Friday, September 25, 2009

Beach Trip Wraps Up Summer --

I had a very nice several days at Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores, Alabama. What a lovely and friendly area it is. A particularly delightful place where we got some wonderful food was King Neptune on Route 59; the staff was chatty and the restaurant and bar were cozy and neighborly. The charming rental house is on a secluded section of the beach at historic Fort Morgan. Except for an occasional person walking his or her dog in the evening, the beach was unpopulated (the way I like it). Early morning dawned on a beautiful, shimmering sea. As the tide came in, waves hurled themselves against the shore, as they've done for eons. Mesmerizing. I could watch and listen forever.

Interestingly, on the drive home (I drove the ten hours straight through to the beach and, again, when heading homeward), we encountered a weird situation somewhere in central-to-northern Alabama. It persisted over an approximate 100-mile area: Bugs! Clouds of these weird bugs began pelting the truck. They were skinny dark brown bugs with pinchers. I had to stop at a rest area to try and clean them off the windshield. I had plenty of company, as the other drivers were trying to clear their windshields, as well. While we did so, swarms were landing all around us and we discovered that these bugs would bite. As mysteriously as we drove into the bugs' turf, we eventually drove out of it and into a monsoon rain which finished cleansing the truck's windows, hood, and grill.

While at the beach, my asthma was completely gone; it returned somewhere in the Chattanooga area. Those healing ocean ions have amazing power.

Well, now, summer has ended and autumn is officially here. Soon it will be time to bring the houseplants indoors. On the autumnal equinox we had equal hours of daylight and darkness and now we march forward each day into earlier and deepening nightfall. Eternal, the rolling cadence of time ... and the mysterious and mystical ocean.


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