boils down to those who were too busy reading business plans and forgot to read history, as the entoinfotainment called news supports your position - without telling you what you don't want to hear. And that goes for both sides. But that's another song, for another day.